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Author Topic: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!  (Read 1877 times)

TM2 Rampage

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Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« on: Jul 26, 2007, 10:59:31 PM »
Well, I'm just gonna copy my post from a different board.

Well, damn, I have a lot of pictures. I'm just gonna post a couple that I picked out for now, with more to follow in the future. I'll probably add less and less, as I might decide to really trim down...


I flew on Japan Airlines. Boy, this was a surprise. Now they have little Wiimote-like (okay the Wiimote ripped the design off of these things) controllers/remotes that you can pull out of your armrest. And there are LCD screens for every seat, installed in the back of the seat that is in front of you. Or, if there is no seat in front of you, you can flip out from the side of your seat... the screen is attached to an adjustable metal arm/pole thingie.

You can choose what music to listen to, what movies/programs, and even play kinda-crappy basic games. It depends on the plane, though... on one, they let you start and watch any movie that they had, and you could pass and rewind and fastforward and all that. But another flight had the videos playing and repeating at set times. Also, the games vary from plane to plane. One had a very slow-running, low-color Tetris ripoff, and another had an actual Tetris-brand game. The controls kinda sucked for both of those, though, so I just preferred to play Tetris DS on my (duh) DS. And this is all in economy class, snap!


Damn proprietary Sony plug+headphones! I had to use the plane's headphones b/c of this, and not my more compact earbud-style ones.

As we got off of the plane, we kinda crammed into a train-like tram that took us from the ... terminal to the... main part of the airport.


Outside of Narita International Airport, where we waited with our tour guide for the bus to take us to the hotel, where the rest of the tour group had already arrived.


On the bus to the hotel... the first of many hotels...



A convenience store... I think we went to this same one later that night.


Inside of the hotel lobby.



We ate at a restaurant in the hotel (paid for by the tour fee already), which advertised that it had Western-style food... Hrm.

After dinner, we were free to sleep or wander around outside. There were just convenience stores and stuff that we could walk to, though... There wasn't much sidewalk around... not even a stoplight! People just jaywalked across, and it was night time as well. Anyway, we jaywalked across to the convenience store right across from the hotel. Man, this area felt a bit like it was in the middle of nowhere.



The magazine/book/manga section in that convenience store. If you walked down that aisle more to the left, they had an 18+ section with naughty magazines and some h-doujinshi(!). I took a pic of that, but I can't find it at the moment.


Aw man, it's one of those hills reinforced by a brick stone wall thingie that I've seen in Japanese tv shows and anime!


That convenience store from the outside. On the right of it is a joint that serves (among other things, I think) ramen.


This was the sink in our hotel room's bathroom. The shower is also in this room. Drinkable tap water, eh? Well, I guess a bunch of you guys drink from the tap here anyway... but later in Vietnam, I pretty much always tried to drink bottled water.


Toilet's in a separate, small closet-like room next to the bathroom. Oddly, the lightswitch is located on the outside.


I'll reply to this thread with more pictures in the future...

TM2 Rampage

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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #1 on: Jul 26, 2007, 11:05:25 PM »
Well, maybe I should just put links to the next images.

Alright, here's some more pics... of... the next day!

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/w3jmzrazgeh4ljodydmy.jpg
In the morning, we ate at a breakfast buffet on an upper level of the hotel... They had a lot of nice western stuff (eggs, scrambled eggs which were kinda watery/soggy but it was good, bacon, sausages, ham, cereal, toast, dry flavor-lacking spaghetti...) and some Asian stuff (rice, nattou [pictured above], shumai, miso soup...). Perhaps unfortunately, the breakfast buffets in the future would also seem to feature some of the exact same foods, especially the western food, as if they got it all from a common supplier.

K so after that we had to take our baggage out to the lobby and stuff since we would be going on and staying at a different hotel later that night, and we would be at a different hotel each night...

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/kyymmxzzynamuzcjmwmz.jpg
I noticed that at least around here, their road markings were... weird. It looked like they didn't really paint the road or something, but just stuck these white stickers/tape stuff on the road or something???

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/m5ggjoo1ogijidk0otzf.jpg
The traffic got congested/stuck as we started to enter the city...
http://images.cdmazika.com/files/yj2ykumeqymmnnt2yyx1.jpg
Ocasionally they have these nifty signs that show you where the congestion is. Orange is "medium," I suppose, and "red" is "quite congested" or "completely stopped" or something.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/mo3wy3zzmydan2qdndfn.jpg
Me at this museum dealing with some parts of Japanese history. On the first floor is a bigass, wide old-timey replica of a bridge which I am standing on, as well as a bunch of artifacts like samurai armor and stuff behind glass. Below the bridge is another floor with more stuff. There were a lot of kids wearing various school uniforms that day...

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/thhdz0mm4oyiotydcbzo.jpg
Miniature models...
http://images.cdmazika.com/files/1moiuwogmjmqmtw4gw44.jpg
http://images.cdmazika.com/files/mgyenhzwbeztxvatm1yk.jpg
These are modern miniature models, I believe.
I wonder if the guys who made these were also geeks who were into model kits or something...
http://images.cdmazika.com/files/krzmzjvmndkvzmdoqwdm.jpg
http://images.cdmazika.com/files/jrmkjmzyhngnfmz1njgj.jpg
http://images.cdmazika.com/files/m4mezznmmj1urmrnmizt.jpg
This is a replica of an old-style traditional Japanese house. Inside the floor is covered in straw matting called tatami, and uh, other stuff. There are a bunch of small rooms and a small kitchen. A couple of the rooms had pillows on the floor and a low table to sit at.

You had to take your shoes off before going in... there was a sign outside saying to tidy up the place and arrange your shoes neatly next to everyone else's, but it seemed that nobody was doing this... ^_^;;

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/tqzzz3unzaixt5q2n2to.jpg
Damn, I can't remember where the hell this temple-y place was or what the name of it was.
http://images.cdmazika.com/files/rnmmjyd1mzog4yoixylw.jpg
So, they had this funky fountain where you scoop up some of the water to wash your hands with. Well, really, it's to "cleanse" your hands before you go pray to the big Buddah statue that they have in a big building near this location.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/cul53fimg2nmj5nejym5.jpg
This was taken inside of the big building. Uhm, this thing... uhhh... you put a 100 yen coin in one of those tall metal containers, then open a drawer and take out this piece of paper.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/tz5y5ygizi1muvmwgzuz.jpg
Not quite sure what these painted lanterns are for. I think they had some brand/company names on them??

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/mnmyn2fnzxyim2l2ldym.jpg
Hrm. These buildings almost look like some of the ones in Vietnam.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/cjnm2mmxjvmwnem4xez2.jpg
Hrm, that 100 yen piece of paper... People throw it into this fire here. The smoke and ash that results is supposed to be lucky/healing. People waft the stuff onto the part of the body that they want to be... uh... healed or have luck in.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/t2wyuznlwidki12jfmln.jpg
There are a lot of vendors nearby selling various things. This place sells these funky crunchy fried things with sweet bean paste inside. Crunchy on the outside and warm, soft, and sweet on the inside. I tried a peach-flavored one, I think, but it was a different place farther down the path.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/wmztujwiwnndlljzmuhl.jpg
And by path, I mean this path. It was raining the whole time there. By backpack got soaked. My noob self decided to take it off the bus. In the future I just left it in the bus. My parents bought an umbrella first for 500 yen or so... that was kinda small and broke later on. Soon I decided I didn't want my books to get destroyed so I stepped into another place and bought a bigger umbrella for only 300 yen. It lasted me the entire trip, but I had to leave it at my relatives' house in Vietnam because it would have been burdensome to carry it along.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/2tgjinizhzdh5jonuznn.jpg
Walk farther down the path and you'll come to an indoor place. Woo.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/ft5hzztlvgmhghnzdmtl.jpg
Our tour guide took the group to a food court/mall area that had a shabu shabu restaurant. For some reason, the food here was pretty bland...! The meat, even. They had a medium/big-sized pot of boiling water in the middle to dip your raw slices of meat in. I thought there was only supposed to be a small amount of water that was flavored strongly, but I guess not. There was a buffet where you could get vegetables and noodles to put in as well.

TM2 Rampage

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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #2 on: Jul 26, 2007, 11:06:04 PM »
That's it for now. I've been quite lazy in uploading more.

blanktoe

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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #3 on: Jul 27, 2007, 08:18:10 AM »
Did you visit any cool toy stores?

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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #4 on: Jul 27, 2007, 10:43:09 AM »
http://images.cdmazika.com/files/kyymmxzzynamuzcjmwmz.jpg
I noticed that at least around here, their road markings were... weird. It looked like they didn't really paint the road or something, but just stuck these white stickers/tape stuff on the road or something???
You dufus, they do that in the US as well. At least in Michigan they do... all the arrows and stop lines are some kind of tape.

It also looks like you've been hacked by the Laughing Man. GitS is true!
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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #5 on: Jul 27, 2007, 12:06:01 PM »
Quote
Toilet's in a separate, small closet-like room next to the bathroom. Oddly, the lightswitch is located on the outside.

Ew, they did that in the Habitat for Humanity houses with the single bathrooms (at least at the time when we were building some), where the toilet is in a closet thing and the sink is on the other side.  You have to touch the door and the lights with fecal hands.  Noooooooooo.


All of that food looks so tasty.  And I haven't had any lunch.  :(

TM2 Rampage

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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #6 on: Jul 27, 2007, 07:26:18 PM »
Did you visit any cool toy stores?
Yes. This one toy store with multiple floors was actually a part of the tour intinerary. Pics of that... may come in the next set of pictures.

Going back to America, we had 8 hours in Japan for changing planes. My parents and I did something kinda risky (for foreigners with little knowledge of the Japanese language), which was taking the train to Akihabara Electric Town (geek, electronics area...). I have a few pics of that, as well... But I feel like doing these pics in order, maybe, so it will be a while until I reach that point.

http://images.cdmazika.com/files/kyymmxzzynamuzcjmwmz.jpg
I noticed that at least around here, their road markings were... weird. It looked like they didn't really paint the road or something, but just stuck these white stickers/tape stuff on the road or something???
You dufus, they do that in the US as well. At least in Michigan they do... all the arrows and stop lines are some kind of tape.

It also looks like you've been hacked by the Laughing Man. GitS is true!
Woops, well, I don't go outside much. >_>
Well around here, it seems all they do with the road markings is just spraypaint/paint it on using stencils and stuff.

Quote
Toilet's in a separate, small closet-like room next to the bathroom. Oddly, the lightswitch is located on the outside.

Ew, they did that in the Habitat for Humanity houses with the single bathrooms (at least at the time when we were building some), where the toilet is in a closet thing and the sink is on the other side.  You have to touch the door and the lights with fecal hands.  Noooooooooo.


All of that food looks so tasty.  And I haven't had any lunch.  :(
Well, there are some models of toilets (not pictured) that had this little sink and faucet at the top, where normally the cover for the toilet reservoir and floating-ball-thingie would be. When you flush, some water (clean, I hope) comes out of the faucet and you can use it to wash your hands...

But, yeah, well I guess I'm glad that I did not get fecal matter on my hands.

Bernie AKA

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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #7 on: Aug 01, 2007, 03:31:42 PM »
Oh, just leave the door open like Britney Spears.  :poo:

Some incredible shots there - looking forward to the toy store ones.  ;D

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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #8 on: Aug 01, 2007, 04:40:17 PM »
Thanks for sharing the pics. 

TM2 Rampage

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Re: Japan pics. Beware, 56kers!
« Reply #9 on: Aug 19, 2007, 05:02:15 AM »
I haven't posted any new pics in ages. But, here's a Youtube link.

Short film "Otakus"


also...
Haruko Momoi performs "Mouse Chu Mouse" as part of the mainly 2-person group UNDER17 (other person being the guitarist in black, Masaya Koike). Darn video is squashed a bit... pesky incorrect aspect ratio

Haruko Momoi performs a cover of a song called Ushiro Yubi Sasare Gumi...