Vacation time

[Nail Strafer]

Well, here's the Gundam Cafe, like I promised

You can see other pictures from Akihabara in here too: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Nail_Str.../Akihabara

[Echo]

O.O................................................DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​!!!!!!!

So, tell us. Did you enjoy your trip!? Whatwasitlike?tellmetellmetellmetellmetellme! O3O

[Gail Strafer]

I enjoyed it a lot!

I got to see a lot of things in Tokyo I'd only seen in movies, games, and TV shows, which was very exciting for me. A lot of my favorite games are racing games, and a number of them have tracks set in Tokyo. So I got to see Tokyo Route 246 from the Gran Turismo track Tokyo Route 246. Also I got to see the Yokohama Bay Bridge and the Rainbow Bridge, both from the Tokyo Xtreme Racer series and Wangan Midnight. Also, in Gran Turismo 4, the Tokyo International Forum is used as a location where you can photograph your cars too, so I ended up finding that as well.

Akihabara was my dream destination for this trip and for the most part it didn't disappoint. Many stores full of older games, and some with lots of retro games. I got to see Famicoms (NES in America) in person for the first time, and I was especially excited when I got to see a Fire Emblem Famicom cart. If you ever go to Akihabara and you want to know the best retro game shop, it's definitely Super Potato. I bought quite a few games there and Sonic and Knuckles plushies to decorate my gaming room For some reason I wanted to buy something Sonic-related while I was there.

Although...it was an extremely noisy place and it can get headache-inducing after a while. Plus there's girls in Lolita fashion every four steps trying to shove brochures into your hands to sell only who knows what. Very annoying. I hear Vegas is like this with people constantly trying to put brochures in your hands.

Overall Tokyo is not a difficult trip for an English speaker. Many people speak English and important signs (like directional signs and maps) all have English on them. You can use the subway lines and train lines without much trouble, especially if you have experience from using them in other countries. In fact, I hear it may be even easier than even some European countries like France, where everything is in French and nothing else. Many of the tourist sites outside Tokyo (like the shrine town of Nikko) are the same way. You will probably run into trouble once you get away from the touristy areas though.

I found that the two most useful words during my trip were "sumimasen" ("Excuse me") and "arigato" ("Thank you"). If I could sum up Japan in one word it would be "polite". Everyone is exceedingly polite and they appreciate any effort you make towards learning their language. The taxi drivers open doors for you. When you buy things in shops they are very careful about bagging them. Clothes are carefully folded. If you are carrying something else they offer to put it in the bag for you. It's Southern hospitality turned up to 11 really.

At first it felt strange being a Westerner in the other side of the world, but you get used to it. I'm sure it feels the same way for an Asian here in America. Foreigners are pretty common in Tokyo too so you don't get funny looks or anything like that.

[Gail Strafer]

Hey guys, in case you didn't notice, I posted a link to a whole slew of pictures from my trip in the General Discussion forum. Go ahead and look if you're interested.