Tokyo Game Show Specs and Journal:

So the game show was awesome. Got there after a six hour night bus from Toyama Prefecture to Shinjuku, Tokyo. The six of us didn’t waste anytime getting to the game show. We arrived at the convention area where the show was being held around 7:30-8:00 am and waited in line till entry. To give you an idea of what the line looked like look at the picture below. It beat an Otakon line any day.





Once we finally entered the building I lost literally almost everyone I came with and went off on my own looking and wondering about. Below are pictures of the convention and some of the things I saw.








And ofcourse you have your Game Cosplayers. It wouldn't be a Japanese event if you didn't see cosplay somewhere!






So for a little run down of the things being offered in the near future (though I’m sure all you gamers know what’s going on anyway, here goes nothing):
* Release Dates are Japanese only unless specified*
PLAYSTATION 3:
Playstaion 3 HDD 160GB 29,980円
Playstation 3 HDD 320GB 34,980円
Playstaion MOVE : release date: 10/21/2010 at 5,980円
Playstation Portable 2tone RD: 11/18/2010 17,800円
PSP GO 26800円

Playstation Games in 3D (not all):
KIllZONE 3
Summer Memories
Sly Cooper Collection
Me&My Pet
PowerSmash 4
MotorStorm 3
Gran Turismo 5
Persoanl Game interests:
KillZONE 3
Summer Memoris

Playstation Games(not all):
Grand Turismo 5- release date: 11/3/2010
KILLZONE 3- release date: 2011
Final Fantasy XIV ONLINE- release date: March 2011
Little Big Planet 2- release date: 2011
Gundam Musou 3- release date: December 2010
Metal Gear Solid Rising (lightning bolt action)- release date: TBS
Castlevania:lord of shadows- release date: 2010
Arcana Hearts 3- release date: 1/13/2011
Of the End- release date: 2011
MotorStorm3-release date: 2011
SOCOM:U.S. Navy Seals 4-release date: 2011
Tokyo Jungle
Sly Cooper Collection
Front Mission Evolved
Call of Duty Black Ops- release date: 11/18/2010
Dues EX
VANQUISH-release date: 10/21/2010
Tales of Graces-release date: 12/2/2010
Personal Game interests :
Metal Gear Solid Rising (lightning bolt action) Here
Final Fantasy XIV ONLINE Here
Castlevania:lord of shadows Here

Playstation Portable (not all):
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd- release date: 12/1/2010
Dogma Wars-RD:2011
Unrecorded Chronicles 3- release date: 1/27/2011
Patapon 3-RD: TBS
God of War-RD: 11/11/2010
Lord of Arcana-RD: 10/14/2010
Tactics Ogre-RD: 11/11/2010
The 3rd Birthday
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep-RD:2011
Final Fantasy: DISSIDIA 012-RD:2011
RADIANT MYTHOLOGY 3-RD:2011
Phantasy Star Portable
Shining Hearts-RD:12/16/2010
Personal Game interests :
The 3rd Birthday Here
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd Here
Lord of Arcana Here
Final Fantasy: DISSIDIA 012 Here
Shining Hearts Here

GAMANIA:
(online games I was personally really impressed with)
Core Blaze-release date: 2011
DIVINA
Reign of Assassins- release date: 2010 (along with a movie)
Langrisset Schwartz- release date: TBS (from renowned jp console game Langrisser)
Soul Captor
Warrior of Dragon
Tiara Concerto
Personal Game interests :

Tiara Concerto Here
Warrior of Dragon
Langrisset Schwartz



NINTENDO DS:
Shiren5 Here

XBOX 360:
Dead Rising 2- release date: 9/302010
FABLE 3-release date: 10/28/2010
Halo Reach-release date:
Monster Hunter FRONTIER 9.0-release date: 9/29/2010 JAPAN ONLY
Personal Game interests :
FABLE 3 Here

MY SWAG! YES THIS WAS ALL THE FREE STUFF!!!!

Just a picture is needed for this ridiculousness:


MY SWAG!! BOUGHT AND PAID FOR!
Bought mostly from SQUARE ENIX SHOWCASE:
Why was this shit in the floor!?! I was like WTF Sephiroth!!


A list for you all
Lightening Key Chain: Here
Serah Engagement Pendant: Here
Lightening Perfume: Here
Squall Lionheart Keychain: Here
Tonberry Keychain: Here
Kuroshitsuji Keyring/phone charm: Here
Mirror Kerby Plushie!: Here
XIV Moogle Plushie!: Here
Squall and Tidus drinking mugs: Here
PSP COVER (not psp itself):

PLAYSTATION 3 COVER (not ps3 itself):


Persona 4 bag (used as my PSP carrying case):


Whew! I think that is all for now lol

Anothe Fun Weekend

Izikaya night August 21st-22nd:
No rest for the weary as they say, especially when one has good friends. So out the door I went to Toyama to meet with Hilda and Debbie for drinks at an izakaiya with our Brazilian friends. After eating a quick dinner at Sizeriya and doing and hour of karaoke with Maranna we meet up with the boys (to interrupt their “boys night” out) at the bottom of the CIC building (ironically enough I go to the CIC building quite often and still have no idea what ‘CIC’ actually stands for O.o) At any rate we all had a great time together talking about random things and seeing who could fit a bear bottle the furthest down their own throat O.o We also played “never have I ever” which in truth is a very dangerous game. That game can either reveal too much, cause someone to get severely angry or if you’re with the right crowd; find out funny and rather interesting things about your friends in which you can smile and laugh off later. We were at the bar for quite a long time and truthfully I became a bit listless towards the end. That and one of the boys managed to get himself sick from drinking too much so when we called Nobuki’s wife to pick him up we all went home. Hilda and I however had no way home since the trains had stopped running, so we spent the night at Marianna’s and Wagner’s home.


The following morning instead of going home or to Sukiyaki the four of us ( after Mc Donalds and Ice-cream ^^) headed to HImi beach or one of those beaches in the Takaoka-esque region. It was a very pretty day and the three of them jumped in the water as soon as we got to the beach. Me however had no bathing suit so I sat on the beach and watched them. Not too long after however they told me to walk in up to my knees just so I could chat with them, and after doing so Wangner ended up splashing me. Eventually I just gave up and swam around in my street clothes. What was odd however is that Wagner, Marianna and Hilda managed to get bit or stung by something. I didn’t get stung but that was enough to end the beach excursion. We packed it all in and Hilda and I were dropped off at the station after we took a pit stop at her house and she let me borrow her clothes. Before we went our separate ways Hilda and I ate dinner at Santoshi’s and even landed free mango lassi. Apparently she always gets free lassi when she is with a small number of people. Which to me is a pretty sweet deal. Tired and ready to sleep I hopped the train to Kurobe and went home.

English Camp!

English Summer Camp August 18th 20th: English camp rolled around so much faster then I thought it would. I was lazy about my craft I was to prepare for the kids, but thankfully it was simple enough that things couldn’t go TOO wrong. XD So once again I went with Rosa to the game early Wednesday morning and we were the first Jets to arrive. Then David the new Kurobe Jet came. It was the first time I had met him so we talked for a short while as the other ALT’s were making there way in. My group ended up being a nice group of girls and two rowdy boys. We went through the normal ice-breaking, getting into teams, making a team name and flag ( our name was the Amazing Happy Cherry Fighters!) and getting to know each other. The first day went by pretty smooth and even though I organized sports day to be a water sport day it didn’t go as smoothly as I wanted it but apparently most of the kids thought it was fun anyway. My workshop (making paper sun catchers) went well also. The kids patiently made their sun catchers and in the end it turned out to look very pretty. I love it when things turn out well with little to no planning! XD

One day two I was pretty exhausted because the night before we had gathered together to have a “meeting” around ten o’clock with all the ALT’s, JTE’S and other BOE workers that stayed over night. This meeting consisted of eating snacks and drinking (my kind of meeting) and ironically enough the Japanese people talked amongst themselves and all the ALT’s talked to each other. Despite it being kind of a split room we all had a good time.
Despite that day two started bright and early. We had work shops and team time (which is when we made our English skits for last day presentation) we made it to the BBQ. It was interesting cooking all the meat for the kababs and on this day high school students came to assist the each group. They were a nice bunch of kids and typical High schoolers. It’s honestly really weird to note that High School was closing in on seven years ago.
Later on that night we had a campfire and we played games around it and ate smores. Smores are sooo delicious and every time I eat one I think of my girl scout days. Going to have to get back into the girl scouting community when I return to the states. Much like the night before, once the kids were showered and in their rooms we had another meeting and pretty much the shame shenanigans ensued. However Tommy and I met up with two college baseball girls chatting in the hallway as we made our way up to our rooms. We ended up stopping and having a long and fun conversation with them. There was dancing and singing and Tommy coaxed me into singing the one line of “Country Roads” I knew for the girls. I did and one of the girls cried. It was kinda shocking. For some reason that song is like Y.M.C.A for Americans. Everyone loves that country roads song and I have NO idea why! XP

The last day comes and I’m ready to go home. However I had much better sleep this summer camp then last. I came prepared with extra pillows and blankets so I won’t feel like someone punched me in my body all night as I slept. The last day was fairly simple. Breakfast, final workshop and giving our English skit presentations. My group did alright but possibly took on too much. Nevertheless we received a warm applause, and at the very least we all looked rather fancy in our cherry hats made out of construction paper and glue!

The start of a busy summer in Japan

Return to Japan August 6th:　My return to Japan was a bit sad in comparison to the first time I left a year ago. I was sad to leave my family and everyone because I really didn’t get a chance to absorb them in. Time went by so quickly, and I wish I could have stayed the summer. Nevertheless I will continue what I have been doing and stay in touch as much as I can with whatever means I have. Another downside (but an expected one) was the Economy flight back to Japan lol. Though I did get to sit next to a hot Brazilian the whole way. That was fun ^^

Seclusion and Illness: Once I returned to Japan, I experience the worst Jetlag I have ever had. The only thing I did was eat in sleep for what it seemed liked half a week. Then because it’s Japan ( and literally 75% of ppl who have come here on Jet that I know get sick more here than their respective home countries) I ended up feeling ill. Come to find out that I acquired lymphnoiditis ( link ) and was given four different kinds of medicine to treat it. I don’t know if it’s just my logic but that kind of illness seems pretty damn random. Like who gets that kind of sick really O.o Oh Japan you hate my immune system!

Beer Garden & Kanazawa Beach August 14th: So after a little over a week of staying home and doing minimal amounts of work of any kind I decided to go (even though I still felt icky) to Beer Garden to have dinner with the new comers. I had yet to meet any of them and I figured I should get started. So I got dressed in a bunch of my new clothes ( yay America for real clothes sizes!) I got there, met up with a large group of old and new Jets and made my way to the garden. The new group of Jets seem very up for anything. Not quite as BAM as our group but they all seem quite nice, and quite young. ( Look at me trying to sound like a Senpai! Lol ) Nevertheless, got there, hugged and kissed the friends I hadn’t seen in a while, found a place to sit and ate very little. The heat prevented me from really enjoying the food. However I must admit there were some really random yet awesome things that happened at beer garden besides meeting the new comers. I walked over to Adam who was with a small group of Japanese people who were apparently Gospel singers or liked gospel. They asked me if I knew any, and I tried to help them with some words. I ended up being the lead singer and they backed me up for like five minutes while Adam recorded it. It was so embarrassing but awkwardly cool/funny at the same time. I also met a guy named Akeem (new comer) and I believe he is the new CIR or he just happens to have ridiculously good Japanese. He ended up running up to me followed by two Japanese girls. He proceeded to tell me that the college girl was interested in fashion and was admiring my clothes and style from afar and she wanted to tell me that. The mother found it to be just as impressive and eventually they asked to take pictures of me. I obliged and had a conversation with them (through Akeem of course) and it was quite enjoyable. From that point other new Jets insisted on telling me that I was the most snazzy dressed person out of the group and that I should take a shot of sake to celebrate this fact. I also obliged that request as well! XD

FINALLY it was time to leave and despite my better judgment decided to take the trek up to Kanazawa for a night beach party they were having. The walk there was kinda horrible considering I was wearing heels. Tiffany thankfully gave me her flip flops to wear and the walk there was much better though my feet looked kinda worse for wear despite it. Once I got to the beach I kinda just walked around, ran into a circus troop of really attractive Australians, South Africans and Cubans and conversated with them for a while. The night was overall pretty chill, with a bit of dancing. Not as much as I would have liked because the DJ was stupid. However while dancing I ended up speaking with the Brazilian women who got my attention by telling how beautiful she thought my body was O.o Obviously they are very open in Brazil… Nevertheless it was one hell of a conversation starter!! XD! The rest of the night was fairly uneventful after this and I just kinda lounged around on the hammocks provided until the trains started running again in the morning.

A whirlwind summary of July!

** so late >.<**


Well it’s been rather busy and crazy on my end so I am here about a month behind on blog writing. So I figured I should try and sum up my July here in Japan before I talk about my vacation back in the states. So here goes nothing:
Ally’s Cookout & Niikawa Music Night (July 9th): After work I made my way over to Ally’s place for a cookout he had planned with some of his good friends. He was a leaver this year so a few last shindigs were to be expected. Val, Christine and many others came. It was one of the first times I’ve had good conversation with Val and I was glad cause I always wanted to. For the most part we were just there talking and eating up all the junk food since Takahiro hadn’t come with the actual cookout food yet. It wasn’t till perhaps 45 minutes before I and several others had to leave when the food (burgers and dogs) were ready to serve. They were quite delicious so it was worth the wait even though I was kinda full from the junk food ^^;; Before I knew it , it was time to head out back to Kurobe for Nikkawa music night. When I got there, there was already an impressive number of ppl there. It was also the first time I met Lelita. She was so happy to see me I blushed a little. It was kinda embarrassing o^_^o
After that Lawrence and his band got together and did their set. It was wonderful to listen to. It never ceases to amaze me how much talent managed to settle in one prefecture of Jets. It’s a wonderful thing. Once their set was over I just hung around until most of the acts were over. Then me and other Jets went to MoMo bar a few doors down and had food and drinks there. I even karaoked there a bit which was really random! I didn’t even know the bar had karaoke. Either way I did two songs and the owners were all impressed and wondered why I never sang there before. It was fun ^^ So motivating karaoke was, a group of us left there and went to ANOTHER bar and had more karaoke and drinks. I didn’t even make it home until 4:30 am in the morning. It was quite a night.

Indian dinner with my Brazilian friends! (July 11th):
So with a random phone call from Hilda I found myself meeting her in Toyama. We waited around for a while and eventually met up with Marianna and Wagner and after sometime met up with Ebi, Nobuki, Asako and the this Indian restaurant called Kashmir near Takaoka. There we all sat and talked together. Fun dinner as usual really ^^ I ordered a lot of food as I always do at Indian restaurants and boy was I full afterwards. I can’t say that I like Kashmir better than Santoshi’s or Indira, but they are pretty good. Down side is that there selection is rather limited in comparisons to the other two restaurants I frequent. Once we left the restaurant we went to this game center and bowled for a bit. I suck pretty bad at bowling so I was near the bottom rungs of the group. However it was fun that if I said certain words to ppl while bowling I would cause them NOT to bowl well. It was pretty humorous. Needless to say after all this it was rather late and when bowling was over and some pictures were taken of my friends in bowling pin costumes ( I don’t know *shakes head* lol ) I was taken to the station and I went home.

Final Loose Kingdom Performance & Glee karaoke (July 18th):
The final concert for Loose Kingdom and the last time I’d get to see my friend Johnny Fantastic play. He indeed was an awesome person who was quick to learn and super talented. I was glad I was able to get to know him a bit better since he was the music writer for the charity show (play) I was in. The concert was a lot of fun to watch and I was glad to be there to support him. When the concert was over I gave him a hug and it was probably the last time I actually saw him. It was a bit sad to know that he was leaving, as well as all the other people I had gotten to know through charity show or other venues and left this year. I’m glad though that I had an opportunity to meet them nevertheless. When the concert was said and done and after a quick bite of ramen with Will and Van I eventually met up with Alexis and a few others for Glee Karaoke. The gist was to play/sing songs that were from the TV show Glee’s soundtrack. I do believe we covered most If not all of the songs ever sung in that show. The craziest part of it was that we were there from around 11pm to 5am in the morning. There was a special deal if you stayed at Karaoke from around midnight till 5am your fee was only 1200yen a person. It was a rather nice deal considering the length of time. It was also fun because there were several people I got to spend time with before they too left the Jet program. Nevertheless by the time 5am rolled around I was all kinds of tired. So I ended up taking Christine with me and I dropped her off in Uozu before I got home and stumbled into bed.


Closing Ceremonies ( July 20th-21st):
Well it was about that time. I finally reached the point where I would have to say goodbye to my Chuo and Koshino kids. It was sad on both counts especially when the flowers were presented. I nearly cried when one of my elementary school kids that was reading my farewell speech burst into tears. I wanted to drop everything and hug her then and there but I held my ground. The children at my elementary school were especially touching. I received many letters from them and a lot of personal ones. I even received Puri Kura from one of my treasured students Yuri-chan. I even got candy and other things that the kids would have had to go home and ask their parents for. I was really touched. One of the nicest things about it also was in the letters many of the kids told me that they didn’t enjoy English class before me, and because of me they became interested and wanted to learn. It truly solidified the idea that I was indeed a good teacher/ALT and it made me proud to be doing what I was doing. It’s truly rewarding as a teacher when your students grow because of your tutelage . I do wonder however I will fare with my new students at Ishida and Ikuji following summer vacation..