There’s no doubt about it: Japanese cuisine is way different than American food. If you have read my previous post then you already know about my dining adventure the first night. This post will recap some of the strange and interesting delicacies I tried throughout the trip.
A common type of restaurant is the hibachi, where you cook the food on the table yourself. We went to several hibachi, and they were all a little different.
[chicken noodle soup]
At this restaurant, the food was pre-prepared, but we still cooked it ourselves at the table. It was basically a huge pot of chicken noodle soup on a single gas burner. We got to add our own spices, which was fun.
[cabbage dinner]
Another restaurant featured a flat grill like I would use to make pancakes at home. But instead of pancakes, we had squid and sausage.
[squid]
We also had several courses of cabbage and full shrimp, which was enough to send a few people back to the hotel feeling a little ill.
[Korean grill]
One other hibachi restaurant we went to featured itself as a Korean grill. This grill was inset into the table and had a mesh top with a fire underneath. We were served a lot of meat with rice, which I liked. By the way, the room that 10 of us were sitting in had two grills in a space of approximately 5′ long by 12′ wide by 4′ tall. Yes, I had to crouch and I couldn’t stand up without bashing my head. In order to serve us, the waitress had to crawl through a low hole.
Some of the other strange food I tried included octopus dumplings, raw duck sushi, aloe vera (think soybean and coconut gelato), and fried cuttlefish.
I did my best to try everything; it’s important to go to Japan with an open min.
One of my favorite things about Japan is the prevalence of arcades. In the United States, we have very few true arcades; places like Chuckie Cheese’s are far more common.
In Japan, however, arcades are everywhere. There were several in Osaka, but the best arcades were in Tokyo, especially in Akihabara. On one of our last days of the trip, we had some free time and decided to go to the giant Sega arcade.
[akihabra without cars]
It was the weekend, so the whole street was closed to motor traffic
[solid snake]
All I can say is that it was unbelievably awesome! I won a Toad (from Super Mario) keychain at a strange version of crane game. Further upstairs, around the fourth or fifth floor, we found the Mario Kart Wii arcade, complete with steering wheel and pedals.
[Nic and I playing Mario Kart]
Did I mention these were the unreleased levels?
The controls were wild, and I hadn’t played this version before. Nevertheless, my inner gamer saved the day.
[I win]
The other awesome video game place was a little store off a side street of Akihabara. It was an old-school Nintendo store, and they had everything an 80’s gamer would want. Kyle bought an original Famicon, which was Japan’s equivalent to America’s Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
By the way, Super Mario Bros. 3 is quite possibly the best game of all time.
I haven’t been to too many big cities – Boston, Chicago, and LA are really the only urban areas I visited before coming to Tokyo. So needless to say, I was blown away by the scale of Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronics district. Some of the stores are unbelievable gigantic, like the eight-story Sega arcade and Taito Game Station.
[Taito Game Station]
Alongside these technological meccas, tiny stores smaller than mall kiosks sold items like mobile phone decorations. Some of the small stores probably had a stock of 5,000 items all crammed in to a small, cube-shaped area.
[Smaller stores]
In Japan, personal space is a precious commodity. With an extremely large population and just a few small island of space, the natural tendency would be to make buildings as tall as possible as to provide the most space. However, Japan is prone to frequent earthquakes (which is what formed the islands in the first place) so tall buildings are unsafe.
Therefore, the tendency is to make buildings, rooms, and stores as dense as possible. This gives rise to places like Akihabara, where the synnergy of many stores selling similar products actually boosts everyone’s sales by bringing more people to the area.
During one of our day trips from Osaka, we hiked up to the mountain temple of Shoshazan-Engjoyi. Incedentally, this is where the film The Last Samauri was filmed.
It was raining the whole time, but we decided to walk it anyway. Most of us had the clear umbrellas that are failry common throughout the country.
[clear umbrellas]
The temple is actually a group of about 50 temples that sprawled across the face of the mountain. There were a lot of interesting things along the trail, including gravestones, statues, temples, and more. My favorite item was the Japanese Dragon fountain in front of one of the shrines.
[Dragon fountain]
The mountain was covered in a thick forest, which looked cool under the rainy gray sky. Strangely enough, the trees and foliage didn’t look too much different than what one would find in a forest part of Michigan. The trees look a little different, but its eerily similar.
[Tree]
The various shrines and temples had Buddhist and Shinto statues similar to the other temples we had visited. However, these temples had actual monks who I believe live in the temples. One monk followed me around one of temples, pointing out various features and explaining them in Japanese. Although I didn’t understand much of what he said, I was once again reminded of the politeness and social consciousness of Japanese people.
[Monk]
The group had split up to explore the various temples, so I rode the gondola back down the mountain with just a small group. Waiting at the base of the mountain, I explored a magnificent fountain. There’s really nothing like this in the United States.
Only four ancient castles remain standing from the imperial eras of Japanese history.
On our first day in Osaka, we visited one of these castles. The first thing to know about any good castle is that it’s built on the highest available elevation. The purpose was to see enemies coming from afar, and the castle itself can be seen during almost the entire climb toward its base.
[Osaka castle bridge]
It looks close, but the winding path is quite long
Osaka Castle is now a glorified museum, which closes in the evening. We were literally running late as we sprinted two miles uphill to make the admission time. Winded, we got to the castle only to climb up eight stories of stairs to the very top.
[Kasey Ben Mariam at the Castle base]
Mariam, Kasey, and Ben at the Castle’s base
Despite the climb, the view from the top is magnificent. Golden statues adorn the top corners and the entirety of the city can be seen below.
[Golden Fish]
Golden ornaments adorn the roof corners
[View from above]
Osaka from above
Unfortunately, the interior has been redone and made in to a museum, complete with holographs and HD video screens. Although this was interesting, I would have preferred a more authentic castle.
[Me and the castle]
Yeah, I conquered Osaka castle
The surrounding area and shrines are beautiful and peaceful. As always, huge stone statues guard the entrances and monumentalize the area.
[Lion and shrine]
Lions guard the temple
[Casey, sake casks, and I]
Casey and I chill on some traditional sake casks
[Zen rock]
A great place to meditate
Seeing a real castle is a cool experience. As an American, I feel like we don’t really have any truly historic buildings like these. After all, our country is only a few hundred years old, while Japanese society has essentially been in place for thousands of years.
When most people think of Tokyo, the stereotypical image that comes to mind is a city of lights and neon signs lighting up the night. Although there are many aspects of Tokyo, the nightlife is definitely one of the best.
The area we stayed in, Akasaka, is pretty close to Roppongi, the music district. On different weekend nights, we went out to various clubs in the area. Our concierge for these trips was Satoko, a cute Japanese girl who went to MSU and now lives in Tokyo.
Satoko and I out on the town
We went to a club called Garden House during our first weekend in Tokyo. The crowd is very international; I met people from Glasgow, Rio, Melbourne, and London, as well as some Tokyo townies.
Kampai means Cheers!
Maris and I
I actually ended up at Garden House two separate nights. It’s not a bad club, most people there speak English (except for the bartenders).
And the second night
Another great place to go at night is Shibuya. This district has a lot of shops and restaurants, and at night it looks like Times Square in New York City.
Shibuya at Night
Shibuya also has one of the busiest intersections in the world. There aren’t that many cars, but when the crosswalk light turns green about five thousand people cross in every direction.
You have to walk it to believe it
The best night out was when we went to karaoke in Roppongi. Japanese karaoke is much different than its American counterpart; no one gets up on a stage to embarrass themself. Instead, guests are given a private room and unlimited beverages for however long they pay to stay.
The private rooms keep the embarrassment factor down
There are thousands of songs available in English, including a plethora of American classics.
Kasey rocks out
Is this the reeeal life? Is this just fantasy?
Karaoke is a much bigger part of the culture in Japan than America. Satoko said she goes out once or twice a week for karaoke with her friends. It’s cool that going out at night in Japan revolves around more than just drinking, which is all too common in the United States.
One of the most exciting stores I got to visit was the exclusive Square-Enix Merchandise Store outside Shibuya, Tokyo. It’s only open on weekends and I had been wanting to go the whole time we were in Japan, and we finally went late in the trip.
If you haven’t read my previous post about Square Enix, let me explain something to you: I am obsessed with Final Fantasy. So visiting the store where exclusive merchandise is sold was a little slice of heaven for me.
They had almost everything a fan could want. There were action figures, stuffed animals, t-shirts, full costumes, statues, and more. Square Enix has three main series from which the merchandise is derived: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon Quest.
The coolest thing in the store was a full-size statue of Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII. It was inlaid in the floor and covered with glass, reminiscing the scene where he is “hibernating” in the Northern Crater.
A recreation of the Northern Crater scene from Final Fantasy VII
Sephiroth is one of the best antagonists of all time
They also had some sweet statues and action figures. I don’t usually collect this type of stuff, but I could make an exception for this store.
And Cloud, the troubled and confused hero
I ended up spending about 7,000 yen on merchandise. I bought a keychain with the Final Fantasy X emblem that Tidus wears, which I’ll probably make in to a necklace. I also got a stuffed chocobo dressed as a black mage. The last item I bought is a gift, so I won’t ruin it here, but it’s pretty damn awesome.
I wasn’t the only person who was excited to go to this store. The popularity of Square Enix’s video games has spread around the world, and Final Fantasy in particular is an iconic example of Japanese influence on Western cultures.
On an interesting side note, I came to the conclusion that the city of Midgar from Final Fantasy VII is heavily influenced by Tokyo, particularly the Roppongi district. Walking to dinner in Roppongi one night, I noticed a club called “Seventh Heaven,” and a little further down the way there was a flower shop between two shady entertainment venues. How surreal…
Visiting the headquarters of Square Enix was a dream come true. Of all the video games I have played, I have devoted the most time by far to titles in the Final Fantasy series, and both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X are among my top ten favorite games.
I still can’t believe I was actually here
Games created by Square Enix set the standard of what excellent video games should be. They have stories that are more in-depth than any movie or television series. Their characters are genuine, emotional, and memorable. And most importantly, Square Enix pushes the envelope of what games can be both technologically and in terms of making video games a viable medium for ideas.
Game-related memorabilia in the lobby
Although the actual presentation by Square Enix staff was a bit lackluste (my expectations were probably way too high), I did have the opportunity to ask a couple questions about upcoming games in the Final Fantasy series.
My first question was why Square Enix was planning a three-game release for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII titles. As you may know, these entries in the series are all part of one overarching story. Two of the titles will be released for consoles (probably PS3) and one will be available on mobile phones. The answer to my question was basically that there are so many different components of the story that they are best covered by three entries, similar to the post-releases of Final Fantasy VII (such as Advent Children and Crisis Core). Of course, they would not specify a release date for any new titles.
A gameplay image from the unreleased FFXIII
I also asked why Square Enix is holding back from releasing a remake of Final Fantasy VII on PS3. Before the system was even released, they had made a “tech demo” to show off the system’s graphical capabilities. The result was a huge buzz across the Internets about a possible re-release of FFVII.
Tech demo? Yeah, right…
I got a very carefully worded answer that essentially said that their main focus right now is Final Fantasy XIII, but the remake of FFVII will possibly come out after that. Again, they could not give any specifics, but basically it is defiantly in the works.
We were then invited to tour the Research & Development Lab. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to take pictures (of course). It was interesting to talk to the developers but the best part was seeing a cutscene-in-the-making from Final Fantasy XIII.
The cutscene features a vast prehistoric landscape dotted with clusters of trees and small lakes. The camera follows a large bird as it drops down through the sky and swoops between plateaus and ridges. A herd of larger animals caravans through a valley below as the camera swings up and away from the bird and zooms in on a female character, presumably Lightning, studying the vast landscape from atop a cliff.
After the game is released, I know I will see this cutscene while playing and remember how it looked during production. I can hardly wait!
Located in Tokyo’s Tsujiki district, the Dolby Japan office was an experience of futuristic sights and sounds.
The first thing I noticed about the office was that everything there was sleek and modern. The conference room where we began learning about the history of Dolby looked especially modern, with laptop hookups at every seat and several state-of-the-art high-definition televisions (HDTVs).
We split up in to groups to see some of the new technologies being produced at Dolby Japan. My group started by checking out virtual surround sound on mobile devices. As we all know, speakers on mobile phones are not good enough to provide musical fidelity. Even with headphones, the sound is still tinny and of poor quality.
Dolby’s Mobile Simulated Surround Sound incorporates their well-known Dolby 5.1 technology in to mobile phones, so users with headphones feel like they are listening to live sounds. Combined with the HD screens available on Japanese mobile phones, this technology can give users a theater-like experience anywhere in the world.
Their mobile phones have great screens…
… and the simulated surround sound is so realistic
Next, we got to see a new television that’s in development. It’s called an LED TV (Light-Emitting Diode Television). LED screens are used for many electronic devices today, including many new computer screens and mobile gaming screens on the PSP and Nintendo DS.
An LED TV provides a much better picture
Most of today’s TVs have an LCD, or Liquid Crystal Display) screen, although some HDTVs use a plasma screen. We watched a video comparison on LED and LCD screens simultaneously.
LCD (left) vs LED (right)
Although the above picture does not illustrate the point very well, the LED TV is the most crisp, clear, and bright TV picture I have ever seen. The secret lies in the picture data. Old LCD screens use eights bits to represent a single pixel. This contains data on how much red, green, and blue (RGB) makes up the pixel. New LED screens use sixteen bits per pixel. This allows eight bits of RGB color and eight additional bits for how bright the pixel is.
Basically, a current TV shows red, green, and blue while a new LED TV shows that plus additional brightness. The result is an extremely clear image.
Even filtered through a camera lens, the LED picture is bright and crisp
The coolest thing we saw at Dolby was their home theater setup. The small rooms seats about sixteen people. Eight state-of-the-art speakers surround the seats, and a 100-inch 1080p HD video screen completes the setup. Wow!
Current surround systems use Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound – five speakers and a bass box. The new technology adds two full-range speakers, making the sound more robust. We watched a movie clip on Blu-ray DVD in the theater, and the sounds were so realistic that I felt like I was in the movie.
The best part, however, was the video game demonstration. We got to see Lost Planet played on a PS3 with full 1080p output with the magnificent sound system and video screen. Basically, I was blown away.
We played this scene, but in an amazing home theater
As my classmate Anthony battled a gigantic spidery creature, every breath and bullet on the game could be heard with crystalline clarity. Explosions rocked the room, and the creature’s cried gave me goosebumps. It was so realistic that I felt like I was in the game. This feeling highlights one of the most important factors of any video game: immersion. If they player feels like they are in the game instead of playing a game, then the game is successful in providing the intended gaming experience.
We played this scene, but in an amazing home theater
All in all, Dolby Japan was awesome. I can hardly wait for Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound and LED TVs to be available in American markets. Until then, I guess I’ll just have to get a boring old widescreen HDTV.
Video games are immensely popular in Japan. From arcade classics to mobile games on the go, video games are a staple of Japanese media.
We had the opportunity to visit three gaming companies while in Tokyo.
The first company we visited was iNiS, a new developer known for their musically infused titles such as Gitaroo Man for the PS2 and Elite Beat Agents for Nintendo DS.
Gitaroo Man in Action
These titles are innovative in their genre for featuring music so prominently that it’s a core aspect of each game. Interestingly, Elite Beat Agents is a sequel to a series that had previously attained popularity in Japan.
A poster for the Japanese prequel to Elite Beat Agents
I liked visiting iNiS because most of the people we talked to were close to my age. Their office was very Americanized – casual clothing, laid-back attitude, young staff – yet they still produce great games.
The group at iNiS
Another gaming company we visited was Q? Entertainment. They also make music-based titles including Rez HD and the popular title for Nintendo DS, Lumines.
The Q? Entertainment Building
A video of Lumines
The president of Q? actually sat down and talked with us for a couple hours. He had some really interesting insights on gaming in Japan. He also gave us some insider information about a new game release, but we’re “not allowed to blog about it”
Finally, we also visited FutureScope, a company that creates and licences games for mobile phones and other mobile devices. They had a pretty swanky new office!
The office lobby of FutureScope
Since mobile phones are more popular and advanced in Japan, mobile gaming has taken off far better here than in the United States. Although some popular titles have been released in the U.S., most mobile games are available only in Japan and/or Korea.
Most mobile games are part of the “casual games” genre – games that are simple, repetitive, and are usually only played for 20 minutes at a time. I think that the popularity of mobile games has increased the buzz around casual games in general, and it’s definitely a factor in the increase of available casual games in Asia and America.
Later on the trip, we’ll also be visiting Square-Enix, one of my favorite game developers. Look for a post about that soon!
