Insert another credit, because it’s time for your weekly video game news and you’ve just hit the Game Overview screen.
I really meant to get this done last night when I got home from Eric’s, but I started playing Uncharted 2 instead (I’m so close to the ending!). I’ll probably review the game when I finish it and I’ve had a chance to really think about the game.
Other than that, I have a few bits and pieces of news for you, mostly having to do with, you guessed it, Left 4 Dead 2.
This week featured a reveal of the huge achievement set, which also revealed two campaigns, one set in a refinery and one set in a shopping mall. The achievements look really cool and I can’t wait to try and get the one where the player is required to finish a campaign on Realistic mode. That will be a tough one, I’m sure.
As for the campaigns, centering around a mall is a great idea, since it’s kind of a zombie movie staple. I told Eric that if Rochelle (who is a reporter) doesn’t make some sort of Frank West (from Dead Rising) comment about how she’s “covered wars, y’know,” I’m going to be super upset.
The refinery has potential to feature some really creepy zombie encounters, especially since it’s supposed to be filled about waist high with water. When Valve released the Crash Course expansion campaign for Left 4 Dead, they added in the ability for zombies to crawl under objects very quickly and I can’t imagine facing zombies hiding in the water and springing out to attack me.
Another interesting discovery was that one of the common uncommon, the infected CEDA, will have bile bombs on them, which seem to be boomer vomit that you can throw and attract a zombie horde attack. There’s an achievement for attacking a tank with this, but I see it being a really cool way to handle some of the encounters, kill special infected (probably overkill), and, most importantly, grief other players who are annoying the heck out of me.
Those of us who pre-ordered will also be getting our hands on the L4D2 demo on 27 October, much sooner than I’m sure most expected. The general release demo will launch on 3 November and the game itself will launch on 17 November.
Last in the news about Left 4 Dead, the L4D2 boycott has officially ended because the boycotters “got what they were looking for from Valve with the release of Crash Course.” The boycott was the stupidest thing ever, so I’m glad that the crowd, realizing that L4D2 was gonna be sweet, decided to end it under whatever pretenses they could.
That’s all for this week, but I’ll be sure to have more varied news next week.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Boy, it’s gonna be tough to meaningfully fill these next few posts, since this day was mostly filled with travel (and no baseball) and the next is filled with baseball and not a whole lot of sightseeing, but I’ll do my best to make this as interesting as possible.
Already off to a great start, I see.
Since we were staying in Kyoto, our flight to Sapporo was based out of Kansai International Airport instead of Tokyo Narita. I’d flown through Kansai once before on my last trip to Japan, so it was nice to see the relatively uncrowded airport yet again. Our merry band of adventurers all queued up for the domestic flight and got to experience the differences between flying in the US and flying in Japan.
Foremost among those differences is the separate check-in and baggage handling sections. In the states, if you’re checking a bag, you can get your ticket at the baggage handling counter when you put the bag in. Out in Japan, you have to get your ticket first before queuing for the baggage check counters. I did not know this, but a combination of looking sad and confused and not understanding Japanese allowed me to just get my boarding pass and check in my bag as I was used to.
Speaking of checking in bags, unlike American airports, the baggage scanning is done directly in front of the passenger. Right before getting to the counter, the passenger puts his bag through a machine and security tapes the zippers down.
After that, you’re free to do what you want until the plane begins to board. The security lines don’t tend to be all that long (especially at Kansai), so I browsed some shops before heading to my gate. Not finding anything good or any food that especially called out to me, I headed to security.
Security has some cool Japanese quirks to it that make things go a bit smoother. Instead of showing your ticket to a security officer, you put the bitstream printed on the ticket up against the optical sensor, which prints out a receipt, for some reason. Your bags go through the machine, like normal, with the computers separate and, at least on domestic flights, you’re allowed to carry liquids on. If the bottle is unopened, there’s no need for concern. If it is, they have some simple tests (either through weight or a chemical test) to verify its potability and you’re allowed to take it into the terminal.
Another, HUGE, plus: you don’t have to take off your shoes for security. Hallelujah.
As a strange aside, one of my favorite things about Kansai International is that it has very spongy, springy people movers. Walking across them is tons of fun.
One uneventful, short flight later and I was landing in Sapporo. Looking out the window as we descended, I noticed that Hokkaido definitely looks “northern,” whatever that means. It also seemed way less populated than the Tokyo area, which makes tons of sense.
A train to Sapporo station later, we were boarding a taxi to get to our hotel. Sapporo looked no different from any other city I’d seen in Japan, except that its buildings weren’t quite so tall. It also looked more like a winter area, a qualification I make based on intangibles like vegetation and, possibly, the drab weather and cool breeze sweeping the city.
Along the (short) way to our hotel, Ken was reading a map to see where we were and Dan and I (that’s right, another Dan) were in the back seat chilling out. As Ken navigated the map, he noted “Aha, we’ll be stopping at the Eighth Ward.”
Dan quipped, “That’s great, because you don’t want to stray into Ninth Ward territory, those guys are rough.”
From then on, the Ninth Ward became a mythical, gang-filled section of Sapporo that Dan and I continuously referred to for the rest of the trip as a running gag. It’s really not that funny when you read it, but we were absolutely entertained by it until we went home.
I’m pretty sure that the whole numbered ward thing refers to districts or streets in Sapporo, but I find our definition funnier.
Our cab arrived at the Sapporo Garden Palace (by this point Dan and I were convinced that “Garden Palace” was Japanese for “hotel” because of how many we stayed at) and we were greeted by doors that heavily reminded me of that part in The Phantom Menace where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn are fighting Darth Maul on Naboo.
Just look at the picture and stop calling me a nerd for all the Star Wars references.
Upon checking in, I was given the largest key I’ve ever seen outside of a movie based in the Dark Ages. Seriously, this thing was huge.
I bet I could knock you out just by throwing it at your head.
It was also used, as is the case in some Asian hotels, to save energy. Once I walked into my hotel room, there was a slot on the wall for me to put the key in. When the key was in place, a circuit was completed and the lights, air conditioning, and power outlets were all activated for use by the guest. It’s both brilliant and obnoxious, since I could not charge my various batteried gadgets while I was out of the room, but at least I wasn’t wasting electricity in some way.
A plan was hatched to grab dinner in Old Ramen Alley that night, so the six of us went out to explore the city in search of old ramen. Along the way, we passed one of the great landmarks of Sapporo, the Sapporo TV Tower. We marveled at how very…tiny it seemed. It was not a very imposing structure in the cityscape, since its height was dwarfed by several buildings in the downtown. Ken assured us that this wasn’t always the case, but it was rather anti-climactic.
The tower is a decent landmark, assuming you are in the narrow stretches of the city that can actually see it.
Eventually we came upon an entrance to the underground and what we thought would be the subway entrance. What we did find was even cooler.
Sapporo is a pretty northern city. To give you context, it’s on the same parallel as the border between North and South Dakota and it also intersects Oregon. They hold a snow festival here every year where they display ice sculptures. It can get pretty cold (Wikipedia says they get 248 inches of snow every year)
Sapporo’s answer, underground tunnels that traverse most of the city. You can get to most subway stations inside the much warmer, heated underground and many stores have connecting tunnels in their basements. It’s all very cool for getting around in the winter and I wish we had this up on campus when I used to be in school.
We eventually boarded the right subway and that was fairly uneventful aside from seeing a funny ad.
Japanese basketball?! What will they thing of next? Japanese baseba-...oh...
We got off the train, got back aboveground, and took a few seconds for me to shoot a picture of the reason I knew that Sapporo was a city before heading toward the Ramen district.
Anyone else craving a cold one right about now?
Old Ramen Alley is a pretty neat part of Sapporo. It’s a narrow…alley…filled with ramen shops…There’s also a New Ramen Alley somewhere in Sapporo, but we never got a chance to check and see if it had an ironic title.
Old Ramen Alley. I bet it would be tough to traverse during the busy lunch rush.
You’ve gotta wonder how so many ramen shops could thrive in such a confined space, but the answer, according to Ken, is that each serves a slightly different variant. The one we were headed to had crab ramen available, which was pretty exciting to me.
The shop was a pretty tiny place with room for about, at the most, 15 people. Since we were the only customers there when we got there, we spread out in the restaurant.
From front left to right: Stacy, Alex, Ken, the top of Greg's head, and Dan
There was no doubt on my mind what I wanted, but we had to wait a bit before the crab ramen was done. We entertained ourselves by inventing commentary for the sumo match up on the tv.
Is that a white woman right in the front row of that match? I think sumo is one sport where I can appreciate being reasonably far from the "amazing" views offered in the front row.
The crab ramen came out.
Is your mouth watering too?
You can bet that I loved every bite!
One of the bites that I loved.
It was perfectly cooked crab with a full, tasty broth enhanced with corn and other vegetables. Up to that point, I’d yet to have ramen that convinced me it was worth gushing over. This pushed me way over the edge.
Not much else happened that night. Dan and I wandered around Sapporo for a bit and checked out a Yodobashi Camera before eventually walking back to the hotel from Sapporo Station and confirming that a taxi was absolutely unnecessary for getting to the station. There was baseball tomorrow and we were excited for it!
One last thing worth mentioning. On our way to the ramen place, we came across this dude driving down the street and hollering at some girl.
I wonder if there are drivers in Japan who insist upon buying American cars instead of domestic vehicles.
I was shocked to not only see an American car in Japan, but one that was so old and with the steering wheel on the American side. All I’ve gotta say is that this guy’s got cool taste in cars.
It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up.
Just like that we’re fully back to our regularly scheduled programming. I’ve gotta say, I missed this, but I’m also glad that I wasn’t here to write about Tampa Bay’s 11-game losing streak or the elimination of both Florida teams from playoff contention.
You were spared my regular season woes (and the sobbing that would go with it), but now you’ve gotta endure my complaining about postseason results.
Let’s take a look at the series still going on as of today…
That’s right, none of them (not that any of them would have been by today, I don’t think). Three of the four ended in a straight sweep and the other was three to one.
The only bright spot in playoff wins: The Angels beat Boston, clinching the final game in an uncharacteristic and stunning 9th inning collapse by Boston in Fenway. I was mostly ambivalent to the Cardinals and Dodger series, but the Yankees and the Phillies both got my blood boiling with their respective sweeps. The Twins/Yankees series stands out most in that it involved a few highly controversial calls by umpires, huge mistakes by the Twins, and three straight games where they gave up the lead.
Philadelphia’s win annoys me because I hate the Phillies and any success they have. Their next opponent will be LA and I can’t think of two teams that are more opposite than the two. The Phils have strong starting pitching and a relatively weak bullpen, but LA has just the opposite. Out in LA the lineup, Manny Ramirez excluded, is much lower key than the entire Phillies roster. It will be interesting.
The Yankees are going up against an amped Angels team. Los Angeles is playing tough in memory of the death of their teammate, Nick Adenhart, and they’ve been good against the Bronx Bombers so far this season. Hopefully this one goes the distance and is much less disappointing, but there are few things I could care less about than an Angels/Dodgers World Series.
It’s short this week, but there you go! I’ll try and keep everyone posted on playoff goings on beyond Wednesday. See you after the Championship Series start up for both leagues.
The greatest sign I've ever seen anywhere in the world.
This was one of the days I was most looking forward to on the trip. The Hanshin Tigers may not have the raw popularity of the Yomiuri Giants, but they’ve definitely got the most rabid fanbase in the entire country. Beyond that, Koshien Stadium is said to be the “soul of Japanese baseball,” most likely because, beyond the already crazy Tigers that play there, everything from college games to the high school championships are housed within Koshien. It’s a storied stadium most often compared to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park here in the States.
A statue-type thing in the open-air vendor area outside of Koshien.
We’re not ready to get too far into that yet, I’ve still got a little bit of Kyoto to cover before we got on the train to head for Nishinomiya. My morning was mostly occupied with wandering around the Kyoto station area to check some stuff out. I started out with going to the local Bic Camera to check out the games in stock. It turns out that quite a few others had the same idea, as there was a queue outside the shop just before the shop opened at 1000 that morning.
Maybe they're trying to get some shopping in before the work day starts?
Out of curiosity, I asked about the availability of the new Pokemon games that had come out the day before. They were predictably completely sold out. Browsing the shelves, I found a copy of a game I’ve been wanting to import since I played Elite Beat Agents, Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. The sequel was nowhere to be found, but I definitely picked up the game to play during my downtime on the tour.
Not Ouendan, but the Japanese boxart of the game I played the most in Japan, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. The US boxart is near identical, the only difference is the placement of the title to accomodate the ESRB rating.
My need to browse video games now sated, I headed into The Cube to take a look around and grab breakfast. I spotted a Mister Donut, one of the more famous donut shops in Japan, and I decided that I would break my Western food boycott for the morning to sample this Japanese take on an American staple. Boy was I surprised when I spotted the donut you see below this text. Not only did the Japanese understand that donuts should be tasty and sweet, but here they were, out-American-ing the Americans with their chocolate donut, topped with powdered sugar, and filled with cream.
Just looking at that picture has probably raised your blood sugar to dangerous levels.
After taking about a week off of my life just by eating that donut, I decided to climb back up to the top of The Cube to see what it’s like in the daylight and snap some shots for David.
A different sight in the daylight, this is The Cube. There are folks gathering for a concert that will begin in an hour or two.
At the top was the familiar Happy Terrace, which looks completely different without the ambient light and lovers seated at the benches.
Sorry folks, no creepy "happy" picture of me this time. I didn't have someone else to hold the camera.
Still, it’s a completely relaxing rooftop to hang out on and I could see myself taking lunch breaks up there.
It's very peaceful.
Dave and I were excited about the prospect of taking pictures of the Kyoto skyline from the top of The Cube, but it turns out that the Kyoto skyline isn’t really that interesting (to me).
Thanks to my amazing photographic skills, you also get to see my ghostly reflection in the glass as a bonus.
After that it was about time to start taking trains to head to Nishinomiya, so I made my way down to the platform and eventually hopped on a local line. It was reassuring to see the number of Tigers fans increase the closer we got to Koshien, especially since some of them have very elaborately decorated clothing.
An example of an extremely customized jersey. The name, number, and other patches on his jersey were all hand-sewn (or ironed) on. Not content with what he already has, he seems to be shopping for more patches.
We eventually reached Nishinomiya and swapped onto the Hanshin train line that conveniently (and coincidentally!) ran to Koshien where we were immediately greeted by a sea of yellow and black jerseys and merchandise, both on display and on the tons of fans in the area. I don’t think I saw a single Baystars fan in the area. I made my way around and eventually bought a Takashi Toritani jersey and an awesome super deformed patch to eventually iron or sew on at home.
The area just outside the subway platform is lined with stalls selling all kinds of Tigers gear.
One of the most interesting things about Koshien Stadium is that there is a shrine just next door. Even more interesting is that this shrine seems to cater to baseball-related prayers.
A baseball-themed statue housed within the shrine.
For those unfamiliar with Shinto traditions (as I am), worshippers are able to go to shrines, purchase ema, wooden plaques for prayers and wishes, and pin them to the prayer/wish board. I’m oversimplifying, but that’s the basic idea (you can learn more from the wiki link I put up earlier or through your own research).
Most of the ema for sale at this shrine are baseball and/or Tigers-related.
I’ve been told that many of these boards are prayers for the Tigers to succeed. I think that’s way cool.
I don't think I can spot a single non-baseball-related ema.
If there’s one thing I absolutely love about Tigers fans, its those loose, flowing pants they love to wear. They’re typically yellow, white with pinstripes, or black, and they also typically feature pictures of Tigers or sewn on patches. The Tigers definitely have my favorite fans in all of Japan.
It's a long-distance shot, but you can see a few pairs of Tigers pants in this shot.
While it’s not totally unheard of to see a rival mascot at a ballpark (see the Buffaloes game for reference), I don’t think I’ve ever seen the rival mascots posing for pictures around the rabid fans of the home squad.
I'm hoping that I missed the part where they all boo him and throw fruit at him.
Worse still, I saw the opposing mascots hanging out together!
Now here's a couple of Benedict Arnolds. Shameful.
For all their rabid love for the team, the Tigers haven’t won a Japan Series or really come all that close (aside from a loss in the 2003 Japan Series) since their only win in 1985 thanks to the Curse of the Colonel! :cue scary music:
This is the scariest picture of the Colonel I've ever seen.
There are a few American fast food franchises that have made it big in Japan and Kentucky Fried Chicken is one of the bigger ones. While locations in America have all but abandoned the Colonel statue as a fixture of their stores, just about every KFC I’ve ever seen in Japan has themselves a statue of the famous Colonel Sanders, sometimes dressed up for whatever location he’s occupying.
One such Colonel Sanders, lightly decorated in Lions garb.
The story goes like this: After finally winning their first Japan Series (the Tigers were founded in 1935) in 1985, the fans, already rabid without a reason to celebrate, went absolutely crazy to celebrate the victory. As the mob made its way to Ebisubashi Bridge, they began a pretty cool ritual where they called out a player’s name and a member of the mob who looked like him would jump into the canal the bridge spanned. Unfortunately for the Tigers, not one of the Japanese fans looked like one of the key components to their championship team, Randy Bass. Since all gaijin look alike anyway and, more importantly, the Colonel had a beard, one rabid fan grabbed a Sanders statue from a local KFC and tossed it into the canal in place of an actual person. Little did he know that this casual disregard for the property of a KFC would anger the spirit of Colonel Harland Sanders, cursing the team to failure until the day they finally recovered the statue.
You know, he doesn't seem all that much like a vindictive evil spirit to me.
As I said earlier, the team has really only come close to even approaching a Japan Series title once in 24 years, with most of the other seasons ending in last or near-last place. The moral of the story, never anger the spirit of a chicken-loving Southern gentleman.
You can dress him up in your team's colors all you want, but that won't guarantee he'll come around.
There is hope for Tigers fans who actually believe in curses. Just this year, on 10 March, the upper-body of the cursed Colonel statue was located while completing a beautification project on the Dōtonbori River. The right hand and the lower-body were located the next day, but his glasses and left hand remain at large. What does this mean for Tigers fans hoping for a return to glory after 24 years? So far, nothing. Despite a weak start to the season, the Tigers were in serious contention for the Climax Series up until their last game with the Swallows. Unfortunately, the Swallows were able to knock the Tigers out of the playoffs, but perhaps next year the curse will be lifted and the Tigers can once again win a series.
After spending 24 years in the drink, this Colonel statue looks surprisingly...who am I kidding, it looks disgusting.
Koshien Stadium is, thankfully, one of three ballparks with actual grass growing in them (Skymark and Mazda are the other two) and it features an all-dirt infield that it seems like they over-water before the game.
You can tell it's real because it's patchy. Don't they have groundskeepers to take care of that?
The fans at Koshien are definitely dominant and so rabid, but I was legitimately shocked at how tiny the cheer section that was allotted to the Baystars was. Unlike other ballparks which give whole sections of the outfield, these guys were relegated to a small section. I don’t know if this is just because the Baystars are a marginal team or if this is a legitimate action by the Tigers. If it’s the latter, it just seems contrary to the Japanese culture of polite fairness.
The most pathetic (in size) cheer section we saw on the trip. The flag is being waved by a random Baystars fan in a clsoer section.
That night’s game featured some solid, National League-style baseball with low scoring and plenty of small ball. The final score was 2-1 and the ever-famous Japanese closer, Kyuji Fujikawa, came out to finish the game.
Getting to see a legendary pitcher close out a game is always a plus.
One post-game celebration later, we were on our way back to Kyoto!…Except that the trains were furiously backed up thanks to all the post-game traffic. Our eight-man crew braved the line for about a half hour before even getting down to the platform. The train ride was fairly uneventful, but I was told by Ken that the gaggle of women on the train to Kyoto to go out that night were not interested in me because I “wasn’t tall enough.” I hate to set these girls up for disappointment, but I’m pretty sure that I’m well over the average height for the entire country. Them’s the breaks, I guess.
After we arrived in Kyoto, we all headed back to our rooms. The next day would be spent flying to Sapporo, so we had to get our rest to be up in time catch the proper trains and make our flight. It was also the final day that Jill and Nora would be on the tour, since they had to get back to their jobs at the university they worked at. Our group was down to six, but we were definitely going strong. Only four games to go.
Can they finally break the curse and win the Japan Series this year? Nope. Maybe next year.
Deep from the trenches, it’s time for your Monday video feature: Embedded Reporter.
And were back to the ER after a long time So long, in fact, that I missed the final episode of the Persona 4 Endurance Run. It was a good run and I absolutely loved the series. I can’t wait to see what the Giant Bomb folks do to follow up on this. Farewell Charlie Tunoku.
Get Persona 4!
Wow, it’s been a long while since I’ve written one of these. I hope you guys haven’t forgotten about this. How about a quick recap to get us all up to speed.
Dan is a small boy who wears a purple robe. His father, Pankraz, is a big strong man who is on the search for Dan’s mother. One day, while on a job bodyguarding Prince Harry, Pankraz is brutally murdered while protecting Dan and Harry. The kids are sold into slavery and don’t escape for ten years. Harry falls in love with Maria and leaves Dan. After Harry leaves, Dan starts searching for the legendary Zenithian gear to fight off an ancient evil. Along the way, he meets Debora and gets married. Debora becomes pregnant and gives birth to the twins David and Rebeca, but she is kidnapped shortly thereafter. Dan goes off to save her, but both he and Debora are turned into statues and sold to different families. Eight years later, Dan’s twin children finally find him and undo the curse before setting off to finish finding the Zenithian equipment and eventually find their mother.
When we last left our heroes, they were about to head to Helunaptra to check on the Zenithian Helmet that Dan tried and failed to acquire eight years (or so) prior to now. It is interesting to be traveling with children who were infants last Dan saw them, but, on the other hand, aside from the ten-year gap Dan served in slavery, the world has disappointingly not reflected much aging in the eight year statue period. In fact, we’re kind of in the middle period of most RPGs. You know, that section of the game where you can finally explore most of the map with focus semi-diluted focus. In my opinion, the game does a bad job here of imploring upon the hero that he needs to get anything done with any haste. It’s not a complete failing of the narrative, it’s just a part of the genre, especially during the era this game came out.
Remember all that time back when Dan found out that he was part of the royal family of Gotha and was actually crowned king? It was so long ago that I found myself caught off guard when NPCs referred to Dan’s royal heritage. It doesn’t bring with it too much, in terms of benefits, but it’s a nice touch to the dialogue that people are acknowledge the return of the king.
Arrival in Helunaptra was met with little fanfare as I made my way to Cleohatra’s royal chamber. Ready to try again, she escorted us to the chamber containing the Zenithian helmet. This time the helmet was placed on Dave’s head, but it was far too large. Just when I was starting to wonder just who the Zenithian hero might be instead, a message came up on the screen saying that the helmet began to change size and shrank to fit to Dave’s head.
With my main task out of the way, the next step was to head for Mada’s hometown, but without any real feeling of hurry, I decided to make some housecalls on people Dan hadn’t seen in ages. First on the list, King Harry. As he heard about the rough times Dan had just suffered, he spoke a line that made me laugh at its sheer audacity.
“You did have a rotten bit of luck there, eh?”
That’s got to be the greatest understatement I’ve ever run into in a video game.
There was also a pretty great moment in Coburg when Dan went back downstairs and found Dave interacting with Kendrick. Just like in Dan’s childhood, Kendrick was trying to make Dave his lacky and used the same underground passage to punk him. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Get Dragon Quest V!
Wow, what a long Game Overview hiatus! Did you guys miss it?
I didn’t adequately gather this week’s news for GO, so instead I’m going to focus on one thing and one game: the recently announced Scavenge Mode for Left 4 Dead 2 (come on now, did you really think I could talk about any other game after that long break?)
Added to the usual Campaign, Versus, and Survival modes is this new mode meant for short rounds of what seems to be frantic gameplay. Like all post-apocalyptic situations, this mode centers on obtaining canisters of gas to power up a generator placed on the map. Empty a tank and you add 20 more seconds to your 120 second timer. There are 16 tanks separated throughout the map and should one be disposed of via stray bullets of Spitter bile, they supposedly respawn after a set amount of time.
It sounds like a lot of fun and it’s a really neat twist that one of the zombies has the power to deny the resource. In fact, the Spitter has a lot of power in this map. Her mortar shots can deny access to the generator and she’s also capable of bursting canisters. It almost seems like it’ll be too hard for the survivors.
As a side note, 1Up noticed a new, unannounced difficulty known as “Realistic” mode. Details are non-existent on this, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to guess that it’ll be a level of difficulty beyond Expert. Will it do away with the game-y extravagances of the core game mechanics or will it just be a more extreme expert mode? We’ll find out soon enough, the game is set to debut next month.
Folks, from here on out, the SITB (that’s Super Ichiban Travel Blog for the uninitiated) will be shifted to a Tuesday/Thursday(/maybe Saturday) schedule (there are really only nine or so posts left, including this one) so that the blog can return to its regularly scheduled programming on MWF. The MLB playoffs have started and here I am still talking about my time in Japan. I need to be covering this! You’ll recall that I wrote daily posts about the playoffs last year. Neither the Marlins nor the Rays made it this year, but that won’t necessarily keep me from adding in extra coverage as I see fit.
You ever find yourself thinking, "If only I had my own city..."?
Fukuoka seems like a neat city with tons to do, but we were on a schedule and the place is just too remote for us to make a hub, so off to Kyoto we went.
Cue travel montage.
We rode past Mazda Stadium (Home of the Carp) on our way to Kyoto.
It’s a short montage. I only took two pictures and they were both of Mazda Stadium, so I’ll spare you the other one.
I lied.
There really was no need for that, it’s clearly an inferior picture, but, oh well, it’s done and I can’t take it back.
I'll put the better one back up again.
Ok, the travel montage is actually over now. We arrived in Kyoto, but this time we were staying in a different hotel from before. For some reason, Kyoto has two hotels named APA Kyoto whose only difference is an address. We were at the one located further from the rail station, behind some side streets, and across a path in which several of the folks in our tour were almost killed by bicyclists. The only cool part was that I had to pass a Bic Camera on my way to the train station and you bet that I was going to go in and look for good import games for my region-free systems.
A Bic Camera employee demoing Wii Sports outside the store.
Having skipped breakfast that day, I was looking for a quick pick-me-up once we returned to the station that would tide me over until I got to the ballpark for lunch. At a shop on the platform (almost every major platform has food kiosks that carry snacks and newspapers), I noticed a box of something I saw in Metal Gear Solid 3: CalorieMate.
Exhibit A.
I honestly had no idea what exactly CalorieMate was, I just knew that it restored Snake’s health meter all the way when consumed, so it couldn’t be all that bad for you, could it? When I researched it a little later on, I found out that the stuff is produced by a pharmaceutical company and that it’s meant to be an energy bar type food. The one I got was a biscuit-type that tasted of lemon, so I was totally ok with it. My favorite part about it was the disclaimer on the box that said something like “Caution: To ensure freshness, please eat your CalorieMate as soon as possible after opening the package.” As I crunched on the bar, I imagined all the strange chemical reactions going on in my body that might be going on or what would happen if you left it out in the open (EXPLOSION!), but in general it wasn’t that bad and I even had one again on the tour.
Not Pictured: Hours later ambulances rushed to the scene to save Dan after his stomach exploded. When asked what could have happened, his travel companions said "He exposed the CalorieMate to five minutes worth of oxygen, what did he think would happen?"
Once we got to Nagoya we had to make our way to the Nagoya Dome, so it was time to board local public transportation. Like any other major city in Japan, Nagoya has a subway system that can be used to easily get around. Its subway also housed the first sign of the fabled “Women-Only” cars I’d heard about before, but had yet to see.
The first time I tried to take this picture, Alex's umbrella was out of focus and in the frame looking like a rather sinister black, phallic object. I think this is the better choice.
If you’ve never heard of female-only cars, they’re a result of sexual assault (read: groping) becoming far too common on the ridiculously crowded trains of Japan. Since some of the ones committing assault (read: assholes and perverts) could plausibly claim that it was the crowdedness and bumpiness of the ride, not their evil actions, Japan fought back with women-only trains.
We were all set to make our way to the nearest metro stop and get off right by the stadium, when a conductor popped out and told us this train had reached the end of its line. In retrospect, I’m sure that we could have waited for the next train, but instead we got off and started the long walk to the dome. It wasn’t all that bad, we got a chance to see a little more of Nagoya on the way to the ballpark, but it was a gloomy, semi-rainy day, which put quite a damper on the fun of sightseeing.
Remember all those slime toys and Snoopy toys I mentioned at the Square Enix store? Now you know who buys them: this random van owner in Nagoya.
After some walking and following of kids in Dragons gear, we eventually reached the Nagoya Dome, home of the Chunichi Dragons.
Home of the Chunichi Dragons! I wonder why that older Japanese guy is dressed like a bellhop/limo driver and standing outside the stadium.
Most of you don’t know this, but, coming into Japan, my favorite NPB team was the Chunichi Dragons. This started back when all they hype about Kosuke Fukudome awakened in me an interest in Japanese baseball. When I investigated his home team, I found a squad that played by National League rules (a plus), wore a nice, blue color (always a plus for me…I can’t resist a girl in Cubbie or Dodger blue), and had a Dragon as a mascot. How could you go wrong with that? Of course, actually being in Japan taught me that the Carp were just waiting for me to show up and adopt them for my own, but the Dragons are easily my second favorite team now. (the Nippon-Ham Fighters claimed third).
The mascots of the Chunichi Dragons! There's the pink dragon, the blue dragon, and...the koala?
The stadium facade was pretty neat in places, allowing you to see the people inside eating and also offering neat, artistic takes on the Dragon theme.
A big, blue, Japanese-style dragon. If you look in the left corner you'll spot...
...mini Chunichi-style dragons atop the building near the old-style dragon.
When I got into the field, I noticed something that seemed to be a bit dangerous. The Nagoya Dome doesn’t feature a real warning track. Instead, they’ve got a line that you’d better hope you see on the field, because there is no texture change.
The left half of the Nagoya Dome. Note that there is no real warning track
The opponent for the night, the (aren’t you tired of them by now too?) Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Based on what I said above, who did you think I was rooting for?
Nothing like a nice afternoon game. Too bad it was both rainy and in a dome.
Early on during the game I went out in search of food and found a neat takoyaki set that also included fries, chicken sticks, and a drink. I don’t totally remember, but I think 9/10 of the purchase stemmed from the fact that they put the fries over the drink so it looks like you’re drinking fries.
French Fry soda. Yum.
The best part of the Nagoya Dome (aside from the close, 4-2 game that was full of excitement), were the people I interacted with. On my trek around the stadium for my usual jersey acquisition, I steeled myself for the usual attempts at broken Japanese and pantomime to try and get a feel for the available sizes. As I struggled with my Japanese, the clerk all of a sudden burst out with perfect English. It was a shock to hear such great English from an unexpected source. We quickly resolved the size issue and I left with one of my favorite jerseys of the trip in hand.
My second encounter was more of a group thing. Ken, one of the guys on the group, can speak rudimentary Japanese, so he tries to talk to as many people around us in a stadium as possible. Noticing a rather large crowd of rowdy, excited people behind us, he started talking to them. It turned out that they were all bankers out for some post-shift socializing. It was from this group that the line in my title was gleamed from. One of the guys, enjoying conversation with us was telling us about the group. He indicated where the boss was and that they were bankers before going and saying “That’s my wife. You no touch,” to Ken. It was wildly hilarious, but also probably pretty serious underneath the levity of the situation. BONUS: I later looked up at the Boss and noticed that he was at the top of the group and he had a woman in each arm. Maybe sexual harassment ends with the workday here in Japan?
Our favorite group of bankers. Stripes, the aforementioned wife, is the one posing in the photo with her thundersticks.
The last of the great experiences came from a young, maybe six or seven-year-old girl. Every time a Dragon run was scored or a Swallow struck out, she would run down to us gaijin and high five as much of us as she could. It was absolutely adorable.
Not adorable at all. Kind of creepy, really.
As we were leaving the ballpark (GO DRAGONS! 4-2 ), I kept on the lookout for Kosuke Fukudome jerseys. His fame would surely keep fans wearing his clothing. In fact, I wore a Cubs shirt with his name written in Japanese specifically for the purpose of interacting with fellow Fukudome fans. My vigilance was rewarded when we found a small boy wearing a shirt and I snapped a quick shot. The young boy and his mother were both impressed by my shirt and wished us a happy trip.
Sorry about the blurry shot, the lighting was terrible.
The trip back was uneventful (aside from Ken nearly killing an old woman he ran headfirst into) and I made it back to the hotel without incident after a lengthy Shinkansen ride back. Some of the group had peeled off to find an ex-pat sports bar, but I wasn’t interested in hanging out with Americans and eating American food, plus I wasn’t feeling too well (bad takoyaki batch). Awaiting this fatigued traveler was a nifty little treat from the hotel staff. A little something to say “Welcome Home.”
It was a nice gesture. Too bad the room was even smaller than the last one.
Today's post brought to you by Coca-Cola (Not really! Please don't sue me!)
Ok, so I’m being a little dramatic in the title, but with David gone and most of the day occupied by riding bullet trains across Japan, the day was definitely on the dull side.
The thrilling remains of a lunch eaten on an exciting train ride to Fukuoka.
Most of the train ride was spent playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, an SRPG whose setting is within the JR Yamanote line of Tokyo. The coolest part of the ride was the fact that we had to take an underwater tunnel to get to Fukuoka, since it is on Kyūshū, one of the four major islands of Japan. There was one other major event that occurred: the bullet train, shining example of punctuality, was ten minutes late to Fukuoka. So jarring was this tardiness that I almost got off at the wrong stop anyway because we it was time, we had to be there. I’m sure it’s not the first time the Shinkansen has been late, but it was the first (and last) time any train anywhere in Japan was late when I was there.
Station, taxi, hotel. Hoo boy…the Tokyo Garden Palace, The Official JapanBall Tokyo Hotel of Choice, had a decent-sized single that they put me in. This hotel, the Fukuoka Garden Palace, put me in a hotel room single smaller than the smallest single dorm room. Funny thing is, this wouldn’t be the smallest hotel room, by any means, that I’d stay in on the trip. That title goes to the room in Kyoto, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
My spacious room in Fukuoka.
Most of the group decided to head to the local Hard Rock Cafe, but I opted not to go because I was doing my best to avoid as much Western food as I could while I was out in Japan. Beyond that, I’m not even a fan of the HRC when I am in the states thanks to its overpriced, mediocre food. Instead I hung out in the room and watched tv/uploaded pictures for a bit before catching a cab to the the Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome.
This idol was on tv giving a concert. I think she's famous from anime, because she sang the theme songs from Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, and many others in her set. I have no idea who she is
The taxi dropped me off near the stadium, but it was far too early to start to get to my seat, so I decided to investigate the nearby “Hawks Town.”
Nothing like team branding to get people in a shopping mood!
The shopping mall wasn’t too huge and it contained the usual Japanese staples: clothing stores, restaurants, an arcade, and a toy store. Looking to kill some time, I entered the Toys R Us and was reminded that Pokemon is still king in this country.
Pokemon and Doraemon, that is.
The toy store had its share of toys from other anime and video game series, but Pokemon dominated the list by far. Whether it was the arcade machines near the door, the figurines, the plush toys, or the other merchandise, Pikachu and his pals were the most represented in the store. I also found a great, kind of creepy looking Woody mask.
It's both awesome and kind of creepy the way those empty eyes seem to stare into your very soul.
After successfully killing the aforementioned time, I decided to make my way to the stadium to take some photos and complete by jersey-buying ritual. Corporate name sponsorship is nothing new to baseball. From Tropicana Field to LandShark Stadium and Citi Field, there are tons of examples of MLB ballparks with corporate sponsors. Even Japan has its share of them, so I initially thought nothing of the fact that the Hawks played in a Yahoo!-branded ballpark, assuming that the corporate representation would be fairly standard when compared to other stadiums. Note the foreshadowing…
Not to mention that Yahoo! is an increasingly irrelevant brand out here in America. I have a feeling this ballpark may change names soon.
I kind of liked Hawks Town and the surrounding area because it seemed to show team spirit. The escalator up to the ballpark was specially painted to show pictures of the mascots, which was also pretty cool. I started to notice a problem when I saw a sign showing what you couldn’t bring into the stadium.
Is it just me or does it look like the final picture is saying "No burgers with cigarettes inside!"
It’s not immediately obvious from the picture, but I was concerned about the number of mascots populating the bottom of the sign. Wow, I thought, there sure do seem to be a lot of them. Most of the ballparks had multiple mascots, but I’d say the average count was three. The Giants had four space bunnies (mom, dad, two kids), the Swallows had three (dad, boy, and girl), the Buffaloes, Tigers, and Marines had two each, and the Carp had one on-field and one for merchandise (the Phanatic knockoff is the former and the young boy is the latter). Represented in this picture were six Hawks. I realized why when I got up to the stands set up outside the ballpark: merchandising.
Gotta collect all the mascots!
Say you’re a team located in a country that trends toward owning complete collections of things. Say you’re a team that wants to make money. Why not have a ton of mascots so that, while some will only collect the ones they like, plenty will try and complete the whole set. Release limited editions with different costumes or even uniforms and you’ve earned yourself quite a bit of cash. It’s brilliant marketing.
Also brilliant marketing.
You already know about my hatred for domed stadiums, so I won’t retread old ground, but the Yahoo! Dome’s youth works toward correcting some of those problems. Unlike other domes in Japan, the Yahoo! Dome has a retractable roof, so fair weather can be enjoyed when it’s there while too hot days and rain can be bypassed. There was an ever-present threat of rain that day, so the dome remained tortuously closed that night, bringing my Games in Dome count up to 2.5 (the Seibu Dome counts for half).
Another result of the dome's youth is newer, corporate food stalls.
As I made my way to my seat, the full stadium greeted me in all its ad-filled glory. Aside from the batter’s eye, there was not one spot missed by the clever ad-space leasing crew.
Not a bad field, for a dome, buy why bother with artificial turf when you've got a retractable roof?
The upper sections of the stadium were filled with luxury boxes, something that was lacking in most of the smaller or older stadiums I’d been to on the trip before today.
Someone needed to tell the Yahoo! folks that there's such a thing as too much luxury.
There’s no escape from the advertising, even the armrests were adspace.
Down to the armrests you can find ads in the Yahoo! Dome.
Worse than that was that between at bats the jumbotron even showed a commercial for whatever product they were hocking that day. There is no peace in Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome to enjoy the game of baseball without an ad screaming at you.
Even the free fan they gave me was advertising a new piece of software.
There are two things which I will always associate with the Yahoo! Dome: ads and this guy.
If you couldn't tell, "this guy" is the white dude in the photo.
I’m not quite sure if he’s a major part of every game or if he only comes out a few times, but this guy will always be the unofficial mascot of the Hawks. He knows Japanese well enough to speak it in a lame, cheesy, game show announcer voice and he appears in video segments before the game and during most of the between inning video segments. I’m not kidding when I say he’s as corny as they come. There’s just something about him that screams inauthentic, but it seems like the Hawks and the fans are totally into it.
Let’s talk about the actual game. There was yet another rare instance of the Japanese national anthem being played. That’s only the second occurrence in six games and all of them were in Pacific League games.
In six games we've only heard this twice. A far cry from the USA.
Another thing I noticed were the elaborate team introductions. Beyond just the usual name and number, they go and put up height, weight, hometown, and handedness. It’s nothing beyond what you’d get on a typical baseball card, but it’s more than I’d seen before on the trip, so I thought I’d snap a shot.
All that's missing is "Likes: Long walks on the beach"
This game also marked the first time I’d seen something kind of interesting for the kids. Instead of having the typical player introduction, a mascot and a kid went out to every position on the field (That’s nine mascots, up from the six I mentioned early. That’s right, there’s some sort of grandfather hawk and an uncle hawk and something else). The cool part is that each of these kids is there when a player comes out on the field. I would have killed to be out on the field before a baseball game to meet a ballplayer as a kid. Hell, I’d kill to do it now!
Here we have some green, old Hawk mascot. It's like they're just making up Hawk variants.
The game itself was a solid affair. It was close for most of the game, but the Hawks were ahead 3-1 by the time the game entered the ninth inning. Some teams would give up, but they’re not the Golden Eagles. Thanks to a pitiful performance by their closer, the Eagles were able to knock in six runs in the ninth, four of which came from a grand slam. For the rest of the trip, my fellow tourgoers and I would remark that a team was not yet safe in the ninth until it had passed beyond Grand Slam Range.
If only she knew what kind of heartbreak was awaiting her that night.
As a quick aside, at the ballgame I ate something I’d never had before and would absolutely love to have again. Tell me, would you trust a pizza from a place called Strawberry Cones?
Everyone knows that Strawberry Cones is synonymous with pizza!
I saw the stand and almost dismissed it off hand for being Western food in Japan, but then I saw a picture of one of the pizzas they offered, and I knew I had to try it. Only one problem, the guy in front of me got the last one. The only thing left to do was pray for symmetry and walk around the stadium searching for another stall.
The pizza in question. Yes, those are shrimp, calamari, and other miscellaneous seafoods.
I know what you’re thinking. “Seafood pizza? Come on Dan, that can’t be good…can it?”
Yes. Yes it can.
And that was all she wrote for the Hawks and Fukuoka. We took a cab back to the hotel and got set to head back to Kyoto the next day. It would be our home base as we went to see games in Nagoya (the Dragons) and Nishinomiya (the Tigers). I’ll close with a picture of the hat of my favorite vendor at the Yahoo! Dome.
It's blurry, but it's the best I got. This is the hat of a takoyaki vendor at the Yahoo! Dome.
Eric came up with an idea to write parallel reviews of the same video game to see how similar our reviews came out. You can see his at Eric’s Binary World 2.0
Tetris is…”video gaming distilled to its core”
The most fun a person can have playing Tetris is completing this drop
A Tetris Review (In Four Lines)
Tetris is a game where you try to clear lines from the screen using six different shapes. The highest number of lines you can clear with one shape is four (called a Tetris). There is no narrative reason for you to clear lines. The reason for you to clear lines is because it is fun.
There’s absolutely no reason to review Tetris. The game has existed longer than I’ve even been alive. Most everyone who’s played video games has played it at least once. Everyone I know who has played it loves it. What is there to say about a game like that? I could write about tetrominoes, but I’m pretty sure most anyone who reads that word will say, “What the hell is a tetronimo?” (protip: it’s what the individual Tetris shapes are called) or I could talk about Tetris syndrome, a repetitive stress symptom resulting from endlessly watching these blocks fall into place to clear lines.
None of these actually express the point of Tetris.
The Game Boy launched in 1989, only three years after my birth and too soon for me to experience it until far later. The system sold on the market until 2001 and the original iteration came bundled with Tetris. I don’t remember the year that my older brother, Eric, got his hands on a Game Boy nor do I remember the year that I got one, but I know that we had one in 1992 and I know that I played the hell out of that game, both alone and with Eric and David. I have distinct memories of straining my eyes in the car, playing a few seconds at a time between the streetlights in Miami, probably causing the severe vision problems I’m beset with today.
Before we get any further, I think it’s time for a digression.
For the first time since 1978, the entire oeuvre of The Beatles became available again for people to buy. Just about everyone who was alive during the brief seven years that the band released albums went out and paid what former 1UP editor Jeff Green affectionately called the “60s tax” to relive the blessed music of their youth. While I’m definitely not a flower child in any sense of the word, I happen to be a pretty big fan of The Beatles. I went out and paid my dues to nostalgia to bring home the works of The Greatest Rock Band of All Time. With deliberate caution I opened up the packaging and began systematically ripping and listening to the catalog in strict chronological order. I discovered something that I already knew, but had neither the equipment nor the resources to effectively conclude: The Beatles are fucking amazing. Note that I didn’t use the past tense there, there is something undeniably timeless about their beats, their beautiful bass lines, those perfect harmonies, and the sublime percussive talents of one Mr. Starr.
I’m no audiophile, I’m no serious student of music, I’m no musician, but I fancy myself a true lover of music. It’s rare for me to entirely dismiss a genre of music, I’ll listen to it all and I do my best to collect music from as many different sources as I can. Music is something that resonates with the basic, primal, inherently human parts of me. Before there was society, before there were cities, before there was an Internet (mind-boggling, I know!), there was music. Before we knew how to rock, there were The Beatles.
The first track on Please Please Me is “I Saw Her Standing There.” Within that short, 2:54 song, a pure, simple, but complex sound bursts from speakers. From Paul’s frenetic bass line, to the clean, non-threatening vocals, the harmonies from John and George, and the pure perfection of the backbeat, it’s clear, at least from my vantage point in 2009, that I’m listening to a group that had so mastered their medium that the only logical progression was for them to take music and irreversibly change it. The Beatles may have started with a medium that was established, but they would go on to create early forays into almost every modern genre. Just glancing at the bits of trivia contained within The Beatles: Rock Band shows a group unafraid to experiment with technology and push the medium to its furthest reaches. They found ways to implement the new until they ended with Let It Be sounding almost nothing like when they started.
It’s the astute reader who already sees where I’m going with this.
A Tetris Review (In Haiku)
Four lines disappear A never-ending supply The fun never ends
Pong is a simple game. Its spartan simplicity was necessity. When it comes down to it, it’s really just two lines at the edge of a screen bouncing a pixel back and forth. You couldn’t really do more than that, but it was the 1972. Comparatively, Donkey Kong is a ridiculously complicated game released in 1981. As Jumpman, you’re required to scale ladders, hop over barrels and fireballs, possibly smashing them with a hammer, and go toe to toe with a gigantic ape to save a damsel in distress. In 2009, I’m a huge fan of Left 4 Dead, a game that requires me to keep track of my health, the health of my allies, maintain situational awareness, know how to deal with six different types of zombies, each with unique attack/AI behavior patterns, navigate huge, 3D environments, and be able to aim and fire eight or so different weapon types. Tetris requires me to manage six shapes (two pairs of which are mirror variations on the same theme) and arrange them into lines. It’s not Pong, but it’s not even Donkey Kong complex. One joystick and two buttons that ostensibly serve one purpose.
There’s a reason almost everyone alive today has played Tetris and that people who don’t play video games still love Tetris. The barrier of entry is so low that anyone can play, but, thanks to the complexity created by the interplay of these six shapes, (WARNING: cliché approaching) very few can truly master it. When you combine that with the pure joy of taking that line piece you’ve been waiting almost twenty blocks for, while your tower sits mere millimeters from the top of the screen, and slamming it as hard as you can into place, generating that happy little sound effect while instantly eradicating four lines, well you’ve got yourself some magic there, don’t you?
Eric has a house, a wife, cameras that probably cost more than an unfortunately large proportion of the population makes in one month, multiple, powerful computers, a High Definition (TM!) television, a Nintendo Wii, and countless other distractions, but, inevitably, when I ask him if he’s watched this box set I lent him or had a chance to check this or that out, he’ll tell me, often enough that this isn’t that big of an exaggeration, that he didn’t get much done on a given night because he was busy playing Tetris online against his sister-in-law. It’s just something that calls to people, gamer or not, to play and try to master. It is timeless. It is a force of nature. It is rock. It is video gaming distilled to its core.
A Tetris Review (In One Word)
Perfection
