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I just finished my six month internship at Hitachi a few weeks ago, and finally found time to share some of the places I went to~ I thought about writing a wall of text about what I did, but pictures would probably be better so this will just be a Picture Diary of sort =]
I apologize beforehand for my bad camera, and even worse camera skills =[
CEATEC Japan 2010 took place last year in October, it's basically just a annual trade show for electronics. Thankfully, a lot of the companies had english subtitles or translations up in their booths =]
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4VlV0.jpg)
This was Sony's booth, which was mostly showing stuff related to 3D. They were showcasing 3D GT5 at the front which looked amazing, but the kid playing it got stuck on a wall -_-
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/8sQLN.jpg)
Nissan's EBORO robot which featured non-contact rechargeable batteries. (They just had to walk over a certain area of the floor to recharge)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GMY3r.jpg)
Can't say no to Vocaloid cosplay * = * I'll just leave a song here if you don't know what Vocaloid is~
Also went to Vocaloid Master 15, but sadly no pictures there n . n It's a monthly event where you can buy Vocaloid goods/CDs~
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DFSgo.jpg)
I think this was still Nissan's booth, but I don't remember. It's basically a 360 degree camera for your car, so you can see all the objects around it. Pretty neat.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Hbiy0.jpg)
Singing Robot by Yamaha, using voice from Vocaloids and movement captured from real people using software. Video here (Not from me  )
Skipping ahead, my supervisor and colleagues at work invited me to a lot of events, from drinking parties (These cost something like $60 per person for some reason, but people paid for me since I was a student :3), sports festivals to barbecues and day trips. Here is Abukuma Cave, where I went with my supervisor. Picture doesn't really do the place justice :|
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kTfRu.jpg)
Got to go on a trip to Kansai (Where cities like Osaka/Kyoto are) for one of my holidays. Cost something like $100 for a round trip by bus.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oW5ZN.jpg)
Kyoto's Golden Pavillion. I'm sure anyone who's been to Japan has seen this~
Osaka Castle. Exhibitions about the Siege of Osaka and the history of the city of you're interested in going inside.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RZ12X.jpg)
At Nara, where there are deers -everywhere- Lots of schoolgirls too since it was a Saturday~
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CVq2b.jpg)
Todaiji Temple in Nara. I think there are three of these big Buddha statues, not sure if this one is the biggest though.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HutpZ.jpg)
Epson Shinagawa Aqua Stadium. There were Seal/Dolphin performances, which were a lot more entertaining then the ones I saw in Canada even though I didn't understand anything they said -_-
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Bqged.jpg)
Harajuku, if I remember correctly. Popular shopping street for teens but extremely crowded.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6crFo.jpg)
Gyoza from Namja Town, which is a food amusement park. They have a bunch of famous Gyoza restaurants from all over Japan.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cz80z.jpg)
Naruto Gyoza, promotion for the movie. People still watch Naruto Anime? -_-
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Ql1wA.jpg)
Ice cream Park on the second floor of Namja Town. They have every flavor I've ever seen in my life there. And I mean -every flavor- Squid Ink Ice Cream anyone? :3
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Yd9zK.jpg)
No Pokemons inside sadly :x Amusement/Shopping area in Odaiba, a artificial island. Quite popular place since it's one of the only places where the Ocean isn't blocked by industrial crap in Tokyo.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DeaDY.jpg)
VenusFort also from Odaiba. Venice-themed shopping mall.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CkVVE.jpg)
Got quite a lot of miyage from colleagues who went on business trips or holidays. It's basically Japanese custom to bring souvenirs back from wherever you visited.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HG2iC.jpg)
Mito's Kairakuen Garden, probably Japan's most famous garden. Sadly wasn't able to go during the Spring :x
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KKcTr.jpg)
One of the rooms from the housing of some lord in Mito during the 1700s. Each room had a different drawing on the doors~
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/FjElH.jpg)
TGS 2010 =3 Sorry if the pictures don't show much, I was surrounded by No Camera signs orz
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/f22qf.jpg)
People lining up to try Love Plus, a virtual GF simulation game = - =
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/E1QYi.jpg)
Dissidia 012
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2HCSh.jpg)
Yeah, um I actually have no clue what this was. Some Taiwanese company just had girls strip on stage continuously.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JFXdd.jpg)
Anime MMO #41952 from Gamania. Free stuff for playing it th ough.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/MXykf.jpg)
Yuffie, yay!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/N2YZ6.jpg)
Miku, double yay!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6D0Ki.jpg)
AR.Drone, basically a flying robot with a camera of sorts. Not sure why this is classified as a game though :/
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4LUrR.jpg)
Lots of game universities set up booths to display their games and such. This one was from a Video Game Arts College.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YKMYP.jpg)
Promition for a Shrine Maiden game apparently~
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5tBXu.jpg)
Leifang from BB. There was a Ragna cosplay there also, but no one wanted him to come on stage for some reason. Figures.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JNmUD.jpg)
Capcom Policy: You are welcome to take pictures of our games, but pictures of our Booth Girls aren't allowed.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/cOlQZ.jpg)
Testing for Monster Hunter Portable 3 (I think?) Incredibly popular in Japan, don't see many people playing it back in Canada though~
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/l4I8U.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/m5aUQ.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2N6rF.jpg)
Moar Cosplay!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/k3cUN.jpg)
Giant Chocobo 
Sadly, I didn't take any pictures from Akihabara, but I'll try to draw a map for you guys:
__________________________ _____________
Electronic Store |Arcade | Street | Anime Store|
______Maid___|___Maid| Street|___Maid_____|
Mostly went to Arcades in Akiba. Can't deal with playing Shooters anymore after playing Border Break Basically Lagless Japanese Mecha Halo with customization.
Also played Project Diva Arcade a lot, and touched on a lot of other Rhythm Games. Still sad I couldn't clear Disapperance of Hatsune Miku (78/80%) before I left T _ T
This seems way too long now so I'll just leave it at that :|
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2629 Posts
Awesome blog. Looks like you had a good time !
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All of that seems ridiculously fun ;_;
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Cool, thanks for the pictures. Can you speak Japanese pretty well?
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WOOOO Nara park!
When i went there, one of the deers hit me with his horn T_T
then when my sister fed them the cookies they provide they kept following her for the rest of the time we spent there haha.
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Wow awesome blog. One of my goal in life is go to Japan once, I hope I would have as much fun as you.
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Well that must have been fun! BTW you took pictures of a lot of cosplayers. just saying. Japan is an interesting place though definitely.
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That's Litchi, not Leifang damnit!
+ Show Spoiler +Lei Fang is in the DOA series.
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United States5582 Posts
Cool, thank you for showing your pictures with us! I'm going to Japan on a cultural study tour with my Japanese teacher and a handful of classmates in the summer, and I absolutely can't wait to go! Your blog just made me more pumped for what's coming soon for me. ^^ やった～
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Great pictures, I'm envious. 
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Ya that taiwanese company seems pretty legit
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Ares[Effort]
DEMACIA6550 Posts
On January 17 2011 15:34 kNyTTyM wrote:
Ya that taiwanese company seems pretty legit
haha
nice blog thanks for sharing, I hope to go to Japan in the future! and I also watch naruto anime
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Seems like you had lots of interesting experiences, thanks for sharing the pictures~ 5/5
*edit: you might want to spoiler some of the sections... take a bit of time to load / scroll
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Thanks for the pictures, this is pretty interesting.
"Yeah, um I actually have no clue what this was. Some Taiwanese company just had girls strip on stage continuously." <- I laughed a lot at this for some reason heh
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NeverGG
United Kingdom5399 Posts
I miss Japan so much lately ;_; 5/5 for an interesting reminder of why I need to go on holiday there soon.
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Awesome pictures man. They really show me that I need to travel around. Haven't been outside of Hiroshima except to visit an aquarium in Shimane for an afternoon. You've experienced a lot more of the country. I'm inspired.
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On January 17 2011 15:05 Zidane wrote:
Cool, thanks for the pictures. Can you speak Japanese pretty well?
I actually can't, and there were no lessons available where I lived (It was kind of Rural) The group I worked with all spoke English though so that was fine, but I probably would have learned more culture and work wise if I did speak it.
On January 17 2011 15:06 ProjectVirtue wrote:
WOOOO Nara park!
When i went there, one of the deers hit me with his horn T_T
then when my sister fed them the cookies they provide they kept following her for the rest of the time we spent there haha.
Haha yeah, I wanted to buy some of those deer cookies when I saw the deers, but then I saw people getting chased and headbutted xD
On January 17 2011 15:08 RyuChus wrote:
Well that must have been fun! BTW you took pictures of a lot of cosplayers. just saying. Japan is an interesting place though definitely.
The cosplay area was the only place without No Camera signs! T _ T Some of the ones I took I had to sneak them =[
On January 17 2011 15:09 O-ops wrote:That's Litchi, not Leifang damnit! + Show Spoiler +Lei Fang is in the DOA series.
Sorry! Yeah I know, not sure why I put Lei Fang, when I actually play BB and never played DoA >.>
On January 17 2011 15:48 OpticalShot wrote:
Seems like you had lots of interesting experiences, thanks for sharing the pictures~ 5/5
*edit: you might want to spoiler some of the sections... take a bit of time to load / scroll
I got a PM from TLBot about putting too many images too T _ T
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The Mito lord room looks exquisite. still in good condition too.
Were there any new IPs in the tokyo game show that caught your eye? i.e. games that werent sequels?
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nice pics! and monster hunter really is an awesome game
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Awesome pictures, especially the ones of hot girls. 5/5
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ooh, a rinoa cosplay~ i don't see those often enough
looks like you had a great time though
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Osaka27156 Posts
Glad you had a good time! Nice pictures.
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How do you call that stripping continuously dammit *wink wink*
I remember in Osaka I passed by some porn street with scary looking yakuza like people standing in front of every shop. Really intimidating. I couldn't wait to get out of there.
One woman gave me and me sister some tissues with some stuff written on it at Ginza and me and my sister looked at each other and said something. As soon as she heard the foreign language she stopped promoting and walked on hahahaha.
Also, while buying some tako balls at a stall in Osaka one woman repeated something in Japanese, while we stated our orders in English. After looking at us puzzlingly, she changed to Mandarin. It solved the problem but surprised us.
After a few months of watching a Taiwanese talk show 国光帮帮忙 I realised that many Taiwanese seem to like to travel to Japan can speak some.
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On January 17 2011 16:45 MOOG wrote:
The Mito lord room looks exquisite. still in good condition too.
Were there any new IPs in the tokyo game show that caught your eye? i.e. games that werent sequels?
Other than new hilariously cute doujin games, not really... Maybe Catherine and promotion for the new Umineko doujin fighter :x
On January 17 2011 17:33 JieXian wrote:
How do you call that stripping continuously dammit *wink wink*
I remember in Osaka I passed by some porn street with scary looking yakuza like people standing in front of every shop. Really intimidating. I couldn't wait to get out of there.
One woman gave me and me sister some tissues with some stuff written on it at Ginza and me and my sister looked at each other and said something. As soon as she heard the foreign language she stopped promoting and walked on hahahaha.
Also, while buying some tako balls at a stall in Osaka one woman repeated something in Japanese, while we stated our orders in English. After looking at us puzzlingly, she changed to Mandarin. It solved the problem but surprised us.
After a few months of watching a Taiwanese talk show 国光帮帮忙 I realised that many Taiwanese seem to like to travel to Japan can speak some.
(Slightly NSFW) Here you go /heh
I didn't go to any of the red light streets, but my impression was tourists visited them a lot? So dunno about the yakuza thing >.>
People do tend to hand out tissues everywhere, you could probably get enough for two weeks just by shopping in a famous district like Shinjuku for a few hours -_-
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Its deer everywhere btw
you dont add an S
I want to go to Japan sooooooooooooooooo bad, but dont they look down on foreigners there?
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On January 18 2011 13:30 arb wrote:
Its deer everywhere btw
you dont add an S
I want to go to Japan sooooooooooooooooo bad, but dont they look down on foreigners there?
no, not really. if you are in a place that doesn't have a lot of foreigners then you'll probably get stared at. if you're in a big city that has many (kyoto, tokyo, etc) then no one will pay you any mind really. in any case, the japanese are renowned for being nice and accomodating, and i have been shown more love here from people i just met than i ever did in canada (and canada is a friendly place in general ^^). many people are excited to practice their english, and if you know just a LITTLE bit of japanese it will take you very far
you'll be banned from many red light kind of places and hot springs generally don't allow tattoos (if you have one), but other than that it's pretty cruisin ^^
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Great blog and lots of nice pictures. Also very nice to hear you enjoyed your time here.
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Japan is such a magical place :3 I was hoping for more pictures of landscapes though.
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United States37500 Posts
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On January 17 2011 14:58 Yiruru wrote:AR.Drone, basically a flying robot with a camera of sorts. Not sure why this is classified as a game though :/
Thank you for the awesome pictures.
I just wanted to add that I have a AR.Drone and its AWESOME!
It's a quadrocopter that you control via your iPhone/iPod/iPad (or anything else that is wifi-capable, if you get a little creative). It has 2 full-color cameras (15fps frontal, iirc 30fps bottom), auto-stabilization for easy flight.
Top speed for my model is about 18 km/h, but it's HARD as hell to keep the thing stable at such speeds and greater heights. Auto-stabilization doesn't work if you get higher than 7m, but works really well for indoor flights and stuff.
I'm currently thinking about modding a small sound-processor + speakers on top of it, so that I can fly towards people at the door and have it say something like "There is currently no human available to take your request, please wait a moment."
TL;DR: IT FLIES, IT HAS A CAMERA, IT'S AWESOME! :D
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Nice, will have to try and check out some conventions while I'm out here. One of those deer in Nara headbutted my little host brother. and I was the only one who saw... and i nearly fell over laughing. Kinkauji is nice too. Think everyone who visited kansai ends up with very similar photo's. judging by my facebook and my friends.
On January 17 2011 17:33 JieXian wrote:
I remember in Osaka I passed by some porn street with scary looking yakuza like people standing in front of every shop. Really intimidating. I couldn't wait to get out of there.
you mean denden town in namba? dodgy area.. we went into one of those stores by mistake looking for halloween costumes. (In our defence it did say costumes in katakana on the sign, although the kanji was a bit difficult to read... hence missing what the store actually was)
5 floors of really inappropriate stuff... and every floor was worse than the one below. Funny day.
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ahaha i like how you got the akihabara thing =D!
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EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/vD9gS)
