Japan, the first three days

So, this is it. Finally, after all those years wanting to go, I'm finally - with my sister of course, you know how inseparable we are - in Japan.

I'll try to blog about our trip here for the next three weeks, and you see I'm already on the right track : a single post for the first two-and-a-half days. But nevermind, you'll see WHY this is. That is, if you decide to continue reading. What a way to tease you, huh ?

Fukuoka has streets. This is one of them.

Day 0 -[Travellin']-
The first "day" was of course dedicated to us getting to Japan, which sounds like a pretty good way to start off a trip to Japan. So after saying good-bye to our parents at Zaventem, in Brussels, we flew all the way to... Francfort. In that faraway german land, we discovered that yes, airport CAN be big. Or at least very big along one direction. And of course when that's the case you land at one side and need to go exactly at the farthest point of it. But without fear, we went to find Gate 49, where we would be boarding our next plane. There we felt like in the first Harry Potter, you know that bit where he has to find the 9 3/4th platform ? Well it was just like that. Gate 48 ? Check. Gate 50 ? Check. Gate 49 ? Of course not.

But we were saved by a helpful employee that saw we were puzzled and came to help us, because you know, he was, like, helpful. And that's what helpful people do, they help. Turns out we were looking for the wrong gate, of course. Door 46 was more like it. Maybe the little 6 in our head was badly fixed and fell, like in those movies where someone swings a hotel room's door and the numbers turn around, hanging by only one nail.

Then it was mostly "smooth sailing", except for little details like the on-board movies : we had to suffer through Dragon Ball Evolution (though another one, Monster vs. Aliens, was pretty funny). And the meals. The "Japanese" meals.

You know, I'm not even sure everything on that plate was even food.

I'll let you know : that was bad. As in REALLY bad. The meat was tolerable, but everything else was really not good. So far, my fears of Japanese food seemed justified. But the next day would be the real test... How did it go ? You'll have to wait for the next episode to know that. Hang in there, it's a whole title away !

Day 1 -[First Train Home]-

After a very short night, and a glorious, glorious sunrise (if you get the chance, try listening to some post-rock, or songs like "Still Alive" or "City of Blinding Lights" as you're watching the sun come up above the clouds, it's mesmerizing), we're finally coming to our destination. Japan !

Our first view of Japan. Look at this mountaintop : it's just so typical !

After landing in Narita, we had to face our first real challenge. The customs. Thing is, Pascale has a student visa, but we learned in the plane that those were incompatible with the "Japan Rail Pass", the 300-euros ticket we were to use for our two first weeks. So we were a bit stressed out. But amazingly, the custom officer agreed to let Pascale through not on her student visa, but as a regular tourist ! Awesome first contact, and everything was to continue this way. We got our seats in the shinkansen (the japanese high-speed train) reserved (nice surprise again, we thought we would have to try and get a non-reserved seat, in a packed train it often means no seat at all), and detailled instruction where to go when. Easy enough, isn't it ?

But no. We managed to miss our correspondance in Tokyo... We were penniless - or rather yenless - so we had to find some money. Easy, just go to a post office, they have international withdrawal machines that accept Maestro cards. Guess what ? It turns out it isn't the case. And with the time it took me to go look for one of those post offices near Shinagawa station and see that our cards wouldn't work, we were late. And you cannot count on Japanese trains to be late. They're NEVER EVER late, it's almost frightening when you're used to the Belgian way of handling train schedules - that is to say don't handle anything, at least trains are running.

But we took the next shinkansen, again with reserved seats - I LOVE those rail passes. Then it was time for another 6.5 hours of train, and we had a glimpse of Japan's panoramas. A funny thing is the way the cities look 'chaotic'. The buildings seem arranged in no particular order and you get as many colors as there are houses. And with the afternoon coming to an end, we arrived at Hakata Station, Fukuoka.

And then there was the heat. And its friend, humidity. We were told Japanese summers were hot, but gosh, it's incredible. Although the sun had set when we arrived, it was still somewhere near 30°C when we stepped out of the train. But inside the station, it was pretty cool. What was also pretty cool (oh my, lame pun) was the fact that despite us being near an hour late, there we met some of our Japanese friends : Ayumi and Ayu were waiting for us there, and we were so happy to see them again ! And two other joined us before we got to the exit of the station. Daiki and Misa, the two main 'organisators' of our next days were there too. It was a very very nice moment, meeting them all back after all those months.

And they even went as far as taking us to our hotel. Not having to concentrate on finding the way, we had the chance to let the atmosphere sink in. It was all we anticipated, and then some. The big advertising screens, the music, the people, the school uniforms, the vending machines, the salarymen... Sounds cliché, but seeing the real deal really was something. Waiting for us at the hotel was our second challenge. Remember how we couldn't withdraw money earlier ? Well we still had none, we were hungry, and more importantly we had a room to pay... But once again, we were pleasantly surprised when the owner told us we could pay the next morning. Really, Japanese people are nice. Though we didn't have much time to ponder about that, because we had to be taken to our first real Japanese meal. And, boy, was I anxious...

Good food, which is usually served between tasty food and succulent food.

Good first surprise: another friend, Ikue, was there! Second one : it was a really beautiful place, complete with a low table (there was a hole underneath though, so it was like sitting on a bench. And third, BIG one : I liked almost every single thing I ate. And that is saying a lot. Usually, I dislike pretty much everything that's even remotely 'refined'. But there, in that über-long-ten-thousand-courses meal, so many good things. I even loved the shashimi and the suchi (me ? RAW FOOD ? Raw fish, even ? No way !). And I wouldn't put everything on account of the psychological effect. It was extremely fresh, and just plain delicious. And copious. And funny : seeing Pascale break a sushi in two just after saying she was afraid she would, and even as she's usually the most gifted with chopsticks in the family was fun. ;) Also, even if it was into a very very beautiful restaurant, and even as we ate a whole lot of many different stuff, it was still pretty cheap, amazing ! We also received awesome gifts : Pascale got a yukata (summer kimono), and I got the man version. We were left speecheless by those presents. It was just too nice.

From left to right : Ikue, Ayumi, yours truly, Daiki, Misa

And then we though we would get to sleep. But they had other plan, namely taking us to a 'purikura', some kind of Japanese photo booth that is design to make your eyes melt and break your sanity with some kind of supposedly 'cute' music played to loud. Also it's kitsch. Wait, no, not only kitsch. JAPANESE KITSCH.

I swear I was slowly but surely becoming insane in there.

The idea behind those ugly things is that you take your friends, you cram yourselves into the photo booth, and make a bunch of photographs. Then you get the chance to edit and write stuff on the pictures, which are heavily-processed shoots trying - no kidding - to make your eyelashes look longer and stuff. Then if you're a Japanese with a cell phone (that is to say everyone) you get the pictures sent to you via infrared, and you get a printout of the pictures on adhesive paper. So even though every bit of the experience is a threat to your senses, you're left with some really nice mementos.

So after this little foray into frantic grounds, we finally got to crash into our (small, but nice) room and sleep... Pfew, what a day...

Day 2 -[Just Cruisin']-

The second day started off with us finally finding a way to get some cash (thank you credit card) and then wander around for a breakfast. We went into a Starbucks, and I assure you, they will never see me take another of their 'asparagus-salmon rolls'. We went with the day's current breakfast option, but god it was awful. Even for Pascale... After this brief bad experience, we went around looking for an adapter for our electric thingies. Because, of course we bought not one, but two before leaving, and they work great, except for the computer... So we entered a really big, BIG electronic store : Yodobashi Camera.

And it was again some kind of maddening experience. A very vicious thing is the background music. At times you can't hear it well, but it's there. And the playlist consists of only one song : the store's theme song. That is again something I've never seen before. I mean, a whole song about a store ? Played continuously ?

But we found what we needed and escaped before our minds were broken. We forgot to take some pictures though, so we'll probably need to go there again to let the world see (and yes, it's really impressive...).

We then met again with Daiki and Misa (and Mayu, it's cool, in the end we'll be seeing almost everyone !) that rented a car to take us around to... do stuff, basically. We didn't knew the program beforehand, so we let them guide us first through the countryside until we got to a waterfall. And there, fun was to be had !

Chifumi, Misa, Pascale, Mayu and Daiki and a boy and a guy having fun at the waterfall.

The fun was not only made up of striking poses in front of a camera, putting our feet in the water or debating wheter cicadas or the waterfall made the loudest sound though. It was also in eating nagashi somen. Did your mother tell you it was bad to play with your food ? Well, here it's not, and it's awesome ! Basically, nagashi somen is noodles and some sort of soup to give them some more taste. But that wouldn't be very fun, so you have to stand next to a long bamboo cut in half in which water is flowing. Then you put the noodles at the top, and they slide along until someone catches them with his or her chopsticks. It sound weird and/or silly, but believe me it's really fun. And need I say it's good too ?

Man I'd love to try that with bolognese and spagghetti. Just how messy would it get ?

We also tasted some snacks, like fish-on-a-stick, or yakitoris. All in all, this was again very good, honestly it was still surprising. After that, we went to a beach, near a little shrine and a big cliff.

Don't be fooled, the cliff was actually much taller than Pascale.

Then, because one beach isn't enough, we went to another one, and ate something that I forgot the name of, but was refreshing as hell : it's some piled ice with fruit juice. Oishiiii !!

Seems like Japanese people love to build impressive-looking stuff on beaches, but no one really knows why...

Then it was time to get back to Fukuoka, and get dressed for the evening. Because we couldn't let our new yukatas in their boxes, they planned a 'dressed-up' supper. At first we were a little wary of putting them on, but once we took the plunge it was fun. Pascale had shoes that were too small, so her feet hurt, and I thought I had forgotten my sandals, so I was wearing my ugly baskets (and no, that doesn't work well, and yes, Pascale found them sandals the very moment we got back to our room). But as we saw that we weren't looking like dumb tourists trying to 'play Japanese', it was good fun. Not to mention that yukatas are very very beautiful attires (for girls that is, the men ones are more plain).

Misa, me, Pascale, Ryo and Daiki all dressed up. And see, I told you those shoes didn't work well with the rest :D

It was another fun supper, with some more friends joining us (Keiko and Ryo, to cite them) and also a nice french friend of Keiko ! It was interesting for Pascale to get some advices for when she'll come back here. It was also another hundreds-of-plates supper, and it was again incredibly good. Especially the udon (a kind of noodles, a little like ramen). My legs weren't having much fun though, sleeping there under the low table the whole time, lazy bunch...

I must also say I was a little embarassed, because each time I had emptied something, Ryo, whom I was sitting next to, would take it and serve me something else. As an end result, I think I only filled my plate once or twice :s

And after that, guess what ? Time for purikura again. Fortunately, the booth they chose had a music that was a little less horrifying, and again we've got some pretty fun mementos.

Our merry group : (up) Pascale, Daiki looking cool, Jérome trying to make bunny ears to Mayu or something, Keiko (down) me who is leaning to the right for no particular reason, Mayu who does it more though, Misa and Ryo. Also features a pretty common elevator door.

So that was it, we're ready for what's to come (I think) : tomorrow we're going to a big (probably more huge than big though) mall, then to Dazaifu, a town near Fukuoka. Thanks for putting up with this mega-post and choosing to ride with us !

Yes, I confess, that last sentence was a lame way to introduce this picture. But I'm doing what I can :D

sleepmakeswaves - In today already walks tomorrow

Finding good music is always a pleasant experience. Finding good music for free is even more awesome. Recently, I got lucky and stumbled upon a fabulous record, "In today already walks tomorrow", by the band sleepmakeswaves, distributed on the net by the Lost Children netlabel.

Hailing from Sydney, Australia, the four guys play a very cinematic kind of post-rock, including sweeping strings and ambient electronic elements as well as very heavy guitars. And whereas many newer post-rock bands simply recycle ideas from the genre's big names (think MONO, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, ...), sleepmakeswaves manages to create something very original. With a strong emphasis on melody, the tracks never seem to drag on for too long, waiting for a climax that comes too late. Instead, with relatively short songs - the longest on the E.P. is only 8 minutes long -, the band keeps things fresh and interesting, and strike an excellent balance between pure beauty, epic sections, and heavy rhythms. That said, sleepmakeswaves never finds themselves on the aggressive side of things, even during the most intense parts of their songs.

Anyway, I don't think I can really do them justice only by speaking of their music, so I'll let you taste it for yourselves. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think of it in the comments !

sleepmakeswaves Myspace
Download the E.P. here.

A month, a game #1 : Sonic Rush

What the hell ?

Out of all the games I'm currently playing, I managed to finish that one first ? Ah well, guess it was the nostalgia factor. I was a fan of Sonic once, especially of Sonic Chaos on the Sega Master System. That said, I only managed to complete the main mode once, with Sonic, without any Chaos Emerald. And I'm not going to try and get them, it would be too hard, and the game isn't THAT good. It's fun, but nothing more. Fun and fast, to be fair.

So I won't praise it using a plethora of superlatives like I'll probably do with Persona 4 which I should complete soon. That one is going to be a much longer post...

Well then, farewell for now !

6 things.

Another post, another list of sorts. This is becoming a trend I entend to fight soon. Mainly because I tend to think too many lists can quickly become tiring to read. And there's so many MANY lists out there. Maybe I should make a list of posts about lists to show just how many there are.

...

Anyway, tangents about lists aside, I was "tagged" last month, not in the metadata and Web2.0 sense of the word, but rather as in children's games (yet it's still a little Web2.0-like). You know, like...

"Let's play tag !"
*Children running around*
"Tag, you're it!"
*More joy and laughter and running around until one of them stumbles and FALLS HEAD-FIRST ON THE AXE LYING AROUND INADVERTENTLY WITH ITS BLADE FACING UPWARDS !!!*

...

Anyway, tangents about painful children mutilation aside, I was "tagged" last month by my sister with/for a blog meme consisting of finding six things that make you happy, in no particular order. That means the following list is going to be made with bullets, not numbers. Isn't that a clever way to imply that the list is unordered ? Yeah, I know.

• Playing music live : I really don't do that enough, but grabbing a guitar and playing songs is a thrill when done on a stage, however small it may be. Especially when it's along with some other friends and sisters.
• Reading an awesome book/playing an awesome video game/watching an awesome anime/watching an awesome movie : The important word here is... No, it's not awesome. It's "story". Regardless of the medium it is told on, a good story that makes me forget the passing of time, make me laugh or cry, or provoke thought is worth knowing. It's a whole new universe for each one, and the ability to visit all those worlds is... Well, it's awesome !
  
• Walking around in an urban landscape while listening to some good music : The bigger the city, the better. Ah, the joy of walking around in a cold morning while your ears are comfortably put inside your headphones which are pouring some soothing melodies or heavy rythms into them...
  
• DC++ : No, really, I'm not kidding. I only frequent a couple of hubs, but in those I've met many people who I now consider my friends. Even though it's designed to be a file-sharing system, I only go there to chat, nowadays. I'll probably write a proper article about Direct Connect at some point in the future, it deserves it.
  
• Being who I am : Ho, ho, ho. Doesn't that sound pretentious ? Before you label me a narcissist, let me explain. I mean that in a very broad way, more than in a "I think I'm awesome" way. For example, I include "knowing the persons I know because they're great" in it. Or "my family", or more material things like "playing the guitar". Or even "my taste in music". So it sounds pretentious, but it's just very general. And of course it doesn't mean I consider myself "perfect" in any way. There's so much I have to work on >_>
  
• Having a nicely organised music library : Even though this list is supposed to be an unordered one, I chose to put this last. Because I figured that if I was to leave you with a quite bad impression, the best way was to sound pathetic right at the end. So there you go, I love having a perfectly-tagged, consistent, well-sorted music library on my computer. My life is SO full of exciting things...

So, that's it. Now, I won't go and tag other people, partly because these blog memes feels a little too much like many chains of mails I receive and am not fond of, and partly because I don't think I follow enough blogs I could consider tagging. So this ends here !

Here comes the obligatory...

2009 challenges !

Have you noticed ? Nowadays, you don't say you've got New Year's resolves anymore. The term seems to less used, and is quietly replaced by a more down-to-earth trend : the challenge ! I don't know why that is, but I don't want to fall behind, and so to start this new year with a bang, I've decided to hop on the challenge bandwagon and set a few goals for myself this year.

Some of them will hopefully be quite easy to accomplish, some will require some hard work, but I guess it should be possible in a year. Not to mention not all items are unrelated, so that makes the whole meta-challenge a tad bit easier, if you will.

So here are my 6 challenges for the new year (yeah, 6, because it's 2009, and 9 is 3², and in turn, when you take 3 and 2 and take their product, you get... 6 ! It's really not because I didn't find 9 different goals, I swear !) :

1 - A month, a book

Logically enough, I'll try to read a book each month. I love to read, but unfortunately my pace slowed to a crawl last year, so that'll help me pick up a book and read regularly. The whole idea being to really read a book each month, not read two in one and none in the next.

2 - A month, a game

Unlogically enough, this is about playing twelve games over the year, but not necessarily one each month. Why name it exactly like the previous challenge if it's different ? Because I can, I guess.

3 - A year, 12 animes

No. Don't even try. I will not be bound by mere logic. But you guessed it, the big idea is to watch at least twelve animes, be it series or movies, to have something to say when the next Christmas season comes...

4 - The road to 15.000

If there's one thing I'm borderly obcessive compulsive disorder about, it's the tagging of the files of my music library. I won't go into much details here, but believe me, it's ugly. Thus, I have yet to go through a huge number of files (33.530 as I'm writing this, to be precise), and I want that to change. Thus, I'll try to shrink that number down to 15.000. That's still 1544 files per month, or 51 files per day, more or less. Doesn't seem like it, but it'll probably be one of the hardest challenge...

5 - Exploiting my other challenges (a.k.a. "Update your blog, slacker !")

I started to post here in June, then stopped until December. That's not good. So as we're in 2009, I've decided to try and update this humble blog 9 times each month ! Hopefully, I'll have at least a post about a book I've read, one about an anime I watched and another about a game I played, hence the name of the challenge. It'll require a little dedication, but I feel I can make it !

6 - The Aprentice Game Maker

One day, I hope I'll be able to work as a game designer. That being said, I've yet to prove myself I've really got what it takes. And thus, the biggest goal of this year will be for me to make an original game from scratch (okay, maybe using some third parties librairies, but still). This one is going to be hard, but I really want to get it done. So hopefully blogging about my progress regularly (hey, another clever way to make some "free" posts) will help me see this through.

So there, now I only need to make it happen ! It's with a strong resolve that I enter this new year, and once again I wish everyone a happy new year, and good luck with your own goals !

2008 in anime - #1: extreme fear

And so, this is it. As the year comes to an end, we've reached the top of this list. The icing on the cake, if you will. What made me happy to be an anime-loving person - I wouldn't qualify to a full-fledged otaku - and made all these episodes feel they were worth the time spent watching them. And that would be ef.
Before I go on, I guess I need to warn you : the two seasons of ef (a tale of memories and a tale of melodies) still have a firm grasp on my mind as I'm writing this. I guess I'll need a little time to completely free myself of their emotional aftershock. So this is probably going to sound a little fanboy-ish, but who cares ?

That being out of the way, which is the particular moment of the series I want to remember ? Honestly, I changed my mind a dozen of times before settling for something that's probably not very original : Miyako Miyamura's breakdown, in episode 7 of ef - a tale of memories.

If you've seen it, you probably know exactly which scene I'm talking about, and if not, I won't spoil it too much, but know that one of the female protagonist experience a really sudden and horrible nervous breakdown, and that it's depicted in a way that does nothing to soften the blow.
I don't even know if this is really the best scene of the show, but it's at least the first real big shock ef will throw at you. Admittedly, the situation itself is not the worst in an anime to date, but the text piling up and covering the screen, the increasingly distressed voice of Miyako, and the way you mostly don't see it coming make it unforgettable.

In the end, it's a prime example of how SHAFT (the studio behind ef) manages to turn a somewhat standard visual novel adaptation into something much, much more than that. Well, wait a minute, that's not totally fair, as the visual novel itself is already praised as particularly heavy on artsy stuff, so in a way SHAFT is only following the lead. But anyway, they're awesome at making it work.

But was that scene alone what made me choose ef as my favorite anime of the year ? Certainly not! The two seasons of ef have managed to make me feel things with more intensity that I could've possible have imagined a couple of year before now. It wasn't as powerful as when I saw 5 centimeter per second, and maybe not even as shocking as the end of Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ because the overall tone of the anime prepares you better for dramatic events, but it was gripping nonetheless.

As I said, the premise of ef sound particularly mundane : it's a story about people falling in love. Me ? Watching that kind of things ? I know, I know, my comments on Sora and Gouta in the previous post make this claim dubious, but honestly I used to hate stories focusing on love affairs. And ef probably wouldn't have gained the attention I gave it without the already mentioned art direction. That and its music, composed by the very, very, very talented TENMON (who, coincidentally, also did the soundtrack to every Makoto Shinkai movie, especially 5 centimeter per second). Both sound and image are used to convey points in a great variety of ways, and much more effectively than dialog alone could have achieved.

And there is a lot of meaning contained in those 24 episodes. I'll definitely have to rewatch the whole thing, because I surely missed many subtle thing, seeing how taken I was by the story itself. You can't stay all cool and analytical when you're in the emotional state ef put me in...

I'll tell you, I'm really glad to have experienced ef, and some of its characters have earned a special spot in my memories. Writing this post reinforced my wish to rewatch those two tales in the not-so-distant future. I'll probably take the time to blog about it then, in an episode-by-episode fashion, to help me better express what ef now means to me, and thus will stop praising it too much here. I guess giving it this first spot is already a good indication of how I liked it.

This concludes this mini-series of posts, and the year. I wish everyone a very happy new year, and 365 days filled with brand new memories.

2008 in anime - #2: Jaws dropping under a summer sky

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~... The perfect summer anime. The best one to air this summer, all genres included, at least according to yours truly. What could more fitting than a slice-of-life-with-a-touch-of-magic show depicting the life of a young girl, Suzuki Sora, going from Hokkaido to Tokyo to learn magic for a month ? Especially with such gorgeous visuals ? Between the most photorealistic backgrounds you'll see in a while and characters with that distinct "Beck" flavor to them, the life of Sora is a real feast for your eyes. Add to that a beautiful soundtrack composed of celtic-inspired melodies and acoustic songs sung by a girl near a train station which Sora passes by everyday, and you've got something exceptionally pleasing for the senses.
And if that wasn't good enough, the story and characters themselves are very muck likeable, each one in their own way. From the innocent Sora, to the grumpy Gouta, and including their classmates, and even their teachers, you're bound to find at least some of them attaching. Thus, even though most of the series is slow-paced, it never feels boring. There's a plenty of things that make you want to come back to Shimokitazawa (the Tokyo neighborhood Sora is living in) to see how events unfold : what will Sora's next client be like ? Will Gouta be able to use magic properly ? And, as becomes evident pretty soon : when are Sora and Gouta going to go out together ?
I'll have to admit, they make one of the, if not the, cutest couple I've ever seen in an anime. And the way their relationship evolves feels completely natural, including the way they "confess", without really saying much. I couldn't help but to go "awww" when they held hands together the first time. For once, this is a show where there's no love triangle, no one ends up in tears because they were left out. Natsu no Sora is like condensed happiness for everybody involved, including the viewer.

That is, until episode 10.
In one of the most dramatic plot twisting I know of, your whole perspective of the show changes. I won't spoil it here, but let it be known that this will have almost anyone feel a huge emotional shock. It's at the same time both brilliant and cruel. It does turn a fairly inconsequential slice-of-life anime to something with a much greater impact, but you can't help but to feel that it is incredibly unfair. You half-expect something like Sora having to separate from Gouta, her first love, at the end of summer, and you're prepared to feel pretty sorry for both of them, but you aren't prepared for what's happening.

If Natsu no Sora was a TV drama, the "shocking truth" would have been revealed right at the start, and the overall tone of the show would have been greatly modified. But here, because of all the happy moments you've shared with Sora, you feel robbed of something. Or rather, you feel that she's the one being robbed of the happiness that should have been hers. The last episode even goes as far as having Gouta and Sora's mother meeting, but without knowing who the other is. It's the last coincidence that makes you wish things would have turned differently.

But in a way only japanese anime do, you're left with a strange mix of emotions at the end of the twelfth episode. You want to cry, to smile, to scream it's unfair, to be happy for how Sora's summer went, in the end. So you go through a little bit of everything, and it's a feeling like no other. And that's why the jaw-dropping revelations of Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~ episode 10 get this second spot in my list of 2008's anime moments.