Tokyo Game Show

This story starts with one of my parent lessons on Friday. I asked my student what she was doing this weekend. She replied that she was going to a video game convention. I had to keep my poker face and not completely geek out at her. "Oh, really?", I coolly replied, "Where is this convention at?" I hoped I could get some details out of her. She told me in Chiba. I lit up on the inside. Only two hours away from here! I explained that I'm also a video game fan and would love to hear more about it. We ended up talking about video games for 20 mins. Parent lessons ftw!
Anyway, my first response was to quickly post my excitement on facebook. I instantly got a reply from a friend close by that he wanted to come as well. We made some plans and I now had a con buddy :)
I started the day off early, catching a 6:23 AM train. We made our way to Chiba on a crowded two hour train ride. Luckily, Japanese conventions are much more organized than their American counter parts so we got into the convention floor at 10:15 only 15 mins after it opened which was impressive considering we were in a line that wrapped around the building. When we entered, we were greeted by the booths of many a great video game companies.

Here we are!!

Konami booth

Bandai/Namco booth where we stopped to see a game announcement

Sega booth

Square Enix Booth

X-box Japan

Birds eye view of the floor

It was an amazing experience! I got to see a whole bunch of games that are about to come out including: the new Halo, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter X Tekken, Naruto, One Piece, and Dragon Ball games that are coming out, Battlefield 3, Project Diva, Sonic Generations, and many more. I also got to see and play with the new Playstation Vita!
It was more exciting to be able to play the games! I played Soul Caliber V, Mass Effect 3, Dance Central 2, Michael Jackson Experience, and (the highlight of the day) Ni No Kuni the new Studio Ghibli game which was incredible. It was stunningly beautiful. One of the things that got me was how wonderful the music was. It really completed the game and I look forward to buying once an English version is released!

A small picture of the game. Shhh...I wasn't supposed to take a picture :p

Another highlight was seeing a vocaloid performance. For those of you who don't know, these are Japanese pop stars that are not real. The girls "sing" using a computer program and "perform" using holograms. It was quite the incredible experience to see one.

The picture does it no justice, sorry.

Next time, I'll fill you in on my experience with cosplayers at the convention.

Celebrating my birthday!

Last week was my 24th birthday. I was very excited and nervous to be spending it in Japan. I was excited because I'm in Japan! I thought I had some fun potential! Although, I was very nervous since I really don't know anyone here. I started the day off very well! I got a call in the morning from my boyfriend who showed me my presents over Skype! Then, I had to go to work. I had a FULL schedule! I literally was supposed to work from 1-8 straight. That's 7 50-55 min lessons in a row. Luckily, one of my students canceled right in the middle so I got a break. Happy birthday to me! I got myself a great lunch of sushi and finished off my day. Cleaning went by very quickly and I had the rest of the evening to myself. I couldn't really go out because I had work the next day. The first thing I really wanted was just some American food so I treated myself to McDonalds. Then, I went to an arcade, where the real fun started. Japanese arcades are amazing! They have everything. The most popular machines are UFO catchers, purikura, and rhythm games. I, however, had a mission. I came to play the Gundam POD game. The Gundam PODs are mobile suit simulators. You hop into a giant pod that a full projection system with all of the same controls as a mobile suit. You have two levers to steer and fire and two pedals to jump and boost forward. Here's a shot of the inside:

Amazingly sweet!

A screen shot as you push into battle

The pods from the outside

 I was really geeking out! Check out the video I took: (be warned, the following clip contains Heather being a fangirl which includes odd noises at times)

After playing the game a couple of times and using the rest of my money on rhythm games, I went home satisfied at my low key but fun birthday.

The real fun came a few days later on Saturday. My co-workers (and friends) took me out to dinner for my birthday. They asked what I wanted and I knew immediately: Pizza! We went to a nice Italian restaurant and got a couple of pizza and pasta dishes and ate our fill. We also had a nomihodai which means all you can drink. They had the restaurant staff surprise me with dessert and they surprised me with a gift!

My dessert had a sparkler on it!

Their gift to me was a yukata (summer kimono!)

I was so excited and floored that they gave me a kimono. This is one of the best birthday presents I think I may have ever gotten. It was a fantastic way to end my birthday abroad!