The Fryhole

We took the Shinkansen from Himeji to Hiroshima, found a hotel, stashed our bags, and took the tram to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. The first thing you see as you step off the tram is the Atomic Bomb Dome, which is the remains of a building that was about 600 m directly below the bomb on August 6, 1945.

It’s a very chilling reminder of the level of destruction that people are capable of, and set the tone for the rest of the day. We went to the museum, which had been remodelled and expanded since I had been there in 1993. So there was even more charred and melted artifacts on display, and more education about atomic weapons.

The mayor of Hiroshima (and all the people too, I’m guessing) is a strong opponent of nuclear weapons, and there are copies of all the letters that have been written though the years to various governments, protesting nuclear tests. Sadly, a new one had been added only days before to Kim Jong Ill.

The park also has a monument to peace and a perpetual flame that will only be extinguished once all atomic weapons are dismantled. Obviously, it’s still burning.

We really didn’t take that many pictures, as seeing it once is horrifying enough. As you can imagine, it was a rather subdued evening.

After leaving Osaka, our next target was Himeji, to see Himeji castle. It was much better than Osaka castle, in my not-so-humble opinion.

… and when you get to a new castle, what’s the first thing that you do? Play with the fish in the moat, of course!

Seriously. Just start tossing breadcrumbs or something else edible into the water and watch them all appear! Eventually we got enough clustered around that when you tossed a new crumb in, the water would all roil around and fish would actually be forced up out of the water by the crowd as they all fought over it. When we stopped to look around we actually had a number of Japanese people watching as well; so we gave some crumbs to a small child standing nearby and laughed about the fish with the older man to our left.

Of course, this always give birth to the best plan ever, wherein Andrew wanted to get a whole bunch of crackers and slowly make our way around the moat, gathering up all the fish with the promise of food; until we would meet on the opposite side of the castle and have all the fish in the moat there. That would have been crazy, roiling, fish-angry water.

Someday maybe we’ll do it.
The castle itself was quite imposing, viewed from the outside.

… and for a measure of scale, check out this picture of us with the castle.

When we got inside the castle, we were pleasantly surprised. It has not yet been re-built into a modern, office-building-like interior, and remains somewhat antique-looking…

… complete with old-style muskets on weapon racks.

The castle was very interesting, particularly in view of the secret rooms that were all over the place that served the purpose of allowing warriors to spring forth from the walls at strange places and attack invaders. Hidden warrior-cubby-hole sort of things… I want to add some to my house; you never know when they might come in handy.

After the castle itself, we toured the gardens (which are quite nearby, just a few minutes’ walk).

… and then we ran off to catch our train to Hiroshima.

So Andrew and I have been investigating japanese game centres… otherwise known as arcades (in North America).  They’ve got the standard games, of course (Tekken, Soul Calibur, Foosball, House of the Dead, etc.); and they also have a stunning number of the “crane” games where you:

1. Guide the grabby-claw with a joystick.
2. Press the button to grab the item under the claw.
3. Hope that the claw picks up the item and if it does:
4. Hope that you can safely maneuver the claw to the proper drop point for the item, and if you can:
5. Profit!!!

The first weird thing that we saw is that they seem to have a lot more feminine-oriented arcade games.  I’m not sure what happens in them.  They look sort of like photo booths, but they have curtains all around them; and I haven’t dared to even approach one (nor has Andrew).  So, some girl somewhere go check them out and let us know what they are about.  You’ll be sure to recognize them; as they are pink.  With many flowers.  Ponies are often involved as well.

What really grabbed our attention are the games that are “more” than any that we see in North America (typically), though.

The first of relevance is a mech-combat game that looks insanely in-depth.  Each player has their own P.O.D., which is a totally-enclosed chamber that the player sits in (presumably with screens on all sides and amble controls) from which they control their mech.  Normally there are groups of about 4 of these.  What I assume happens is that a group/guild forms a team of 4, which then all go to this location and each of them climb into a P.O.D., so that they each control one of the 4 mechs.  Then they join up with their opponents across the network (a red-vs-blue sort of idea) and duke it out; their team of mechs against their opponents.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the P.O.D.’s were voice-linked as well (remember, they are enclosed — when a player is inside you cannot see any of what they are doing or hear anything from within), to aid in the team-play.  Outside of the P.O.D.’s, spectators can view what is going on by way of a large screen that displays the map that the mechs are combatting on (each mech represented by either a blue or a red dot and that mech’s name) and intelligently “zooms in” to view action as it occurs (i.e. on firefights).  It looks very cool.  Andrew and I haven’t tried it; as it would take a far better understanding of the Japanese language than I have (and quite possibly more players than just us two); but it looks great.

The second relevant thing is that many arcade games over here let you actually save your progress on a card.  The first time that you start the game; it prompts if you want to use a card.  If you have one; you just insert it and pickup from where you left off.  If you don’t, then the machine will make you one for a small fee; or you can choose to continue with no card at all (in which case your progress will not be saved).  Seriously, these cards are everywhere — shooting games, racing games, etc.

The third, and by far the most exciting of the things that we have seen, also has to do with cards.  Specifically, it appears to be a strange combination of CCG and arcade game.  So far we have seen football, soccer, mech-combat (gundam), warlord-combat (samurai, as in Dynasty Warriors), and role-playing (as in D&D or other similar RPGs) implementations of it.  The basic premise is that each player has a station where they sit down and produce a deck of cards (their personal deck of cards).  In front of them is a black matte surface that looks sort of like a mousepad and is roughly 2 feet by 2 feet.  In front of that is a screen, and there are various accoutrements/slots/buttons on the side.

The player picks out the cards that they want to use from their deck and place them on the black matte surface in front of them, insert their coins, and the game initializes.  Using the warlords game for an example, the screen shows a scenario (i.e. besieging a castle), with either a computer (or, I expect, an opposing player) playing one side and the seated player playing the other.  The player’s units on the screen take up positions matching the cards on the play surface.  I don’t know what they use; but there is some manner of instantaneous detection of what card is where, and what each card represents; and it is instantly portrayed into the game on the screen.  So the player arranges their cards on the surface, and the screen shows their starting formation; and then the player OKs it and the game starts.

Basically what it boils down to is a tactical combat, where players move the cards on the surface, which relays to movement on the screen, and then all the units attack each other and finally (eventually) a single victor arises.  Special attacks can be carried out by using the buttons to the side; and I suspect (though I am not sure) that the formation and relative locations of the units may play a role in what special attacks can be launched when.  It also appears that the winner of the game receives their loot as booster packs of cards, which can be used to supplement their deck; and I think they also have a personal card that keeps track of their experience, progression, etc.

In some cases, the game goes even further — in the gundam one, not only are there individual stations, but there is a huge screen/combat map in front of all of them that displays the current state of the world between the two sides (players need to choose one of two sides to play on) with markings for contested areas and combat zones; and the players work at fighting the other side to try and win the entire map for their side.  Judging from the number of individual combats visible on a single combat map; I would guess that the game is completely networked; as well, so that the game centres all play in the same (dare I say it?) consistent world.

To be blunt, it is phenomenal.  I’d never seen anything like it, and all I really want to do is to try and play it — but the language barrier and the threat of spending too many hours and too much money are stopping me from doing so.  Andrew’s the same way (particularly with the mech/gundam version).  If these games ever come to North America, I think we’ll be in trouble.  All that is saving us right now is the fact that we don’t really know how to play; and that we are leaving the country in a few days. 

I did purchase a starter pack of the warlord CCG/arcade game, though — more as a souvenir than as an actual attempt to play.

Anyways, I’ll leave that there — very cool game centers over here. 

On our second day in Osaka, we got up and did Osaka castle right off the start. From the outside, it definitely looks very nice…

… and here we are, about to enter into the castle proper.

… and some of us pretended to be tall once we got to the top of the castle.

Honestly, though, I think that Osaka castle was a little disappointing. It was very office-building-esque on the inside (hence no pictures). The entire inside of it had been renovated into a six- or seven-story museum; all with very nice hardwood floors, etc., but it has lost pretty much any pretense at authenticity.

Which is not necessarily to say that it was not interesting, however — the entire museum was basically dedicated to explaining the life and times of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, which is quite the story in and of itself (see the link for Wikipedia’s information on him). Quite interesting stuff, but it would have appeared more “natural” without the elevators, fine hardwood flooring, etc.

After we finished going through the museum inside, we headed off to eat dinner at a little okonomiyaki restaurant that we found on one of Osaka’s side-streets (although Angela is the only one that actually had okonomiyaki [sort of like an omelette], the rest of us had yakisoba [fried noodles]).

… and then the group split up. Andrew and I went in search of arcade goodness; and everybody else went in search of a rice museum, with basically no success (the exhibit was not where it was supposed to be).

After we met up again for supper (which we had at a not-very-good curry house), we decided to spend our last night in Osaka out on the town… so we went and got tickets to the movie The Devil Wears Prada. Having a bunch of time to burn before the movie started, we found quite a cool place to hang out — there was an arcade on the first and second floors, and an Australian restaurant/bar on the third floor. So Dad, Andrew, and I played at the arcade (taking the odd break for drinks in the restaurant/bar); and Mom and Angela got quietly tanked on wine. Everyone wins!
The movie itself was a curious experience because I don’t think many other people in the audience found it very funny. Ah well, you get used to laughing alone.

Our first day in Osaka we went off to Universal City, which is actually close to the same as Universal Studio, but of course it is in Osaka.  :)  It’s quite the place — has it’s own subway stop and everything (here’s a hint: get off the subway at the Universal City stop).  We spent the day going on rides; and unfortunately don’t have many pictures to show for it… some of the hilights were the Spiderman ride and the Jurassic Park ride.  The other rides were good but didn’t touch those two — and the little “movies” (15-minute action and comedy clips) that we went to were all in Japanese, so a little tough to follow (although the really high-action ones like Shrek really don’t need the conversation to be funny).

My personal favourite was the Jurassic Park ride, no question.  It’s basically a waste of time except for one huge drop at the end, but that drop makes it all worthwhile.  You even get wet… except for some of us that were wearing waterproof pants.

I don’t think Andrew will ever forgive me.

Angela liked the Spiderman ride most, I think, and it was pretty good — basically a 3-D romp around where you have to help Spiderman fight all his worst enemies.  It’s fun, but to be honest there were two problems.  The first being that if your legs aren’t stubby, they hit the car that you are riding in quite sharply when the car makes sudden stops/turns, etc. (leaving you with bruised legs); and the second being that the 3-D’ness gave me headaches.  I don’t normally get it from 3-D glasses/etc., but I think this ride was a special case…

Anyway, after Jurassic Park, we had to have… meat!  Yum…

… and then we messed around in the gift shop a bit.

He’s be-a-utiful, ain’t he? After the Jaws ride we found a similar cap (the Jaws ride was not spectacular, which is why I didn’t really mention it…).

If I would have been thinking we would have bought both and then fought to the death.  Alas.  Maybe next time…

Because we apparently didn’t get enough castles, temples or shrines over the previous two days in Kyoto - we headed off to Nara.

Nara is famous for a couple of things, including the deer.

They’re little (about waist high), they’re everywhere, and they want food. There’s many, many street vendors selling deer biscuits, and kids on their school trips spend most of their excursion time leading the deer around with the biscuits. The deer also make this very strange… noise. I don’t really know how to describe it (grunting? wailing?), but Yukari (former student that we visited in Nagoya) does a very good impression of it.

Nara is also famous for Tōdai-ji, a large temple which houses an equally large Buddha.

Nara is much like Kyoto, in that there are shrines and temples everywhere, but it also has some very nice gardens that Mom insisted we go to. To be honest, they were really beautiful - even though we were right in the middle of the city, the gardens were landscaped so that you couldn’t see the surrounding buildings, but instead only saw the mountains circling Nara.

Unfortunately for Dad, Mom has decided she really likes the Japanese ponds, especially the stone bridges.

But I think it’s mostly the attention to detail that appeals to Mom - like how they cover up the water pipes and filters.

Of course, following the gardens, there were still more temples to see, including Sangatsu-do and Nigatsu-do. Since Nara is surrounded by mountains, there were lots of stairs to be had (notice Remi and Andrew trudging up them - I’m not entirely sure what Dad is doing).

And, since it is a shrine - you have to wash your hands. But only if you’re not Pac-Man.

We were quite tired on our way back to Kyoto for the night (Nara is quite close, so we just did a day-trip), so I failed to notice this sign.

Fortunately, Remi and Andrew did notice it, so Dad was the only one who got on the pink women-only car. Oops!

For dinner, we went to our favourite style of restaurant - the Japanese pub! This particular izakaya served even more types of meat-on-a-stick than usual, so of course Remi had to order the sparrow. Yep, there are two sparrows on that stick.

Of course, I managed to get the skull. Ugh - I don’t reccommend sparrow skull.

However, I do reccommend lots and lots of chu hai to wash it down!

And, you can’t go wrong with individually wrapped sausages.

Hot dogs from a vending machine (in the train station) aren’t that horrible either.

My impressions so far have been wonderful - Angela has been a patient and accomodating tour guide. The fact that I never have a clue which train we are taking or what track it might be on, what the food is or how to order it, which bathroom or even how to use, how to use the computer as I don’t type well in Kanji… Actually her job seems to be more like babysitting!

Japan is a beautiful country - right from the warm wash cloths when you enter a restaurant to the white gloves of the bus drivers; it is a unique experience. Favourites so far have been the hiking we did in Hokkaido (mostly cable cars up with tickets Angela or Remi purchase and then “Well Ma you can stay up her if you want but we are hiking down!”). Spending time with friends here has been wonderful as they open their homes and share their favourite experiences. Of course Angela bribed Nanoka so she liked her more!

The food is also amazing, the group consensus is that the crab from our feast with Yukari has been the best so far, but I really liked the mackerel and how it was prepared. The attention to the beauty of presentation even in fast food ramen shops is truly amazing.My favorite drink is ume-shu wine with Okasan, and cassis soda with Angela, bieru with Neil, sake with Remi and Otosan and lime sours with Andrew. (It’s great to have so many friends and family!)

Every day has a new and interesting twist, today during the short walk from one temple to another we glimpsed a geisha, heard drumming, and saw Creap (a coffee creamer apparently). Tonight we will sleep on our tatami mats with our bean bag hard pillows and dream of rice fields and onsen (hot springs).

Dad has been very interested in the architecture of Japanese buildings, so here’s some of his comments: 

Today we saw some temples and gardens in Kyoto originally built over a thousand years ago. It was really interesting to see how they had strategies to help buildings resist earthquakes back then. They used alternating layers of sand and clay to lessen the vibrations of the earthquake. Timbers in the frame of the building could pivot a bit also, wall panels were built to “give” and they avoided drywall.

The timbers of the Sanjusangen-do Temple were from Cyprus trees. The roof deck was made of 3-inch solid material covered with 2 layers of 1 and 1/2 inch material, so in total the roof deck was about 6 inches of solid wood. Thatch or clay tile (depending on the style) was put over that to keep the rain out. One very solid roof!

“Irimoya” means a hip and gable roof.

“Honkawarabuki” means a clay tile roof.

We’ve spent the last couple of days in Kyoto. Kyoto used to be the capital of Japan, and it’s always been a cultural and religious centre. In addition to this, it’s one of the few places that wasn’t bombed to pieces in WWII, so it seems like every time you turn around there’s another temple or shrine or World Heritage site of some sort. It’s absolutely impossible to see everything in 2 days (I have no idea how long it would actually take, but definitely quite a while), so we just went to a few of the most famous ones.

Yesterday, we went to Nijō Castle (famous for it’s nightengale floors - a ninja deterrent), Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavillion; yes, that’s real gold), and Ryōan-ji (has a beautiful rock garden).

Ryōan-ji also has a very Zen Andrew.

Today, we went to Ginkaku-ji (the Silver Pavillion - no silver though, as the shōgun who was building it died before he could finance it; it does have really lovely gardens around it though, including a stylized rock garden version of Mt. Fuji), Kiyomizu-dera (a famous landmark in Kyoto, as it is perched on a mountain-side and has a large veranda overlooking Kyoto), and Sanjuusangen-dō (a very long temple, with 33 bays filled with 1001 statues of the 1000-armed Kannons).

Sanjuusangen-dō is also famous for its archery competition, Tōshi-ya. It still has them (every January), although it’s not quite as rigourous as it used to be. Previously, one of the competitions was to see who could shoot the most arrows in a 24-hour period. They had to shoot the arrows from one end of the western veranda to the other. The record was set by a 17-year old in 1686 - over 13,000 arrows shot, with more than 8,000 hitting the target. The shredded beam is on display in the museum.

So, we’re here in an internet cafe (in Kyoto) for the second time, writing up posts, uploading photos and cleaning things up so that we can continue on with all of our fun times (Kyoto again tomorrow and then Nara the day after that). I thought I should post some of this stuff before I forgot about it though, so here we go.

In preparation for this trip, I took a few steps. First I allocated a Gallery2 area in http://gallery.fryhole.org/ which is dedicated to the photos for the trip, and I figured out where I was planning to log/blog it (obviously, http://www.fryhole.org). Then I got ahold of a USB mini-drive (4GB), and installed GalleryRemote to it (along with a fairly annoying-to-write batch file to execute GalleryRemote, as it isn’t good about being installed in a “roaming” way), along with a port knocking suite, puTTY, WinSCP, and other essentials. Finally, I went out and got a 15-in-1 USB mediaGear card reader, to get files off of CF/SD/whatever cards and onto the computer in the first place. It all worked flawlessly at home, and then it (of course) all got bolloxed up when we got to Japan; and all my carefully-laid plans were ruined.

The main problem is that the USB mini-drive that I had setup for all of the fancy scripts/applications/etc. that were going to make it oh-so-easy to connect to this server from anywhere doesn’t work on any of the systems over here. It should simply show up as a USB mass-storage device, but it doesn’t. Hasn’t worked once.Ever.  I don’t know if we jostled it wrong and broke it on the way over; or maybe it just doesn’t work on computers running in the Japanese region for some arcane reason.

What I do know is that it made things a royal pain, although hopefully that is at an end now, as I have (just now) managed to rebuild some of it on a recently-purchased SD card (which is readable through the mediaGear card reader). Which brings us to my list of tips:

1. Limit points of failure - There is no reason for a USB thumbdrive/mini-drive if you are bringing a card reader. Use a card that the card-reader can read. Then you only ever need to have a single thing that works on the foreign systems (the card reader), and you should be fine.  If it doesn’t work, buy one that does on-site at your travel location (which should work great for things like card readers).
2. Publically accessible backup for convenience and recovery - Rebuilding my convenience scripts on the SD card would have been child’s play if I had compressed a copy of what was on the USB minidrive and put it somewhere publically accessible. I could’ve downloaded it, decompressed it onto the card; and been completely done. Now, I’ve munged up a quick-and-dirty workable solution; but it isn’t as clean or elegant as the copy that I originally had setup. And it took quite a long time (comparatively). Clearly, be careful with this if you are including SSH keys or passwords in it. This will also be useful if you do have a card and it gets destroyed (get a new card, uncompress to it, and you are done).
3. Simplify Passwords - Extended characters can be extremely hard to get out of keyboards in foreign countries. Simplifying characters to letters/numbers can help you type them immensely. This is less secure from one perspective; but think about what happens if a computer in a internet cafe has a key monitor running? Change your passwords back to your normal ones when you get back; and you’ve made it easier on yourself and protected against others having found out your password (albeit with slightly weaker passwords during the interim).
4. Use Throwaways - Use throw-away keys and port-knock sequences. Allocate them, use them while on your trip, and then disable/change/expire them when you get back. This also protects against losing a thumbdrive or other storage medium that contains them.

That’s all I have right now; I might update later if I think of other things. I want the list for the next time that I need to do this.