I don't know where to begin
Aug. 26th, 2007 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unforthWell, it's been a really busy few weeks, and so I've been putting off posting anything substantial in LJ because of the time it would take and the difficulty of collecting my thoughts into some sort of coherent form, but, well, it's not going to get easier with time so I might as well go for it. :)
This year's Gencon was one of the better ones I've had, I'd say. I had a great time wandering around the dealer's room, as usual, despite a relative dearth of free swag to gather. I was pleased to find that, after several years of steady business to certain artists, some of them are starting to remember my face - an impressive feat, really, given how many people I'm sure they see throughout the year at different events. I found some great art, and all of it has come with me to Japan, though only a little of it is hanging so far - I found out I couldn't hang anything with hooks, adhesives, or pretty much anything that might damage the walls in any way. Amazingly luckily, there's a sort of ridge on my walls from which I can hang hooks without doing any damage, so I've got a few things up and will be able to hang more once I won't be risking damage to my beautiful, beautiful originals (ie once I buy frames. :) )
I got to spend a lot of time with my friends, which was of course the point, really. I got to game a little bit too, a one shot run by Kreiner which very satisfactorily met my desire to play in a tabletop game that reminded me of the games I used to play in Binghamton, and an even more satisfactory ADGNEPSEF 555 Larp. I'll admit, I was a bit concerned going in to the ADGNEPSEF Larp that it wouldn't quit work, but in truth I had a great time. Despite my own efforts to sabotage myself, I totally powned that game - there is no better way to say it. Everything I tried worked out fairly well, and in the end I managed to bring about things that might even have a meta effect, if only in the short term.
*Warning: geeking out game story about to begin*
So I was playing Cyd, the 13 year old 6th grader cyberpunk who hates school and always tries to ditch, only to get caught and half-blown up by Truant Officer Dread. Early in the game, though, I managed to make an exchange with TO Dread. I had something he really needed, and I gave it to him in exchange for two free truancies a week. Later, then, school Superintendent Taft came and threatened to shut the school down unless all the students could demonstrate their talents in, of course, a talent show. The problem with school being shut down is that we'd still be SUPPOSED to be in school, so Truant Officer Dread would still come and bust us. Now, in Cyd's/my mind, if school hasn't actually met, it should work out that at the expense of one of those free truancies, Cyd would be scott free. Using that logic, I sabotaged the talent show so that the school would get shut down, and somehow I got away with this and it actually worked. What the heck were the heroes DOING when they should have been keeping an eye on me?? Seriously!! I felt a little bad, but my fun didn't seem to ruin it for anyone else, so it all worked out. And I got to be pleased because I have never powned a game as much as I powned that one. :) :)
*geeking out over*
Anyway, it was a very nice con, and when all was said and down I had a really good time.
After the con, a bunch of folks came out to join me for dinner, and the company more than made up for the relatively low quality of the Ram food post-con. Then, I headed back to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
moonartemis76's, and a few of us hung out and talked and watched Mulan Rogue, before sapphohestia and I headed out to the airport at 4:30 AM. I dozed for about half an hour during the car ride, because I just couldn't keep my eyes open, and we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I ended up falling asleep on the plane to Atlanta, though, which was not good, and got about an hour then, which meant that I didn't really fall asleep the entire rest of the flight, sigh. (in the end, I was up for 48 or 49 hours with about 2 hours of sleep.) The flight was 12 1/2 hours, and it arrived in Tokyo at noon on Tuesday the 21st. I took until about 5 to get my keys, sign my lease, get to my apartment, and carry the luggage upstairs (my stairs are evil). I kind of wanted to curl up and sleep, but I was STARVING, and so I decided to head out, find some food, and generally explore the area. I ended up walking around my neighborhood for about 2 hours, pretty much doing a big loop around the district where my apartment is. The goal had been to locate some basic services, but all I really managed to locate was Ueno Station. I stumbled across the Book Off, but couldn't figure out where it was in relationship to my apartment because I got lost on the way back. :)
On Wednesday, I headed out to try and find a laptop, explore some more, and see what kinds of cool stuff I found. Akihabara, as it turns out, is pretty close to my home, and is TOTALLY AWESOME. My laptop is a 13" screen Toshiba that weighs almost nothing and has a crystal clear screen. The OS is Vista, and is entirely in Japanese, but it happily accepts installation of English programs, and all in all I'm really pleased with it. It was kind of expensive, but I saved about $300 by buying the floor model, and also got another $200 back as store credit (all in yen, of course) which I used to buy speakers, a wireless card, a mouse, and still have about $100 left. :) I did a ton of shopping - I feel like a Japanese "obasan" (old woman) because I completely fell in love with the 100￥ store, which is chock full of useful stuff. I dropped off my stuff at home and then went to explore again, only to get HOPELESSLY lost trying to find my way home. It took me about 45 minutes wandering around to find anything that I recognized.
By Thursday evening, I had wandered around thoroughly, found a grocery store, figured out where the Book Off was in relation to my house, found a few other really neat stores, and generally managed to get to the point that I wouldn't get lost on the way home any more. I spent a chunk of time on Thursday trying to get the internet working, and failing miserably, and finally I left at about 4 to go and walk to Rainbow bridge, which I heard was pretty, and which looked like it was about 5 miles away (maybe an hour and a half walk). TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER, I finally got to a place where I could see the bridge. It wasn't worth it. Not at all. I ended up taking the train back, my first time on the Yamanote line.
On Friday,claireon and met up. We spent most of our time exploring in various directions, despite a foot injury that caused her to have trouble walking. Saturday, the main thing that we did was go to a Takarazuka show. I can't figure out how to describe the show. The troupe is all the women, first of all, so all of the parts are played by ladies. The ones that play men spend years training for this, and end up with crazy followings. It was TOTALLY AWESOME. It was a double feature. The first was a musical, sort of Zorro meets Hamlet, set to music. If this sounds strange...it was. The second was even crazier. It was a rock opera fantasia, and didn't make much sense at all. claireon described it as Cirque d'Soleil meets Holst. It was mostly an excuse to do lavish dance numbers with lots of people in fancy costumes; the main character (a male character) reminded me of nothing more than David Bowie in Labyrinth. Over all, the show was crazy and totally awesome. I was pleased with my ability to kind of follow the first show - I didn't catch it all by any means, but I got chunks of it, which was nice. Over all, my ability to speak and read have FAR exceeded my ability to understand what people say to me - indeed, people talk to me and it all just sort of goes over my head even when they say things that I technically understand. This is somewhat maddening, and I've been trying to practice, but it's hard.
Finally, today we mostly hung out, and we went to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology, which was much more advanced than the equivalent museum would have been in the US, which was interesting.
All in all, it's hard to find ways to sum up my impressions of Tokyo so far. I really like it. It's busy and crowded and bright. Everything makes noise, from the bells on the homes near my apartment to the rooms in stores where four different tv's will play simultaneously with different programs. Yet despite that my block is quiet and rather quaint, I see the same people every time I go out. Across the street is a carpenter, and all the homes have tons and tons of plants hanging out the windows and on the curb. I think a lot of people would find it utterly overwhelming -claireon thought it was a bit overwhelming - but I really feel like I've come home. I don't feel overwhelmed at all, I've done a good job getting around since the first couple of nights, and I keep finding awesome things. Today, I went to a manga store which sold old doujinshi comics by the thousand for 200 yen. 200 YEN! OMFG! I spent 20 bucks and got more than 10 issues! In America, doujinshi is usually $6+ per issue, and your choice is so limited. Also today, Book Off was having a sale, and I got 42 volumes of manga that I REALLY WANTED for 1500 yen. It's mind blowing to me. I'm having trouble restraining myself from just getting everything.
I've had so many things that struck me that I've sort of given up on recording them all. I haven't even bothered to take pictures, there's still too much. But I really like. :)
I'm sure I'll write more, some of it about the past few days, but it's almost midnight and so I'm gonna stop for now and play with google maps. :)
This year's Gencon was one of the better ones I've had, I'd say. I had a great time wandering around the dealer's room, as usual, despite a relative dearth of free swag to gather. I was pleased to find that, after several years of steady business to certain artists, some of them are starting to remember my face - an impressive feat, really, given how many people I'm sure they see throughout the year at different events. I found some great art, and all of it has come with me to Japan, though only a little of it is hanging so far - I found out I couldn't hang anything with hooks, adhesives, or pretty much anything that might damage the walls in any way. Amazingly luckily, there's a sort of ridge on my walls from which I can hang hooks without doing any damage, so I've got a few things up and will be able to hang more once I won't be risking damage to my beautiful, beautiful originals (ie once I buy frames. :) )
I got to spend a lot of time with my friends, which was of course the point, really. I got to game a little bit too, a one shot run by Kreiner which very satisfactorily met my desire to play in a tabletop game that reminded me of the games I used to play in Binghamton, and an even more satisfactory ADGNEPSEF 555 Larp. I'll admit, I was a bit concerned going in to the ADGNEPSEF Larp that it wouldn't quit work, but in truth I had a great time. Despite my own efforts to sabotage myself, I totally powned that game - there is no better way to say it. Everything I tried worked out fairly well, and in the end I managed to bring about things that might even have a meta effect, if only in the short term.
*Warning: geeking out game story about to begin*
So I was playing Cyd, the 13 year old 6th grader cyberpunk who hates school and always tries to ditch, only to get caught and half-blown up by Truant Officer Dread. Early in the game, though, I managed to make an exchange with TO Dread. I had something he really needed, and I gave it to him in exchange for two free truancies a week. Later, then, school Superintendent Taft came and threatened to shut the school down unless all the students could demonstrate their talents in, of course, a talent show. The problem with school being shut down is that we'd still be SUPPOSED to be in school, so Truant Officer Dread would still come and bust us. Now, in Cyd's/my mind, if school hasn't actually met, it should work out that at the expense of one of those free truancies, Cyd would be scott free. Using that logic, I sabotaged the talent show so that the school would get shut down, and somehow I got away with this and it actually worked. What the heck were the heroes DOING when they should have been keeping an eye on me?? Seriously!! I felt a little bad, but my fun didn't seem to ruin it for anyone else, so it all worked out. And I got to be pleased because I have never powned a game as much as I powned that one. :) :)
*geeking out over*
Anyway, it was a very nice con, and when all was said and down I had a really good time.
After the con, a bunch of folks came out to join me for dinner, and the company more than made up for the relatively low quality of the Ram food post-con. Then, I headed back to
moonartemis76's, and a few of us hung out and talked and watched Mulan Rogue, before sapphohestia and I headed out to the airport at 4:30 AM. I dozed for about half an hour during the car ride, because I just couldn't keep my eyes open, and we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I ended up falling asleep on the plane to Atlanta, though, which was not good, and got about an hour then, which meant that I didn't really fall asleep the entire rest of the flight, sigh. (in the end, I was up for 48 or 49 hours with about 2 hours of sleep.) The flight was 12 1/2 hours, and it arrived in Tokyo at noon on Tuesday the 21st. I took until about 5 to get my keys, sign my lease, get to my apartment, and carry the luggage upstairs (my stairs are evil). I kind of wanted to curl up and sleep, but I was STARVING, and so I decided to head out, find some food, and generally explore the area. I ended up walking around my neighborhood for about 2 hours, pretty much doing a big loop around the district where my apartment is. The goal had been to locate some basic services, but all I really managed to locate was Ueno Station. I stumbled across the Book Off, but couldn't figure out where it was in relationship to my apartment because I got lost on the way back. :)On Wednesday, I headed out to try and find a laptop, explore some more, and see what kinds of cool stuff I found. Akihabara, as it turns out, is pretty close to my home, and is TOTALLY AWESOME. My laptop is a 13" screen Toshiba that weighs almost nothing and has a crystal clear screen. The OS is Vista, and is entirely in Japanese, but it happily accepts installation of English programs, and all in all I'm really pleased with it. It was kind of expensive, but I saved about $300 by buying the floor model, and also got another $200 back as store credit (all in yen, of course) which I used to buy speakers, a wireless card, a mouse, and still have about $100 left. :) I did a ton of shopping - I feel like a Japanese "obasan" (old woman) because I completely fell in love with the 100￥ store, which is chock full of useful stuff. I dropped off my stuff at home and then went to explore again, only to get HOPELESSLY lost trying to find my way home. It took me about 45 minutes wandering around to find anything that I recognized.
By Thursday evening, I had wandered around thoroughly, found a grocery store, figured out where the Book Off was in relation to my house, found a few other really neat stores, and generally managed to get to the point that I wouldn't get lost on the way home any more. I spent a chunk of time on Thursday trying to get the internet working, and failing miserably, and finally I left at about 4 to go and walk to Rainbow bridge, which I heard was pretty, and which looked like it was about 5 miles away (maybe an hour and a half walk). TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER, I finally got to a place where I could see the bridge. It wasn't worth it. Not at all. I ended up taking the train back, my first time on the Yamanote line.
On Friday,
claireon and met up. We spent most of our time exploring in various directions, despite a foot injury that caused her to have trouble walking. Saturday, the main thing that we did was go to a Takarazuka show. I can't figure out how to describe the show. The troupe is all the women, first of all, so all of the parts are played by ladies. The ones that play men spend years training for this, and end up with crazy followings. It was TOTALLY AWESOME. It was a double feature. The first was a musical, sort of Zorro meets Hamlet, set to music. If this sounds strange...it was. The second was even crazier. It was a rock opera fantasia, and didn't make much sense at all. claireon described it as Cirque d'Soleil meets Holst. It was mostly an excuse to do lavish dance numbers with lots of people in fancy costumes; the main character (a male character) reminded me of nothing more than David Bowie in Labyrinth. Over all, the show was crazy and totally awesome. I was pleased with my ability to kind of follow the first show - I didn't catch it all by any means, but I got chunks of it, which was nice. Over all, my ability to speak and read have FAR exceeded my ability to understand what people say to me - indeed, people talk to me and it all just sort of goes over my head even when they say things that I technically understand. This is somewhat maddening, and I've been trying to practice, but it's hard.Finally, today we mostly hung out, and we went to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology, which was much more advanced than the equivalent museum would have been in the US, which was interesting.
All in all, it's hard to find ways to sum up my impressions of Tokyo so far. I really like it. It's busy and crowded and bright. Everything makes noise, from the bells on the homes near my apartment to the rooms in stores where four different tv's will play simultaneously with different programs. Yet despite that my block is quiet and rather quaint, I see the same people every time I go out. Across the street is a carpenter, and all the homes have tons and tons of plants hanging out the windows and on the curb. I think a lot of people would find it utterly overwhelming -
claireon thought it was a bit overwhelming - but I really feel like I've come home. I don't feel overwhelmed at all, I've done a good job getting around since the first couple of nights, and I keep finding awesome things. Today, I went to a manga store which sold old doujinshi comics by the thousand for 200 yen. 200 YEN! OMFG! I spent 20 bucks and got more than 10 issues! In America, doujinshi is usually $6+ per issue, and your choice is so limited. Also today, Book Off was having a sale, and I got 42 volumes of manga that I REALLY WANTED for 1500 yen. It's mind blowing to me. I'm having trouble restraining myself from just getting everything.I've had so many things that struck me that I've sort of given up on recording them all. I haven't even bothered to take pictures, there's still too much. But I really like. :)
I'm sure I'll write more, some of it about the past few days, but it's almost midnight and so I'm gonna stop for now and play with google maps. :)
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