Moshi Moshi! Daniel Desu 2015 – Video Games, Books, Films, Life, Anything

This blog primarily started as a way for me to record my travels in Japan and then anywhere else. With the passing of my adorable cat Pippi following my return from a quick trip to Thailand, I found it difficult to maintain this blog. I’m disappointed by that, because I do quite enjoy writing, though forcing writing every day is a bit difficult.

So, while not really a ‘New Years Resolution’ (though I’ve resolved to do this in the new year, so, for all intents and purposes it is a New Years Resolution), I’ve decided to write about the things that interest me. There’s no rhyme or reasdon to it, I’m not aiming to ‘review’ anything, or give a real synopis of media I have consumed. That of course may happen, but it’s really just a way for me to write and discuss media that interests me that I often don’t have anyone I can actually properly discuss with (this pertains mainly to video games, where I have few people in the flesh who I can talk to about games and most video game forums are…well….video game forums).

I thought I’d use this post to introduce some of my readers from the earlier blogs into what I think is particularly interesting about Video Games. Video Games still make up the majority of my media consumption. I read a lot, watch TV shows a lot, watch some movies, listen to mostly the same music I’ve always listened to and play a lot of games. I don’t play games as much as a lot of other people play games, but I’d say it’s more than most people I know. Video Games are a lot like any media in that everyone has different tastes, consumes games in different ways, and on different platforms. One guy I know plays pretty much just the one game, Dota 2, but has put around 2400 hours (not exaggerating) into that game solely.

I’m a bit of an all-rounder. I like most “genres” (that’s the most appropriate term, though it doesn’t quite work as well as it does for films or novels – I’ll probably have a specific post about video game “genres” later) except really for fighting games, which I’m quite simply no good at, and horror games because I dislike horror anything. Oh and MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games – which I’ve never enjoyed. I’m not a platform elitist. I have owned or currently owned the following gaming platforms in my lifetime: Atari 2600, IBM PC, Gameboy Colour, Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation, Sony Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox One, PC.

So a lot.

The time I spend with games has wavered. In my teenage years and early 20s I could literally (literally literally, not figuratively literally as it is mostly used in the vernacular now) spend a whole day playing a game or multiple games. Now, after an hour or so (unless it is a particularly gripping game) , I’m bored and need to do something else. My reading habits have gone the same way.

So what do I look for in games? Well, there’s no one thing in particular. And I’m about to provide a “list” as to what to look for in games that pretty much over simplifies the whole equation. This doesn’t actually cover everything, but might provide a simple guide as to what makes up a video game. I suppose you could call these the ‘tropes’ of video games. By that, novels often fit into a genre (crime fiction, horror, sci-fi, romance etc.), but the authors will use particular tropes to construct their novel, be it the use of 1st person narrative rather than 3rd; the syntax that they employ, whether or not they use colloquialisms or jargon, the timeline they employ, do they have multiple narrators? etc.

For me, video games break down into these sorts of areas:

• Gameplay

No surprise here for the first pick – gameplay. That’s really a silly term. They’re games and you play them – well done Sherlock. Books aren’t described by their “bookread”, but that’s because (with the exception of Braille or Audiobooks), all books are read. In that the reader uses their eyes, their knowledge and context to consume the words. The meaning behind these words will change from person to person, but the basic act is the same. For video games, the same basic function is happening. The player hits a button, or moves a stick and something happens. (Or, with games now, could make hand gestures, or yell at the game, move a mouse and click, tap the screen etc.) But each game’s ‘gameplay’ is different. In Super Mario, you tap A and jump. In Super Meat Boy, you tap A and jump, but jump slightly differently to Super Mario. In Street Fighter, you tap A and throw a punch. In Forza Horizon 2, you tap A to use your handbrake. The same button translates to different actions for different games. In each and every game, that action feels different (that’s the only word I can think of the describe it). In a game such as Civilization V, the “gameplay” (the clicking) isn’t really the “gameplay” at all, it’s more the intelligence systems within the games and what happens each turn that keeps you drawn in. Basically “gameplay” boils down to: does the game feel good to play? Is it enjoyable?

Some games can use their other facets to overcome poor gameplay, but good gameplay will generally trump in and win everytime. Quite frankly, if I want good story, Video Games aren’t my first go to (not yet), but if I want good gameplay, well, outside of sports, they’re the one.

Super Meat Boy – such tight contols

Civ V – great gameplay, but the controls aren’t the “gameplay” here

• Graphics

This fits more into movies than novels. How a game looks is fairly important, but not the most important. Some games go for hyper realistic graphics. Others don’t but instead focus on their stylistic choices to create a great looking game. Some games try to generate style or atmosphere through their graphics, in combination with their sound and music choices (as do movies). I don’t have a lot to say about Graphics because I’m not a big “graphics” guy. I haven’t upgraded my PC to the max in the pursuit of the ultimate graphics. I do still appreciate a great looking game though. I’m also not hugely swayed by cutesy graphics, but I appreciate cool stylistic choices. Same with films or art, different people appreciate different things and I like that games encompass that too.

Forza Horizon 2 – this is an actual in game screenshot

Valiant Hearts – also a screenshot

• Story

You can have a fun game with a crappy story. Not every game needs to be a classic. Some awesome and fun games have no real story (Super Mario, Forza Horizon 2), some games allow you to basically shape your own story (Civilization, The Sims etc.), some games rely solely on their story (Telltale Adventure Games etc.), some combine having an average overall story with really meaningful character development or side stories (Dragon Age: Inquisition etc.), some games have a completely NUTS story that just keeps appealing anyway (The Metal Gear franchise). There’s too many possible spin offs to narrow down more categories, just like books or movies I suppose. Some games are like trashy airport, Dan Brown-esque novels. You know they’re terrible, but they’re fun to consume anyway. Games though, don’t hold up too greatly on the other end of the spectrum, no one wants to play the Dostoyevsky of games. However though, some games recently are using their gameplay to tell some really serious stories (Valiant Hearts, Papers Please, This War of Mine). For me, a good story based game is important. I have always preferred single player story driven games to anything else (this will link in to my next dot point), so I need something that will maintain my interest – to drive me to see what happens next.

Dragon Age Inquisition – average story. Great character development and the lore of the world – Tolkein esque in its depth.

The Walkng Dead Adventure game by Telltale. Phenomenal story.

• Online/Multiplayer

I’m going to say it. I could not really care much less about Online multiplayer in Video Games. Most randoms you encounter online in games are not people you really want to play a game with. Not many of my friends have games and play online, and it requires too much effort to co-ordinate. I’m not really in to ‘chatting’ to people online, so that aspect has no appeal to me. That’s the biggest shame in modern video games, is the shift to online multi-player. Most of my positive video gaming memories from my youth stem from what are called “local” multiplayer experiences. Basically, playing a video game with someone who is actually there next to you. Playing games such as Goldeneye, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart or Halo with people who could cheat off the same screen, or to be there to actually interact with was just damn fun. Online has been used to replace, rather than enhance that, and I don’t like it. Just look at the reactions of the people in the image below. From my favourite video game website www.giantbomb.com . They’re playing a local game of Mario Party on Nintendo 64. See if you can work out who Drew is (the guy who has just pulled off a rewarding move), and who Brad is (the guy who’s just been screwed over). I’ll leave you to guess who Dan and Jeff are.

Vale Ryan Davis.

• Music/Sound

My last category (I’ve missed so many others, maybe for another day). Similar to graphics, I’m not a big music/sound nut, but bad sound design is really noticable. Good sound design, like good sound effects and good cinematography in films, does its job in that it’s not noticed because it becomes a part of the world you are inhabiting. Good video game music (depending on the type of game, some have little to none, some use licensed music tracks, and others, like below, are just awesome) can really match the action you are taking, get you hyped and draw you in.

The Last of Us had a great story and awesome sound design

Next time: Probably a bit of a look at Dragon Age: Inquisition

Knight On 2.0

Not as good as the original post: http://youknowhowpeopletalk.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/knight-on/

But this is my response. The new technological version – better than a Kindle. (I still love books too)

Just got this game on 3ds – seems pretty cool.

Travel! To Virtual Worlds!

It’s been quite a while since my last blog post about my trip to Thailand with my school mates. That’s mainly because, well, I haven’t really travelled anywhere. I felt the urge to write though, and thought I might write about a long held passion of mine that is not so passionate anymore but still important to me.

I’m not sure if there is still a stigma associated with playing video games or being interested in video games. I do believe that a stigma does exist for people who are ‘serious’ about video games. It’s pretty common now to see almost everyone on their phones, playing the latest “casual” game like Angry Birds, Flappy Bird, 2048, Clash of the Clans or Llama with a Beer on It’s Head (you should look that last one up), but if you express an interest in playing Xbox, PS4 or PC games, you’ll be given a strange look by those not involved in utilising such media as if they expect that games should only be for teenage boys.

I’m not going to go into the statistics often trotted out at this point about the average age of “gamers” or the fact that females make up half of the “gaming” population, but instead want to reflect on a few games I’ve played lately and my own changing feelings on games. I’ve always played video games a lot since I was a kid/teenager. Tracking back to going to my two friends’ houses to play with them on the consoles they had (Sega Master System at one house and a SNES at the other I believe; I had a decent gaming PC at the time – something like a 486. Oh and I had an Atari 2600) to all of us getting a Nintendo 64, to moving through the Playstation era, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox 360 and PS3 and now an Xbox One, I’ve been there for most of it.

Playing games is basically an exercise in futility. Nothing really is gained out of it, it’s certainly not healthy, I don’t really think that much can be learned from it (with some possible exceptions). But for the most part it’s entertaining. I’ve also thought about the cost a lot lately. Not because I’m struggling financially but often I’ll look across at all the game I own, and all the consoles I own or have owned, of have had bought for me by amazing people and think: “What if I saved that money?” I don’t think teenage me would have cared, but adult me reflects on these types of things. I’ve literally spent thousands, probably tens of thousands of hours of my life playing video games. Was it worth anything?

But I saved Earth!!

Well, I can’t really answer that question. What is any entertainment worth? People watch thousands of hours of TV (I sort of do that too), or read books for thousands of hours (again, guilty), or spend time watching sports (yep), going to the gym (well, not thousands of hours, let’s say tens for that one), to whatever it is that people do. As far as vices or past times go I don’t think video games are a terrible one. At least I’m not into pokies, or down at the bar betting on the greyhounds for hours on end. No one is getting hurt by my playing video games and I think I have a decent balance at the moment between activities. Work – spending time with my wife – watching TV – playing sports – going to the gym (again, not as much time) – reading (not as much as I’d like to) – etc. It’s not like gaming is the only thing I do.

I love Japan. I must save it!

In fact, now, at the ripe old age of 27, I actually find things such as “gaming” a lot more difficult to do than when I was in my teens. When I was younger, I could marathon a game. By this I mean I could, when I had nothing else to do (school holidays or days off from uni or whatever), wake up – play a video game – maybe eat – play the game – bed at a ridiculous hour (2, 3 am), wake up (usually midday, because hey, teenage boy right), then repeat. Now that’s different, I still fall sort of into old habits on school holidays, but nothing like what it used to be. In fact I find it difficult to consume media, any media, the way I used to. Reading is difficult because it actually makes me tired. I read less because if I read in bed, I’ll fall asleep. If I read sitting up, I get bored, distracted, or sleepy. It’s more work than it used to be. The same is true for playing video games. Now, even if I find a game I really like, basically an hour or so is all I’ve got before I get bored, tired of it or distracted.

One game lately changed that.

I don’t know what Firaxis Games does when they make their games (I’m also referring to the classic Civilization games which have always eaten up my time), but their games are like crack. You just can’t stop. Just one more mission. Just one more turn. They have got that great risk/reward balance right to keep you engaged. XCOM is an old series that I missed originally. I played Enemy Unknown on the Xbox 360 when it came out and loved the hell out of it. In a recent Steam Sale (because of course) I saw that Enemy Unknown and its expansion Enemy Within were really cheap. What the hell, I’ll pick it up on PC if only to play Enemy Within. 30 hours later and I’d only really played Enemy Unknown again. This time I went through what was called a “Classic Ironman” run. 2nd most difficult setting. One persistent save. What that actually means is, well, in most modern games you can make as many save games as you like, so if something goes wrong, no problem, go back, load a previous save and keep going. In the Ironman mode of XCOM, if it all goes bad, it has gone really bad. Have you trained up your soldier for 10 hours and now they’ve died? Too bad for you.

I loved that risk. I know it’s only a game but it made me stop and think about each decision I made in the game. When a situation was going poorly I was on the edge of my seat, hoping, almost pleading for it to be okay because I didn’t want to lose that soldier, that mission, those hours.

I’ve gone off and around on different tangents in this blog post, and this post has no real structure, because I really don’t know what to think. I suppose I feel guilty about playing video games. Guilty about the cost. Guilty about the “wasted” time. Guilty because it’s so nerdy. Even for my upcoming birthday all I’m really thinking about getting are more video games. I like them, I really do, but I don’t know how I actually feel about that. Anyway, I’ve actually got a couple more games I’d like to write about, and I really do want to write about XCOM properly because it really is a masterful game that more people should play (I’m pretty sure there is an iOS version, pick it up).

Next time: Divinity: Original Sin and Classic Role Playing Games

Farewell Pippi. I’ll miss you.

This week we lost the most beautiful, charismatic, fun and well natured cat ever. Pippi, who had been ill for a few weeks with an undiagnosed condition was found to have had Bladder Cancer and we chose to let her go peacefully rather than suffer any unnecessary pain. She was only 3. I am devastated, but am glad that she isn’t hurting. I’ve never known a cat to be as good around people as she was. Never once hissed, or bit and scratched maliciously. She was the type of cat who made anti cat people love her because of her cute nature. I’ll miss her so much.

She loved sleeping and curling up into a ball of cuteness.

Or if it was warmer she liked to sleep stretched out. She pretty much invented planking.

Sometimes she’d find a warm place to sleep, like my jacket.

Or she’d sleep propped up.

I wasn’t her favourite person though. If my wife and I were watching TV or laying in bed together, you could guarantee Pippi would curl up with her.

She might ‘watch’ me play video games.

She’d steal our bed.

Loved the dryer when it was on.

Checking out or chilling on the shelves.

Being cheeky.

She was also very helpful. Whether it was building,

Marking,

making Lego,

Or celebrating a birthday

Sometimes we made her wear a stupid hat.

Or take her for ‘walks’.

She liked rolling about when we got home.

Or creeping up on me.

I could put up millions more pictures on here, because she’s so adorable.

But I should stop myself.

Goodbye beautiful Pippi. I love you.

Days 3 and 4: The Sword of Danocles – Thailand

So my title is intentionally incorrect. I’m aware that the actual statement is The Sword of Damocles. I just thought I’d integrate my name to indicate my paranoia. Of the 6 guys who came here, over the days 5 have gone down with stomach upset and general unpleasantness to varying extents. There can be only one survivor. As much as I’d love to hope that I can avoid whatever bug has struck but I’m not sure of my chances.

As a result the past two days have been fairly muted. Mostly just going to a couple of different beaches, doing shopping at different markets and bartering, using the hotel pool and bar and going out a bit where we can.

We’ve made changes to our itinerary, leaving out activities we were going to do such as attending some Muay Thai fights and using some ATVs. Still has been a decent trip but it has been tainted by the illness.

This post can be used to reflect on the first key issue. Safety. As I mentioned previously, OHS is not exactly a number one priority. See the picture below for evidence of the top notch wiring. The buzzing emitted it truly mind boggling.

The second issue is an offshoot of the first. Road Safety. I actually think that Thailand has been on par with, if not slightly better, than places such as Italy. The drivers fly along and zoom and weave through traffic as in Italy and it’s definitely not as bad as places such as Naples. The difference is that the vehicles here such as the tuk-tuks are open air and generally have dashboards that don’t function or clearly have more than 500,000 km on them. Some of them are pretty banging and fun though.

I actually don’t have too many more issues other than the hygiene and the smell with it. Anywhere along a road an open drain can provide a pretty unique scent. It’s not the greatest.

I’m making Thailand sound terrible, and I think I’m doing it an injustice. I just want to give an honest and open account of the trip. I think it’s also in large part due to this being my first visit to a non first world country. The contrast is really stark from having been in Japan three weeks ago. Thailand has been a lot of fun. Wandering around the markets and bartering and joining in with mates bartering has been pretty fun. Whether or not good deals have been made is largely unknown. An Aussie tourist let us in on a hint today that if a shop puts your purchase in a Black bag you’ve done well, A blue bag you’ve done okay and a Red bag means you’ve been taken. It seems like they use it as a signal to other shop keepers and markets to identify what to expect in a buyer. I don’t know exactly how accurate this is but it seemed to show through the more we shopped.

The beaches, depending on which you go to, can also be quite nice. Patong Beach itself is pretty dirty, but ones further down such as Kata and Karon were decent and the water is the perfect temperature. In better physical conditions I could see us spending some time at the beach relaxing and getting some food and drinks from nearby carts.

It is also blindly apparent that with Australians being the number one tourists to Thailand that the market has shifted that way. From Thai and Indian touts using Aussie slang in Aussie accents (some pretty well done too) to the huge number of Aussie themed bars, it’s clear that Aussie tourism is a massive contributor to the local economy. “G’day mate – have a gander, come on cobber, cheap cheap, Eddie Macguire (that’s my favourite one)”. Some touts use slightly less savoury language when you walk past. I’ve found that using “Mai Aow Kup/Kah” (male/female) has worked at getting rid of most touts I don’t want to deal with. It’s not always effective but a decent way to let them know politely that you’re not interested. The worst are the creepers who keep following you even once you’ve passed and told them no.

I’ll reserve my final judgement on Phuket tomorrow or the day after depending on how I go. I do think it is a good, inexpensive place depending on what you’re looking for and there are seemingly some good variety in the types of accommodation you can go for, from backpackers to upmarket resorts. It’s not really my type of place and I don’t know that I’d come back, it’s something I might reassess down the track. I’ve had a pretty good time (despite my seeming negativity) but it’s been impacted by the illness that’s struck the group. Bring on tomorrow and the trip home.

Night 2/Day 2: Thai(ger)land

The second night continued in the same vein as the night before, though overall was a lot less intense (in most ways, more intense in some) and didn’t quite last as long. It also didn’t start as late. The real highlight is one I don’t have a photo of which was the most decked out tuk-tuk replete with LED lights all over and a sound system which left us deaf upon our arrival at the destination. The picture below is alas not of the decked out tuk-tuk. Random fireworks have just started going off from the beach. I’m sure it’s legit (not).

Today we decided to book a tuk-tuk for the whole day and explore a few different locations. The first stop was Tiger Kingdom. Look, to be honest, I haven’t looked into the potential ethical issues of Tiger Kingdom and I don’t know if I’ve contributed to a potential problem. The presentation of the venue was that it was done up quite nicely and the tigers had decent sized grassed spaces to move around in, it wasn’t concrete floors and tiny enclosures. I also couldn’t pass up tigers. That said, being in an enclosed environment with essentially deadly animals was pretty intimidating. Sitting at the end of one and feeling it breathe, then having it change its breathing pattern and turn around was pretty freaky. Made for a cool moment and experience.

We then went to a shooting range. I won’t upload many pictures of it to avoid a Nick D’Arcy/Kendrick Monk controversy, but it was a) an awesome experience and b) an exercise in demonstrating the rather lax OHS regulations here compared to what I’m used to. The whole thing was fairly safe but I don’t know if going to a gun range with firstly no ID required and secondly having anyone handle any weapons and literally point them at people to get cool photos would cut it back home. It was nuts. Safe overall because we’re not crazy, but nuts all the same.

The tuk-tuk journey continued around Phuket with a long trip up to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre and nearby Waterfall. The walk to the waterfall was pretty humid to say the least. Even having just come back from Japan and it’s huge number of hills and humidity still wasn’t able to prepare me for the stickiness. It was reminiscing of walking up to the Arashiyama Monkey park, though less of a walk, but a bit more treacherous in the slipperiness of the walking surface.

Hearing about the way the Gibbons had been treated in the past was interesting, but sad. I love animals as much as the next person, and I also see how they can be good and fun for entertainment, but hearing about the way in which a lot that appear in the cities have been obtained is pretty crushing. The project at the Rehabilitation Centre hoped to start improving the situation and things may be on a better path, but I sadly can’t see it changing altogether.

From here we went to our last proper stop at Chalong Temple. I’d thought I’d be all templed out after Japan, but it was great to see a different take on the Buddhist temple design. It’s interesting how the same religion has such a different approach to buildings across different cultures. In Catholicism churches seem to follow the same basic pattern, just the ones in Europe have more history and generally, masterpieces of art in them. The Siamese/Thai take on temple design is fantastic and from the one I saw today, the focus is different from Japan. In Japan the focus seems to be on fitting temples (Buddhist or Shinto) into the surrounding environment, even a huge pagoda will try to blend into the natural surroundings. Chalong temple is about bright colours and standing out. Both are beautiful to behold.

We returned on our tuk-tuk via a couple of more scenic beaches than the rubbish laden Patong Beach and got back to our accommodation where some use of the Hotel Pool and Bar was in order. Delhi Belly has hit a couple of the guys so a quieter evening may be in order

Night/Day 1: Thailand Thaime. Terrible pun, I’m sorry.

I don’t know how regular these updates will be, partly because I don’t know exactly what to talk about and also because I haven’t quite got the pictures to back it up. We arrived in Phuket pretty late last night, our flight had been delayed by an hour. The flight itself was uneventful, going through Customs at Sydney was also an experience because of the ‘odd shape’ in my wonky luggage that cause a number of searches. I don’t know what the odd shape was, only that it stressed me out. Arriving in Phuket it also took us about an hour or so to get through Immigration. The queue not being quite as organised as in other locations. Customs though, well, there was no one there, so that was a breeze. We took a taxi from the Airport to our hotel, and started our somewhat successful though insignificant bartering. You know it’s a good sign when you’re going down the street to your hotel and the taxi driver points outside, goes ‘look, ladyboys’ and then the whole group share knowing laughs.

Our initial plan was to go around the hotel and just have a couple of drinks. We ended up finding Bangla Road and spending a little bit more time out than initially planned. The drinks were not as cheap as I’d initially anticipated, being pretty much on par with Japan prices. Those prices still beat the costs back home, but it wasn’t as inexpensive as I’d thought it would be.

The biggest thing I’ve noted here is how much we have been (perhaps literally) manhandled. Walking down some of the side streets, or even the main streets, ladies (?) will actually grab you and try to drag you places. They’ll converge on you and have 2 or 3 grab you at a time. They may actually attempt to grab where it would be normally deemed unacceptable. Travelling with a group we were able to shrug this stuff off and not feel too concerned, but it’s a much more full on approach of touting than other places I’ve been like King’s Cross in Sydney or Kabuchiko in Tokyo. It’s…an experience.

Today (which started late, we missed our included breakfast) has been pretty laid back, spent the day wandering around a little bit, having lunch and then hitting up the hotel pool. Let’s see where the night and other days take us. Thailand, it’s not like anywhere else I’ve been.

Scenic Sydney: Woolwich, Liverpool and Yellow Rock

Tomorrow I’m leaving with some mates to go to Thailand. I’m approaching the trip with both excitement and trepidation. Travelling (ironically for what has mainly been a travel blog) is not my favourite activity. In my case, it is the destination and not the journey that matters. I enjoy travelling when I’m in a location. I hate flying and getting there.

Last weekend, my wife had a friend’s birthday luncheon in Woolwich. As nominated chauffeur, I drove her out there. We had a later engagement with another friend in Willoughby so geographically it made sense. My plans for the day didn’t quite work geographically, though it made for an interesting day. I dropped my wife to her luncheon at Woolwich first up. Given that I had a few hours to utilise, I decided to travel to Liverpool.

Sorry if I misled some people into coming to this blog. I went to Liverpool, New South Wales, not Liverpool, England.

Why was I going to Liverpool? (It’s not a traditional tourist destination) I went to engage in my new nerdy habit. Well, I don’t know if I’ve done it enough to call it a habit yet.

I’ve always read quite a bit and have played video games so, stuff it, why not comics? I sort of ended up here after playing the game ‘The Wolf Among Us’ which is set in the ‘Fables’ universe. The game itself was okay, though not the best of the Telltale games (if this is over your head, don’t worry, it’s giving me nerd cred). However I found the world the game was set in more interesting. Thus, go to the source material.

I’ve read some other comics and graphic novels before (Pax Romana was disappointing, Maus is fantastic, so too is V for Vendetta) and so far I’m enjoying the Fables ones. So I feel pretty good about having driven 50 minutes from Woolwich to Liverpool and then 50 minutes from Liverpool to Woolwich.

Back in Woolwich I still had some time to burn so I decided to wander around the park near the luncheon venue. To my surprise there was an art exhibition in the park! It was pretty interesting and is in a great location with some pretty magnificent views of Sydney. My favourite was the stick horse. The dog catching the tennis ball was also quite nifty.

After this impromptu art exhibition (well, I’m sure that the exhibition itself wasn’t impromptu, it actually seemed pretty well organised. My visit to it was impromptu) we caught up with our friends in Willoughby.

The next day, we made the huge trek to Yellow Rock (Sydney’s least culturally diverse suburb apparently) for a picnic. I’d forgotten just how magnificent the view from Yellow Point lookout it, and the simple beauty of Australia. Not that I’m going to stop travelling and seeing other places, but it’s easy to forget what’s around you sometimes. Overall I’m with Henry Lawson that Australia’s landscape is pretty tough, rough and well, flat and boring in a lot of places. The bush itself looks to kill you, either through sudden drops, sudden drop bears, snakes or fires. Damn though, it looks nice.

I’m hoping to put up some posts whilst in Thailand, but I haven’t made any firm arrangements for internet, nor do I know when exactly I’ll have time to do its. It won’t be as organised as Japan was, but I hope to have some cool experiences and to get some of that across on here.

Fighting for a Fair Go. I miss Japanese trains.

The blog is back.

Well, it never really went anywhere, nor did I, it just had a bit of a hiatus for a time, as its original purpose was to serve solely as a travel blog. Being the international jet-setter that I now am, I’m off to Thailand (Phuket specifically) for 5 nights next week, so I will make every attempt to have some blog posts about that trip. However, with the nature of the trip being one of my school mates’ bachelor parties, I might need to charge for a premium “adults only” subscription (which would still have the same material, just with more pictures – that’s how the internet works, yes?).

Anyway, today as a member of the Independent Education Union I participated in a 3 hour stop work industrial action to protect my rights as an employee. We don’t want MORE, we just want to keep what we have, a concept that seems lost on some. Anyway, I don’t want to turn my lovely blog into a political treatise, but the industrial action gave me an excuse to think about the nature of travel, even locally. (You gotta fight…..for your right……….for………fair work conditions!)

Firstly: Trains

This is a suburban train in Japan:

This is a suburban train in Sydney:

For the suburban trains in Japan, I either used my pre-purchased JR Pass (which was fairly expensive but covered pretty much any train travel, even across the country) or my SUICA card, which was pre-loaded with money and could be topped up anywhere. I don’t have an “Opal” card here in Sydney, so I don’t actually know how effective that is. What I do know though, is that $4.20 for a train ticket from Blacktown to Parramatta is patently ridiculous for the train service we have. Not only does it cost more than the Japanese service, but it is less efficient. To be fair, todays train trip was fairly straightforward. We bought our tickets and got to the platform, well, actually after the train was due to depart (it was just waiting around) and as we came down the stairs we heard the guards whistle. As a result, we sprinted down the last few stairs, I held my hand out to let the guard know to hold the doors for a moment so my colleagues could make it, and we scrambled onto the train.

I never ran for a train once in Japan. Why not?

Because I knew if I missed the train, another would be along in a minute, maybe 2 or 3 minutes. I think the longest wait we had for a train that wasn’t a pre-booked time was 10 minutes.

If I missed that train at Blacktown, the next train MAY have come along in 13 minutes. I’m not taking that risk.

Secondly: Walking

No one jaywalks in Japan. No one. It’s actually pretty weird. It’s also a weird transition from both living here in Australia and having travelled to places such as Italy and France where the only way to get across a road is to jay-walk (aint nobody stopping for you at a pedestrian crossing). Even just walking up the road in Parramatta from the station to Prince Alfred Park it was clearly noticeable just how many people were happy to saunter across roads without a by your leave. Japan had now conditioned me to wait dutifully at the lights for the little green man to appear, but I actually felt quite stupid watching people just happily walk across the road while we waited. In Japan, it was pretty normal for huge groups of people to wait at a set of lights, even when it simply crossed a tiny street where it is obvious to all involved that no traffic is coming. The sign says we should wait, so we will wait.

Which brings me to my final “travel” issue: Escalators.

Now, despite the fact the Japan can’t seem to make its mind up as to which side of the escalator you should queue on (left or right, it actually seems to vary from city to city, but also from station to station or platform to platform in some of the cities like Tokyo), they at least seem to have reached a common, albeit unspoken agreement that, unless you are power walking through, you queue single file on one side of the escalator so that this doesn’t happen:

This random couple I photographed weren’t intentionally being rude. Nor were they the only ones. I used escalators a total of 4 times today as I went up the road to get my lunch and to get my mate a birthday cake. 4 times did I tempt (random Greek god) in my journeys. 4 times was I held up by couples blocking my path. I’m the Odysseus of escalators. Can we, as Australians come to an agreement to stand to one side? Let’s make it the right side of the escalators. We can launch a campaign. Want to stand on an escalator? Not sure where you should be? She’ll be right, mate.

I doubt it will happen.

The last thing that happened to me that bears mentioning is an amusing phone call I received last night. The call came at a bad time. We’d just finally settled down to have dinner after both having long days at work, then having taken our cat to the vet.

More often than not the phone call is from a tele-marketer, or some form of scam. Occasionally it will be from someone we know such as a close family member, so we thus feel compelled to answer it every time. So I answered. This was not a telemarketer. It sounded like a “little old lady” who asked me if that was the “Nissen” family. That sounded close enough to my last name, so I figured she was after me. Then she started congratulating me on “my daughter who won that competition”. As far as I know, I don’t yet have a daughter. Let alone one old enough to win some form of competition. Then I realised I had been confused with this Nissen family:

#TeamAnja, recent winner of “The Voice” (the spinny chair show) who is from the same suburb. Her last name being sort of close to mine was enough for me to get the phone call. I informed the lady of her error, thanked her for the congratulations anyway and then settled in.

Turns out I can waffle on and write 1000 seemingly random words pretty quickly. If you’ve made it this far, I’d like to congratulate you. This congratulations is not an erroneous one, you fully deserve it for trudging through this random diatribe.

Next week: Thai-time!!

Day 14: Home

Like most of my actual time, I spent none of today in Japan. Our flight arrived back in Sydney ahead of schedule by about 30 minutes which was nice, and there is a weird new check in system for Australian residents at the airport which made the process go pretty quickly. We were also selected to skip the customs queue which saved a good deal of time as well.

So now I’m back home, having picked up Pippi from the cattery (her meow seems to have changed – is that normal? Maybe she’s like one of those tourists who goes to America or London for a couple of weeks and comes back with a foreign accent – what a poser).

Anyway, I thought I may as well do a bit of a recap/debrief of this trip. I imagine the blog will be quiet for a while until I work out precisely what to do with it. I will likely use it to blog about any other trips (even if they’re just local) and some of my interests. Who knows?

This trip was a bit lesser in the way of buying heaps of souvenirs or goods for ourselves (though we still got a fair bit), which is only natural after having been to Japan less than a year ago on our last trip. I didn’t take a picture of all of our purchases, just some of the things we got for me, and a few of the jigsaw puzzles we picked up as well. By far my favourite is the jigsaw which has a variety of famous artworks that have replaced the subjects with cats. It’s truly incredible (we got that from the Hakone Open Air Museum).

So I’ll try to run down some of the highlights of the trip. For the sake of some pitiful attempt at balance I’ll start with the lowlights.

Worst Day/s: First and Last Day in Japan

The worst parts of the trips were the bookends of the trip. This is in large part due to the fact that neither I nor my wife are particularly good flyers, so the first day was not great due to having had to fly in to Japan and my wife feeling pretty off from it. The last day wasn’t too bad but it was one of those days where, because you know you need to get somewhere, it’s hard to settle into any fun activity (lunch was cool though) because you know you need to get to the airport and go through the travel motions. The experience at Narita and by Qantas was fairly seemless, but even the best flights aren’t fun.

Honourable Mention: The weather.

To be fair, the weather didn’t end up being all that bad on the trip. The only truly horrid day was our day in Hiroshima, and this actually ended up having a couple of impacts. Firstly it did alter how much we were able to take in at places such as the Hiroshima Peace Park, meant we were sodden going to the Castle and missed the Shukkien Gardens. Also it was on this day that we’d learnt about Super Typhoon Neoguri and made the decision to move our trip away from Takayama and cancel our trip there. Missing Takayama was disappointing, but the decision to go back to Tokyo was still the right one and we had some really good experiences at Yokohama, Nihon-Minkaean and Ikebukuro. The other end of the spectrum was the truly oppressive heat on the last couple of days, coupled with the surprise of the earthquake on the second last day. Despite all of this, the weather wasn’t too bad. If it had been as hot as it was the last few days for the entire trip, that probably would have made things pretty awfule.

Most surprisingly fun/interesting place:Kita-Kamakura

I’m not sure if I’m swayed because it was early on in the trip, but going to Kita-Kamakura and the temples there before going to Kamakura proper was a great way to do that day trip. Kita-Kamakura wasn’t even a certainty as I had considered trying to fit Enoshima into the day somewhere, probably in lieu of the temples at Kita-Kamakura. I’m glad I didn’t do that, it was just lovely and peaceful and not at all what I expected. Definitely worthwhile.

Honourable mention: Miyajima

Best experience:Hozugawa River Cruise

There were so many things to choose from in terms of best experience, I was actually planning on writing about the onsen baths in Miyajima for this section. However after reflecting, the cruise down the Hozugawa River in Arashiyama was spectacular. It was so beautiful and serene, calm yet exhilarating. The constant chatter and jokes from the crew (despite the fact that I understood none of it – except for when one of the rowers missed his mark with the pole he was using) added to the atmosphere and made it a day I’ll remember for a long time to come.

Honourable mentions: Onsen in Miyajima, Night Boat tour, Eating Black Eggs at Owakudani, Monkey Park

Best Museum/Site: Hiroshima Peace Park

I’ll include temples and other sites in this category. As I mentioned earlier, Kita-Kamakura and it’s temples were stunning, so too were some that we saw in Kyoto again and in Miyajima also. Overall though, the Hiroshima Peace Park and it’s Museum is so well curated that I had to list it as the best. Even with the weather, it is clear that everything in the Peace Park treats the subject with the dignity it deserves and serves the message of nuclear disarmament clearly. From all the signage being multi-lingual, to the layout of the Museum and its exhibitions, the whole thing was awe inspiring. It was so effective that I, who took over 1500 photos on the trip (and still feel like I didn’t get enough of particular things) felt quite uncomfortable taking any at the Museum and didn’t feel regretful that I ‘missed’ some photo opportunities. The Peace Park alone is worth a day trip down to Hiroshima if you’re staying somewhere like Kyoto or Osaka.

Honourable mentions: Nihon-Minkaean, Itsukushima Shrine, Meigetsuin Temple

Best night out: Baseball at Tokyo Dome

It’s difficult for me to write too much more on this because it is so recent and I feel like I’ve covered it in detail already. Again though, this is an experience where, if you can possibly do it, even if you don’t love sports, I highly recommend it (so too the Sumo tournaments which we saw last time). In large part, the enthusiasm of the Hanshin Tigers crowd (who are based of Osaka and aren’t the home team of the Tokyo Dome) and the craziness of the Tokyo Dome itself made the entire night worthwhile.

Honourable mentions: Capcom Bar, Watching Origin at Paddy’s Junction in Shinjuku

Best Meal: Soba in Shinjuku

Meals made up a large part of our trip and were probably the biggest hit to our budget. This is because of us and the way we approach meals, rather than Japan being overly expensive. At times I felt a bit of regret, stress and guilt at having some of our more expensive meals, because in knew we could do it a bit cheaper. However, we enjoyed pretty much every meal and again, retrospectively, I have no regrets about any of them. Amusingly though, I think that our best meal was also our cheapest, working out to something like 1300 yen. This was from the little Soba place around the corner from Citadines Shinjuku. We ordered the food from the vending machine at the front, took it to the counter and got our delicious meal.

Honourable mentions: Ninja Restaurant (for the experience), French at Fujiya (so expensive, so delicious), Cook your own in Pontocho, Sushi in Kyoto.

And with that food category, I’ll finish it there. I could write about a lot more but I’m tired and have already spent too much time doing this already. Also the iPad is playing up and the cat is threatening to eat it’s charging cable and, in being unable to do so, is contenting herself by malting everywhere. Thanks to everyone for following this trip. Please keep on, I’m sure I’ll write more at some point. The trip was great and I really enjoyed writing this to provide some context for the thousands of pictures I take. It has been a blast.

Cheers