The Rumble Pack

*Major “The Wire” spoilers towards the very end of this post…

Wow, what the hell happened? I had intended to follow up those stupid potion photos with something substantial shortly after, but somehow time just slipped through my fingers. I’m not saying that I don’t have a few valid excuses, but I do feel bad for letting so many days pass by.

Tokyo: I have never appreciated clean air so much. After spending half a year under the smoggy blanket of Shijiazhuang, it was so refreshing to be able to see the sky again. My lungs almost had trouble adjusting to Tokyo’s comparably pristine air. On the ground, things were just as immaculate. Though I had trouble finding trashcans anywhere besides convenient marts, there was hardly any trash in the streets. The recycling program is also far beyond what I had encountered before - even in fast food restaurants, patrons have to separate their plastic straws and lids from the rest of their garbage. Of course, the Japanese use tons of packing material in lieu of mass quantities of preservatives, so I would imagine there are trade offs.

Stuffed poop inside a U.F.O. crane game - almost worth the 100 yen admission…

However, germaphobe or not, even I wouldn’t fly all the way to Japan just to appreciate the cleanliness of my surroundings. Though ten days proved to be more than enough time to spend in Tokyo and the surrounding area (I would’ve ventured farther but my meager salary was prohibitive), I still had to make the most of my time there. After all, it’s always been a dream of mine to visit Japan, if only for superficial nerd reasons. And given my interests (and the focus of this podcast/site), you’d better believe that I’ll be starting with the arcade scene and Akihabara.

You often read about how Japanese arcades are starting to suffer the same fates as their American counterparts, but Takadanobaba’s “Big Box” arcade still seemed to attract enough die hard Tekken 6 and Virtua Fighter 5 devotees to keep afloat. At 100 yen a pop, it’s easy to see why many Japanese gamers would be turned off, but I’ve always been nostalgic for that inimitable feeling of community that’s been associated with arcades. Believe me, trouncing a buddy in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is always more satisfying when you can hear him muttering to himself from his side of the cabinet (as opposed to through a headset).

I suddenly don’t feel as embarrassed to own Steel Battalion.

However, spend enough time in one of these amusement centers and you’ll realize that the arcade giants such as Konami and Sega are fighting a losing battle. You can dress up an arcade cabinet in fancy colors (or in the case of one Gundam game, a series of giant, all-encompassing pods), you can offer collectible cards and other knickknacks as incentives, and you can even try to “innovate” by including wacky peripherals or touch screens, but the fact remains that the vast majority of new, worthwhile arcade games are either available on home consoles right now or will be within a few months. That’s not to say that playing Half-Life 2: The Arcade Game was dull (well, maybe it was…), but I think that arcades as we remember them are gone forever. Old news for some, but playing games such as Sega’s Let’s Go Jungle and Rhythm Tengoku (also on the GBA, check out my review) made me feel very nostalgic for the gaming parlors of my youth.

Explain to me why Taito thought it would be a good idea to REMOVE the gravity gun from Half-Life 2.

I’m not sure if it was this nostalgia or the endorsements from the Retronauts podcast, but my big gaming purchase from Akihabara was a Sega Saturn, along with 27 quality games. It’s really hard walking through stores like Sofmap and Super Potato when you’re getting paid a Chinese salary, and you can be certain that for every game I bought, there were ten or so that I had to put back on the shelf. Even so, I’m more than satisfied with my haul. My fighting game library has nearly doubled now (Fighter’s Megamix, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Street Fighter Alpha 2), but I was also sure to grab some hard-to-find imports as well (DoDonPachi, Keio Flying Squadron 2, Silhouette Mirage). Now if only I could understand enough Japanese to play through Panzer Dragoon Saga.

In all honesty, this epic nerd spree probably made up 15% of my vacation. The rest of the time, I was eating at Kaiten -sushi restaurants or visiting various shrines, temples, and museums scattered throughout Tokyo and the nearby Kamakura. Here are some of the highlights:

Tokyo Tower provides one of the finest views of the city.

See?

Ueno Park might not have much going for it during the winter, but these guys were around to pick up the slack.

Devoured by cuteness…

Studio Ghibli Museum tickets are usually very scarce, but Rienzo and I managed to snag a couple at a convenient marts. It’s a shame that we couldn’t take any pictures inside (you’re missing out on the giant cat-bus from My Neighbor Totoro), but at least you can see this guy guarding the outside.

A familiar sight in case you feel homesick…

Our future robot overlord can currently be found waving to children at the Odaiba Science Museum.

Here’s another picture of Odaiba, featuring a fancy television station and Sega’s Joypolis amusement park.

The Daibutsu was impressive, but it’s not as if I haven’t seen comparable statues throughout China. I was more impressed with…

…All of the shrines scattered throughout Kamakura. Though the town itself was filled with tourists, we found several of these serene yards off the beaten path.

The Triforce was apparently a family crest long before it appeared in any Zelda title.

Another temple near the grounds of the Imperial Palace…

This photo may have been more amusing or relevant if I had posted it prior to SSBB’s U.S. release.

Again, this was just a wonderful trip, and a big thanks to Mike Rienzo for serving as a tour guide/host and for providing me with all of the pictures. Traveling to Japan has given me a renewed sense of purpose to learn more about Asian culture (beyond the Chinese history books) and maybe even turn my attention to Japanese someday. It’s amazing how just ten days can shape your view of a country. But my travel time is limited.

Shijiazhuang: I only have six more weeks in this country before it’s time to return home, and though part of me is counting down the days, I don’t want to waste all my time sitting in my apartment when I should be making the most of every minute here. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to travel abroad like this again (though mark my words - I will see the rest of the world), especially since I was recently accepted into journalism programs at Syracuse and Mizzou, so I will be taking trips to various tourist hotspots whenever my weekends are free. I wish I didn’t have to rush (all of Xian in less than two days sounds daunting), but I’ll at least be saving money on hostel expenses. When I’m not globe trotting however, I’ll be running over to the gym next door.

Confession time: Before coming to China, I was never in shape. Ever. Sure, I’m not obese or anything of the sort, but that has more to do with my height than it does with being physically active. But when a new gym opened above the neighboring light mall (a shopping mall filled entirely with light stores, don’t ask why), it was time to pull my butt off the couch and onto a weight bench. As it turns out, the months of cycling between classes has done wonders for my endurance, and I can now run on a treadmill for thirty minutes at a time. No matter what you think of that number, it’s a huge personal milestone, and I’m going to feel great returning to the States in good health. But though the gym is working out well and I am preparing for some last adventures in China, another void has suddenly opened elsewhere…

Baltimore: “The Wire” has finally come to a close. The cases against the Stanfield organization came to a close (with Marlo as a business man, completely out of his element), McNulty’s finally found some sort of redemption now that he’s off the force, and the years-in-the-making money trail was cut off by Maurice Levy. I should be glad; it’s not everyday that a quality show gets the chance to end on its own terms. But now I’m at a loss as to what will follow in this show’s footsteps. “Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men,” “The Venture Brothers,” and “The Shield” all provide high quality writing and thrills, but none of these shows have the same ambition as David Simon’s behemoth.

“Makes me sick motherf*cker how far we done fell!”

I’m also sad because I was just beginning to become attached to the newsroom introduced this season. I know that some have claimed that the points made in this thread were not as nuanced as what we saw from the docks or Tilghman Middle, and though it’s true that the managing editors are sometimes a bit over-the-top with their pleas to adhere to the “Dickensian aspect,” I still think the matters of buyouts and dwindling newspaper budgets were well handled. This was a fitting final piece of the puzzle. And without the newspaper storyline, we wouldn’t have been treated to those wonderful scenes with “Bubbles”/Reginald and Fletcher, or to Gus Haynes. By the way, I find it sad that some fans have been criticizing the writers for making his character too perfect. Is an honest, meticulous editor really that unbelievable to viewers?

Though the show has come to a fitting conclusion (good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people), I’d still love to spend time just following these characters post-MCU. I could listen to guys like McNulty and Bunk banter after work by the train tracks every night, and I’m dying to know what would happen to Slim Charles and the Co-op now that Marlo is probably out of the game for good. However, I suppose that’s why I’m not on the show’s writing staff. It’s done and I have to move on, even if it feels like I’ve lost a close friend. Here’s hoping that Simon’s next program can at least achieve the same level of excellence.

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I’m not sure how much I’ll be blogging in the next few weeks, since I’ve got my plate full with classes, Chinese lessons, and a workout schedule. I will do my best though to update when I can, and at the very least, expect to see me on the message boards more often.

Also, please check out my friend’s blog if you’re curious about the nightmare that is law school. Jeff, I don’t know how you do it.