November 2006 Archives

So the reason I've not been blogging is that I've been preoccupied with Jump Ultimate Stars, the Nintendo DS sequel to the popular Jump Super Stars. I made a video, which I posted below, that explains the game in great detail.

***Note that this game will never come out in the US due to the fact that many of the mangas featured in this game have been licensed to different companies abroad, and thus the legal hurdles of putting this game out anywhere else is near impossible.***

Assuming you watched the video, all twenty minutes of it, here are a few additional things you might want to know. First is that you can buy it from play-asia.com or here in Japan for around 5,000¥. The game will probably take you around 7-8 hours to play through, though you'll spend just as much time trying to make your own teams or evolving your characters up. Not to mention that fact that online play will probably take cause you to stay up late every night fighting small Japanese children. Its a must have for those otaku manga lovers.

The game itself isn't too difficult to play through. You start out with only one pre-made team and are run though a rather nice tutorial that shows you how to do all the various move and team creations. You progress through the game by moving to various 'world's' each with a set of several missions. The missions themselves can be completed by finishing the main objective, though there will usually be five or six objectives. Completing an objective gives you either a character card or 'symbol points,' both of which you need to evolve your characters to their various states. If you import this game you'll need to use an online translation of the various mission goals, one of which can be found here at gamefaqs.com.

A massive change from the last game is how your evolve the manga characters you unlock. In the old game you unlocked blocks of blank comics which had to be matched up with the proper one tile character cards. A major pain in the ass. In this new game you just use the points you've built up to evolve them into their various states. Either as support cards or playable character cards. Through this process you also unlock new levels, new evolution lines for certain characters, and various bonus features. Sadly there are not enough points in the game to evolve everyone into their various forms. But this is why you can assume points through online play.

Creating teams is rather easy, and rather addictive. Once you unlock and evolve your characters you're left with various shaped comic panels that range from 1 square up to 8. The 1 square panels give bonuses and abilities when placed next to playable characters. The 2-3 panel guys are support characters, they're one shot characters that pop in and do a wide range of actions. Sometimes they give you status upgrades, or evoke status punishments on your opponents. Some just jump out and hit thanks. Now you also have 4-8 panel sets which are the playable characters, to which there are usually several (up to 6 on some people) variation on a single playable character. As the number of panels go up, so does that characters power, and usually their special moves are better. Each character has 3 'associate' characters in the game. When placing two 'associates' next to each other they get an even more special bonus or special powers. You'll know you've done this because theres a nice 'twinkle' that happens. During this process you also assign a team leader, who is the first one out fighting and also the person who fights in a death match, and can assign the L or R buttons to a certain panel. (Which is a very nice improvement. Thanks!)

While playing in a match you can activate support characters or other team mates by taping the bottom screen, or using the L and R buttons you've assigned. Rather simple.

Wireless pay is probably the best addition to this game. To be honest it was the only thing mission from the past game. Online play is simple and easy, and also allows you to pick up more points to use to evolve characters. Once you connect online you can play a Friend match or a Random person match. The game will search for other players and a game will start. By default it will try and hook you up with a 4 person game, if that doesn't happen you'll end up with a 2 or 3 person match. There are three online game play modes. Point Match, Death Match, and Collect Medals. Whoever gets stuck in the 'First Player' slot gets to pick the map, game type, and time limit. Then you play the match using teams you've made. The better you place the more points, and types of points, you win. When you disconnect the game gives you the option to save data from the other players, such as their deck (which you can use in single player mode) and also scores from the single player Battle Arena mode.

The game also features direct download play, which allows you and someone who doesn't have the game to play one map and one of three (I think) pre-made decks. Watch the video below to see how it works.

The game also features a Quiz Mode which is nice if you have an encyclopedic knowledge of manga and can read Japanese, a Database of manga stuff, and a Battle Arena where you can try and outrank scores you've pick up online.

The game is rock solid. Online play has little to no lag and will provide you with too much fun. The graphics and levels have been expanded and improved from the previous game. The new character evolution makes things a lot more interesting and a lot easier than the old mode. Plus there is a never-ending list of things to unlock. My only beef with the game is that there are not enough points to evolve everyone in the game, although I actually kind of like this feature as well. If you want a fighting game for the DS this is the one to buy/import.

Happy somewhat late Thanksgiving. I've been a bit preoccupied with things and haven't had much time to write. Last Thursday a large group of us Fukuyama JETs had a little Thanksgiving party. Mostly because you never really need an excuse to have a dinner party. For my part in this Thanksgiving feast, I decided that I would go all out and cook up several various kinds of chicken. So I bought a bunch of containers, and a whole lot of chicken, and then let it all marinate over night. The next day I ended up spending a good two hours cooking it all up on my stove. So in the end I had 4 types of chicken made up. Spicy chicken, Chinese style chicken, garlic chicken, and several containers of Tandori chicken. Lets just say that several days later I still have dishes piled high in my sink.

It wasn't just a Thanksgiving meal, it was also a birthday party for Yann's 29th birthday!

On Saturday Crystal and I went up to Kanabe to go to another Thanksgiving dinner, which couldn't be beat, at Kate Meyer's place. After getting lost for quite a while, but eventually made our way there to eat our fill chicken and gin. Oh the gin was good. I also somehow found another JET with an equally encyclopedic knowledge of bad sci-fi.

My favorite Thanksgiving tradition. Just as important now as it was so many years ago.

Probably most important was that Kate picked up some more Chai tea for me..... hmmm.... lots of teaaaaaa.....

I am a tea addict. I've become hooked on Chai Tea at Starbucks. Its kind of amazing how I never once had any tea or coffee while working at a Barnes and Nobel in high school and college. Its probably a good thing, as my Chai Tea addiction tends to chew through your money rather quickly. Luckily I've stocked up now on Chai Tea bags and can sit at home, slowly drinking my days away. The upside to my drinking so much tea is that I'm rather super energetic in class and at the office. The downside is that when I'm not drinking tea I'm spending my time violently shaking on the floor. On that note I think I will go put the kettle on.

Due to recent complaints by fellow ALT coworkers that I have been presenting a bad image of our ALT work ethic (and apparently the inability of several of them to read a joke) I will now put a disclaimer on all my blog entries that states:

This blog is for entertainment purposes only. All people in this blog are fictional. Any relations to people living or dead is purely coincidental. In fact this blog is completely fictional. Nothing is actually real. If you think that anything that you read here is real, then you're an idiot. Please stop reading this blog. No seriously. This blog has been proven to cause hair loss, chronic back pain, bad eyesight, constipation, runny nose, dry mouth, rash, hives, foot root, bad breath, tooth decay, impotence, color blindness, getting a job in Japan, and a waste of time. So please, stop reading. You'll only hurt yourself.

The weather has been nice lately, in the 50s F most of the time. Though oddly this past weekend was nothing but rain. Hard rain. Which kind of killed any urge of mine to leave the apartment for a good part of the weekend. I did manage to go out with Crystal and a friend of hers for dinner and Saturday and see the local History Museum on Sunday. The Museum was showing an exhibit of Japanese swords, some of which were over over 500 years old. Probably the most impressive sword was the one that was well over 100 cm, which seems like a lot for a armor clad Japanese warrior to be swinging around in battle. "Uh oh. There come Ogawa again. With his big sword. Watch it, he took down twice as many of his own men as he did the enemy last week. I think he's compensating for something." I sat down and watched a video on sword making for a while, which amused the children in the area to no end. Japanese swords seem to be a subtle art of craftsmanship and design. I was quite impressed by it all and wished the gift shop sold swords. Luckily the did not, as it would probably be a major pain to get back through customs. "Sir, why do you have this sword in your carry on bag?" "Ummm... to kill the invading gaijin and protect the Emperor?"

I tried playing this new Gundam VR, which while probably the coolest thing to ever hit the arcade, also almost caused me to puke all over the VR Pod I was in. I've included the following video of the VR pod and me playing it (I figured I should give it a second chance) to show you the overall coolness of it all. Or overall puke inducing mind blowing VR power that is this battle pod thingy.

I'm all up for cultural differences and everything but the Japanese schools around here have gotten on my nerves. Not the people, or the students, but the schools themselves. Its not just the little things, like lack of heat or cooling, or even the dangerous things like asbestos hanging from open ceilings. Its the fact that no one else seems to be bothered by how much these schools are in disrepair. Most of the schools I've been to were built post WWII and are over 50 years old. They all look like Communist era housing projects, and are devoid of any color or happiness. Probably the worst thing to happen to these schools is the self cleaning the students do. If I hadn't mentioned it before, I will again. The students are the ones who clean the schools. There seems to never be any outside help. Each day the kids spend 10-20 minutes cleaning. As you'd expect the kids honestly don't do a very good job, I mean if I was a kid I wouldn't either. So now you have around 50 years of grime, dust, and hand marks over everything. I don't even want to go into how bad some of the bathrooms are. The thing that nerves me is that Japan spends a lot of money on construction, a lot of it on random projects just for the sake of projects. Why isn't this money being spent on new schools? Nice schools? More modern ones? One with hot water at the sinks so you don't freeze your fingers off all winter long washing your hands. Is this too much to ask in a country with a network of high speed bullet trains and robots that open beer cans for you? (Update: As if to remind me today about how bad things sometimes can be, I saw a kid in a wheel chair today using a small tank to get up the stairs. As there are no elevators in any of my schools the kids in wheel chairs have to get hooked up to this tank trended contraption and go up stairs that way. This is why I don't want to break a leg/ foot while in Japan. I would never be able to get around.)

Well if nothing else this speed test shows you that at least my internet connection in Japan is nice.... even if nothing else is at times.

Suck it DSL. Eat my fiber connection.

Its been a week and I've not written anything. Sorry about that. I've been a bit busy, a bit caffeinated, and a bit down. In the past two weeks the three kittens I had in my care made their way off to different homes, only to each die one after the other. I guess they were all sick (they all went to the various vets as well) and really young. Thats got me down a bit. Poor little cats.

Last week I attempted to go to an art museum in Hiroshima City, only to end up at the wrong museum. Well this Saturday I did the same thing, went into town and ended up at the wrong museum. Only this time I realized it early on and made my way to toe proper museum to see the Ultraman Exhibit. There I was able to see production notes, sketches, costumes, miniature sets, and old TV footage. Why did I go see Ultraman? Why not. I think I confused quite a dew Japanese people by being there as well. Afterwards I toured the permeant collection and took a walk in a very nice Japanese garden. On my way home I bought some wine and a lot of imported tea (thats right, all the tea!) to last me for the winter. My one funny story for the day trip was when I was exiting the museum and going into the garden, these two little girls ages 2 and 3 felt the urge to come up to me and tell me about Ultraman. Seems they were going there next and wanted to show me their fliers, apparently I looked like someone who needed some ultra-explaining. They were so cute, and on a double bonus, we were both on the same level Japanese language wise.

I picked up a couple of Nintendo DS games this past week. Jump Super Stars, the best fighting game for the DS that will never leave Japan. Imagine Smash Brothers had a bastard child with Marvel vs Capcom 2, and their child was hopelessly addicted to Japanese manga. A manga fighting game... so nice... I also picked up, for nostalgia sake, Kirby: Squeak Squad. Who doesn't love Kirby. I know I do. I guess I'll make some review videos of these on Tuesday or Wednesday, show off the goods. While at the store I picked up this flier for the soon to be released game Goutouchi Kentai, which appears to be a calligraphy practice game. I'll put it on my "maybe one day buy if the world ends" list, alongside that Japanese cooking DS game. (Only in Japan will you find stuff like this.)

I did actually get productive today and edit that video from my trip to Vietnam. Sadly the server that I use to host all my video wouldn't let me log in, so its just sitting here on my desktop. Waiting. Being lonely. I did upload to youtube the video of my using an AK-47. I hope this will impress you to no end. (If you're interested, the history of the AK-47 is really interesting, and maybe then you'll realize why its been the most popular gun in the world for the past 50 years.)

That Boy Scout Rifle Shooting Merit Badge taught me well. Boo yeah. Too bad they didn't have an automatic rifle shooting merit badge....

Apple Computer has been running some silly ads in the US showing of a "Mac" and a "PC" talking about their differences. They're kind of funny and silly. Whats far more entertaining is the Japanese version of these ads featuring a Japanese "Mac" and "PC" hanging out. The commercials are, in my opinion, far better in Japanese. Or at least far more entertaining, especially if you don't know any Japanese. Honestly, watch a couple of them. (I can even understand most everything they say! Go me!) (A random thought. On one of the US ads the 'Mac' talks to a 'Japanese Camera' in Japanese. I wonder if they'll do a similar thing in the Japanese version of the ads, but have it speaking English or Chinese to some 'gadget.' Now that would be rather funny.)

Well, who doesn't. This past three day weekend I managed to get into some randomly fun filled nonsensical trouble. Friday I went out for curry after a long day of uploading photos, burning DVDs, and cleaning. Saturday I went to Hiroshima City to buy plane tickets (offices closed) and go see an art exhibit (went to the wrong museum). Though I made an error in navigation and didn't get to see the Ultraman art exhibit, I did get to hang out with Crystal and see an exhibit on action figures. No, seriously. Sunday I had some coffee, played some video games, went to see a student piano recital, and got my picture taken next to a big pig. (And I believe theres a Polaroid photo of me flying around some Japanese office somewhere as well. I hope they find me amusing.) Heres some fun pictures to help fill in the lack of detail in my description.

Anyways, thats my weekend. Not a whole lot to report. Maybe next weekend I can hit up both the Poison Gas Museum and the Ultraman exhibit in one day....