Mar122005

Saturday

Usually once a month I make a sojourn down to one of Utsunomiya’s hospitals to “teach” a doctor there. Basically we blab for a while, then he reads me a newspaper article or composition he wrote. I then help him correct his paper or understand some difficult bits of the article. In return, I get paid a ridiculous amount of money.

So, I’m off to spend some of that money on videogames.

The river I ride along to get to the hospital
A sign along the river (I’m sure you can guess the meaning without reading the Japanese)
A house I passed on the way
A view of Chambers’ English School

(Quick note: Sorry, these images are still pretty large. The photo program I use [iPhoto] doesn’t compress images very well. Even at 500×375, they are still over 100k in size. I need to get a better program.)

EDIT: I grabbed Metal Gear Solid 3 and Final Fantasy X International. MGS3 will be my test. If I can enjoy the game even though it’s entirely in Japanese, then I’ll buy the Japanese version of Final Fantasy 12. Right now I’m translating bits of the manual; learning lots of interesting words, but it gets kinda tedious after a while. FFX International is just one of those games it’s cool to have. Same old story, but lots of added junk, plus the dialogue is all in English. It even warns you of that fact on the back of the box.

1 comment · Written by Nathan at 2:58 pm · Tags

Mar112005

Gish

Finally after getting an internet connection, I was able to download a demo of that indie game, Gish. Figured I’d post a bit o’ my reactions here.

Our story so far: Gish and his lady friend Brea are out walking around one day, when all of a sudden a mysterious hand reaches out of the sewers and grabs the girl. Gish must (of course) rescue the girlfriend while trying not to die. The problem? Gish is a ball of tar. Actually, the real problem is trying to explain how a sentient ball of tar managed to get a girlfriend, but I guess that’s beyond the scope of this game.

Being tarrish and ball-shaped, Gish moves a bit more sluggishly than most video game heros. With no legs, momentum plays a big factor in play control. Navigating his two-dimensional world sometimes takes a bit of patience. To help you along, Gish has four different abilities: Sticky, Slick, Heavy, and Expand. Sticky does like it says, allowing Gish to roll up walls and along ceilings. Slick lets him slide through narrow spaces, while Heavy increases Gish’s weight in order to crush walls and baddies. Expand will propel Gish a short distance into the air; get the timing right and you can bounce him like a rubber ball.

Some of Chronic Logic’s earlier projects are intensely physics-based, and this shows when playing Gish. In fact, many other reviews I’ve read wax on and on about the physics of the game. Indeed, Gish is very realistic (perhaps too realistic) dealing with interaction in the game world. Tilting bridges and rope platforms move exactly how you might expect. Put too much weight on a rope and it will snap, possibly plunging Gish into lava or making it difficult to proceed in the level. When first playing the game, control is a bit frustrating, but as the game progresses, the entire system feels quite intuitive.

Besides the standard levels, Gish also includes other gameplay modes, such as Collection (wherein you collect coins…uhh I mean pieces of amber) and Versus (wherein you push another Gish-like creature off a ledge). The basic premise of the game is interesting enough, and these added modes are like icing on the cake. For only $20, it’s hard to go wrong.

2 comments · Written by Nathan at 11:09 am · Tags

Mar102005

stupid story

No pictures today, but I thought I’d regale you all with (what I consider) kind of a humorous story.

When I first got to Japan, I started teaching the next day. Of course, I’m a bit nervous, but trying to act cool about it. When I go into the office, I get introduced as the new teacher, of course. In Japanese, “kore wa atarashi sensei desu.” Then the (all female) staff members start saying “kawaisou desune?” I recognize “kawaii,” which means “cute,” and am thinking I’ve already made a bit hit in the ol’ office. Now, here comes the grammar: usually the “~sou desu” ending means “looks like/seems like~” (e.g. “muzukashisou” is “seems difficult,” “oishisou” is “looks delicious”). Bearing this in mind, you would THINK “kawaisou” means “cute looking,” and if you thought that, you would be wrong. It actually means “pitiful” or “pathetic.”

In reality, everyone was trying to sympathize with the fact that I had to teach with no training. Ha ha ha, I felt pretty dumb.

6 comments · Written by Nathan at 11:32 pm · Tags

Mar082005

Tired

Today I had my first Jieitai (Japanese Self-Defense Force) class. Basically babbled on and did self-introduction stuff for about 2 hours. Hooah! In any case, I was out of the house for the usual 12 hours. Whine whine.

Tochigi Station. I use this station way too much. They just recently finished repairing the entire front entrance, so it looks pretty nice now. I’m also rather bitter about my camera’s inability to take photographs without strong lighting (i.e. the flash).

So here was my snack last night: Green Tanuki Soba. You remember the “Tanooki Suit” in SMB3? Well, the tanuki is like a mythical racoon-dog creature that can change shape, although I don’t really know that much more. Check out Everything2′s tanuki node.

Noodles in styrofoam bowls are the ultimate in laziness. Boil the water, then throw away the bowl when you’re done. Not exactly environmentally friendly, but then again we do live in an advanced capitalist culture. Gotta do your part to make the world’s economy turn.

1 comment · Written by Nathan at 10:02 pm · Tags

Mar072005

A few thoughts

So, it becomes rapidly apparent to me that splitting the webpage was not a good idea. One of the pages will get neglected, and I have a sinking suspicion that it will be the ‘games’ one. SO, once I get a bit more time, I will DELETE the games page and consolidate to just one iteration of this content management program. Now the decision becomes whether to reinstall in the root directory or leave some kind of intro page there.

Anyway, with the new net connect, I have decided to try to take more photos, and upload one every day, with some kind of blurb. My friends Sam and Matt didn’t do this (Ok, Sam did make a page, but he never updated it), and I kinda wished that they had, in order to live vicariously through them! Pictures will automatically make this page 100% more interesting, because the wackyness of Japan is worth way more than my incoherent rambling.

Today’s picture: Jishin da!

That sign is next to a barber shop which is right across from my apartment building. It says “Jishin da! Hi wo kese!” (It’s an earthquake! Erase the fire!) The kanji at the bottom say “Utsunomiya-shi.” See, told you guys that fire was the most dangerous part of an earthquake.

5 comments · Written by Nathan at 10:44 pm · Tags

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