Finally, the Day is here, we woke up early to head down to the festival to avoid any disappointment. A few of the highlights were a live mochi pounding/making, cosplay competition, performances and THE BINGO which is the most hype event I believe.
There were also many food stand and game stands. All price within 100-300 yen not too expensive in my opinion. We went up to the 5th level where our games are being showcased at. Other then our games, there were many another year 3 student projects being a showcase as well. Glad to see that members of the public enjoyed playing our games when we were there.
The last activity for the school festival was the bingo game. The prize varies across items like KIT KAT till the grand price A SWITCH. I was pretty unlucky and won nothing but the experience was fun and I am looking forward to bring this activity back to Singapore in a week time.
Today is one of my craziest plans. To travel to Osaka by train for an event in Osaka called Lock City Final. I left as early as 7am to catch the train towards Osaka. The trip from Nagoya to Osaka is around 3 hour and 30mintures. I brought myself a Kintetsu Pass that cost 3.8K yen. Which allows me to take unlimited train rides that are owned by Kintetsu with an exception of the limited express train. Those train you have to buy a seat and the price range different base on the distance and the train your taking.
Before Lock City, I decide to see Osaka castle and Dōtonbori. Two of Osaka most popular spot and I can see why it is so popular with locals and tourist after being here myself. Of course, when coming to Osaka, it a die must try their takoyaki and it is the best takoyaki I have ever eaten! HANDS DOWN!
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Lock City was crazy with a total of 16 cities involved each having their own judge and champion from that city. I went down to meet with the Singapore group and also to support the Singapore champion! The place was as small as a classroom but there like around 150 people or more in the location. The finals were between 2 Japanese and they are really good.
I decide to paid extra 1.9k yen for the limited express train to travel back cause I am super tired. The seat spacing is great and I don’t even need to change train in between the stops unlike the none limited express ones. I guess you have the pay for the convenience and time!
Today is the day where the school planned a trip for us! As the title stated, it is Inuyama Castle! So what makes this castle so special compared to the others that I went? This is one of the only few castles that is not reconstructed therefore all the internal structure is still the same. The stair is so tall that you to do a 90 degree up to climb it.
Stairs Height
You are allowed to climb all the way up to the top. Around 6 levels and you will reach the top where the view is awesome. Careful as that the railing is super short and it possible to fall over.
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Next, they reserve a pottery session for us to experience from a pottery master. This man has been doing pottery for over 50 years. He can make over 200 rice bowl in a day when we are struggling to do even one. It was a great experience, it felt very calming and relaxing. We are allowed to bring one back! Can’t wait to see the finished product like the one we did is just the 3rd step which is the molding. We should see the final product in two 2 weeks time can’t wait!
Decide to write 3 days at one shot for this post due to the fact that it really a constant cycle of development, not really anything interesting to report on.
Today we have people from ZeniMax, Japan Branch Tango Gameworks that came to give a talk. As usual, it’s in Japanese, but one of the members can speak English! After the talk, one of the teachers told us they will be bringing them to our work area to see our game. We don’t really have much to show as the game was still in the development and it’s only a 20 days work but we do appreciate the advice and comment that these veterans in the game industry have given us. Sadly I didn’t ask for their names but they are pretty cool.
Tomorrow finally I will be going to Gifu to attend a dance workshop! I haven’t been dancing for 3 weeks now. A long break i have taken and it really great to be back at it.
So today we visited A-team the company who made valkyrie connect and many other games. It was pretty interesting to see that more and more company are adapting to the free workstyle. With many open spaces rather than the tight spaces.
Katsudon for lunch
They gave us a tour around their main headquarters which is in Nagoya on the 30-32 floor! The office really reminds me off Google Office in Singapore as well but they do have tons of meeting rooms and spaces. Majorly of their walls around the office are whiteboard or glass that can be written on with markers.
Sadly, I couldn’t post any picture regarding the office online so I only can post this guy! Their official mascot I guess?
Development day once again, today we finally merge and have our first prototype ready. We have not set up for testing yet but that is what we going to do the next day. Today lunch we decide to have something different from our usuals. We decide to have INDIA FOOD! We brought the lunch menu and it didn’t wow us HAHAHA, it almost taste the same as Singapore if not Singapore curry is a lot better. We did let our Finland friends try out some Indian food which is uncommon in their county. I guess we should stick back to Japanese food for tomorrow! AHAHHAA
Today went to NUFS (Nagoya Universty Of Foreign Studies) for the annual school festival! There were many food stalls, performances, and game stalls. All of them are run by students! They also don’t cost that much, around 100 – 500 yen is the price is seen.
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I personally know about this due to meeting a friend from the BBQ last time! She was performing today and glad that I went down to watch. The dance performs lasted 1hr and they actually showcase many dance genre. It was crazy and lit! Sadly we miss out on the games part, we couldn’t find them until we read the information booklet that was given to us till we reach back at our dorm DX
Tomorrow back to work! We have to finish up the prototype for the playtest this Wednesday! TIME TO RUSH!
Today is a crazy day! After school, we decided to head to give since the school was half day. We took the JR line there from Nagoya station toward Gifu station, it took around 15 – 20 mins to reach there depending on what train you take. There are normal, limited express and new express. Normal drops at every stop where express skip stops. Somehow for this journey to Gifu. Both express train only takes 2 stops, the cost is 420 yen. Ouch…
When we reach Gifu, first we have to rent a locker to put our laptops. Luckily in Japan, almost every train station has lockers. After that, we went to rent a bike. It only cost 100 yen for the whole day (till 1850). This bike renting/sharing system is initialed by Gifu to promote traveling with bikes as Gifu has no subway. (Base on my knowledge) This also marks the first time I rode a bike in Japan!
My Bike For the Day
100EN
After that, we cycled for 20-30min to Gifu Park, the base of the Mount Kinkazan where lias Gifu Castle on its peak. We decide to take the cable car up, worried that if we hike up we will miss the Castle and the squirrel village as they close at 1630.
They Squeeze you into a cable car.
First, we enter the squirrel village, it only cost 200 yen to see all the fluffy small creatures running about. The staff will give you feed for the squirrels and they will swarm you. They even will climb on your hand just to eat, one of them even climb on my body and accidentally scratch me on my neck DX. I highly recommend coming to visiting this place, cheap and fun!
IT ON MY HAND
SLEEP SOME MORE
Then we went into the main attraction, Gifu Castle. To get to Gifu Castle we still have to walk up steep and unstable rocky stairs for the cable car exit. To enter Gifu Castle, you have to pay 200 yen but it is well worth it! The view is spectacular! You have to see it for yourself to understand how great the view it is. I have recorded it on my GoPro but I can still say, seeing it live yourself is 10 times different in the video. To add on Gifu Castle also showcase historic objects and figures. Such as Oda Nobunaga, Weapons and Armor for the past.
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After that, we have this crazy idea to descend Mount Kinkazan! There are 4 routes up and down. We took the 2km route and it took us around 50min to descent. The route is steep and very unstable. One wrong step you could slip and injured yourself but the descent was worth it. Nature and the view you get you to see was awesome. While descent we see this granny coming up. OMG no wonder Japanese lives long.
Group photo before descendNICE VIEW at 1800m
After that, we decide to head back as it was getting late! We also stop by at the riverbank for the awesome sunset and view. So far, I highly recommend heading to Gifu for the awesome experience you can get for going to just one location but do head there early if you want to slowly roam about. We went there around 2pm which is pretty late. That’s all for today! Back to work tomorrow, today adventure are fun! MORE TO COME!
Not much to update today! I am about to be done with my state machine for my Slime monster/unit. It now can wander about and run away from the player! We did try to merge but for some reason, there are some problems. We need to waiting for the lead programmer to come back as he is sick today.
Today we decide to drop one station before our usual stop to our dorm. We decide to walk back and see what along the way. While on the way we did find a small cozy shop, selling unique melon-pan (melon bread). I brought the chocolate banana one, it was interesting but I am not really a fan of it.
Today is a more unique day, we are having a dorm bbq session. It cost only 500 yen and its held at the Shonai Ryokuchi Park. A total of 6 dorms came together for this session. I estimated around 50+ people turn up. I met new friends! Interesting the BBQ session have not only Japanese but people from the USA, China and so. It kinda sad that I couldn’t speak Japanese well but there are ways to communicate!
Group Photo
We ended the day with a game of BINGO. Sadly, I didn’t win anything but it was a unique and interesting experience. The grand prize was Disneyland tickets and there were like 20 prizes to giveaway! One of the funniest prizes is 30 bottles of 500ml water LOL.
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Back to project work tomorrow! We have around 9 more days to the first prototype showcase! Hope everything goes well!
SOSpacebar Travels 