Japan Is Doomed

Just when you thought I’d given up on videos altogether!

Japan Trip '08, Video

It’s been far too long since my last update, and even longer since a text based one. So apologies for that. As you may be aware, the camcorder I used is currently somewhat out of action, so until I find some other way to get it working, it’s text all the way, baby! (Plus the occasional dorms-based video, I suppose).

Anyway, yesterday I, the two current volunteers, plus the father and sister of one of them, headed to the SEGA Joypolis amusement park in Odaiba. Rather than talk about what I did in boring chronological order, here are my thoughts on a few of the most memorable rides;

Halfpipe Canyon

This ride is fantastic. Basically you and one other person are strapped to a giant snowboard that swings in a giant 180 degrees halfpipe, and whilst you are in the middle you must quickly rock your feet back and forth, causing the board itself to spin around. You get 1 point for doing it at the top of a turn and three if you do it in the middle. I think you go for around 90 seconds, and the winners get a big round of applause from the spectators. It’s a lot harder than it looks.

Room Of Living Dolls

These things are in quite a lot of theme parks, I think. You sit in the middle of a room, the place goes black and a load of scary music and talking happens, with the occasional flash of light or something. This one is actually a really well done one - you wear headphones and a creepy grandma cuts your hair, then asks to take your ears and eyes to give to her living Japanese doll. I won’t spoil it too much, but it’s not very tacky at all, although it is only in Japanese. I managed to understand most of it, but if you’re not a speaker then it’s just going to sound like a lot of jibberish with the occasional gory sound effect.

Prisonbreak -Breakout-

You’re taken into the room with an actor, and must break out of prison. I’m going to talk about my experience here - the woman we got was hilarious. At one point one of the guards fires his gun at her, and she was commando rolling all over the place to avoid his “bullets”. It was fantastic - the choices you make are a bit unfair (if you choose the wrong way, you die) but the ride itself is fantastic fun, although I guess if you got a bored actor (one of the people on the haunted dolls one looked so bored it ruined the end of the experience) it wouldn’t be as good. I would say this is a very short ‘ride’, so if there’s a big queue it’s probably not worth it.

Burnout Running

One of the best rides - up to four of you play at once. You have a running machine treadmill thing and a button. You do three events - 100m, hurdles & long jump, each of which involves running really fast and hitting the ‘action’ button at the right time. It’s really good fun, this one, especially if you do what we did and put naughty words as your three letter name. Nothing like being beaten in a long jump by Mr. WTF.

They were my favourite three rides. Here’s a quick run down of a few others;

Outrun 2 SP - This is cool, you have a four player race and each of you sit in a real car that moves around with you. The only thing I didn’t like about it is that I was rubbish at getting the car to drift, which is the key to victory. Oh well.

Let’s Go Jungle! Special - Is one of those ‘point your gun at the screen and shoot everything that moves’ games, the ‘everything’ here being spiders and so forth. You sit in a sort of pod that spins you around so you fire both in front and behind of your characters. It’s quite good, although viciously difficult.

House Of The Dead 4 - Exactly the same as Let’s Go Jungle! but with zombies instead of spiders.

Spin Bullet - This is a really short rollercoaster that at one point goes outside the building and gives you a great look at Odaiba. The problem? This ride beats the living hell out of you. I hated it because it nearly castrated me. Ouch.

So there you go! If you have a spare day in Tokyo do head over to Joypolis. If you go after 5pm you pay a small entrance fee and all the rides are free! Success! Go on a weekday if you can to avoid the crush. I’d also recommend eating before you go in, unless you’re a big fan of over inflation.

Japan Trip '08

Aimee (soon to be student of Japanese Studies at Sheffield University) and I went on a little tour of Meiji Shrine, which is near to Harajuku JR Station.

The video I took and mixed together has no plot, terrible editing and it’s all wobbly. So of course, I uploaded it.

If you liked it, why not leave a comment and rate it?

Japan Trip '08, Video

I wasn’t planning to do part 3 straight after part 2, but there you go!

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Video

Even though I’ve barely had time to recover from my last run in with a gross drink, I’m back with another disgusting concoction. This time it’s “Real Gold”, an energy drink.

Delicious. As I mentioned I probably won’t do another drink for a few days. I need time to detoxify.

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