Japan Dreamin’

If you were to follow me on tumblr you would find out that I am just in love with Japan just as every other otaku would be. I appreciate everything Japan has to offer. From cars, clothes, video games, anime, etc. the list can never really end. The place is RICH with culture and I would just love to visit for at the very least a month and be able to live out everything I’ve always wanted to do out there.Here’s a couple things that I would love to do if I were to visit. (All credits of these photos belong to the original photographers)

1. Visit the Studio Ghibli Museum

If you’re anything like me you’ve seen a few (more like all of them) Studio Ghibli films in your life time. To be face to face with a life sized Totoro would be like living a childhood dream! Although, I wouldn’t really recommend bringing children to meet him if they’ve never seen the movie yet, they just might end up scarred for life, and no one wants that! The museum also hosts it’s own cafe dubbed the name no other than “Ghibli Cafe”. From here it seems like you’re able to eat some of the delicious looking foods you see from the films themselves. Most people would have to agree that if there were no Disney land then this park would definitely be a first choice for anyone’s theme park of choice to go to. If you’re ever in Japan I suggest you check this place out and relive some of your favorite moments for yourself!

Studio_Ghibli_Museum_image_Japan

2. Check out the arcade scene

Now I’ve always been into video games but my genre of choice would have to be fighting games, Street Fighter to be exact. I’ve always been into fighting games since I was a kid but never did I really ever grasp the concept of how special moves worked or how to do combos at all. I remember when I would do Ryu’s crouching fierce punch I thought I was so close to doing his signature Shoryuken (dragon uppercut) move haha. Little did I know that I wasn’t anywhere near close. I didn’t really start getting deep into the mechanics of fighting games until Street Fighter 4 came out. I mained Ken at first but eventually I moved on to different characters and fiddled around with all the different play styles until I found someone who could match me perfectly. That’s when I discovered “the dude with the flat top”, Guile. The video below the the person who inspired me to play Guile.

I mained Guile for all the SF4 games thatcame out until Ultra Street Fighter 4 came out and finally moving on to the British bulldog himself, Dudley! As with Guile, the video below is the reason why I got inspired to pick up Dudley.

I do apologize for my rambling but one of the main reasons why I would love to play at a Japanese arcade is to be able be face to face with legends in the FGC (fighting game community) such as Daigo “The Beast” Umehara! Check the video out down below to see why everyone dubbed Umehara-san “The beast”.

3. FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!

We’ve all gotta admit that when it comes to food, the Japanese have a 1 up on every other country. What I admire the most about Japan is their dedication and passion that they place into whatever field they best suit in. Personally for me, my go to Japanese dish of choice is Miso Ramen. Ramen has only recently started taking off in America but it has been doing quite well since it’s first debut in the past few years. The ramen houses (restaurants) that I go to offer you a choice of having a slice of butter with your ramen bowl, I would definitely suggest doing it if the place you go to gives you the option. The slice of butter enhances the already delicious broth by 10 fold. I would also suggest going with the pork broth. It’s definitely more rich and flavorful than the chicken broth but both are still good, it’s up to you as a person to choose I suppose. If you’re ever in the Seattle area, my ramen place of choice to go to is “Samurai Noodle”. They have multiple locations but the one I prefer to go to is in the university district. But enough of my rambling and prepare to make yourself hungry when checking out the pictures below. Itadakimasu!

4. Pilot my own Gundam

So everyone might know this by now but there is a life sized Gundam in Japan. How cool is that?! For me personally I was only a fan of “Gundam Wing” and “G Gundam”. Anything else kind of … just didn’t really appeal to me in any way. G Gundam always had action going in on every episode. Gundam Wing was definitely my favorite because of the character designs, the mobile suits, and the persona’s of the main characters. But the title of this point may be a little bit … misleading perhaps? Although you can’t pilot this life sized mobile suit there is a simulator in one of the Japan arcades and hell, that’s better than nothing so I’ll take it!

5. Be one with nature

In our daily lives here in America (or at least my daily life) we tend to take nature for granted until we’re finally face to face with some of the most spectacular landscapes our eyes could feast upon. Japan is well known for their scenery and to be more specific, their cherry blossoms. Here’s a quote from the huffinton post :

The significance of the cherry blossom tree in Japanese culture goes back hundreds of years. In their country, the cherry blossom represents the fragility and the beauty of life. It’s a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it is also tragically short.

I won’t say much so just sit back and enjoy the gallery of the beautiful scenery that Japan has to offer.

Hope you guys enjoyed this post as much as I did! Perhaps I’ll do more of these in the future. If there’s anything you want me to look into then feel free to leave a comment! Is there anything specific you want to do in japan? Again, let me know in a comment! Till next time!

-Aniplays