ジェト・プログラムのジャスティン

２００７年１０月６日

今週の漢字: 突然

Suddenly:
You might be wondering, “What might have been so sudden?” Well, it’s quite simple. Two weeks ago, I went to Tokyo. Actually, I went to the prefecture of Chiba, which is right next to Tokyo. Chiba is also home to the Tokyo Disney Resort. Why did I go? It was for none other than the Tokyo Game Show, of course! What is the Tokyo Game Show? It’s a major video game convention. Unlike anime conventions in America, gaming conventions tend to have a large industry presence as they are the times when gaming companies usually make big presentations. For this year’s Tokyo Game Show, the first two days (Thursday and Friday) were for industry personnel only. The following two days were open to the public starting at 10AM and ending at 5PM. Again, you may be wondering, “What was so sudden about the Tokyo Game Show?”

I found out about the convention just about four days before the first day open to the public. I had a day of inner conflict as to if I should spend the money to travel to the Tokyo area. I decided that I must go, so I called some of my AET friends. As it was sudden, only one person really got back to me. She was actually planning to go already, but she was just going to play by ear during the weekend. Many of you reading this know that I can’t stand that. I needed to plan everything. So, we went to buy our shinkansen tickets. It went well (definitely better than buying those movie tickets). Earlier in the day, I jotted down some important words that I might need to use:
切符 [きっぷ – kippu – ticket]
往復 [おうふく – oufuku – return (ticket)]
買う [かう – kau – to buy]

On the following day (two days before the first day open to the public), one of my friends who did not respond to my initial round of calls, contacted back letting me know that she wanted to come. I was already in the process of booking my own hotel room. So, this addition left us in a calling frenzy to see if the first friend could buy shinkansen tickets for the second friend as well as letting the second friend sleep over. Why did the second friend want to sleep over the first friend’s apartment? I was planning to take the 6:42AM shinkansen to Tokyo, so we can make it to the convention by opening time.

On the night before the first day open to the public, my two friends had me book a hotel room for them as the first friend did not have internet yet. The hotel where I was staying had no more vacancies, so I had to look elsewhere. They decided to stay at this place that’s considered to be the “Brooklyn of Tokyo.” However, when they arrived at the hotel on Saturday night, they encountered a problem. The hotel e-mailed me to let me know that there was no vacancy. We didn’t think it would be full. The form on the hotel website is really only a way to check if there is vacancy. So, my friends had to go to this other hotel that was close by, which also had an onsen (hot spring).

Now, I’ll write about the actual convention. It was great! For those of you who do not know much about video games, you will have to bear with me. The moment we stepped onto the halls, we got some free stuff like folders and pamphlets. We first played the Naruto game that is coming out soon for the Nintendo Wii. That was fun, but it was a bit difficult for me to get used to moving my hands in a fighting game. We walked around the entire Tokyo Game Show on the first day. Some notable booths include Square Enix, Capcom, Sony Playstation 3, and the merchandise. Nintendo’s absence was odd. I didn’t expect them to be missing. I wonder what they have up their sleeves. There were a few games that caught my eye like “Resident Evil (Biohazard): Umbrella Chronicles” for the Wii, “Devil May Cry 4” for the PS3, “Halo 3” for the X-box 360, “Time Crisis 4” for the PS3 (I think), “Metal Gear Solid 4” for the PS3, “We Love Golf!” for the Wii, “Little Big Planet” for the PS3, and a few other Wii titles of which the names escape me.

The second day started with experiencing the Square Enix closed theater, which showed exclusive trailers for all “Final Fantasy XIII” games, “Kingdom Hearts” games, and other popular titles of theirs. It was very exciting, especially watching the beautiful FFXIII. I really don’t like to talk too much about graphics in video games, because I feel that the content and gameplay is much more important. However, I couldn’t help but to fix my eyes to the screen. Afterwards, I played “Yosumin,” a new game for the Nintendo DS by Square Enix. Then, I played “Dragon Quest IV,” a remake for the DS. They were both really fun. The rest of my time at the convention on that day (only until about 1:30PM) consisted of walking around, because the lines for the games that I wanted to play got too long (some with 3 or more hours wait).

Stay tuned next week for another update!

今週の聖書の詩: “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.”
- Psalms 29:2 (NIV)

It is amazing how many Christians do not do this. How can a Christian give unto the LORD the glory that fits his name? Well, a Christian must give everything, yes?

The LORD creates and has a plan. There is a great complexity in this world, much too complex for us lowly humans. It’s interesting how important it is for us to categorize everything and name things or events. It seems that humans want to do everything to take away from God’s glory.

今週の写真: 2007 Tokyo Game Show

Sign outside

Inside right after doors open

Square Enix - Look at the smile slime and chocobo. Cute?

"Kingdom Hearts"

Pikachu, still popular

Capcom

Where did all the people come from?!

Pose in front of large poster

Sony

"We Love Golf!"

Look at the smile slime and black mage chocobo that I bought!