Real Life Giant Robots... and Baseball

Hello TOKYO! First let me start by saying, Lost in Translation was just terrible. That movie was one of the worst films I've ever seen. It also did not portray Tokyo correctly at all. At least not the side I'm getting to see. The movie portrayed Tokyo as dreary and strange. While I kind of get the strange bit, I don't get the dreary thing at all. I love this city. It's clean. Everyone is friendly. The food is delicious. And there is a ton to do, especially for a nerd like me. I will admit though that everything is really expensive and the subway system makes no sense at all. None. They showed me a map of the subways and trains. It looks like those drawings where a 6 year old just grabs two fists full of crayons and starts drawing.

Anyway, my first few days in Tokyo. The first day I woke up late and chose to do one of my nerd exhibits first. Now if some of you haven't seen my nerdier side, let me explain it. I love video games, giant robots, and giant spaceships. If you have 1 or more of those things, I'm sold. One of my favorite tv series in the giant robots arena is Gundam. It's an old giant robot series from 70's and 80's originating in Japan. I got very lucky on this trip, because the 30th annual Tokyo Gundam Expo was this weekend. I did not plan that at all, I just lucked out. So yesterday I went. They had toys, robot model kits, vintage everything from when the series started in the 80's, promotions for newer Gundam series, and of course Gundam video games. I don't mean like Xbox games, I mean the giant arcade games where you have a giant console full of buttons and get to drive one of the giant robots! I was in nerd heaven. Consequently... I'm a terrible robot driver. These two 6 year old Japanese kids schooled me. But it was still awesome!

That took pretty much all day, so by around 3 I went back to the hostel. Two friends I had made, Sebastian and Heinrick, decided they wanted to go to a Japanese baseball game at the Tokyo Dome and invited me. It sounded cool, and was pretty cheap so we went. They had never been to a baseball game, so I explained all the rules. It was a lot of fun! The Japanese don't really get as rowdy as American fans. Instead they have specific chants for parts of the game or certain players. They chant through the whole game. It's interesting to say the least. It was also the longest game I've ever attended. Seriously, we were there for 4 hours and it was only the bottom of the 6th. We just gave up and left. It was still fun though.

Today I woke up late again. (I'm starting to run low on gas. I'm sleeping a lot more lately.) Today was the day where I went to the big Gundam statue! So according to the tv show, a Gundam robot is around 60 feet tall. A few years back to commemorate the anniversary of Gundam, they built a 1:1 size statue of the robot in Tokyo! Unfortunately they took it down... BUT they recently rebuilt it in a town 3 hours outside of Tokyo by train! Again, I didn't know this until a few weeks before I got here, so I did not plan this at all. So today I took the long train ride out. It was awesome! How often do you get to see one of your favorite tv shows come to life in a big way. (Pun intended) I spent a good two hours walking around taking pictures, and again looking at merchandise and exhibits around the statue. The thing didn't move much, just the head every 30 minutes or so. But it was still awesome!

I finished off the day today going to Subiya, the part of Tokyo with the giant crowds crossing the busy streets and all the shops. It's like 5 square blocks of Time Square like areas, all with nice shops. After that I went to the Pokemon Center!... which was kind of a let down. It's a tiny shop with some Pokemon stuff. Not even a lot of stuff. I took some pictures, but it looks better than it is. You'd think they'd have something better in Tokyo. Whatever. Tomorrow is the electric part of the city, Akihabara. It's a big section with electronics, video games, and general nerd stuff. Until next time!