Japan trip day 18: Nokogiriyama

I enjoy getting on the first carriage on trains because it is exactly like playing Densha de Go except real life drivers are better at stopping than I am.
 

Met up with Micchan at Shin Koiwa and off on a one and a half hour drive to Nokogiriyama! It would have taken me 3 hours to get there by train. The car had a built in tv and it was showing a chinese drama of Mulan dubbed into Japanese. He also had an alert in the car telling him where the N system cameras were, accident prone areas etc.

Getting on the shutokou aka highway. The first thing that comes to mind is the game series Shutokou Battle which is about racing on the highway and you had to get to a certain distance from your opponent to win. It is one of the times you have seen something replicated in games so often and now you are in the real life version.

Micchan then said let's take a break at Umihotaru. Sea firefly? Turns out Umihotaru looks like a giant boat but is actually a rest spot at the shutokou.

I think we came from the other side under the sea.

There are a few restaurants at Umihotaru.

Second stop because car was giving warning about one of the tyres but it seemed alright.

You can see the cliff faces of Nokogiriyama in the distance.

We have arrived. You can see the tourist buses at the parking area.

Map of the whole freaking mountain. If I had taken a train I would have arrived at the station on the top left.

There are many, many steps to go up this mountain.

Did not take long to reach the giant Buddha statue from the car park.

The main aim was to reach the peak.

Micchan's knees gave out and he went back to the car.

Reminds me when I climbed Mt Misen at Miyajima.

but not as difficult.

Very nice views.

Could not enjoy it as much as I was sucking wind a bit.

Did I reach the top?

I am not at the summit of Nokogiriyama yet.

The view from absolute top.

Spend a few minutes enjoying the amazing view.

My legs were shaking a bit because it was so majestic.

The way down was also beautiful.

Looking for a place to eat and we saw this wooden building selling umi (sea) and yama (mountain) curry.

The menu.

First time I had curry with fist but it was lacking in meat. We went back to Shin Koiwa where I got dropped off.

Went to Surugaya in Akiba and saw this Masakazu Katsura set which I did not buy. I was thinking the Dragonball manga is already so heavy and I was not sure I would be able to tetris it into my luggage. Guess what, the books were gone when he decided to buy it the next day! Nooooo!

Look at the prices of the Senjou no Valkyria figures! I wish they had a diorama of the 2 main characters from 1 instead of just your Valkyries. I need to replay 1 and go all the way to 4.

I felt like karaage but I made the mistake in going to Yoshinaya. Go to Yoshinoya for the gyudon not the karaage. It was meh.

By the sentai gods, it is Space Cop Gyaban! This was in Nakano.

Gyaban!

My main aim was some anisong at karaoke bar z. I have not done anisong is forever.

Should have tried new songs like Akuma no Ko instead of the old songs I have done before. 

Went to this kaiten sushi except there was nothing going around and I just ordered whatever from the menu.

It was ok but nothing really stood out.

Japan trip 2024 day 17: Tachinomi Micchan

Getting cooler and cloudy and Tokyo. I was still wearing tank tops but I wasn't sweating from day to night. 

Street Fighter poseable figures at Yodobashi. Meh.

Went to Book Off in Akiba and I could not believe my eyes when I saw the showcase. Ex-ranza for 8100 yen and Thunder Force 4 for 7200 yen (tax exempt)! Crazy prices especially Ex-ranza which can cost way over 10000 yen. 

Thunder Force 4 was on my buy list if I could find a decent price but never expected to get Ex-Ranza for cheap.

Went to Fuunji and for once in my life they queue did not stretch to the other side of the road!

Warning not to have one person line up for everyone else.

Good as always but the boss was not there. I did not see him last trip either....

Who wants a real life keyblade from Kingdom Hearts?

Surugaya showcase. So glad I got Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives 3 andViewtiful Joe on Gamecube before prices shot up. Xbox 360 is my one system where I did not go Japanese and one of the reasons was Outrun 2 was expensive but now I think I should have gotten a Japanese Xbox 360 because the rest of the games are so much cheaper and they have more exclusives.

Went to Prime 1 Studio at Marui above Surugaya.

Why so serious?

Good remake.

Need more Nathan Drake Uncharted.

The Last of Us Pt 2. Hate that juiced up *****!

The only Berserk statues at the store. :(

Berserk gacha pins of covers from the manga.

Guess which one I got? The one I wanted which is NSFW. Might not be a good idea to pin it on my bag.

Kojima Pro merchandise.

Gotoubun no Hanayome collabo restaurant.

Angerme paradise. I just heard of the name before and they are from Hello Project! Are they bigger than Momusu now?

So many videogame books that I want to buy but I was going to buy a very heavy set of books that day.

So tempted to buy the Switch OLED when you compare the two screens. But I resisted because Switch 2 will get announced next year.

Bought these 4 Switch games at Yodobashi. Getting a physical copy of Radiant Silvergun was much cheaper than buying the Saturn version and I could support Treasure. I am not a fan of the Kiseki series but I feel the need to support them because they are the only ones making turn based RPGs and I do plan to play the whole series. Luckily the Guitar Life box fits exactly in my luggage bag. Was a bit worried because it was extra wide. I was going on budget this trip until this day and then spent a lot of money in one go.

Got the whole set of Dragonball kanzenban. Whole thing was 16kgs and the plastic basically ripped and my fingers were in so much pain by the time I carried them back to my hotel. I should have emptied my luggage bag and used it to transport the manga. I feel like was done with shopping because I have gotten everything I wanted and them some which was kind of sad because it was still early in the final Tokyo leg of my trip.

Went to Gran Blue in Shin Koiwa to meet Mama and the cat from the izakaya next door, Tama-chan was there! Did not notice the other cat in the shot.

We went to Micchan's Okinawa tachinomiya aka stand and drink bar.

You pay first and then you get those 50 yen coupons you see at the top. Then whatever food the helper Tama-chan (no relation to the cat) brings you, she rips the coupons. Pictures is Okinawa soba which has very mild taste but meat is good and Micchan gave me plenty of meat!

The menu on the wall. I had the spam chanpuru, spam tempura, ajifurai and karaage as well. I never knew that spam was a staple of Okinawan food. I also had some tempura vegetables and they had spam in them! Normally when you douhan the customer is supposed to pay for the food but Mama but for everything instead.

Every person who showed up at Micchan's was a regular and Mama knew everyone and was telling me who everyone was. I think Micchan and Mama know half the people in Shin Koiwa! Micchan asked me what my plans were for tomorrow and I said I was thinking of going up Nokogiriyama. He thought about it for a second and said, 'I don't have much to prepare for tomorrow so I'll drive you!'

Mama and I went back to Gran Blue after and I think Micchan joined us after he closed up. I think he got Tama-chan to close shop. Should have gone to Micchan's a second time before I left.

Got 5 street passes!