The end of Gundam Factory Yokohama

I know I am late for this news, but for those of you who didn't know, Gundam Factory Yokohama closed at the end of last month. What started in December 2020 and was originally supposed to conclude in March 2022, was extended twice, with the first extension planned until March 2023 (due to a certain Communist Pneumonia), which was then extended again to March 2024. In case you also didn't know, Gundam Factory Yokohama contained a moving 1:1 scale RX-78F00 Gundam, the first of its kind, and quite a sight to see. 

I was able to go to last year as a birthday present for myself and while I did return from my business trip in Hyogo before the end of last month, I really didn't feel the need to go again - partly because I had already seen the Gundam - which was certainly one of those once in a lifetime experiences - and most of the products at the Gundam base store there were already sold out.

However, as it was the end of something significant for Gundam fans, a video of the official closing ceremony was live streamed and uploaded to the official Gundam Channel.

However, the video of this closing ceremony will only remain archived until April 14th. I decided to go ahead and download the video for myself. 

I am hoping that the moving Gundam will return at some point. While there is still the Unicorn Gundam statue at the Gundam Base in Odaiba, the RX-93ff Nu Gundam statue in Fukuoka, and the Freedom Gundam (laughs) in Shanghai, China, it would be interesting to see what Gundam they will develop next based on what they learned in the construction of the RX-78F00 Gundam. While I would like to see the God Gundam built, I think that may be ways off yet. If they did the Zaku on the other hand, that would be quite the sight to behold, as there has not been a single statue built for the Zaku, which is just as iconic as the RX-78-2 Gundam, with its rounded form, and intimidating pink mono-eye. 

As a Gundam fan, I can only wait and see what will come next. 

Three Month Business Trip

 As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, I've been working in Hyogo prefecture since the beginning of January, and I'll be finishing up here (and go back to my apartment in Kanto) by the beginning of next week. For privacy reasons, I won't name the specific city that I am working in. 

Where I am working, it's pretty rural. Having worked in rural cities in my time as an ALT for a number of years, this is nothing new to me. What is new to me is having to stay in a hotel for an extended period of time. Before this, the longest I was staying in a hotel for work was 6 weeks, so three months is a little bit harder. Fortunately, my hotel room (covered by my employer) is pretty big, and its location is fairly convenient in that there's a cafe, supermarket, pharmacy and a few petrol stations are all really close by, plus to get to my work place from my hotel is not that much of a drive luckily. However, the crappy thing about living in a hotel for so long is that I'm not able to really cook anything. Sure, I do have a kettle and microwave, but there's only so much you can do. On the other hand, I have learned from my previous experiences in that I am not having a big breakfast or dinner, purely because I have a big lunch at my workplace. Plus, the company provides a daily allowance for food too.

On the other hand, compared to other rural cities I have lived or worked in, there isn't all that much going on around here. My regular gym does not have any branches anywhere near me, with the closest perhaps being Himeji, and that's quite a distance just to go for the gym - though I have found an alternative small gym to get me by. It seems to be the only gym in the city, as the members that come seemed to be pretty tight knit and know each other well. The owner is a body builder, and is nice enough guy, and I spotted in the local newspaper that one of his members won a body building contest recently. As for the gym itself, it's not an Anytime Fitness, but it has most of what I need. I was going three times a week initially, but with things getting busy recently, I have only been able to go twice, maybe three times if there's a public holiday. 
Another thing I noticed is the lack of a Don Quijote store in the city or nearby cities, and having lived in other rural cities that did have one, I thought this was really weird. There's a nearby Aeon Mall (as small as it is), but I have to take nearly an hour train trip to the nearest ドンキ.

Despite the shortcomings, there are some upsides. As mentioned in a previous post, Himeji is a little over an hour away, and Kobe is about an hour and a half away, both by train. I did go to Himeji to watch the Gundam SEED Freedom movie, and I went to Kobe a few times for shopping and to celebrate my birthday by myself by doing everything I wanted to do: Go shopping for gunpla and games and catch up on IIDX.

I have also tried the local delicacy recommended by my coworkers, which is the local ramen - unlike ramen I usually have, it's a mildly sweet and salty soup that is used which works surprisingly well. When people told me it was sweet, I was worried it was going to be overpowering, but it wasn't. On the other hand, I'm not sure if it's just a Kansai thing, but the menu for ramen I was looking at came with rice of various sizes. At the time, I had set menu that included a small serve of rice (the amount you would get for school lunches), plus mince katsu and croquet of a pretty decent size which made for a sizeable meal - keep in mind that this is the smallest set menu you could get, and even I thought that was already big. 

Despite it being 3 months out here, the last 4 weeks or so went by really quickly. While I did go back to Saitama back in mid-Feb for bills and see my girlfriend, it will be nice to return to Saitama, and not have to worry about having to go back again. Don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed working here, and I would probably enjoy it more if I was actually living in this area - though this part of Hyogo is definitely not for everyone, especially if you're not used to rural areas that lack key Japanese things like a Don Quijote among other things. 

A trip to Kinugawa Onsen

At the beginning of my winter break back in December, my girlfriend and I went to Kinugawa Onsen. As you may be able to tell by the name, it is a hot spring resort which is located in Nikko in Tochigi prefecture. To give you an idea, it is about a two-hour train trip from Tokyo. 

This place is a hot spring town, but the sad thing about Kinugawa Onsen is that it used to be much livelier compared to now. Back in the economic boom in the 80s, money was flowing to the extent that even the middle class could afford to spend on luxury - until the 90s hit. Unfortunately, it hit Kinugawa Onsen hard.

While it is not obvious from the central area, you can see many abandoned hotels and buildings as you head away from the city center, and as my girlfriend and I walked from our hotel to the convenience store, you could see them. I was very fascinated about them and wanted to take pictures, but my girlfriend would not let me, citing it was dangerous.

However, from what I have read at the Curious Atlas,  it's not that hard to enter the abandoned hotels, with at least a few people having apparently entered inside to explore Kinugawa Onsen's abandoned buildings.

As I said before, it is about a two hour train trip from Tokyo, and it's not like there aren't other hot springs that are much closer, more popular, or still thriving. However, Kinugawa has many scenic views, and from our hotel room, we had a really nice view of the river. The hotel we were staying had a public onsen, and private baths available for booking. While my girlfriend went to the public onsen first, we booked for the private bath for later in the evening.

The next day, we checked out of our hotel, and had a look around the city center to buy some souvenirs and get some lunch before we headed back to Tokyo. 

I did enjoy the quietness and scenery, and it was nice to take a break from the hustle and bustle of office life in Tokyo, but I can't help but wonder how people can live out there. There were a few convenience stores around, but I could not spot a single supermarket, so I can only assume that people drive the next city over. Being a rural area, if you did plan to live in Kinugawa Onsen, you would definitely need a car to get around. 

If you ever do have a chance to head out to Nikko, I would recommend a one night stay out in Kinugawa Onsen. It is a great change of pace compared to the city of life.

 

Freedom~!

 While I will get in to details in a later post, I am currently working in Hyogo prefecture until the end of March.

Anyway, I had the day off today due to working on Saturday. So, I decided to go to Himeji. It has been over 10 years since I last visited Himeji for a day trip, but sightseeing wasn't on my agenda:

For those may not (or may) know, the new Gundam SEED movie, Gundam SEED Freedom, released in cinemas in Japan 2 weeks ago. The city that I am currently working in is... well... rural, with no cinema nearby, and the nearest city with a cinema was about an hour trip by train to Himeji. 

I will probably do a full review of this movie at some point, but I will share some of my thoughts on this movie without giving away spoilers. This film does focus a lot on the relationship between Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne. It was refreshing to see Kira being portrayed as a flawed character, unlike his time as Space Jesus during SEED Destiny, with him still being haunted by the Charman* Durandal and his Destiny plan he presented to the people back in Destiny, with Kira wondering perhaps Durandal was right. 

However, I did not come into this movie expecting a masterpiece. I came into this not wondering if it was going to be absurd - no, no, no absurdity was always a guarantee - I went there with the thoughts of how absurd it was going to be. Let me say that the final act did not disappoint on that front. Why? 

Three words: Mighty Strike Freedom. 

I will not give away the abilities of this new iteration of the Strike Freedom, but Gun-fucking-dam did they just go all the way and then some more on the absurdity.

Of course, being SEED, there were a lot of mobile suit designs taken from the Universal Centry timeline and well... SEED-ified - Specifically the Gelgoog Menace, the Gyan Strom, and the Z'gock - though I was impressed with role of the Z'gock in this movie. 

I was also pleasantly surprised by the appearance of the Duel (now Duel Blitz) and the Buster (now Lightning Buster) Gundams.

I have already purchased the Immortal Justice Gundam kit, and I'm looking to get maybe the Gelgoog, and the Infinite Justice type II - which, unlike the Mighty Strike Freedom, was not so absurd in its powers. Though there was one weapon on the Infinite Justice type II that has me wondering if the designers were inspired by Zinedine Zidane for some weird reason. If they do release the Duel Blitz and Lightning Buster eventually, I may get them, as I do like their designs - especially the Duel Blitz.

That's all from me for now. I'm hoping to post shortly about my trip to Kinugawa Onsen last December at some point, as there are some things I want to talk about there.

*If you're wondering why I refer to Chairman Shanks as Charman Durandal, and not his proper name, Chairman Durandal, that's because his voice actor is Shuuichi Ikeda - known for doing the voice of many characters, such as Red Haired Shanks, Seijuro Hiko, and the Red Comet himself, Char Aznable.

M7.6 earthquake detected in Japan

 I was going to post about our recent trip to Kinugawa, but a M7.6 earthquake just rocked the country a few hours ago. We were out at karaoke in Saitama when it happened, and even we felt the building shaking a bit, and for an unusually long time. My girlfriend's phone went off with the alert just before the shaking happened, but for some reason, my phone's earthquake alert system was a bit late on the notification, as it only went off a few minutes in to it. 
An earthquake of this magnitude is bad enough, but tsunami alerts have been issued for the parts of the Kansai and Chubu regions, specifically Hyogo, Fukui, Toyama, Niigata and Yamagata prefectures, with reports of tsunamis in Toyama and Niigata prefectures. 

DJ Toji at it again!

 Been making progress on IIDX lately. Finally moved on to HYPER (up one from NORMAL). I decided to try out the saving video feature on the arcade. The only thing I don't like is that it requires an extra credit to save a recording of your gameplay video.

I know there is a feature to activate the overhead camera that takes a video of your hands over the keys and turntable (aka the hand cam), but I have had no luck in activating the feature, at least on version 31 EPOLIS. If anyone knows how to activate the hand cam feature, can you let me know? どうも！

Christmas 2023

 As it is getting closer to Christmas, I am reminded of the oddity of celebrating it in Japan.

I have mentioned in the past that Christmas is not observed as a public holiday in Japan, which makes sense given that the country mostly practices Buddhism in some form or another, with Christians being largely in the minority. Despite this, everywhere you go in Japan, businesses are cashing in on the Christmas season. Restaurants and convenience stores are playing Christmas songs - right now, as I am sitting in an Excelsior cafe, a cover of Little Drummer Boy is playing. I can't help feeling bad for the staff who have to work at these places and listen to nothing but Christmas songs for hours at a time.

As Christmas falls on a Monday this year, and as I earlier mentioned that it is not a public holiday in Japan, this will be the 2nd or 3rd time that I will be working on Christmas メンドクセーーー!　ヽ(｀Д´#)ﾉ

That aside though, I feel so out of it. It has been over 4 years since I went home for a visit, and I do miss that kind of togetherness with the family you get from celebrating Christmas. I do have my gf here to celebrate Christmas with - even if we do have to celebrate on the 24th because of work - but I do miss the celebrations of back home. Though now, things have changed since I was last home, with the big difference being Dad is now gone, and I am worried about what Mum will do for Christmas as it just her at home. I keep in regular contact with her on a weekly basis, and I plan to call mum on Christmas too, even if it is going to be later in the evening.

I suspect that it this could be down to homesickness, which is weird as I have not felt homesick since first coming to Japan for work back in 2016. Though I think talking to my friend who I haven't spoken with in some time probably had me thinking of home.