Clare's Adventures in the Land of the Rising Sun: C is for..

C is for.. Climbing Mt Fuji

Here is a re-post of the entire video hopefully everyone can see.

The crew including Aeon Hikarigaoka, Oizumigakuen and other friends

Two guys having a fag at 3240m..

C is for... Convenience Stores (combini)

Need a comic book, a can of beer and a salty, flavourless ready meal at 4am? Well, if you're in Japan, you can be certain that there are at least 4 convenience stores within a 5 minute walking radius of your present location. Best of all, they're all open 24 hours!

Here's an introduction to Japanese combini's, along with my official rating:

#1 Lawsons (Ro-sonzu)

An American chain. I put Lawsons in first place for its variety of alcoholic beverages choice, fruit and vegetable prices (often the same as a supermarket) and its recent 'own brand' cheap assortment. It also has a variety of stores including 'Natural Lawson' where the sandwich packaging is recycled, 'Lawson Plus' and 'Lawson 100', a ￥100 store (at today's exchange, 74p).

The staff are always friendly and happy, and the store is always clean and bright! They always have cute character promotions, and I managed to get hold of a free Lawsons flannel which made me pretty attached to the chain! It's also the closest store to my apartment ^^

#2 Family Mart (Fami-ma)

A Japanese chain store. Also clean, bright, friendly staff and a good selection of comic books. The alcoholic drinks choice isn't as good though.

#3 7- Eleven (seben ereben)

An American chain, and the most successful chain in Japan.

Also, according to my knowlegable friend Jen, 7-Eleven was apparently the first combini to sell onigiri, a staple snack consisting of rice with some filling wrapped in seaweed.

It has an ATM (very useful) and had a Pokemon stamp collectign game this summer, which was nice ^^ But I'm not such a fan of the food or drink there, and a toilet I once used there was just weird. It was Japanese style (squat) and there was some kind of step *shudder*

#4 Daily Yamazaki (though I call it the Daily Yakuza!)

I generally try to avoid this chain unless I can't find another one. It's always empty and the staff look miserable..

#5 ampm

This store would be in at number 2 except.. it does not sell alcohol!! I don't know how this chain can possibly stay afloat in Japan. Disappointing. Shun!!

#Other- Buy the Way, Korea

This convenience store is near Ellen's house in Seoul. What an amazing name!!

C is for... Cosplay and Games Console Convention @ Tokyo Game Show 2010

On Sunday 19th, Richard (my co-worker) and I headed to Chiba (east of Tokyo) to attend the annual Tokyo Game Show, which in a nutshell is a convention for the video game industry to advertise their new software/consoles! Unfortunately, Nintendo didn't show up (which was a real shame as I wanted to see their 3D display Nintendo DS due for release next Spring). There was also a Cosplay (costume play) section, where attention-loving dress-uppers posed for the camera!

Richard and I queued for almost an hour and a half in the sun before getting in. It was pretty busy!!

First stop- the Xbox Kinect demonstration. Kinect is a controller-free game- where you move your body to play the game. In the first picture I've raised my right arm, which signals the "A button" aka "Ok". I played a snowboarding game and believe it or not, I beat the demonstrator!!! I then successfully filled out a questionnaire in Japanese ^^