Rambling Rican Projects - Current updates

[arsenette]

May 29, 2015 21:44:50 GMT -5 wolf4537 said:

May 29, 2015 0:27:29 GMT -5 arsenette said:

Thanks! I'm still on the high of the trip even though my body would like to forget it .. ooooooowww.. LOL

They are prolific on Twitter and/or Facebook. Just ask. They love meeting foreign fans. You will have issues communicating with them there though, so try to have someone who is bilingual walk with you if you do end up meeting them. Or at the very least learn a few phrases. Just remember that they all work so scheduling things around their schedule will be critical. Expect that some things might not work out due to scheduling conflicts. Do research on where they are located and try to find a place to meet around their location. Makes it easier for them as well as they still have to live and work with the disruption.

Nice!

BTW, I saw that you got to hang out with Yuuji. That is AWESOME. Where does he work though specifically?

Oh yeah, I saw that you were at that Grand Pacific le Daiba hotel in Odaiba. I was tempted to book that hotel but I didn't. How was that hotel overall?

Yuuji works for Haruta Shoes. He's now higher up in the company so he is in distribution. Downstairs is technically a warehouse with all the shoes and up where you saw the showroom is for dealers only and not a store you walk into. We had an appointment set before we left. One of my friends took care of that so I'm not sure how to set something like that up. Lunch was on Yuuji and it was nearby (and quite yummy food too). In fact I spent a lot of time being led everywhere. My friends are awesome and they were reaaaally nice in organizing stuff for me. I was spoiled rotten.

Grand Pacific is a crazy expensive hotel. The only reason I was there was that I was given the benefit of knowing the date for Sasuke for over 3 months. So I booked back in late February when they had a sale and the yen to USA was awesome and was able to lock in a low rate. It was crazy I got that room for 100 a night. Usually it's between 700-1000 a night.. The Japanese were going "omfg you are staying WHERE?".. LOL So if you book months in advance you can stay in swanky hotels. Booking.com was awesome I thought the hotel was FRIGGIN' awesome and if I had the opportunity, I'd stay there again in a heartbeat.

[Badalight]

Ooooh, you stayed in Odaiba? I looove Odaiba. Very quaint area of Tokyo, at least compared to the rest of it.

[wolf4537]

Having been there, Odaiba is hands down my favorite area of Tokyo. I even like it more than Akihabara (and I'm quite a big Anime geek so that's saying something )

My friend and I had the option of buying a room there I think for $2400 per person (including flight from LA to Tokyo) but we booked the Prince Park Tower in Minato instead for a bit cheaper (still an AMAZING hotel)

Arsenette did you get a room with a view of the Rainbow Bridge? Also, my favorite area in Odaiba was Sega Joypolis at the Decks mall, did you go to any malls while over there?

Again, my goal is to somehow, some way, meet one of the Sasuke stars when I go there in July.

[lostinube]

Odaiba is way too much concrete and tourists for me. Along the Yurikamome, it's just malls, TV studios and office buildings. I also don't know if quaint is the way I'd describe that area.

[Badalight]

May 30, 2015 1:21:31 GMT -5 wolf4537 said:

Having been there, Odaiba is hands down my favorite area of Tokyo. I even like it more than Akihabara (and I'm quite a big Anime geek so that's saying something )

My friend and I had the option of buying a room there I think for $2400 per person (including flight from LA to Tokyo) but we booked the Prince Park Tower in Minato instead for a bit cheaper (still an AMAZING hotel)

Arsenette did you get a room with a view of the Rainbow Bridge? Also, my favorite area in Odaiba was Sega Joypolis at the Decks mall, did you go to any malls while over there?

Again, my goal is to somehow, some way, meet one of the Sasuke stars when I go there in July.

By Prince Park Tower do you mean the Tokyo Prince Hotel? The one like literally 12 feet from Tokyo Tower? Because that's where I stayed. Really pricey but killer location. Also in Minato in case we're talking about different hotels.

May 30, 2015 1:42:16 GMT -5 lostinube said:

Odaiba is way too much concrete and tourists for me. Along the Yurikamome, it's just malls, TV studios and office buildings. I also don't know if quaint is the way I'd describe that area.

The perspective of a first time tourist to Japan and someone who has lived there for a long time are bound to be quite different. When I went it was like a ghost town though, especially in comparison to the rest of Tokyo.

It might not have all that much to do, but I thought it was quite beautiful. I liked the ferris wheel, the onsen there, the various malls, the random statue of liberty which really confused me, etc.

[arsenette]

May 30, 2015 3:43:34 GMT -5 Badalight said:

May 30, 2015 1:42:16 GMT -5 lostinube said:

Odaiba is way too much concrete and tourists for me. Along the Yurikamome, it's just malls, TV studios and office buildings. I also don't know if quaint is the way I'd describe that area.

The perspective of a first time tourist to Japan and someone who has lived there for a long time are bound to be quite different. When I went it was like a ghost town though, especially in comparison to the rest of Tokyo.

It might not have all that much to do, but I thought it was quite beautiful. I liked the ferris wheel, the onsen there, the various malls, the random statue of liberty which really confused me, etc.

Ube is from the south of Japan so he was a tourist too. Tehehehehe. I quite liked it. I grew up in a large city and I found that compared to the rest of Tokyo, this was quieter and more spacious. The rest of Tokyo was just too damn crowded for me. So while there were more tourists there, it still was spacious. I was lucky each time I went out, the streets were pretty deserted. Only late day when people were going around to get dinner did it get busy. It is out of the way though. If you are interested in seeing more of Central Tokyo, Odaiba is not a good central location. I was spoiled because my friend drove me around. When changing to be closer to the tournament it took a few trains/buses to get there. Personally I adored Odaiba. It wasn't crowded like central Tokyo and I had time to move around. I'm also a lover of seeing water outside my window so seeing the Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Bay was soothing to me. I stayed there 4 nights but only 2 nights in a row at a time. The first 2 nights when I arrived in Tokyo I was on the Bay side (I tweeted that view). Then the next 3 nights I was in a normal business hotel out in the sticks to be close to Midoriyama. Then I went back to Odaiba for my final 2 nights and got a Rainbow Bridge room which I didn't ask for (usually the price is double for that) but enjoyed when I had it. The room is configured smaller if you have the rainbow bridge view but bigger (with an added shower) on the other side. Could have been just a different configuration due to where it was in the building, but both rooms being in different floors and different sides of the building were awesome. The bed was probably the most comfortable bed I slept in my entire life. I wanted to import it back with me.

As for places I went, I visited Aqua City the first few days and the last few I went to Diver City to see the huge Gundam. I went to several places around town but they were to meet other people instead of the normal touristy spots. I didn't do Akihabara nor Shinjuku. Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll return and try those places out later.

[Badalight]

I'm not really a fan of Shinjuku, wasn't too much to do there (unless you're a fan of red light districts and creepy old men asking if you want to pay for sexual favors from women). Akihabara was great, and Harujuku was cool as well.

[LusitaniaAngel313]

I'd probably be like you not really going to the touristy places and just focus on meeting people. I mean I doubt anyone would go out of their way to go to some random car tuning place just to meet a random guy but for me it would be! I seriously need to go to Japan someday. XD

[wolf4537]

All I can say, is that while I loved all the areas I went to, the one exception was Roppongi. That can be a BAD area to go to.

But when I go back to Japan next month I'm going to go to Odaiba on my first day.

[arsenette]

Btw I've been asked privately (a lot) lately about whether or not I had any momentos from the trip. I made a book (Shutterfly rocks btw) with old photos (Sasuke 28-30 + personal photos sent to me) of the Sasuke stars, STQ'ers and anyone tied to Sasuke that I was expecting to see. Given that it was the very first time I'd meet them all I wanted an autograph so I can keep in memory of my first meeting.


Twitter photo

This is a pic of a couple of the pages with some of the autographs I got during the tournament. Left to Right is Shinya, Shingo, Takeda. Next page is Morimoto and Asa. I think the book was 20 pages? Something like that with mostly STQ'ers etc. since I wasn't sure who I could wrangle for autographs. I also had to be careful that I managed to get autographs from the 3 people that promised before the event (Shinya, Tomo and Morimoto) so I had a separate stack of individual photos that had to be signed. I managed the other two but Shinya I lost track of and honestly forgot to get his other signed pics. I did manage to get Shingo for Emily since she was the one that requested the autograph from Shinya for my fundraiser. The bigger thing with the book though, this is the first time the Japanese had ever seen a book like this. It was bad enough that they had no bloody clue wtf I was going on about with the Calendar (LOL) since they have never done a fundraiser.. but this was the first time they ever saw an Autograph book! There are really cool stories tied to that book that I'll write about in detail on the blog and my book coming out next year. But needless to say.. it caused a stir. Heck.. Yuuji took it from me and sat in a corner just going page by page staring at it for 20 minutes.. and this was the 3rd time he saw the book (he was the first to sign it during a lunch on Thursday). So yeah.. I'm happy I brought it and I'm happy there are memories tied to the signing of each photo along with their signatures. I thought you might enjoy reading about it since I've been asked a lot about it. For the blog I may post a picture of every page if people are curious.

[LusitaniaAngel313]

Yes we're curious! Also yeah I chose Shinya because of the 3 given, he was the one interacting most with me! But I ALSO said UNLESS Shingo intervened and as fate would have it that's what happened! XD Anyways yeah we'd love the see the other pages of the book! I'm as curious as Yuuji is!

[arsenette]

Video of a slideshow of photos of the flight over. This is Part 1!

[LusitaniaAngel313]

Oh the joys of flying, hard to forget it once you've been once. BTW that food looked AWESOME! You were treated in style!

[wrestlingfan55]

Your voice is nice to listen to, I must say. The part where you said freakin' was nice too.

[lostinube]

I figure this is the best place to put these.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Card 1}

SPOILER: Click to show

{Card 2}

SPOILER: Click to show

{Card 3}

[arsenette]

Jun 9, 2015 20:28:09 GMT -5 wrestlingfan55 said:

Your voice is nice to listen to, I must say. The part where you said freakin' was nice too.

Yeah.. I say that a lot.. Trying to keep PG sometimes when I'm excited is difficult. LOL

P.S. Ube I loved the reactions of the guys signing their own cards. I wish there were official trading cards.. /sigh

[arsenette]

I'm so happy Shingo posted this photo. I didn't get a chance to have a nice group photo with everyone since that day was so chaotic. This took place Monday, May 25 which was the day after Sasuke 31 finished taping. This is where Shingo opened up his sports medicine place in Tokyo.

[wolf4537]

Hey arsenette, I have to ask you, how hard was it finding Shingo's gym? (Bariante) because I am probably going to visit it over the next few days that I am still here in Tokyo. And that picture is awesome!!

Also one thing I forgot to ask you awhile back, are there any Anime series that you are into?

[arsenette]

Jul 8, 2015 10:41:44 GMT -5 wolf4537 said:

Hey arsenette, I have to ask you, how hard was it finding Shingo's gym? (Bariante) because I am probably going to visit it over the next few days that I am still here in Tokyo. And that picture is awesome!!

Also one thing I forgot to ask you awhile back, are there any Anime series that you are into?

I was driven there so I have no idea. It shouldn't be an issue though. The place is really small but it is visible from the street. He has a Facebook, Twitter and Website since directions on how to get there along with the address and telephone number. Let me know how it works out! I'd love to see photos as well!

2nd question is looooooooong so I direct you to the anime thread.

[Deleted]

If you can read Japanese (or get someone to translate), you should be able to get there without any trouble. The website has the address and directions. 

Bariante