Phil Wong

- Sunrise Izumo: Sleepover train from Tokyo + Izumo Taisha
- Tokyo extended areas: Fuji, Enoshima
- Kanazawa region: Might be my next stop
- Amanohashidate: And a second visit to Kyoto, but too crowed.
- Tottori: Sand dunes

I do want to check them out eventually while I'm still healthy.

Or just hang out in a city (like Tokyo) for a few days and just do it without a concrete plan. Explore a bit in known areas and enjoy the time there. I think I'm close to that stage right now, though I can't really speak Japanese.

Having said that, I do have a few things in my checklist.

It was nice to experience your plan coming out well.

But then to a certain degree it's like a little like going with a guided tour (but solo).

I do still have some things on my checklist for going to Japan, but having maybe covered 30% of the country, maybe I should go to less traveled areas.

It's been almost 2 weeks since I came back from my trip.

People ask me if I had fun and obviously I would say yes, but honestly this one felt a little too...rushed. Like I need to go to X, then Y by taking some public transport and so on.

And samey (midway it's just castles/parks/shrines daily).

Hoo boy, what a start to the season

Though I also came across these NeoGeo CD games there. Speaking of that, there's very little SNK stuff now.

The other big get is the Trails from Zero Super Arrange from a Lashinbang in Okayama. It's a great arrange soundtrack.

The Trails in the Sky 1st book is just a Famitsu freebie in a Bookoff so I picked it up.

Which turned out to be a poor-ish decision because not every bookstore carries the calendar. So the next day after Himeji I sorta had to scramble in different bookstores to find it, even planning to go back to Himeji for it. Thankfully, I got my copy in Tokyu Hands.

Well, back home now. Here's the stuff I got this time around, the second picture is the souvenirs for my friends and colleagues.

Came across the Maru calendar in Himeji when looking in a bookshop and thought "Yeah I'll get it somewhere else in Hiroshima or Okayama, this is quite bulky".

Also finally got to eat okonomiyaki again that isn't as disappointing after heading back to Hiroshima. But my conclusion is you're just eating a bunch of flour and an egg with some pork, and it's hard carried by the sauce.

More pictures of the town and on the way down the hill there's a cat alley with a cat that knows you want to play with it.

Yesterday it was heading back to Hiroshima but had a day at Onomichi, with a connecting bridge that you can bike under to Shikoku, a quaint town with a great view of the inland sea on the hill, cholesterol-inducing top tier ramen and everything looks so 70s-80s that it's like going back in time.

Forgot to upload for two days ago. Went for a day trip to Takamatsu, where I visited the castle ruins, Ritsurin garden (which was great), and out in the mountains for Yakuri temple and the best freaking udon I've had in my life in Yamadaya.

Took this photo during my wait at Kibitsu station, my favorite picture so far. Obviously not trying to block the road and stuff here.

Yesterday I was checking out the Okayama area and went to Kurashiki, with a stop at the Kibitsu shrine in between.

I'm past the halfway point of the trip now and yesterday it was a day trip to Himeji to Himeji castle and Engyogi

Day 4 and it's all about Miyajima. The torii gate on the sea is extremely impressive.

The hike up and down the castle sorta killed my legs though.

Day 3 of the trip, I took a ferry to Matsuyama for a day and visited Dogo Onsen and Matsuyama castle.

Day two of my trip. Had some expectations of the okonomiyaki but this one at Orizuru tower is unimpressive.

The atomic bomb dome and peace park are definitely must visits, and they do not disappoint. Lots of people though.

Day 1 in Hiroshima done

Be back in a week-ish!

REAL BOUT FATAL FURY 2: THE NEWCOMERS on Steam 1998 arcade fighter REAL BOUT FATAL FURY 2: THE NEWCOMERS is now on Steam! Featuring the largest roster in the series, 23 characters are back and ready to GET IN THE RING! Also with rollback netcode a...

Okay, this came out of nowhere. With new Shinkiro art, even? Code Mystics is involved? Rollback netcode and tournament mode? And why is this so expensive?

Dabbled in RB2 a little but never really caught on myself. Good for the fans, I guess?

I'm working my way up with Orange stake now.

Just went through the prologue, which was covered by the demo (I also decided to start a new save instead of carrying the demo's save data). Still loving it so far.

So that's all I have for Persona 4 Golden. I like it, but the dungeons and the QoL stuff kinda bogged down the experience.

Not going to do a second playthrough even though I couldn't max all Social Links (especially Nanako unfortunately), I got the true ending and am pretty satisfied.

Fusing Personas is interesting. It's kinda like a management game to have the fused Persona inherit something from its parents.

And the music here is great (except for dungeons). It's a relatively small soundtrack, but that's actually a plus if the songs are mostly catchy and memorable.

I did experience certain elements of this day-by-day progress in Trails of Cold Steel games, but in here it's a key element that allows you the freedom to do whatever you want. It feels nice to progress on your Social Links, go fishing, or just eat a giant beef bowl when it's raining.

But the mystery goes deeper and farther, with manipulations on multiple levels which makes it worth slogging through the dungeons.

Having multiple endings is a little too much for my tastes though. Getting to the true ending isn't very straightforward.

The daily grind is also interesting.