This Japan trip has been a whirlwind that I just wasn’t expecting. I guess that makes sense when I haven’t been back in so many years. Nonetheless, I do have plenty of material for quite a few articles. I just need to find the time to write them. I do…
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Nakano Broadway is not a place you want to go if you have residual concerns about large numbers of people in enclosed spaces. As amusing as it is that there are signs up all over the place recommending “social distancing,” and while the Japanese tend to be better sports about…
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It feels good to be home. It might be sauna-hot (despite being well into Autumn now, the sticky humidity of Japan’s summers has stuck around), and I’m tired as everything having done my usual thing of taking the overnight flight and then failing to sleep at all, but I’m back…
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Most tourists visiting Tokyo probably don’t go anywhere near Yumenoshima Park, located in Koto City, though they probably inadvertently glance in its direction once or twice because it’s basically just around the bay from Tokyo Disneyland, albeit in a significantly more industrial area. Well, actually, I wouldn’t know, I’ve no…
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On a recent trip to Japan, I spent a very pleasant week in Hiroshima. When I say “Hiroshima”, for most Western readers it’ll bring to mind one single reason to visit. Specifically, most tourists heading to Hiroshima do so for the sake of atomic bomb tourism, taking in the Atomic…
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DDNet contributor, Alex Kidman, recently took a trip to Japan and, out of incredible jealousy, we asked him to drop us a couple of stories of highlights from his trip. Here’s his first! Wander the streets of Akihabara, and you’re beset on all sides by anime, video games and, increasingly,…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Almost every visual novel aims to present players with a fantasy – it may well be located in a real world location (Stein’s;Gate’s Akihabara, Root Letter’s Shimane prefecture), but the stories that they share are complete flights of fancy. Wanderlust: Travel Stories is a little different;…
Read MoreTravel by Matt S. I’m back in Australia now, so writing this piece on Japan is my way of dealing with the post-travel blues. That being said, I wanted to write about Gifu city anyway, because I visited it for the first time this year, and it made a powerful…
Read MoreTravel by Matt S. As a very big fan of games based in Japanese history – Samurai Warriors, Nobunaga’s Ambition, Hakuouki and the like – I’ve always used my trips to Japan for Tokyo Game Show and the like to indulge in some history tourism. Over the years, I’ve visited…
Read MoreArticle by Matt S. One of my new favourite destinations while in Japan is the VR theme park that Bandai Namco has constructed right in the heart of Kabukicho. Yes, the one that lets you play Mario Kart in VR. I had the good fortune of going along to it…
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