If you can survive the 9-10 hour flight, then you shall be landing in the most populated city in the entire world, Tokyo.

Tokyo, being that it has a limited space, mostly has its inhabitants living in apartments of various sizes, though when you venture away from the city, urban neighborhoods will show up here and there.

Visiting Tokyo, Japan is, in my opinion, the geek's dream.  When I had gone there, I had stayed with my uncle and aunt. They lived in a rather small apartment that had a guest bedroom in one floor, and the dining room and master bed in another. Convenience stores were where I had gotten most of my food. You have your standard boxed sushi or tempura, or you could pick up Bentos (boxed lunches), or find the American-loving fried chicken and beef.

I spent a lot of time in Akihabara, a district within Tokyo of which I would describe as "electronics and entertainment." Speaking of electronics, trains will be the way to go within Japan, as well as taxis. As the city has quite a bit of inter-weaving streets, you'll find yourself taking a lot of turns, as well as stopping for rapidly changing red lights.

If you are an anime fan, then Akihabara is quite literally, "Heaven on Earth." Anime advertisements, shops, arcades, cosplayers, TV, it's all found here. The shops in Akihabara use a sort of arrangement of plastic display boxes that house action figures or models inside. Akihabara is where I had gotten my Gundam models that I still have yet to build. *sigh*

Now, the arcades in Japan are much more different than in America. SEGA, SONY, and Nintendo are Japanese companies, so arcades have sprung up everywhere in Japan. My experiences within arcades have told me this: Wear a breath mask unless you smoke.

The smell of cigarettes inside the arcades ia extremely pungent. Ash trays sit at every game. The games in these arcades are far different than ours. Instead, the arcades want to bring a console game-like experience to the players. Games like Gundam Extreme Vs. and Border Break are Mecha games that players can sign into with special game cards that keep track of an online account for the game and allow them to play with credit instead of coin. They load up their profile, and they fight the people who are playing in the same room as them.

My warning: Be very careful about playing these games. If the surrounding Japanese players see that you are indeed, a foreigner, then they will all hop onto the adjacent machines, sign in with their ridiculously high accounts, and use you for target practice. I was firsthand victim to this, so I had to look at online guides before I could even last five seconds after respawning.

The coolest game I played in Japan was...I actually can't remember the name of it, other than that it was a Gundam game. You’d sit in a pod with a surround sound system, and play in a First-Person Shooter Mech game, where you drive your Gundam around and blast everyone that you see. This was the only game that I had success in, as the controls are easy, little comboing with buttons is done, and...the game is rather simplistic, yet immersive.

The best place I went to eat in Japan was at a Ramen shop tucked away in an alley. As in nearly every single Japanese restaurant here, the cooks and crew will greet you once you step in. The Ramen, was AMAZING. Simplistic, yet PACKED with flavor.

Essentially, this Ramen shop was actually in a very tight space. There was only one table, and nearly every single customer sat at a counter with your food order there already (you waited outside). It was rather darkly lit, except for the kitchen.

There is so much other stuff that I could be forgetting, but let's get onto Kyoto.

I took the Bullet Train (Shinkansen), snagged a quick picture of Mt. Fuji, though the clouds that were present blotted out the peak. Now, Kyoto used to be the capitol of Japan, and due to America not having bombed too much at all of Kyoto, tons of historical monuments still stand. Massive temples to the smallest of shrines are present.

Forestland blends in very well for this quickly modernizing city, taking care to preserve every artifact and temple that comes within inches of the buildings. Of course, the Ramen shops are still there, as well as one arcade or two in the entire city of Kyoto. But if you went to Kyoto for those, then turn away. Go to Kyoto for fascinating cultural and historical tourism. Pay your respects at the various temples, go on nature walks, and find an inner calm within you, despite the fact that the city is just a block away.

Oh yes, and the kimonos. Kimonos will probably be everywhere when if you visit.

In all, I felt that Japan is probably one of the best places to visit in the world, as it offers one of the best blends of urban city life with historical countryside. Plus, the cityfolk and townfolk, though they may keep to themselves a bit more than people here at times, are extremely friendly and understanding when you are unable to communicate well.

Reminds me of a certain fandom I know about the latter part... Oh yeah, and ponies are also taking over Japan. First Japan. Then the world.