Category: Irl

Tokyo Maker Faire 2022

I went to Tokyo Maker Faire in Odaiba. It is a faire for makers. There are over 200 booths in a huge room. It’s held at a convention centre called Tokyo Big Sight.

The first thing I tried was a snow boarding game which was very hard. You balanced on a board with sensors in the board. You leaned on it to steer the board. But, there was and input lag so It was very hard to control. It took around 2 seconds for it to realise that I was leaning.

I also tried a game where you go through challenges with a robot camera. It was on a laptop with a robot that you control. There were many levels and I played 3 of them. You could also build with blocks and slopes where you chose the X, Y, Z lengths.

I tried finger boarding. I played it on a round rotating track. You play it with 2 fingers on the middle of the tiny skate board. It was very hard and the skate board kept slipping out of my fingers.

My favourite booth was the Minecraft VR. It was a game where you fight COVID-19 with a laser gun. It was so hard to control on the Oculus Quest 2. In the end I couldn’t do anything but it was ok.

I went to the food court for lunch and had a beef burger and chicken. I had a Barbados Cherry Soda as well. Before we went home I got a Ramune MC’Shake. Ramune is a Japanese soft drink that tastes like a bubble gum lemonade. But my MilkShake was creamy.

Japanese Vending Machines

In Japan we have vending machines everywhere. In a park, a shopping mall, in a train station, anywhere and everywhere.

Some of the drinks we have are: Water, Red Bull, Coke Cola, Monster Energy, Calpis, Flavoured water, Aquarius, Beer, Tea or Coffee.

In Japan a can(350ml) of drink eg. Coke is 130 yen. If you get a PET bottle(500ml) it’s 160 yen.

In some drinks machines in Japan there is a lottery where when you buy any drink you have a chance of winning a free drink from the machine. You have to get the same number 4 times in a row eg. 1111 or 2222 or 3333. Yesterday me and my dad won the lottery:

 

 

 

 

Also in Japan at some drinks machines you get free drinks when there’s an earthquake.

Here is a photo of some Red Bull and Mets Coke. Mets coke is tastes just like Coke Cola but fizzier. I like both of them but prefer the Mets Coke.

Some drink machines that sell coffee and hot chocolate give you a paper cup with the drink in it. You can add things to your drink like caramel, cream, extra coffee or more milk. But they take 60 seconds to make the drink even tho normal one are instant.

 

An accident on a train

Recently, when I was coming back on a train from my Ninjutsu class, a women fainted. She collapsed on to my dad who was sitting behind her and she slid onto the floor.

My dad picked her up and asked someone to press the “Emergency Button” to stop the train at the next station.

At the next train station she was put in a wheelchair and taken away by the train staff. After that the train started again and the announcer apologised for running 2 minutes late. Have you ever experienced an emergency on a train?

In Tokyo not many people have cars so we use trains a lot. Some of the train companies are: Japan Rail, Tokyu and Odakyu.
But there are many others and some are subways. And in Japan we use train cards where you charge them with money, they are called Pasmo, Suica etc. They are a bit like the Oyster card in England.

Oreo Ice Cream

A few days ago I made Oreo Ice-cream. It tasted amazing. It’s my favourite dessert now. This is how you make it:

You need:

  • Small pack of Oreos or similar
  • Milk
  • A bar of cooking chocolate
  • Nuts(Best is walnuts or peanuts)

First you crush the Oreos without opening the packet(Use a rolling pin or something similar). Then you open it carefully at the top and pour some milk in until the packet is full. Push a Popsicle stick or a something else into the top(This is where you will hold to eat it). Then you freeze it for 4 hours.

Second, you  melt some cooking chocolate(Use up to 50g).

Third, you take the Ice-Cream out of the freezer and surround it in the liquid chocolate. Then just sprinkle some nuts on it and it’s ready to eat!

Exploring Tokyo

Recently my dad and I walked from Ebisu to Shibuya. Most Japanese people don’t explore the city and go to places by train. There were a lot of low planes. There was a lot of graffiti. We saw train super close up around 50 cm. It was so scary there was only a fence between us and the train. I took a lot of photos. We went onto a viewing lobby on Hikarie Deck in the Hikarie building.

 

Riding A Segway

Recently I tried out a Segway. It was faster than I thought. It was really easy and I just crashed 1 time. You stand on it and you lean forward to accelerate and lean back to slow down or move backwards. It’s a bit hard to control because it naturally balances itself and when you try to lean back it’s very scary. I loved going uphill but hated going down hill. We had to go through a quick training thing.

I could try the Segway because it was some research about the opinion of Segways. There was an old man and he went on the Segway too. There were two instructors but they didn’t go on the Segway much. Afterwards, I ate a hamburger at a nearby restaurant called Village Vanguard and had a chocolate milkshake. After that, I went to a gaming store. I looked at the keyboards and found a Hyperx 60% keyboard with linear red switches. It wasn’t lubed so the sound was clacky. If you get it and want it to be thocky you should oil it and lube it with Krytox GPL 205 grade 0.

My New Bike!

Last  Saturday I got a new bike. It’s called the Trek SLR 6700. It’s a mountain bike with 3×8 gears and disc brakes. The frame is aluminium and it has front suspension. It’s really easy to cycle up hills and it’s quite comfortable even on bumpy ground. I need to get a mud guard and lights so it’s safe. I bought this bike on Craigslist, my dad had to ride it from the middle of Tokyo to our home and it took 4 hours! I went home by train.

I want to cycle on my bike to my friends’ houses and places where you can’t get to by train. I would also like to cycle to the sea one day.

Starting Ninjutsu

Yesterday I went to my second Ninjutsu lesson in Yokohama. The teacher is Paul Masse and he’s very nice and amazing at moving.  Also there are 2 other instructors Ryu and Keneto who teach on Sundays.

The lessons are 1hr 30 min and we do lots of different things in the lessons. There were about 15 people there and they were all very nice and friendly. We did rolling, handstands(I can’t do them) cartwheels(I can’t do them) and handstand walking(Impossible for me).

In pairs we did punching and blocking and different joint locks and later we did sword fighting.

You can see Paul Masse on his website here:
https://bujinkanyokohama.com/english

Paul Masse on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgBvlhT2XE8ryUumHiMom8w/about

My first skateboard

Last Thursday I got my first skateboard. It’s a toy one that isn’t very good but it’s good enough for skating and sometimes tricks. I will get a good one later this year.

I can’t do any tricks yet and the skateboard always turns turns which is annoying but still it’s okay for a $15 skateboard. I want to get a proper one soon. Have you got any tips or suggestions about skateboarding?