Video Games
Want to get scared by animals in a pizza joint, play this game series.
Five Nights a Freddy's
Hey check it out, Thunderbolts. Wait, that's not it, its (Spoilers)?
The New Avengers
Travelling within Japan will always be in play when planning a trip. If traveling between major cities and arrival time doesn't matter, you may want to take the scenic route along one of these superfast transports.
Shinkansen
Texas has a lot of good cities and towns to go to. There's one I've haven't heard much about since called Arlen. Haven't heard much about since 2010, so I went around to see what's up. But when I got there, nothing seemed to weird as I saw a few guy standing out by one of their homes drinking beer and not saying much.
King of the Hill
Most of us have began their love of tabletop games with getting around and playing classics like Monopoly. The concept is pretty simple with rolling dice, acquiring property, and maintaining your finances to be the last one left owning everything on the board. After a while, we like to come up with "house rules" to put a twist on things like adding a pot on free parking whenever someone pays to the bank, instant jail when rolling 3 doubles in a row, or having a once per game ability to go backwards on your roll.
Going to jail on 3 doubles in a roll is an official rule in Monopoly.
What's the name of the titular character of Overwatch?
Tracer
So we ended up getting a 7th Jurassic Park movie this year. When did the first one get released?
1990
Tokyo and Osaka were the main locations I went to on my trip, but we did fit a day trip out to the Western city of Fukuoka to watch a competition where men in mawashis work their way up to the rank of yokozuna. What am I talking about?
Sumo wrestling
It's strange to be in a land where there's various talking animals, a creepy wizard guy living in the snowy mountains, and a kingdom made of sweets. But then you get a little deeper and realize a lot of this is remnants from nuclear fallout.
Adventure Time
The manga/anime series Naruto has a vast setting that has been traversed over the years. Major land areas are named for aspects of nature like water, lightning, or iron. Within those lands are the hidden villages and each one is named in relation to the land's name. Majority of the show is focused on those from Konohagakure (Village Hidden in the Leaves) that is located in the Land of Wind, but we get arcs of episodes that takes us to other places like Iwagakure (Village Hidden in the Stones) located in the Land of Earth.
Konohagakure is a part of the Land of Fire
We always Press F to pay respects. Which game gave us that honor the first time?
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
New actors in movies makes pretty good trivia questions. Like this one guy named David Corenswet, haven't heard of him until he took the mantle of this character?
Superman
While it's smaller compared to the massive maze that is Tokyo, Osaka has it's various wonders. Common place people go on their first time is to Osaka Castle, a very well kept up historical site in the middle of the city. Shame none of us have the skills or legality to climb up to the roof of that castle to synchronize the area like in this Assassin's Creed title.
Assassin's Creed Shadows
Here we are in Korea, everything looks pretty neat around here. Just need to make sure I'm financially stable while I'm here and avoid anyone that might be playing this game called ddakji, which looks like smacking folded papers on the ground.
Squid Game
The Borderlands series is all about taking the usual open world adventure about saving the universe and adding a lot more guns to it. It's also very repeatable as each title will let you start by choosing one of four Vault Hunters to be (that's before DLC come out). After the 2nd game, you start to see Vault Hunters have connections to things from the previous games. For the Pre-Sequel, every Vault Hunter has a tie-in to an NPC or boss you saw in 1 or 2. In 3, you'll have connections like Zane Flynt, whose older brothers were bosses in previous games, or Moze, who ended up taking Roland's place in the Crimson Lance when he chose to go off Vault Hunting in the first game. The only Vault Hunters that don't have that reference connection are the Sirens, their connection has more to do with the Vaults they're hunting.
Moze was never a part of the Crimson Lance. Her military background was through the Vladof Corporation.
Video games have their own award show that's gone on since the early 2000's with everyone wanting to be the next Game of the Year. Which game was the most recent to receive that honor?
Astro Bot
Going off the domestic box office, Disney took the crown in 2024. It was close between two of their films, but this more family friendly one was #1.
Inside Out 2
To spread out how much of Japan we got to see, we spent a few days in the mountain towns of Hakone. Best part was getting to take tuner cars and driving along the winding roads of Ashinoko Skyline, the same roads that were used in the manga/anime series MF Ghost. This series is considered a sequel to what well known anime?
Initial D
I find myself in Indiana now. Nothing out of the ordinary during the day, but apparently there have rumors of events during the evening that's hard to believe. Something about kidnappings, telekinesis, and weird animals. Well, better get a bike and find out.
Stranger Things
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. A show that's gone on for 17 seasons since 2005 and has brought us so many iconic and quotable moments. One of the first is its introduction where we get the episode title that usually shows what the gang are up to this episode followed by the opening credits that takes us on a drive to various locations around Philadelphia like the Eagles stadium, Market Street, Phillies baseball stadium, and the 30th Street station.
The intro does not have a shot of the Phillies baseball field.
What classic PC game lets you develop in areas like Forest Frontiers, Dynamite Dunes, and Leafy Lake where you can build various forms of entertainment and amenities, set prices, and create your dream resort?
Roller Coaster Tycoon
Your best movies get Oscars. The ones that were dreadful get Razzies. This attempt out of Columbia/Sony Pictures earned the honor of Worst Picture in the recent Golden Raspberry Awards.
Madame Web
One thing Japan really likes to have a lot of are crane games that are definitely worth it if you know what to do. We can find facilities that have rows and rows of these machines with plenty of prizes that peak interest. There are two chains that you see the most of these, name one of them.
GIGO and Taito Station
Out of all of the places I had to end up, it had to be this rundown neighborhood somewhere in New Jersey. Being near a couple of houses with residents I don't even want to interact with. To make matters worse, I just saw a giant mechanical bunny just trash the one dude's car.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Bob's Burgers takes place in a fictional town along the coast of New Jersey with most of their episodes focused on the Belcher family as they go through their personal lives while running their burger joint that's built just below their home. Their antics tend to drag in other members of the community, like the restaurant's regular Teddy or pit them against people like their weird and rich landlord Mr. Fischoeder or Bob's restaurant rival Jimmy Pesto and his only son Jimmy Jr whom Bob's eldest daughter Tina has an "on again off again" relation with. The show has definietly made its mark with 15 season and getting a full length movie in 2022, which the show's intro took account for in later seasons.
Jimmy Jr is not the only son of Jimmy Pesto. There's also Andy and Ollie, the younger twins.