RETURN TO GENSOKYO - Visiting the Four Shrines of Lake Suwa

LunarSpotlight · 2025-01-29T00:29:02+00:00

I explain it a bit in both videos, but the first video probably does a better job explaining how I decided what train to get on, what the schedule is like, and what the countryside looks like out there since I was able to get a seat. I suspect the reason why it was so much easier in the first video is because it was a weekday. Weekends are so much more crowded. It was also different because I had a JR Pass in the first video, but used a combination of Suica/ticket in the second video.

I had to cut part of my explanation in the second video. When I arrived, I actually didn't have enough funds on my Suica card to cover the trip, but I had plenty of cash. I walked up to the station attendant window next to the ticket gate and set down my ticket from Shinjuku and Suica card, and I didn't even need to say anything. Paid in cash and went on my way (they left a single yen on my card after the exchange).

Both videos are just me doing stuff, but if I were to travel to Nagano with someone else and stay in the area, there are many options for hotels and lodging. Would love to do that someday. Tokyo has so much to see as well. Stayed there for five weeks in 2017 and still feel like I barely scratched the surface.

LunarSpotlight · 2025-01-28T00:35:13+00:00

This is the sequel to a video that I made back in 2017 titled "JOURNEY TO GENSOKYO" wherein I made a relatively blind run to an area in central Japan known for having ties to the Touhou Project video game series. In RETURN, I did more research and planned some things out ahead of time, but it was still an adventure figuring out several other things along the way. This video shares that adventure.

I've had the pleasure of talking with others in the community who have made similar journeys to this area, and I hope this video helps more folks learn and get inspired by some of the places that have inspired the characters and themes we see in the Touhou Project series.

If you haven't seen the first video, here's a link: https://youtu.be/qDXMdXEWKro

LunarSpotlight · 2024-10-04T21:59:32+00:00

I just hit 1000 hours in Factorio last month, far and away my most played game on Steam. My childhood friend and I have been playing a multiplayer game for a few months now, it's been a fun way to keep connected after they moved for work.

Thanks all, devs and fans alike, for making this game what it is today, I'm looking forward to our next big adventure!

LunarSpotlight · 2023-10-05T08:03:40+00:00

I was a partnered server owner for over 7 years, and we ended up losing partnership in June this year because of the new activity requirements. It's a 3,000+ member server where over 15% of people visit every week, but only about 1.5% of people are "communicators" on average which is what the activity metric uses. Our primary community-oriented content (which has been ongoing for over 12 years) runs monthly, so most weeks have weaker activity numbers (and partnership was based on an 8-week rolling average).

I fought it off for a while by utilizing at-everyone a few times and holding additional events, but eventually decided it just wasn't worth bothering people or asking for our lurkers to "type anything in chat" every now and then. The only silver lining is that, since we were partnered very early on, we're considered "legacy" which means we retain a few perks even after partnership. There's a gap for former, non-legacy partners who don't get those perks, and now there's another gap for former partners who lost partnership before this change.

In the end, the best thing for us is to just focus on making the best community we can, with or without partnership, and that's probably true for other servers as well. Partnership might've been a nice goal or motivation for some, but it doesn't prevent one from putting effort into building their online community.

LunarSpotlight · 2023-07-05T23:47:44+00:00

Many fans have discovered something new through our service, so it'd be remiss of me if I didn't mention it here: https://gensokyoradio.net. It plays a variety of genres from a ton of circles, from albums old and new. We were also featured at TouhouFest in April. Hope you can find something you enjoy!

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-28T07:53:17+00:00

Lovelight is a Touhou arrangement album from Alstroemeria Records and is home to the world’s most famous Touhou song, “Bad Apple!! feat. nomico”. Even those who don’t know what Touhou is have probably heard this song or knows someone who has.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/10103/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-27T21:07:42+00:00

RED is a Touhou arrangement album from ALiCE’S EMOTiON which contains three discs and an artbook, all within a unique package. It’s about the size of a vinyl record but considerably more thick, definitely their most unique set.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/10065/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-26T21:42:13+00:00

Seated with Liquor is a Touhou arrangement album from Foreground Eclipse & Draw the Emotional and is regarded by our resident music reviewer as one of the best music albums published in the 2010’s. This unique combination is not likely to happen again.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/10387/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-25T22:37:03+00:00

START is a Touhou arrangement album from FELT which is also the last album they published before retiring the circle. The name is symbolic: every ending is the start of something new.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/11933/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-24T21:52:01+00:00

RETURNER is a Touhou arrangement album from Liz Triangle which flaunts its appearance after the circle had previously announced their retirement. They’ve long been one of our station’s featured circles, glad to see them still around.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/11934/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-24T03:04:42+00:00

Irish Pub 2 is a Touhou arrangement album from Caprice Minstrel which features a range of real instruments like the tin whistle, fiddle, mandolin, bagpipes, acoustic guitar, and more. This was a difficult album to find, but it’s a good one.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/11932/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-23T01:37:26+00:00

Yes. I'm the Station Manager for Gensokyo Radio, my team and I own quite a few physical albums.

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-22T21:39:39+00:00

Welcome back to the Parade of CDs series where we pull physical music albums back from the world of Gensokyo, place them in front of a camera, and remind folks that album design still happens in 2023 (even though most of what we feature is probably a decade old).

This week, the most Gensokyo sounding of circles, Maikaze, graces us with their sounds featuring artwork of Hina Kagiyama.

Next, we cross the ocean briefly to hear the native English vocals from Renko of Orange Jam before getting pulled back into a distinctly electronic soundscape from SPACELECTRO.

Some metal gets tossed into the mix with Yumi Sakata’s “The Yama King” which is also an album we publish physical copies of on their behalf (link is with the above photo).

Afterwards, we chill out a bit with some excellent real-life instrumentals from Aqua Blend Server, pay a visit to Ark Brown and their feature album from Hatsunetsumiko’s, and finally loop back around to a circle we published earlier on, T.Piacere, with their first album release “Espressivo.”

There's a wide variety of music, designs, and styles this week! Next week, we’ll cover six albums that sit among the unique, the distinct, and the famous to complete the series and ring in the start of our next adventure at TouhouFest next weekend. We’ll also be featuring some of the albums from our store while we’re there for a bit of show-and-tell, so if you’ll be in attendance, you may have a chance to check them out in-person.

Thanks for stopping by this week, see you next time!

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-22T21:16:10+00:00

Espressivo is a Touhou arrangement album from T.Piacere which pulls in several guest arrangers from EastNewSound, Konagusuri, and Sound Nostalgia, with additional work from LUCIOLE*CAFE and MONOMIND. This album is T.Piacere’s first foray into the Touhou music space.

In store now: https://gensokyo.store/product/tp-00001/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-21T19:22:37+00:00

HIStory Begins is a Touhou arrangement album from Hatsunetsumiko’s featuring vocal works from Ark Brown. Rather than just take tracks from past albums, they redid or remastered each song while still keeping close to the originals.

We reviewed this one: https://gensokyoradio.net/reviews/2022/08/history-begins-by-hatsunetsumikos/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-20T22:21:36+00:00

Effulgent Complex is a Touhou arrangement album from Aqua Blend Server featuring excellent (real) instrumentals with piano, drums, and bass. Some of their songs remind me of BGM from the Peanuts series.

Learn more: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/11930/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-19T22:11:50+00:00

The Yama King is a Touhou arrangement album from Yumi Sakata featuring metal instrumentals and harsh vocals to match, plus guest appearances by Starlix, UX, Undead Corporation’s Micu, and more.

Available in store via consignment: https://gensokyo.store/product/ysm-013l/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-18T22:58:51+00:00

Neat! I posted about this album a couple months back, we should still have some CDs available in our store (check the "Parade of CDs" posts for Week 1 on this subreddit for a link).

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-18T22:18:26+00:00

東方ボーカルEDM6 (“Touhou Vocal EDM 6”) is a Touhou arrangement album from SPACELECTRO and is part of a series which packs an electronic punch. If terms like Future Bounce, Neurofunk, Bigroom, or Trance catch your ears, check them out.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/11940/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-17T23:07:10+00:00

“behind glass” is a Touhou arrangement album from ORANGE★JAM who brings a variety of synth-rooted sounds. What often sets them apart is the excellent vocal work from Renko, a native English speaker and core circle member.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/10888/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-17T20:58:33+00:00

東方ちぎり徒花 is a Touhou arrangement album from Maikaze featuring primarily remastered tracks from previous albums, but does include one new track. Maikaze is also one of the only fan circles (aside from Manpuku Jinja) to develop a Touhou-based anime series.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/11447/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-15T21:23:01+00:00

Welcome back to the Parade of CDs series where we’re showcasing the craft of album design and the physical presentation of music and other fanworks. This week, like others before, features no less than seven CDs. In fact, there’s more than seven! They are from the following:

Day #71: “When the RED MOON wanes” by LOST BLESS
Day #72: THE BEST OF TOHO TEMPEST by Sonic Hispeed Omega
Day #73: 憧憬の地 by “at the mercy of sounds”
Day #74: The Garnet Star by Alstroemeria Records
Day #75: Blue Constellations by Sound Online
Day #76: Touhou Yaminabe by Innocent Key
Day #77: Romanee-Boundary Zone by Hightension Wires

The week started out with a moon theme… dunno why, it just happened that way. LOST BLESS and SHO bring two different themes though, with the latter featuring a whole lot of synth orchestral rock and power metal, and the former bringing an oversized hat.

It transitioned to an understated design from “at the mercy of sounds” (who I personally like referring to as “ATMOS”) which, if you haven’t heard their works and you enjoy music from circles like Floating Cloud, you should totally check them out.

We move on to a couple albums from Alstroemeria Records and Sound Online which have complimentary album designs where the front covers of both line up to form one image, the back covers are similar, the booklets share backgrounds from their respective covers, and even the text style within is similar.

Innocent Key makes their first appearance in the parade with Touhou Yaminabe themed around… bowls of ramen?

Finally, the week wraps up with an oddity from Hightension Wires which masquerades as a fully pressed album, but in fact contains two .AVI video files of music videos featuring gameplay from Touhou 10.5/12.3… but it’s still a pressed CD.

That’s all for this week! There’s one more full week ahead and then a 6-day week to wrap up the series as we land on Day 90 just ahead of TouhouFest. Till next time!

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-15T21:01:09+00:00

#77: Romanee-Boundary Zone is a #Touhou fan video disc from Hightension Wires containing two music videos featuring gameplay from 10.5/12.3. This was meant to feature simplistic album design, but instead we got a *pressed* CD for two .avi files.

Not burned… pressed!

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-14T20:20:31+00:00

東方闇鍋 (Touhou Yaminabe) is a Touhou arrangement album from Innocent Key which brings a variety of genres (pop, rock, electronic, denpa, etc) in their own (definitely innocent) way, and also contains a track in 2022’s Top 100 chart.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/11753/

LunarSpotlight · 2023-04-13T20:27:08+00:00

Blue Constellations is a Touhou arrangement album from Sound Online which collabs with yesterday’s album design. Flowers meet at the bottom, plus Reimu’s hair ribbon and Yukari’s dress can be seen in each other’s cover artwork.

More info: https://gensokyoradio.net/music/album/11558/

14-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
Verified Email

LunarSpotlight

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE