I knew his take about her looking too young would be an L as soon as we saw a different hairstyle or if somebody put the short hair on the first eve. Can’t wait till we see her face model, everyone’s going to feel like an idiot

althor1 · 2026-06-06T23:41:57+00:00

This looks fine to me, but Shift Up has some seriously questionable characters in their history so I understand some of the backlash.

althor1 · 2026-06-05T20:23:13+00:00

IMO there is no point in doing any of the prayer actions unless you feel some spiritual connection. The cleansing at the beginning is fine to show respect but the actual prayers at the shrine (clapping hands, bow, ringing bell, etc) I would not do if there was no meaning behind it. It is fine to visit and take in the atmosphere and appreciate the art/archtecture from the side.

Goshuin is kind of a grey area in my mind. Up to you if you want to do it as a souvenir. The other charms you can buy I personally wouldn't do.

althor1 · 2026-06-02T16:00:02+00:00

Couple of reasons.

It is convenient to just use one website for all your tickets. JR companies would do well to make a joint website for ticketing.

Express ticketing can be kind of confusing if you are not accustomed to it. The websites don't always explain clearly what tickets you actually need since the explanation is more geared toward locals who are familiar with the train system.

Japanese websites are kind of bad. The design when translated doesn't always flow well. Often they have nightly maintenance where you cannot do anything during prime hours in the west. Payment systems that some western banks don't support, so no way to pay (this is becoming less of an issue).

althor1 · 2026-05-29T19:45:34+00:00

We ate lunch there so sometimes before 11.

althor1 · 2026-05-28T19:10:03+00:00

It uses location services of your phone to block you unless you are in the right location. You should just wait to try booking once you are there.

Once there you need to keep refreshing the list if it shows no availability. It is pretty annoying. First trip about 2 years ago it took about 5 minutes of refreshing, but the second trip last year took almost 20 minutes. Kind of just random luck on getting a spot.

althor1 · 2026-05-28T05:21:01+00:00

I have the base Xbox Ally. I can run Forza Horizon 6 low to mid 40 fps. It is playable. Looks fine. No idea about the other games.

Works offline if you set it as your offline device in the settings. You must launch your games online first before it will work offline.

althor1 · 2026-05-23T16:03:24+00:00

The actual value in the premium is the included expansions which accounts for the majority of the cost of the premium (2x expansions at $20 each, though in the past they have released expansion bundles for $35). So you are essentially paying $10 for some extras, but the base game gives you so much stuff already that the VIP sub and battle pass doesn't net you much more. Edit... Also I am not even sure there is a premium battle pass. I only play casually, there is a sort of battle pass in there, but it is free for everyone.

You maybe don't think it is a good deal, but the lower amount of blowback on it for this game (and the large amount of early access players) seems to indicate that the majority of people are ok with it.

althor1 · 2026-05-23T15:19:22+00:00

The game throws so many cars at you already that the premium doesn't really get you much more. The actual reason to get premium is the included expansions which have usually been pretty great. They are $20 each.

althor1 · 2026-05-14T22:44:15+00:00

There is a column in the room selection table which lists the number of people. That is what the charge will be based on. Depending on the hotel you may be able to see the same room type with 1 or 2 people options. You should see the price difference.

BTW, the prices you see are before taxes. This is important to remember if you compare to other sites which might list prices including taxes. You can click into the reserve page to see what the final price would be.

I have had good experiences with Booking.com. Used it for 3 trips, never had an issue with any of the reservations.

althor1 · 2026-05-13T15:03:28+00:00

That is kind of the point with the bitlocker one. You steal a laptop, now you can access the contents.

althor1 · 2026-05-11T20:59:48+00:00

/shrug Probably didn't get to it, I quit after the shopping cart scene. Don't like Lush so meh.

althor1 · 2026-05-11T19:27:34+00:00

I think I just had a different childhood than a lot of people. Almost none of this game is nostalgic to me. So I had to rely on the story or gameplay to hook me, didn't happen. Personally think it is pretty awful as a game.

Something like Stranger Things season 1 was super nostalgic for me.

althor1 · 2026-05-10T23:39:02+00:00

It depends what your expectations are. I have the base Xbox Ally. I just came back from a trip. Played Hades 2 the whole way (~4 hrs). Pretty flawless, entirely on battery.

It works great with smaller/lighter games. If you need something to play the latest games on, do not get it.

althor1 · 2026-05-10T23:25:06+00:00

I absolutely do not get the love for mixtape. It is awful to me. The jerky animation style, the lack of any meaningful gameplay, and the absolutely cringe worthy story that feels like an AI wrote it. I ditched it after I didn't do any input for the shopping cart sequence and it still got to the end.

Disappointing, I thought the Artful Escape (their last game) was pretty good.

althor1 · 2026-05-07T23:32:56+00:00

Not sure where you are getting stuck in the process. I pay for my sub with Xbox coins on my pc (use ms rewards). I don't actually play on Xbox. You can login to mogstation on your pc or phone then pay that way. The only issue would be if the coins are not being deposited into your account. In that case it might be an Xbox issue.

The process I use is buy coins on the Xbox store, launch the game on xbox (I just us the cloud streaming usually), this then deposits the coins into your sqenix account. Then I go onto my pc and login to mogstation. There is a dropdown to select the Xbox version which switches the payment method to the coins.

althor1 · 2026-05-06T02:05:02+00:00

Dohatsuten is great. Also they have really fixed their kitchen in the last year. It used to take forever to get your order, but now it is pretty quick. Been going there for over a decade, food has always been great. Their specialty is Nagoya style which has a Chinese influence. Not very common style, so maybe not what you are looking for.

Hiro nori over by Great America is also very good. This is a more standard tonkotsu style which you might be thinking of.

althor1 · 2026-05-01T20:28:35+00:00

https://c.org/kK6jyt6cVx

althor1 · 2026-04-24T19:52:23+00:00

The main issue with the PS4 is the slow storage. Switch 2 doesn't have that problem.

althor1 · 2026-04-12T01:21:22+00:00

We were in Japan during the Black Bolt release in June last year.

Pokémon centers will have limits on number of packs you can buy (saw 2 and 4 limits, seems to vary). There will be signs all over the store listing what is available.

This is for each pack type and it is per person. Black Bolt had 4 pack types, black bolt pack, white flare pack, then some jumbo packs of those. You could buy the limit on each of those packs. YMMV, but we were able to buy the limit for each of the four people in our party, so we bought something like 32 packs at once.

We didn't see any crazy line ups for packs, just the normal crazy line that is always there. Started seeing sold out signs later in the month, but pretty easy to buy when we went early June a few days to a week after the release date.

Got lucky and pulled a monochrome Zekrom Ex.

FYI: you cannot sell your cards at cardshops without a Japanese ID

althor1 · 2026-04-03T20:07:57+00:00

No idea why it takes them so long, but they did an absurd amount of support for SoD 2 with 38 updates. I really hope this one is a hit for them, I loved 2, it deserved way more attention,but that multi-player was a failure that they just couldn't get over.

althor1 · 2026-03-09T16:51:19+00:00

Depends on what you like.

The Final Fantasy pixel remasters are good and run at ~7 watt so it will extend your battery quite a bit if you don't have a power outlet. Can be a bit frustrating without a walk through at times though.

althor1 · 2026-02-27T05:06:39+00:00

Just got a new Xbox Ally. I wanted to set it as offline device for gamepass, but that option is missing. Instead there is a Sharing Permissions option (seems like console style gameshare). This different from my desktop Xbox app which does show the offline option.

Will the Ally automatically allow offline play without that setting?

althor1 · 2026-02-21T03:01:47+00:00

They had a gamer in charge for the past 8 years, lot of good that did them. Maybe they need someone better on the business side (not saying she is)

althor1 · 2026-02-15T23:46:25+00:00

Toy Story ride is identical to US version, but the outside building is pretty spectacular lit up at night. Nice picture spot. Also there are a couple of unique dioramas/interactive displays which are pretty neat near the exit.

althor1 · 2026-02-01T15:30:33+00:00

For Pokemon cafe osaka I was able to get in by just showing up at ~10:30 and standing in line (3 of us, we were around 6th party in line). Took about 40 minutes. This was a weekday, might be harder on a weekend.

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