shinjuku gyoen

A few random pics from Shinjuku Gyoen, the massive garden (read: park) in Shinjuku. Went there on Saturday with some friends for a couple of hours before moving on to an amazing Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's place. The park is really beautiful, but we only hit one section of it (the Japanese Traditional Garden area), so I definitely want to go back and explore the rest.

It's pretty cool to have this huge, peaceful garden surrounded on all sides by a massive, bustling city. The contrast makes for some great photo ops, though I didn't really capitalize on that at all (oops). Oh well, maybe next time... :)

the matrix and entertainment

Just got back from The Matrix: Revolutions. No time for (or interest in) writing impressions, but I did want to point out something that struck me as rather interesting.

As I was sitting through the end credits (as is custom in Japan -- most people stay until the credits finish rolling), I couldn't help but smile about how this whole Matrix experience has been over the past four years, starting with the release of the original movie in 1999 and culminating with tonight's finale. Regardless of whether you liked the ending or not, one thing I think everyone can agree on is that this has been one hell of a ride. Did I like the movie? Did I dislike the movie? It doesn't matter -- what matters is, I was entertained. We tend to take that word for granted but tonight I felt like it really meant something. This wasn't just a two-hour movie -- it was much, much more than that. It was an experience that, for most of the last six months, was extremely satisfying and rewarding. I mean, take Reloaded. I saw it when it first came out in America (I was in Los Angeles that week for E3), and I came away feeling mostly confused but hopeful about what was to come. I then saw it again -- twice more, actually -- in Japan, each time gaining new insights and revelations about what was going on, where the story was headed, etc. etc. During this time I also saw the Animatrix in a theater, and I re-watched the original Matrix on DVD several times. Not once was I feeling bored or tired -- just entertained. (And by the end of it all, somewhat enlightened as well -- the films seem to make much more sense with each successive viewing. I guess you could consider this the movie equivalent of "replay value.")

Fast-forward to last week and the fever picked up again; I pre-ordered first night tickets for Revolutions on the web, I started watching the preview trailers, I bought the Reloaded DVD and watched both movies (and some of the Animatrix) again -- all in an effort to better prepare myself for the final chapter tonight. This might sound like the work of a madman, but the truth is, I just wanted to revel in this experience as much as I could, because I knew that once the movie ended tonight, it was all going to be over.

It wasn't until I was sitting there staring at the credits that I realized how fortunate I was to get swept up in all this, and it made me really come to appreciate entertainment as a whole, whether it be movies, games, books, or what have you. It might sound silly to say, but to be able to be entertained like this made me feel thankful to be alive.

I suppose you could say that when a movie makes you walk away with that kind of impression, the creators definitely did their job. And I'll definitely go see it one or two more times in the next couple of weeks after I've had some time to digest everything. This one wasn't as confounding as Reloaded, but there's still a couple of bits that left me scratching my head, particularly near the end.

Just one note to those of you who might have been wondering: stay away from the Matrix game. It's crap.

On an unrelated note -- I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came to check out my site for the first time last week. The back-to-back Famicom entries brought an enormous influx of new readers here; on average I usually get about 250 to 300 visitors a day -- on the 28th I got over 4,700, mainly thanks to links from Ruliweb, Slashdot, Quiter and GC-Inside, among others. I hope some of you decided to stick around -- if so, welcome! And thanks for reading. ^^