We got up early this morning to spend some time around Tokyo before we had to depart for Kanazawa. Here's a picture of our hotel room:

Departed for Japan today. Booked a JAL flight from Boston to Chicago, then Chicago to Tokyo/Narita airport. The one from Logan to O'Hare was really a re-branded American Airlines flight so it was 2 1/2 hours of boring. At O'Hare I met up with Xander and Shella with whom I'm travelling, and we boarded the 11hr Japan Airlines flight to Narita Airport.

I made my trip out to California this past week for my job interview with nVIDIA, and at the same time I spent a weekend with my girlfriend in her hometown of San Francisco. Had a great time, took a lot of pictures:

Since the initial public announcement of Guitar Hero: On Tour, there's been a slow trickle of more information being announced to the public. The website for the game, GuitarHeroOnTour.com, was launched. It's flash based and has an interactive demonstration of how the Guitar Grip peripheral works, and a link to pre-order the game. At a recent Activision event, a demonstration was given to the press, and GameSpot provided some coverage. The first tracks to be featured in the game were announced including "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister, "Do What You Want" by OK Go, and "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet. And at that event they pinned a tentative release date on June 22nd. Unfortunately I'll be in Japan and there's no release scheduled there yet, so I'll have to wait a little longer. Until then, check out some screen shots.

I spent a lot of quality time with GTA in the last two days, and it's really starting to set itself apart from previous entries in the series, in some really good and interesting ways.

 

The importance of interpersonal relationships has been increased a lot. You're encouraged to spend time with your business partners, and doing so generally reaps some benefits. Once you're in someone's favor enough, you'll be able to take advantage of their unique special ability. You also can date characters in the game. From time to time, your contacts or love interests will give you a call, or you can give them one, and you go for a date. You can take them bowling, to play billiards or darts, to a cabaret or comedy show, or you can just go out drinking. But, (and I echo this statement for real life) be sure to call a cab if you do the latter though, it's very difficult to drive drunk, but it's a fun minigame to try once or twice.