Nah, unfortunately I never left Honshu (except Miyajima, I guess). I'll keep that in mind for my next trip, though. 

is a must to do it properly but I didnt have one and even on foot, theres a few interesting walking routes.

Definitely not as much to do as Miyajima but its worth it just to see japanese tourists panic when sakurajima erupts and spews ash everywhere :) Those who dont know whats going on think the whole island is going down or something!

Vigil, I suggest Kamikochi over anything else for oyur next trip, definitely my favorite spot so far. And then maybe Koyan San. 

I wanted to do Koya-san last time but it didn't fit in my schedule. Will check both of those locations out next trip! Gone there 4 times now and I'm still not bored of it. 

I wanted to do Koya-san last time but it didn't fit in my schedule. Will check both of those locations out next trip! Gone there 4 times now and I'm still not bored of it. 

is another worthy hike, with the night spent in tsumago.

Yamadera is stunning, if not the easiest place to get to.

what else, I also really enjoyed Matsumoto and Kawaguchi-ko. And wish I had more time around Iya Valley and Tokushima. 

This game has easily gotten the "fiance stamp of approval" (with fanfare too). Bought it as a gift amd I think she's been at it for 4 hours nonstop now.

It's 20eur on Steam. 

16.99eur 

Ah yeah, I haven't gotten around to visiting Shikoku at all yet (nor Hokkaido for that matter), definitely have to check that out sometime. 

This game has easily gotten the "fiance stamp of approval"

Demo here, if anyone wants to try it:
http://machinarium.net/demo/

I haven't had time yet this week--too much real life. 

Of course, the best feature of the island is the 88 Temple Pilgrimage route. One day, one day... 

but Iya valley is great and the Naruto whirlpools near Tokushima are a sigh too.

Just returned from Ebino Kogen (north of Kagoshima) and its now my equal favorite spot on the trip along with Kamikochi. Well worth checking out! 

negke is back! 

Not sure if this is news worthy or not but thanks surely to Willem's push of free software for everyone, Epic has released a free version of the UE3 for people to use.

http://kotaku.com/5397808/epic-sets-the-unreal-engine-free

Hurrah! Free UE3! 

Yeah, that's entirely because of me. You're welcome! 

That sounds pretty huge. 

Now you can spend countless hours making your own death match game and then spend 500 hours on a map for THAT!

Also, yeah, I thought that was a pretty huge fucking deal, not sure if it's news worthy or not, but still a huge fucking deal. I will be downloading it and toying with it tonight probably. 

Fucking AWESOME stuff. AWESOME. Willem, do we seriously have you to thank for this? If so, you are a fucking ginormous behemoth among men. 

 

This SDK is actually a newer, more recent version of the engine tech than UT3, here is a list of "new since UT3" features: http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitBuildUpgradeNotes.html 

Yeah, it's the absolute latest engine and we're going to update it every time we update the version we give out to our licensees. It's pretty bad ass! 

Willem have I told you how I've always liked Epic? :) 

This is annoying, I wish I was 17 again so I could dedicate like 6 hours of every day of my life to developing some small but cool game with a bunch of people. 

DUDE LET'S TOTALLY DO THAT JAGO 

It crashes on install. I am sad, cuz it installs at work :( 

Wait hold on, I think I figured it out.

Willem: Are you offering complete online UDK classes for us? This is practically your home now!