Ninjato

When my mom dropped $200 cash on me for my birthday (a big surprise BTW) I had all kinds of things I could spend it on. But I tend to look at cash and gift certificates like this: spend it on something you normally wouldn't buy. Because that's usually what gifts are. You don't buy someone a gift certificate for an oil change for a reason. Gifts are superfluous, fun things. So I bought a ninja sword.

Like I said before: I'm a geek, through and through.

I've been thinking a lot lately of another visit to Japan: our 5th anniversary is coming up next year, I'm enrolled in Japanese language class at the local community college, and I just had a blast playing Tenchu Z. I love my katana that I bought in Kyoto four years ago, and I plan on getting another one next time I visit. I certainly do not plan on getting a ninja sword in Japan, not to mention it would be hard to find. The Ninjato as we know it never existed. It is a construct of Japanese film, Hollywood, and anime. The exact origin of the straight sword and square tsuba design seems to be unknown. But it is known to be not historically accurate by any means. So this sword is purely a celebration of the pop culture ninja. So that's why I would feel silly buying a ninja sword in Japan. Instead, I bought a Hanwei Ninjato.

Hanwei is a Chinese company that manufactures many functional historical swords of all types. Martial artists actually use Hanwei swords because they are functional, rugged, and much cheaper then true Japanese swords, or nihonto. So practice and destroy the cheap ones while the authentic ones sit safely on your wall. This sword is made for business. While not folded, it is differentially hardened, and it has a real hamon to prove it. The guys at Sword-Buyers-Guide.com did a review, and they have plenty of video to show how sharp this thing is. I've read that folding is only a matter of tradition today anyways. They used to do it to improve the carbon content of the steel, but that is unnecessary today - though it also makes for a beautiful effect on the blade. Point is, a lot of swords made today are as good as the classics.

So this sword is kick ass. It has all the details that make it feel like a "real" ninja sword: black colors, hamon, flat black saya, square tsuba, and it even has a kamasu-kissaki (the striaght line tip, where others are traditionally curved). More pictures here.

Oh and BTW, I'm adding Edo Wonderland to my todo list for Japan. The ninjas sold me, lol.

And I never posted a pic of it, so here is my Kyoto sword:

Fatal Frame 3

I like me a good scare. Unfortunately, there are few ways to get one. Horror movies are 99% garbage. I hear there's a good author by the name of Stephen King who wrote a few good books. But I tried to read one ("The Shining") and he put me to sleep for five chapters before I gave up. A lot of "horror" video games are terrible in the horror department. Resident Evil hasn't been scary since the first game. Silent Hill, same. Most others are scary in the "monster jumps out of the closet" type scare. You might as well buy a jack-in-the-box for less money. But Fatal Frame... is different.

This is the third Fatal Frame game. I got it off eBay for a whopping $50 new, for a PS2 game! I guess it was a limited run. I've played most of the first game and recently completed the second game. So it was only natural that I now play the third one. And man was it well worth the money.

The gameplay hasn't changed at all. You are still a diminutive Japanese female stuck in a creepy old Japanese mansion full of vengeful ghosts. You are defenseless for a short period of time before you find a Camera Obscura, an antique camera that can damage ghosts when you take their picture. Of course, you do more damage to them the closer they are, and you get a special "shutter chance" when they are actually attacking you. So you are encouraged, if not required, to allow the ghosts to stalk you while you charge the camera and grab a snapshot at the last possible moment before their icy hands grab your throat. And believe it or not, that is not what makes the game scary.


What makes the game scary is the atmosphere. This mansion is creepy. It creeks. It has unseen children singing lullabies. It has ghostly women hiding in corners crying to themselves. It has ghosts who talk as if still alive, replaying the horror of their last moments. It has hooded priests who walk with their Buddhist staffs, which rattle like a chain as they strike the ground. There are little girls, shrine maidens, who are trying to stake you to the ground with a mallet. You know when those are near because you hear this wood-on-stone tapping sound of their mallet as they approach. Run bitch. Run.

The ghost list goes on. But you get the point. They are surprisingly varied in style and execution. And every single one of them is a character in an unfolding past drama. A drama which has spilled over into your own life. This game also links the first two games to this story, including characters from those games. Let me tell you: when you walk through a door and things start to look familiar, until finally you realize you just entered the "rope hallway" from the first game, that is fucking creepy. That is not someplace you want to be. In fact, that is one characteristic of this game that I haven't felt since the original Alone in the Dark. In both Alone in the Dark and this game, there were places that I did not want to be in. When I had to pass through those areas, I ran like hell until I came out the other side.

So in conclusion, I give Fatal Frame 3 a 5 out of 5. I also think it is the best of the series. Most reviews seem to think that 2 was the scariest, and thus the best, but I think 3 actually has it beat. There were some unforgettable moments in FF2; like dropping your camera in the caves and having to run from a pursuing ghost because you are defenseless; or when the little girl turns out the lights on you in the middle of a hallway battle. But FF3 just had more atmosphere, beginning to end. I wouldn't play the game after dark, alone in the living room. When the wife went to bed, I turn it off and play something else. That's how good the game was.