The absolutely best thing about being in Japan is realizing that games so often are recreating Japan ... and you don't realize it until you're there. You hike and exit the path at a small shrine and feel like you're in Zelda. You go through a tunnel and come out in a different (snowy, in my case) environment, and feel like you went through a Mario pipe. You drive on expressways in Tokyo with office buildings nearly right up to the road, with pillars between lanes and (in one spot) a highway going through a building and suddenly racing games don't seem so far fetched.
It's a trip, in the best of ways.