Back from Japan

Yeah, my plan for frequent updates from the Land of the Rising Sun didn't quite happen as planned, but at least pictures will be forthcoming.

I wanted to talk a little bit about my observations while on my visit.

1. Nintendo has taken over the country. During my last trip to Tokyo, the Sony flag was held high everywhere you went. The first thing you saw in every store was the PS2, the second thing you saw was the PSP... and then if you went upstairs or whatever, you saw everything else. This time, a mere two years later, Nintendo utterly dominates the ground floor of every gaming store, the DS mostly, but the Wii is lingering behind isle two as well. That's not to say that the Japanese don't get excited about other platforms. Armored Core: For Answer --a early nominee for worst title of 2008-- came out while i was there and seemed to get a decent amount of interest from the locals, and they seemed quite stoked about Monster Hunter Portable 2 G's pending release. But all of the massive ads in the world don't make up for the lack of floor space in local stores. In fact, I think there was a marked lack of advertising for Nintendo products... but I'm thinking that they simply didn't need it.

2. PC gaming in Japan is 4/6 porn, 1/6 imported American games (including a massive and beautiful Neverwinter Nights Boxed set that put to shame anything I've ever seen in the States), and 1/6th non-porn Japanese games. The American and NP Japanese games are hidden waaaaay in the back, behind piles and piles of boxes featuring animated ladies in various states of undress being assaulted by plant life. You may be wondering, "you're an adventurous, forward thinking fellow, did you purchase any of this peculiar merchandise?" The answer there is no, and it's not because I had a sudden bout of self consciousness either, it's because these little boxes of fun were running anywhere between 7000 to 10000 Yen ($70-$100) a piece. which is well outside of my "haha, look what ridiculous thing i bought" range.

3. I really, really, like Shaka Shaka Chicken. Probably the best chicken product I've ever had at McDonald's. I smell a hit!

4. The Japanese really, really, like fatty meats. from the Lamb skewers to the pork soba, the meat in japan was almost universally fatty. I started to think it was simply a matter of taste when i tried to get the chicken breast at Moss Burger (clearly on the english menu) only to find out that they had actually discontinued it in favor of a similar product (which was not on the english menu). Assuming chicken was chicken, i went ahead and ordered it, only to find out that it was actually the greasiest, fattiest, nastiest chicken thigh I've ever sunk my teeth into. On second thought, maybe Shaka Shaka Chicken is doomed to failure.

Sorry i'm late

Sorry the updates have been so damn lacking, but my alone time has been much more infrequent then I would have liked, that and I've been shaking off the residual effects of my jet leg. But it’s all good now.

I’m flying solo today down in Akihabara, I’ve been here since 11 and barely cleared two blocks of this mammoth of technological gadgetry. Within just a few short minutes of arriving, I already found what I was looking for, a copy of Phantasy Star Generation 2 for the PS2… and I found it for like $17. My only problem now is finding a way to play it when I get home.

I visited Taito Hey, a nice arcade on the strip. I’m saying “nice” because it had, by far, the best ventilation system I’ve experienced in an arcade so far, barely any smell of smoke to be experienced. This arcade is probably my favorite so far based solely on the fact that they have an entire floor dedicated to shmups, those lovely "massive numbers of little ship thingies attacking you from all angles as you fend them off though the wild use of ridiculous powerups" sort of games. I played probably the best the genre has to offer in Ikuruga, as well as some interesting new ones. One from Konami which basically amounts to Gradius: Miracle Love Umbrella Girl Edition. This game had me flying around a fine beachfront community while killing maniacal blue penguins... then moving on to ancient Egypt... where i was killing mummified maniacal blue penguins.

The next one I tried was a bit more contemporary, flying vertical while blasting random tanks and whatnot. The hook for this game was that you could use some sort of tractor beam to grab your foes and use them as shields, or alternatively, swing them around and use them as giant projectiles… it was fun.

Like all arcades, they certainly had their Fighter Floor, wherein chainsmoking lunatics beat the virtual snot out of one another all day and night. In most of the arcades i've visited so far, the FF has been almost universally located in a basement or sub-basement. this one was on the third floor.. which scored extra bonus points with yours truely.

Ive noticed a few changes since my last trip, KFC has expanded and is fucking everywhere now. I cant walk two feet without seeing the colonel’s ugly mug staring me in the face. There’s also been a massive proliferation of so called “maid bars.” They seem to just be coffee shops… where the waitresses dress as maids. I’m assuming these are popular and that there’s massive competition because I see small girls dressed as maids on every corner handing out flyers with maps to their employers locations.

I haven’t visited one of these cafés yet, but we do plan on hitting up a maid Izukaya called “LittleBSD” very soon. I’ll be sure to report.

Last night we went to the local Big Echo for karaoke, I’m going to say up front that Japan is light years ahead of the US in sing along technology. This room featured wireless mics, touch screen music selection (from wireless tablets), touch screen food and drink ordering, and even a webcam to videotape your performance. The music selection was surprisingly vast (and eccentric, featuring for some reason like 80 Slipknot songs).

It would be criminal of me to mention another word about last night without mentioning the izakaya we went to. Not only did they have my favorite sake, the always tasty Suigei, but some of the most amazing garlic bread I’ve ever had... served on wheat toast. To top it all off, we had some truely great deserts. I enjoyed some sort of ice-cream/oreo/shochu combination, and tom had a massive triamisu-like confection which featured like two full bananas and a half pound of coca crispies... it was a good night.

PS: a recent trip to the other side of Shinjuku turned up a familiar sight...

I'm a bit behind, but I'll try to bring you up to speed...

On Friday, we treked out to Ginza to rediscover our roots, grabbed lunch at the Lion, found the hotel from out last trip, and also visited Tully's, our former favorite morning coffee run. Our real objective in Ginza was to find the Japanese office of the Amnet travel agency to pick up our tickets to Dream.

Once the tickets were safely in hand, we wandered on over to Shibuya for some hardcore exploration... and then it started pouring.

Japan: The Return!

Last night was my first in delightful Shinjuku. We spent just a few short hours exploring before heading back to the room to pass out and let the rigors of our flight slip away.

Within just a few blocks of our hotel, we came across many, many izukayas, two Macdonald's (more on that later), a half a dozen 24 hour convenience stores, Wendy's, KFC(?!), and Gyu Kaku


I learned the following last night:

1. The Japanese really like Kit-Kits. I found this particular confection to be disproportionately represented just about everywhere i went. This phenomenon culminated in the consumption of a Kit-Kat McFlurry... yum.

2. Shaka Shaka Chicken is pretty damn good. it's essentially a chicken cutlet in a bag. mix in your choice of seasoning(hot chili, lemon pepper, or cheese) and boom, you've got a nice snack.



I also took the time to stop in at the local Club Sega, where I found that I can, in fact, hold my own (and lose two out of three rounds) in Virtua Fighter 5 to the local denizens of Tokyo arcades.

More later, as i've just gotten out of bed and am in dire need of coffee... luckily, we saw many, many Prontos on the way here!