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...