I knew the good weather was lasting a bit too long. Go figure. I woke up to a cloud-filled sky and a weather broadcast calling for light rain most of the day (amidst Ratchet and Clank PS3 ads, distributed amongst the weather map -- yes, really). Bummer about the rain. Ah, well. Aside from toughing it out for the walk to the station, most of my time today will be spent inside anyways.
So I hung around the hotel room until about 9:30, figuring most of the morning rush hour would have ended by then, making my commute to Electric Town Akihabara a bit less crowded than the last couple of times. My uncle gave me his MCI calling card information, so I was able to give Lisa a call before I left. It was good to hear her voice. I really miss her, and wish she could be here experiencing all of this with me. Then again, if she was, I probably wouldn't be writing huge blog entries about daily activities then, would I? No, not really. Hmm.
Anyways, the train was fast as usual, and dropped me off at Akihabara about 5-6 minutes after boarding. After leaving the station, which is becoming a routine by now, I noticed that - to my dismay - most of the stores were still closed! Apparently, store hours in Japan are a little different than those in the states, and most places don't open their doors until 11 AM or later. I had a bit of walking to do in the meantime...
Fortunately, there were a couple of places that opened sooner, one of them being the game center I scoped out earlier. I was one of the first ones in the door and the workers were still setting things up. That means there was me, an empty arcade, and a bunch of "no pictures allowed" signs but nobody to enforce them. >:D You know what that means... Enjoy!
I played a few games of Tekken 6 (not coming to the States), Arcana Heart 2 (the first one is just coming to PS2 in the States next week - the sequel's already out here), and Guilty Gear Accent Core... and got my ass kicked quite thoroughly. Little did I know that some of these machines were NETWORKED TO TEH INTARWEBZ and before I knew it, people were challenging me to online matches... -_- Needless to say, I didn't last very long... Sadly, the fighting game floors of the game center tended to get very smoky as they filled up with customers. Some of the games have designated "no smoking" seats, but that obviously doesn't help with the air around you. Each machine has an ashtray on it. Yuck.
Aside from the many fighting games, there were also quite a few shooting games as well. Not of the typical FPS variety (although there WAS a Half Life 2: Survivor machine), but side (or vertical) scrolling, bullet-hell shooters like Gradius and 1942. LOTS of them. On new hardware. One that piqued my interest was Otomedius, a side-scrolling shooter with a touch screen made by Konami, which I believe to be the latest in the Parodius series. You pick out a cute anime-chick (or buff anime dude), get on a rocket, and start shooting cartoon penguins, giant turtles, mechs, Egyptian sarcophagii, seals in clamshells, and more as the screen scrolls left to right. The difficulty curve is set up such that you can actually play for a few minutes without getting blown up, which is really nice when compared to other shooters in the genre. It was also graphically pleasing, and I'm hoping Konami decides to release it for the PS3 in Japan so I can import a copy. This was probably my favorite game I tried out today, and I visited two different game centers with an INCREDIBLE selection of games. The other game of note is the Dragon Quest Battle Monsters card game, which I was able to figure out how to play despite the fact that there were far too many kanji to understand what I was actually doing. I won both battles, and have a trophy card to prove it. Probably wouldn't play that game again though, as it's basically the worst parts of Pokemon (with real money) combined with timed button presses. If you don't have good cards, you can't win. It was still VERY cool to get to try it out, though, since it'll never, ever, ever come to the US.
After exiting the second game center, I looked around a few shops and picked up a couple of things. Interesting thing about Akihabara is that there are _A LOT_ of used software shops, and the prices actually tend to vary rather wildly. A DS game you see for full-price in one place may actually be significantly cheaper in another (and keep in mind, here the 'full price' for a DS game is upwards of 4500 yen, or $45+). Thus, I did some bargain shopping before picking anything up, but ended up giving in to the "BUYYYYY ITTTTT!" urge and yoinked 3 different games.
There were quite a few more that I almost picked up, but they were either difficult or impossible to play on our systems back home, and would only be for collecting purposes. Did you know a used, boxed copy of Chrono Trigger sells for less than $20 in Tokyo? Yeah, I didn't either. But it's in Japanese and can't be played on a US system. Same with Final Fantasy VI. The expensive games around here are either Neo-Geo (interesting), Sega Saturn, and (to a degree) Playstation 1 collector's editions. There were a few stores devoted solely to retro games, and I admit I almost picked up a dual NES/SNES player and a couple of compatible Japanese games. I resisted though, remembering I probably don't have enough room in my suitcase for a game system. Still no sign of Vii (sorry guys, I tried), though Wii's are actually fairly easy to come by around here. Cheaper than in the US, too.
Around 11:30 or so I started getting hungry. The Takoyaki (octopus dumpling) stand wasn't open yet, but there was a MOS Burger right across the street. Now, for those who don't know, MOS Burger is basically the Asian equivalent of McDonalds. They're EVERYWHERE. However, their menu is substantially more limited, their portions are smaller and a bit more expensive. I HAD to try this. I ordered a Teriyaki Burger (their specialty) and a small vanilla shake. A Japanese take on a classic American meal. The burger was a bit small, which was fine by me, and REALLY tasty. Usually I hate mayo, but it wasn't overkill on this burger and actually went really well with the teriyaki taste of the meat. Then again, it's also Japanese mayo, so it has a slightly different taste anyway. The shake was thick, less sugary than a McD or Arby's shake in the States, and very good. I'd almost make a special trip to Akiba tomorrow just to eat at MOS Burger again. And there are still so many other restaurants to try...
After more window shopping (and more buying T_T) I passed the Takoyaki stand one more time on my way to the train station, and ordered the octopus dumplings. They looked really yummy until the guy behind the counter doused them in mayo and "cheese".
I popped one in my mouth, expecting the worst....
It was actually tasty, except for the fact the filling was SCALDING HOT. The roof of my mouth, and part of my tongue were immediately burned. The shop didn't sell drinks, either! I ate the rest of the takoyaki once it cooled, and then hurried into the nearest building - a game center (yay), and quickly bought a Coke Zero. Aahhh...cold caffeine-y goodness, same as back home. This second game center was even larger than the first, and I spent quite a bit of time in here (and dumped more money than I'd probably like to admit into Otomedius), but was well-staffed so I couldn't take any pictures this time. I'm almost tempted to come back here AGAIN tomorrow before we leave for Kobe.
Afterwards I returned to the hotel via the train. I figured I'd hang around here until I'm supposed to meet the IBM Tokyo guys for dinner. My legs are still sore from walking the other day, and the weather isn't the best anyways... I'll post some pics from the dinner later on tonight.
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