Potatoes, Nattou, Tea, and GUNDAMU!!!

      Ahhhh, a night with nothing to do but sit here. Few and far between nowadays, I'm afraid. I've been doing so much schooling recently that I really don't want to talk about classes yet. I know I've been in for two weeks already and you still don't know what my classes are like, but I swear, all in due time! Plus, that stuff is kind of boring anyways.

      Er, well, I guess video game stuff is boring to people, too, but here we are again, starting off the post with my talks about arcades and video games. Don't fret, though, it's not just about what I was playing...
      In fact, it starts off with me saying, "Hey Dan! We're not doing anything, let's go play that awesome Gundam game where you sit in a pod!" He suggested Akihabara, Tokyo's "Electric District", and since I hadn't been there yet, I quickly concurred. First we stopped by his place, which was pretty cool (if you're interested, I'd look on his blog), and then we shuttled off to Akihabara. Seeing that it was the afternoon, there was no real presentation of it representing its namesake, so I don't have any pictures of the actual city, but I'll probably go there one night to see it at its prime (or, what I assume to be its prime).
      What we did do, though, is head straight for this shop called "Super Potato". This was probably one of the coolest things that Dan could have taken me to, as far as I'm concerned. Basically, the place is four or five stories of every single console game imaginable. And when I say that, I mean starting from anywhere around the Atari 2600 to present day stuff... and to make it interesting to everyone else, most of the stuff was still IN ITS PACKAGING. It was amazing. They even had the Nintendo Glove, Commodore 64s, Wonder Swans, Neo Geos... Virtual Boys (I even played the Wario game for about 2 minutes just for kicks). Heck, I even bought Mega Man V for the Game Boy despite it being in Japanese (that may mean something only to about two people, but it's a very rare [original, possibly Color] Game Boy game that I was swooning over for years and never got because no one EVER had it... it even had the one and only appearance of Tango, Mega Man's cat).
      At the top of the store there was a small arcade room full of these arcade machines that had something in them that allowed them to display hundreds of games on one machine. So, people were playing some of the earliest arcade games on these babies. Also at the top they had a chair made completely of (what I remember to be) old Nintendo cartridges and a life-size statue of Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3 garb.
      The most amazing section to me, though, was the Super Nintendo section. They had everything... multiple copies of all of the Final Fantasy games, Earthbounds, etc... and what I actually got. That's right, suckers, it's CT in a box (CT in a box, giiirl) that's in pretty awesome condition... for 1,554 yen... aka, $15. I probably payed for my used copy of that back in the day for at least $50, and right now you can get an opened American copy in box on eBay for $60 + $5.50 shipping + 13 hours still left to bid. I'm not saying I could sell this on eBay necessarily since it IS a Japanese copy, but since it's my second favorite game of all time (next to Final Fantasy Tactics), it hold a special place in my heart. They didn't have it at the time, but I also want to get the actual cartridge to play the game in Japanese (Independent Study, anyone? haha).
      Moving along, Dan and I went to check out the Gundam game in a Taito Game Station, and first ran into a Gundam game that we weren't expecting. The game is a shooter that involves you holding the Zaku machine gun. On screen you're an ace Zaku pilot going through many of the battles in the actual Gundam show, kicking some serious Federation butt. It's most similar to Time Crisis with a trigger to hide and come out to attack... and you can use Crackers (Zaku grenades) and the Heat Hawk (axe), too (I don't know why I kept doing the definition thing because I'm sure the only people reading this right now would know what they are...).
      After I played that game I moved on to the Dance Dance Revolution Supernova that's behind me in that picture and played four songs for hyaku-en with a guy who had a towel (heh heh, good times, no?). I haven't played in ages, but held my own against the expert. Even after the first song my legs and lungs were burning with exhaustion, and after a very friendly game with the gentleman, I had a really hard time walking down the stairs. By the way, hardly anyone was playing that game... people are more into Beat Mania, Drum Mania, Guitar Freaks, Taiko Drum Master, and even Poppin' Music.
      Speaking of Gundam and arcades, though, here's another interesting game in the arcade that you'll never see in America (but OH how I wish I could spend all of my mon--er, play it!!!). Here's an example of a game that is played as a fusion between card games and video games. I don't know what the big screen does (like, if it displays any games that players may be playing against each other), but here's how the game basically works from my observations (I'm going to reference it to Gundam, but know that the games range from that to fantasy to even sports... I saw one where people were playing each other in soccer using these cards): you sit at one of the stations armed with your cards of various types of mobile suits (and probably other things) and position them on the battlefield, which is the card grid you see. On screen there's a battle scenario (maybe you can do 1P or more?) in which you have to use your cards to defeat your enemy. It looked like partially a strategy game because the guy was moving certain units to certain places at different times, and the computer's screen was changing in accordance to his moves. For example, when he did certain actions, a video (being shown on there right now) plays depending on what he actually had done to affect the computer. There are also buttons and a scrolly mouse ball to use, but I have no clue what those are. Regardless, he looked really serious and it looked really sweet. Also, there was a card dispenser for a sports one in there where people can buy packs or singles or something. Rad.
      The next two photos are for Tony and Nick. If you can't tell what this is at first glance, take a closer look. If you don't recognize it, then relearn your kana... or your history of what absurd games we've played in the past.
Here's a shot for everyone. Why? Because this is the afternoon and the arcade is that crowded. Also, because the game that's being played is Street Fighter II, which is a game that came out in the early-to-mid 90s. This arcade was huge and had rows upon ROWS of games like this: old ones that an astonishing amount of people were playing seriously and even WATCHING. People in America may stop for a song of Dance Dance Revolution because people are looking funny "dancing", but these people were transfixed with the people playing STREET FIGHTER. I'm sure they've seen ENOUGH in the past 13 years! But clearly, they haven't. It was cool to see the new Tekken 6 machines, too, since they were all displayed on huge HD, flat screen monitors... but anyway, there were also those games in which you're a plane on a flat plain and are being constantly bombarded with missiles and stuff in which people just couldn't be touched no matter how impossible it seemed. I think I'll take a video of someone playing that one of these days. It was hard to get a spot in the 2-on-2 Gundam game that I had played a while ago, too.
      Lastly about this arcade, there was a small space with books and art work. Your guess is as good as mine.

      That weekend I ended up hanging out with my old roommate from USHSD 2004 Yusuke, his girlfriend Karin, and Andrew Pierce (my best friend on the trip). First comes a funny picture of a sign for a "casual wine bar" named "Pee". Yup. Next comes two R-rated pictures. If you don't get what these are from the hint of them being R-rated, then you can look at this picture of Yusuke and me standing outside of the shop. I didn't buy any, in case you all were wondering... but that doesn't mean I can't buy any FOR anyone, haha. In fact, the cashier was a little fussy about the picture taking, heh.
      That's in Shinjuku, by the way. Yusuke and Karin go to school there, pretty near the station and very near to the extremely rich district that connects Shibuya to Shinjuku (if I'm not mistaken), where we saw all types of fancy pants stores such as Gucci. This was also there... but just outside of the rich district. While we were still in Shinjuku, we hunted for a kaiten zushi place, and just so happened to wind up at the exact same one that I had went to with Dan, etc. my first night in Shinjuku. This time, though, I ate something even WORSE than the finely-shaped ika (squid).
This stuff is very famous for being rather disgusting for most people. And its name is Nattou. See that stuff inside the wrap that may be called really funny-looking chunky peanut butter? It's not peanut butter, but rather "fermented soybeans". Sounds pretty gross, huh? Well, look at my reaction. That's me almost throwing up trying to down the stuff. You thought that the Creamy Spinach Casserole Jones Soda was bad? Give this beast a try. The texture is absolutely wretched, as it just sticks to every part of your mouth, and the little bean thingies that swim around in it don't help. It was like a mouthful of disgusting tasting, brown snot that wouldn't ball up so that I could spit it out, nor would it go down the hatch. Yusuke ended up finishing it up for me. He loves the stuff.
      Afterwards we did some karaoke! If you'd like to see a video of Yusuke and his girlfriend singing "A Whole New World" and not really getting part of it (heh), take a gander:



      During the singing, Karin went off to her work, so the guys and me finished up and headed to around the area where she works so that we could walk around for a bit before we ate at the Italian place of her employment. Basically the place that Yusuke lives has about three times the amount of 7-11s that are in Virginia Beach, but instead of being 7-11s they're TV drama shops that are placed closer together because it's a city.
      The Italian place was pretty good. I ended up getting a spaghetti dish... but not this one. You guessed it, nattou atop of spaghetti. I'm pretty sure there's no song about that. But anyway, needless to say, it wasn't really Italian food like what you'll find in the States, but it did okay for me. We also got dessert. I ordered Pumpkin Cheesecake, which, again, is better in the States. Ah well. It was a lot of fun to just hang out with Yusuke and Andrew again, and it really made me miss my HSD days. I'm REALLY excited to see my first Japanese friend ever, Tomohiro Ishikawa, who was one of my homestay guys and was my roommate during HSD 2003 at Princeton (here's a picture of him and Aki back then in the old kitchen! he's on the right... I'm still trying to get in contact with Aki). Just thinking about the awesome times that I had both years with these guys and the other people in the program just makes me really nostalgic and so very happy to get the chance to see anyone I can again from the programs. I'll probably also see my homestay brother Masa from 2004 when he makes his business trips to Tokyo!
      Bah! Tangent! Here's Yusuke and his girlfriend at the restaurant! They were really reluctant to take it during work hours... but I forced it.

      And here comes tonight's side-story! First of all, I hadn't had a Mountain Dew in a month. That may bewilder some of you, especially you guys at home since I probably drank two a night. Luckily, I was able to snuggle up to one the other night because they're in the vending machines at the DK House. At first, I thought it was a really good deal. Look at that huge can! Hyaku-en? No way! Then, I realized that hyaku-en was a dollar. By the way, I think that the Dew tastes a little different here, too... or at least in those big cans. Not as sweet, add something from the C.C. Lemon, and yeah... a little odd tasting.
      Natalie has some pictures I need to get of some more McDonald's stuff, but here's one for now. This is the Mega Teriyaki, which is two patties, three slices of bread, lettuce, lots of mayo and teriyaki. I got this tonight, and was lucky to do so because I went grocery shopping at 7, which is when they start selling this burger (is that bizarre or what?). Check out the cool square around the burger to keep it all nice and neat. As mentioned before, it's really nice when your burgers actually look clean. Too bad this thing slid all out as I was trying to eat it and made just as big of a mess as saaaay, ribs. It was pretty good, though I would never get it again due to the fact that it was so expensive. But, I had to just for the experience! You'll get to see the Mega Mac in action verrrry soon. That, my friends, was a monster.

     Today, just to write about it, I stopped off at Shinjuku after school to play the Gundam game that Dan and I set out to play at Akihabara but never did. When I made it to the arcade, I went up and played around with my pilot card a little bit. The pilot card, which I got with Dan to see what it was (it cost 300-yen for the card and each game, which is two plays, is 500-yen... so that's why we didn't play), has saved on it my pilot information (name, appearance, records), the mobile suits I have (you have only one to start, and since I picked Zeon I had the Zaku II), and my team, which I didn't have at first. I then tried to sit in a pod and play the game, but for some reason it didn't work. So, I got out of it and asked some Japanese kids standing around if they could help me out. The girl that helped me ended up telling me that the one of eight pods that I was in was not a Zeon pod, so she showed me the other eight pods that I could use. She helped me out a little bit and made sure I knew the controls, then I started the game.
     After inserting the coins the game searches for players. Supposedly, as the girl told me, the game connects to places all over Japan and even to CHINA. Crazy, huh? Well, I played some games with just computers and then went to the pilot terminal as the game told me. When you get done with your rounds, you have to go to the pilot terminal so that it updates your card. My card now reads such:

Principality of Zeon Army
Second-Class Soldier (picture of decoration here)
Gureggu (that's my name)
("Title" is supposed to be here, but I don't know what's up with that kanji)
1140 Pilot Points
(Kanji is too small to read for me, but the number is 5... and that's not the number of games I played)

Star Rain, Shinjuku
06 Mobile Suit Platoon
(Platoon Mark here)
08/04/25 16:15

      If you want to see the pods and what I was sitting in playing the games I did, check out the home page. After playing a total of six games (that's 1500 yen later... yikes), I got a bazooka for my Zaku II, two upgrades for it, and an Acguy mobile suit. When I was about to leave the girl that helped me out came up to me and started talking to me again, making sure I found out the controls alright and stuff. Luckily, I had a handy manual with me that I looked at before I played, so of course I was good! But, it does take some getting used to since you're not just using analog sticks on a controller at home. You have to use pedals to jump and dash, move the two control sticks different ways to move different ways, etc. Anyway, we talked about how there really aren't any arcades in America to talk about (she asked if we had games like that... haha). She told me she comes here with her friends to play about 4 days a week for 3 games a day... that's at least $60 a week, about. Whoa! I won't be doing that, don't worry, haha. But, I did get to see her pilot card which had like, 25 Federation mobile suits on it (including Gundam itself). She told me to come and play with her friends, so I gladly accepted and left the arcade. How nice it was for her to help me out and be friendly, ne?

      Aaaaahhhhhhhhh, I have baseball at 11, so I need to get up at nine. If I didn't need to catch up on sleep I wouldn't be going to bed right now, but I need to, and I am. So, in that case...

Until next time...!