TIME:: Tuesday May 25th, 12:47
ANDY WILLIAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGFD OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGFF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGFD OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF OMGF!!1
So anyways, this is to show what an average, or normal ad in Shibuya would be for: entertainment. There are 6 billboards visible from Hachiko (a large crosswalk) advertising Troy. Which would be maybe... one more than The Last Samurai... But I forget. Movies, concerts, clothing stores, and the like all get teh hype. Shibuya gets tons and tons of foot-traffic from the wealthy adult and wealthy youth alike.
And now I head for the station...
Don:t ask me why the bald guy on the left is not only happy/surprised smiling-man has hair. I think this was an ad for a hair dye. Yeah. By the by, I do read kanjis pretty well. Just saying. (they read "adore hair") Goodbye, Shibuya!
Yep, get off the train and first thing I see is BAM! Pokemon. The young salary man is to be ignored when I say that, as a whole, video games are not important enough to attract attention and get monies in any modern market place. Which station I am at now is unimportant. The dry kindling of a tourist city which greatest monies from just video games two floors down below is. It should have what I came in search of. My... business, if you will.
Deeper into the city, deeper into the arcades, deeper into the endless string of stores. The advertising is still here, even in the bottom floor of a famous Sega arcade. Don:t let the fact that there are only two Soul Caliber 2 cabinets on the floor fool you into thinking that the twelve Virtua Fighter 4: Next Stage Sexy Evolution ver-2.456 cabinets are any less popular or less-played. Also, that sentence makes sense to me.
The sign says "Be careful to lower your head". Hitting a low ceiling is nothing out of the ordinary, especially for 6'1" me. Stairs can also be a bit tricky, and to demonstrate this, I stood on the last step possible in this old stairway. Now as anyone can plainly see, worrying about one:s head on this low ceiling is not enough. The sign should say "Be careful in lowering your head, shoulders, upper torso".
(And in a very OMGF-way, this would be the first time I am visible in an indie adventure!)
Yo.
But enough of that, these stores are not helping me and I believe this is the around the 8th store that day we visited. We = Nick, who also walked many a mile for... some reason. I don:t really know exactly. Maybe it was just to take this one great awesome picture of me! Be sure to thank him later.
Sweet Potatoes!!! Look at all them Famicom Disk drives!!1
If I had 8000 yen, a famicom, and no will to eat for the rest of my Japanese stay... Then, yeah, this would be cool. The systems went three rows deep, and about three or six units high, and eight columns across. Again, wow. Really nice store, here. This being the last one we searched, number 15.
So this amazing shop also sells newer systems, too, like these N64:s, which I don:t think you can see very well, but hey, what can you do about it?? HUH?! They were priced like ~2000 yen for a system, which woulda seemed pretty sweet since the last game I bought in Japan before this day was a copy of Pokemon Coliseum Gold/Silver version for 200 yen NEW at the then about-to-close AsoBit City. But with the day stalling out, our window shopping/exploring/researching came to an end, we got a few items of interest during the day, and mine will be shown below.
-----
PART 2 - Time to see what bounties the day brought poor, poor DonMarco...
First up are these practical food-related things I bought that day... Five packs of this stuff your fry up rice with to make... fried rice, yes. In my hand is this common spice-type stuff that:s hot. You put it in pasta, ramen and ... fried rice. Boy, I love me some... fried rice. And foods devoid of sweet, juicy beeeeeeefu.
GASP! Are these... video games? Why yes, it:s Guilty Gear X for the Sega Dreamcast. Something to take home and play on my J-Cast back home. Also... It:s three RPGs for the Saturn. Two of which I own back home in the states.
My! More games... For the record, all of these guys were a nice 50 yen each, without cases but they all still had instruction books, so I really don:t care. THIS is how I buy games when in Japan. Cheap, used and incomplete. RESPECT!!1
NiGHTS, X-mas NiGHTS, Fighters Megamix, Shining Wisdom, DAYTONAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaa... I got a lot off games. Seriously, though, this is really unlike me, spending money, or stupid cheap games. Especially since I don:t have a Saturn here. I got a US and Japanese one back home in Florida, but nothing here. So why I let myself get these, no matter how cheap is beyond me. I blame the killographic impulses the Japanese Government puts in the drinking water. Yeah!
And it:s ... more games. Lunar, Panzer Zwei, Dragon Force, Grandia, and one more i don:t think you:ve ever heard of... So don:t worry about it. Besides, while these weren:t 50 yen, or 75 yen, they still were teh cheapo, so ROCK ON!
Wow, Tails found a Sega Saturn controller somewhere. He:s cool like that sometimes.
What a sec, what you got behind your back there, Guy? Something I forgot to write about? Or "abute" for my Canadian readers. Reader, I mean. No, wait. He stopped reading a while back... Stoopid Canadans!!
!! A Saturn? ...For ME???
I am happy. ...As is Tails, but I won:t mention the fact that I can hear him whispering his evil thoughts directly to my brain known to you losers! HA!
GUARDIAN HEROES!!!
Need I say more? Well it is the most expensive thing that day. Twice as much as all the other games combined and about 800 yen more than the Saturn system. But before you gasp and let your precious monocles drop, be wary that I am a big fan of Guardian Heroes and Treasure. I love my US copy of this game, and getting this Japanese copy made me hella-happy.
Hella. Happy.
And this indie comes full-circle with advertising... uh, commands? Nah, wait. Advertising are basically suggestions you must ignore and push deep down inside your grubby sub-conscious, so you can afford that cool "eating food" thing everyone seems to be into nowadays. At least that:s what I tell myself.
-----
Another word on the Pikachu picture... Granted the Japanese are not known to have the "best grasp" on the English language, but surely Nintendo does. I mean, they got like LOTS of monies and they do business all over the world, so... This slogan might be best imagined as a guy dressed up in a Pikachu outfit, standing in front of a school with a bull horn yelling "PLAY!" and then half-pause to a slightly softer, but still very loud "Gamecube!"
And that ends this very special indie adventure. Game-buying is something I don:t do very often, but it:s good to know I still got "The Edge". 16 games and a system for less than one week:s supply of food. By saving and watching that all-too-expensive Coca Cola and Poifull intake, you too, can enjoy the comforts of a Japanese Sega Saturn and 16 games. Of course, I:m not assuming any of you out there are not stupid enough to seriously be stupid enough to attempt to live here.
There is more.. I will add it. Pretty sure it is already on the ftp, but we:ll see.
PEACE!! GAMECUBE!!
