8bit bar

If you are a new reader, Dustin and I are nerds. Totally geeks. While hanging out with like-minded friends, one casually mentions a bar in Hiroshima where you can play Nintendo. WHAT?! I've lived here two+ years and never heard of this place! Must. Go. Now.

So we did.

Basement Floor right off Heiwa-dori

We were presented with a Nintendo famicom cartridge console. Nintendo only released this platform in Japan (in my birth year) and it was a huge seller. We got the cartridge system beause we picked out Super Mario Bros to play. They also have the original Famicom to play which uses small floppy discs with a rewritable feature (i.e. you can finally save your progress when Mom calls for chicken nugget consumption). The technology was a decade ahead of general disc-format game consoles. (Side note: the company behind the Final Fantasy franchise almost went bankrupt because their venture in disc-based gaming was a flop. They recovered by releasing their title in cartridge format which went on to sell bajillions...)

A big part of our success with the game was muscle memory. Years of playing as kids meant we remembered all the secrets, knew all the jumps... and died! The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros is different! Muscle memory will do you no good!

Futsal

If you've been a reader of the last three years of my life then you know I am not a huge fan of organized sports. I played soccer until middle school and had a massive crush on Chipper Jones from the Atlanta Braves. That's about the extent of my sports-love. I enjoy attending live games, but watching sports on television just ain't my thing.

But given the opportunity to play. I'm in. Or in this case, Dustin got the chance. A coworker of his has a group that meets every so often in Hiroshima to play futsal.

Futsal is a variation of soccer that originated in Brazil almost a century ago. It is played on a small indoor field with no paint lines or walls. The small space means playes must be more creative. Japan loves their baseball, but futsal spectators are growing.

The video is a bit long and I've given up trying to find exciting moments to display. No photo this time. Just Google futsal. Neat stuffs.

Tokyo Game Show

The first weekend Dustin and I were in Iwakuni we heard about the Tokyo Game Show, a huge exhibit for video games and new platforms. We were excited, but after all the traveling we weren't really up for a big trip to Tokyo. So we skipped the first year. The second year was coiming up and after researching information found that the public days coincided for a triathlon in which I was training to compete. So we skipped the second year. As we enter our final year in Japan we have started making a list of the adventures that have been pushed off for one reason or another that we must experience before leaving this amazing country.

Finally we make it to the Tokyo Game Show. We recently had an airport open in Iwakuni. It shares use with the US flightline on base. We priced out some options to find the cheapest way to get back and forth from Tokyo in a day. There was some talk of using the Night Bus again, but ultimately I wanted a shower so flying up and back in one day became the best option.

We met some friends at the airport and began our journey to Tokyo. The normal train schedule from the airport to the event venue had been altered to accomodate the increase in traffic. So while deciphering the signs we were attacked! Out of the tall grass popped a wild nerd! An Batman-ified American appears out of nowhere,

"TGS?"

Why yes, good sir, are we that obvious? I look around at our party. A Batman hoodie complete with ears, Doctor Who and the Daleks, Final Fantasy heroes, and the Triforce. Yes, we are that obvious.

After an hour of train hops we made it to the massive, albeit quickly moving, line.

Ta-da! Squee! We are finally here!

We entered in showroom 1 of 9. Well, technically of 12, but the last three showrooms were dedicated to cosplayers. My main focus was finding Square Enix. I have written many times about their amazing universes and had heard some rumors that there was going to be cinematics and possibly game play for Kingdom Hearts 3. Look up.... oh! There!

On one side of their HUGE display area they had some cosplay from A Realm Reborn.

On another side was a huge screen showing trailers for all of Square Enix's upcoming titles. It was on a forty minute loop (lots of new games!) that we stood among the sweaty mass to see. I was bummed about the Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer as it was one I had already seen online. They did spend ample time on the upcoming Final Fantasy XV. I was blown away by the new content and am quite excited about the open battle style. And it looks positively gorgeous.

Further around the Square Enix area we found an option to play demo versions of some of the titles. The lines to play were over ninety minutes. An hour and a half wait to play five minutes of game play.

We spent some time at the XBOX area, but none of my pictures came out very well. too much lime green everywhere. Each of the larger booths had a similar set up. Displaying new games in one spot, a demo experience, and then a stage where artists, creators, contributors, voice actors, etc would talk about their projects.

After a couple of hours in this area we decided to move along. We still had huge event areas we hadn't even been to yet. While walking between venues we found these ladies who agreed for a photo.

The next exhibit hall had a huge area for Sony products. Many people were lined up to play titles on the new PlayStation 4. There were so many sweaty people!

Seeing the new virtual reality (?) was scary and awesome at the same time. Some titles would be fun, but I need the separation on some of my scary titles.

We were quite hungry after an early flight and all our excited jumping up and down. So we slowly made our way through the crowd to the food areas. Curry, noodles, panko-fried things on sticks, and Domino's pizza were available. Ee edged into some available floor space and feasted.

The food area was next door to the merchandise areas. Dustin and I spent half an hour waiting through the Square Enix merchandise line. It was a little disappointing as much of their stock we have seen/purchased on our visits to Artnia.

On our way out we ran into Master Chief. Poor guy was just trying to go up the escalator but people kept asking him to pose. Hope he wasn't heading to the bathroom...

We made our way out of the exhibit area tired, sweaty, and with enough free loot to keep us entertained for a few weeks. It was an hour back to the airport and then a quick flight home. Definitely goes in the record book for one of the best days I have spent in Japan!

Eevee

$25 poorer and still no Eevee. 

MegaWeb & Shibuya

So my lack of posting is not from a lack of adventures. My family made the long flights out to Japan. Dustin and I took off two weeks to show them as much of our beloved host country as we could. Unfortunately the weather was a nightmare. SO HOT. In fact, one day we were in Kyoto was the hottest day ever record. Ever. Seriously, really hot.

Despite all the heat we had a great two weeks. While in Tokyo we came across some excellent finds. For example, my future car:

Or my weekend car:

!! So cool! We were visiting Toyota MegaWeb in Odaiba. One can test drive vehicles here on their indoor/outdoor track. Unfortunately we weren't able to test drive these beauties.

While visiting the busiest intersection in the world we found this eye-popping advertisement.

And a trip to Tokyo isn't complete without a visit and dessert at Square Enix's Artnia. This time they were running a summer special and I was able to snag a Chocobo collectors mug!

We are such nerds.

Square Enix / Artnia

On one of our first trips to Tokyo we visited the Square Enix store. We both were children in a candy factory while walking through the memorabilia from two of our favorite game franchises. We had a few hours to waste before our tour so we took my mother to the birthplace of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts (and the new Tomb Raider which is quite a beautiful adventure).

New Headquarters

The offices have moved to an architectually interesting building in Shinjuku. We walked from the train station and found Artnia - a new store/restaurant/art display of Square Enix greatness.

We introduced my mother to a completely foreign world and spent a good five hours trying all their specialty drinks, watching the evolution of the company and its games, and purchasing a small fortune in new music and clothing.

Ifrit

Blue Materia - a blue sugar cube dropped in straight alcohol

Ahem, I present a blurry Buster Sword.

Red Materia

We also tried a few other drinks, but somehow forgot to take more pictures. The alcohol content was pretty high... that may have had an impact. We enjoyed an olive assortment and then it was time to go. If you are in Shinjuku we highly recommend stopping in this area. The drinks and show were phenomenal! Also, Dustin and I were unable to snag all the custom coasters...

Legoland Discovery Center

I love my TripAdvisor app. If you don't have it, go get it. I'll wait.

We use it all the time while traveling. Get done with a place earlier than expected?

Whip out the phone and find interesting things in the area.

Hungry but don't know what any of the signs around you say?

Whip out the phone and find restaurants based on price and cuisine.

We finished at the Tokyo Anime Fair earlier than expected, so I started looking around for other things we hadn't seen yet in the Odaiba area. TripAdvisor mentioned a Legoland Discovery Center less than half a mile from where we were. So we started walking. Legos? Yes, please.

After learning how Legos are made (ALL in Denmark, huh, who knew?), we shot bad guys with laser pointers on the indoor roller coaster. The next room was quite spectacular. Downtown Tokyo. In Legos.

Rainbow Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Tokyo tower

Rainbow Bridge at "night"

The Japanese have a sense of humor - Gojira!

My favorite section the busiest intersection in the world. Remember when we went there?

The famous Shibuya intersection

Downtown Tokyo during the "day"

A minute later... "night"

We continued to the next area that was dotted with small pits to play. (Wormslayer, Lego storage idea?)

There were jungle gyms, Duplos, huge Legos (think the size of a small dog as one block), Friends Legos, and Pixar's Cars Legos. We bought some snacks (unfortunately not Lego themed) and watched a 3D animated Lego adventure. Dustin's favorite area was the gift shop. Lots of selection and variety on licensed Lego sets. Definitely a fun place to spend a few hours. Thank you, TripAdvisor app.

Tokyo Anime Fair

YAY! Nerd-girl half jumps! Dustin and I like anime, but living in Japan has made our fondness of fun storylines and beautiful artwork grow to marveling at the technology and animation styles. This exhibit was open to the public for two days and we didn't want to miss it.



Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba

Even the exhibit hall was fantastic. Amazing architecture both inside and out. And HUGE. Once inside we stowed our backpacks in lockers and entered the event hall. So many booths! So many nerd girl screams!

Ocarina of Time

Collector's Figurines

Animation drop-in classes

Toei Animation - a favorite

One Piece - HUGE in Japan

Pokemon

My favorite section was animation from Toyota. It was all interactive, but user input created different story lines. For example, light pressure might cause the character to something different than if you gave it a hard poke.

Open the door fast or slow. Rattle the handle. Soft knocks, hard knocks. All different animation responses.



The Original



After a few hours we started getting hungry. Dustin had a hot dog wrapped in naan. The picture didn't come out too well though. After a quick lunch we grabbed coffee from the Gundham Cafe. Nerd girl scream #178.

An excellent morning filled with visiting all the booths, seeing all the shows, playing all the games, and eating tasty food.

Nintendo

One stop we had to make while in Kyoto was to wear Nintendo started. Dustin and I both grew up playing Nintendo games. We just had to see where it all started. While researching I could only find the name of the road. I took that information to our base travel company. After a good laugh they started searching for more specific directions. Finally they gave up and called the Nintendo offices in Tokyo to get better directions. Finally we were able to narrow the location down to five blocks down a street.

In Kyoto we took a bus to the nearest stop and then used a geocache website to get us right to the spot. We walked down narrow streets until we came across an alley with a small chain guarding it.

That's it! The million-dollar Nintendo company that we know and love started in this alley.

As we walked out to the main street to catch a bus back to touristy areas we met a man walking. Often when we are traveling Japanese locals will ask us where we are from and want to talk with us. A coworker explained that they want to practice their English. Most of the time when we say we are from Iwakuni-shi in Yamaguchi Prefecture we get nods, but no real recognition. That would be like saying I'm from Clinton, Ohio. Okay, great. I have no idea where that is, but go on. This time he immediately recognized the name from the Japanese news programs regarding the Osprey protests. It was nice to have recognition, but not for that!

Oh well, we still got to see the starting place of Nintendo!

Arcades

In Japan gaming is everywhere. Whole buildings are dedicated to arcade style games with whole floors for a specific theme. While walking around wasting time before our bus we found a 13-story gaming complex. The first floor was all crane-style games.

Interesting concept - push prize off

Little bags of Oreo crumbles

"I missed it! Let me try again?"

"Ahemmmmmm"

Definitely could have wasted LOTS of money in there!