[journal] My first night out clubbing and Tokyo has yet to let me down. It was too dark to video, and I didn't take pictures for the same reason, but now I realize that pictures would have been up close so the light on my cellphone could have possibly taken decent pictures.
Here I am just before leaving the house. Did I style my hair okay, Karen?
I went early to Shibuya station, an area known for trendy 20-30 something Japanese. Alex told me it's the busiest area in the world and I believe him. When I got out of the station (as seen in the video below) I was assaulted by a sight that reminded me of Times Square, Manhatten coupled with a continuous flow of busybodies. There was a giant staircase that stretched up and over the rushing multilaned street. The staircase looked very much like a giant spider with just 4 legs.
Shibuya Station (Southside, West Exit):
We met nearby a statue of a dog. The dog was renown for meeting his owner at the station everyday after work. Even after the owner died, the dog would wait patiently for him at the station.
After meeting up we walked around for a bit:
We got hungry and had korean food, although it tasted like Japanese because it was fried rice with an egg and corn and I know Japanese cuisine enjoys eggs and corn (also mayonnaise, the only japanese ingredient I don't like). They pretty much put egg into everything. Then we walked the streets for a few hours. I now know where to take my brother Brian for CDs and my brother Mike for porno. Sorry, Karen, I didn't see any cool clothing or shoe shops. Enough with the shopping I said and we then hit two different 5-6 floor arcades. Each floor had its own theme. One floor was dedicated to the claw machines that allow you to control a claw to pick up prizes. The prizes weren't dinky toys eithereither, there were full blown carnival plush dolls that were cool looking (like the Ugly Doll brand) and collectible manga/anime characters:
Another floor was the gambling floor. It had that game you drop coins in and hopefully knock other coins off a ledge. They always look like they are going to fall, but some peculiar magnetic attraction prevents them from doing so. They of course had a lot of video poker and I believe they EVEN had a DEALER at what I assume to be a blackjack table! (I thought gambling was illegal in Japan?). One area even had this huge TV screen showing horses running. Below the screen was a miniature replica of a derby with miniature horses actually moving. It looked so neat. There were guys lined up in seats betting on the horses. You can make the faint outline of the rushing horses just behind and to the right of the bridge.
Of course the highlight was everyone buying these cards from machines which looked like "Magic the Gathering" cards or Baseball cards. From what I gathered by several nosy minutes of looking over Japanese men's shoulders (none of the girls played these types of hardcore games, they were in the puzzle, gambling or picture booth sections), is that the cards represent heros or what not. In front of each player is a large touch sensitive grid that the players put their cards on. The grid reads the information off the cards to know which heros the person is using. Then you see these Japanese guys wave their arms around moving the characters on the grid and also with their other hand pressing all these buttons when their characters encounter someone.
It sounds a little complicated but they have it for 3 types of games: sports (soccer), fantasy roleplaying and action. I'm not sure how the action or sports one works but the roleplaying looked amazing. The guy was control different army types (archers, heroes, etc...) on his grid, setting up formations and battle attack plans (flank attacks etc...) and then when his onscreen squad met up with an enemy squad it would zoom from birdseye view of the landscape to close up of the battle and he would start to press buttons that I didn't understand. I think the cards act as players armies and if their heroes can get stronger and stronger, but if your hero dies you have to buy another card. I saw guys swapping cards too. One guy had like a silver flashy card and traded it for a few of another guys cards. So I guess you can get lucky and find a special POWERFUL card in your deck sometimes.
Here's a crappy video of it. One part it gets stuck so you have to click on screen to move it forward.
[journal] My first night out clubbing and Tokyo has yet to let me down. It was too dark to video, and I didn't take pictures for the same reason, but now I realize that pictures would have been up close so the light on my cellphone could have possibly taken decent pictures.
