Holy bejeebus--it's been a long time since I've written a blog on here, or anything for that matter. My Gamespot production has been rather slow (Space Invaders Extreme 2 and Undead Knights being my only two reviews in the last few months) and I've barely written anything for Trigames.NET aside from an admittedly middling God of War: Chains of Olympus review. Work has been weird, though, having switched projects and been put through a week of long training sessions, so I guess I just haven't had the energy to write anything of substance (which is why I've been relying on sharkversusoctopus.com to satisfy my silly, non-serious, impulse-posting needs). I also got back from a ten-day trip to Japan, from which I've brought back many photographs and the resulting need to organize said photos.

That's actually what I wanted to briefly touch on today--Japan. It was my first time visiting the country that I'd always wanted to visit, and I had a great time. The most notable part was the first three nights, which I spent with my sister in Tokyo. (The second leg of the trip was a five-day guided tour with my whole family--sister and parents--around Kyuushu, and it was fantastic, but the more "fun" part for me was Tokyo.)

First, though, I had to contend with the 14-hour direct flight from New York to Tokyo. I hate flying. I absolutely loathe it. Before, my hatred stemmed from my fear of being suspended miles above the earth and then plummeting in the worst of possible scenarios. As I started flying more and more for work (on a weekly basis depending on the project), the hatred became more a result of being annoyed at the process: spending time packing; spending time and money on a ride to the airport; spending time on a security line; spending time waiting for boarding OR stressing out trying to make the plane if I didn't get their early enough; spending time waiting for the plane to take off; getting poor-quality sleep (airplane sleep is some of the worst commute-sleep I've had, where railroad sleep is some of the best) and then having try opening my eyes upon landing; spending time to de-plane; spending time and money on a taxi to the destination OR on a car to drive to the destination...I hate that whole process.

Well, the airline I took (JAL, or, Japan Airlines) made it a bit easier to handle. First of all, we were served Japanese curry rice for our lunch meal. I found this awesome. Second of all, it had movies on demand as well as rudimentary casual games (think Bejeweled and Pac-Man) controlled by an in-armrest remote that could be removed and held sideways. Third of all, because the flight was so long, and because I had only slept for 2.8 hours the night before, I was able to get a full night's worth of uninterrupted sleep. (This is in contrast to the 0.5-to-2 hours of sleep I normally get on work flights, which is horrendous because I'm often required to wake up just as I'm hitting that full deep sleep.) Fourth of all, when I was awake, I knew I had enough time to burn a lot of hours on the DS games I brought without worrying that I wouldn't get enough sleep. I re-started New Super Mario Bros. in an attempt to find my way to World 4 (that's right--I still haven't figured it out) and put about 1.5 hours into Final Fantasy III, beating the Kraken that absolutely destroyed me over eight months ago (at which point I put the game away and didn't touch it until this flight).

Within minutes of landing, I was treated to the much-talked-about Japanese courtesy--oddly enough, though, this wasn't until I violated a rule. I was taking a picture of a sign while waiting on the Customs line (how could I not? It had lovable broken English on it) when someone on the airport staff asked me to put my camera away. Nicely. Incredibly nicely. He bowed, smiled (well, with his eyes; he was wearing a face mask to guard from germs), and with a chipper voice, said something that I think was along the lines of, "No pictures please!" (All I remember was a verb in the negative conjugation and "kudasai" so...)

You all know where I was itching to go: Akihabara (or Akiba for short). Sadly, as my sister and I only had three nights to spend there, we had to make quick trips to all of the districts we wanted to hit: Shibuya, Shinjuku, Asakusa, Roppongi, Chiyoda-ku, and the aforementioned Akiba, so in all I only got to spend maybe 2 to 3 hours there. Naturally, I wanted to find the Super Potato--that store that has a bunch of old gaming stuff that's somehow kept in pristine condition--to check out what kind of Sega Saturn games I could pick up. Unfortunately I wasn't prepared to spend a whole boatload of cash, and my luggage was already packed pretty tightly as it was (not to mention that I had the tour to go on later and might have to stuff it with family souvenirs--so I had to save space), so I couldn't exactly come back home with a PC Engine CD console or anything. Otherwise I totally would have picked one up along with a few reasonably-priced PC-CD games just to have them. (Yeah, I know, PC-CD is supported on Virtual Console. But you know what? I kinda like the idea of a freshly wrapped CD straight from Japan sitting on my shelf. And I don't know when Ys IV is coming over Stateside. So there. Nyah!)

Super Potato shrinkwraps everything up nicely, which is notable for used hardware, games and music CDs. Everything looks clean and well-kept, which is in contrast to some of the used hardware I've seen come out of Gamestop. This may just be an indicator of how our different cultures take care of hardware in general as opposed to Super Potato being super stringent on what it accepts, though the latter could very well be the case as well. I picked up the Dragon Quest IV Symphonic Suite as performed by the NHK Symphony Orchestra and conducted by series composer Koichi Sugiyama, and it was pretty well kept save for a missing sticker from the set that was included in the box. This one sticker, I think, accounted for a price tag cheaper by 500 yen from another DQIV:SS sitting on the shelf. The stickers mean nothing to me, so I'm glad I saved the $5.50, but it goes to show how much a "complete" set is valued--even if it's used--since otherwise the two sets appeared to be in identical condition. I also snared Layer Section II for Sega Saturn. (Yeah, I know, I can get it as RayStorm on Playstation. But you know what? I kinda like the idea of a freshly wrapped CD straight from Japan sitting on my shelf, and for a Sega Saturn no less. So there. Nyah!)

Now, unfortunately, I had always envisioned Super Potato as this massive store, but it really only takes up three floors in a small building. The top floor is dedicated to retro arcade games, featuring such oldies as Donkey Kong and Vampire Killer, so there are really only two floors of stuff to buy. So when I walked in, as much as I got that "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT ALL THIS OLD STUFF THEY HAVE" rush, I was also a bit sad that it wasn't bigger--mostly just because I had to watch myself as I walked around and was paranoid that I'd be knocking stuff over. So the next stop was, obviously, Sofmap--which IS a big store, more akin to a Best Buy, that also takes used products and ALSO keeps them in pristine condition...but is nowhere near as fascinating as something like Super Potato because it's all current-gen stuff.

Problem, though: the first Sofmap we walked into was the wrong one. (The retailer's inventory is so huge that it had to spread itself across multiple buildings within a 2-block radius.) How was it the wrong one? Well, the store directory said that there were "PC games" on the penultimate floor. The "games" were all porn software. So we went up to the top floor, which was supposed to have "DVDs", which it did...and they were all porn DVDs. I wanted to get out of there, but of course my sister got a laugh out of it and was taking snippets of video of the insane overtness of it all. We finally found our way into the "right" Sofmap. I procured myself a black Wii remote, just because. (Yeah, I know, there's a small chance it won't work with my US console, and that's another $43 I spent on something that works no differently than something I already own two of, and it might come Stateside one day. But you know what? I kinda like the idea of having a black Wii-mote, in a nicely packaged box that doesn't have blisterpack plastic all over it, without having to wait or pay for shipping, and being able to say that yes, I walked into a Japanese store and bought it with my own yens by muh-self. So there. Nyah!)

One of the more notable things I got to see in person was the DSi LL (or the XL as it's going to be known to the Western world). That thing is FREAKISHLY LARGE. I no longer want one. I kind of sort of maybe did at one point, but I don't see myself wanting to tote that thing around. Here, take a look:

Note: The DSi LLs are housed in a glass case, the surface of which is a few inches away from the faces of the units. Then, my sister is already holding my DS lite a few inches away from the surface of the case, so even after about five or six inches of space, the DSi LL still looks bigger than the lite. If only I could do a true side-by-side comparo.

Unfortunately, that was about the extent of my videogame adventures in Tokyo. Hey, it was a quick three nights; next time I go, I'll fully embrace all that Akiba has to offer. And, I'll go with an emptier suitcase, more cash, and a determination to pick up some crazy rare stuff. The goal? Radiant Silvergun in shrinkwrap: 18800 yen.