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Recent Aquisitions
Back Row: Oneechanpon, Earth Defense Force 2, Arcade Mania
Front Row: Gashapon ball, Casino Royale playing cards, Mikuru Asahina Gashapon
It's been a fun weekend. Yo
Like I said, trying to start doing shorter posts. (In the interest of making things more frequent.) This is one of those.
Omiya
Omiya is dangerous. Last week was Golden Week. I'll explain it more in detail later (don't get your hopes up. It'll be another post), but suffice to say it's a big holiday in Japan. With no school. Anyways, Wednesday (day 1 of 8) I found myself with nothing to do and no housemates to hang with. So, following the advice of Okaasan, I jumped on a train and headed down to the next station towards Tokyo: Omiya.
Omiya is to Newnan as Miyahara is to LaGrange (Try to remember those SAT days.) In otherwords, Miyahara is kind of sleepy with little to do (although, to its credit it does have karaoke and a small arcade). Omiya, on the other hand, is full of stores and restaurants and other fun pastimes, and it only costs 180 yen on the train (Blog reading tip: Right now, 1 yen is roughly equal to 1 cent) and takes all of 15 minutes to get there from Miyahara Station.
The west exit of Omiya station is where all the action happens. It's brimming with stores and, more importantly, has a Sofmap (which, as you may remember, is my favorite store in Akiba). Upon finding the Sofmap, I was overcome with joy, even more so when I saw the prices were still lower than the near-by Bic Camera. However, I have come to discover that having such a great store nearby makes being in Miyahara all the more dangerous.
On Akiba and Omiya
There's a great difference between having a Sofmap in Akiba and having a Sofmap in Omiya. For one, the Sofmap in Akiba (which, in case you don't remember is short for Akihabara) has a much wider game selection, but the one Omiya has enough to suit my needs. The biggest difference isn't in the store. It's in the trip.
Going to Akiba is an experience (one that costs 1080 yen by train). From the streets swarming with people to the cute cosplaying girls that meet you just outside the station to advertise their maid cafe, a trip to Akihabara is full of geek sights and sounds. It's almost like a sort of nerd pilgrimage (that I made about once a week). Each trip consisted of visits to at least 3 stores and occasionally a trek into an arcade. Nothing can compare to being in Akihabara.
Miyahara, on the other hand, is a little more mainstream. Instead of Sofmap taking up an entire seven stories, it's on the bottom floor of a seven-story department store that mainly houses clothing stores. Instead of maids greeting you outside the station, it's someone selling Native-American fusion music. It's the same store (if a little less stocked), but it's not the same experience.
Because of the difference between a pilgrimage and an afternoon jaunt, I am much more likely to make impulse buys at Miyahara. To illustrate, this is the usual thought process behind buying in Akihabara:
Ooh, I've heard about this game for a long time, now would be my chance to play it. GameFAQs has a good guide for it too. Noon is probably a good time to leave. I'll visit Gamers and Aso Bit to price check, then hit Sofmap. Hmm, as usual, Sofmap meets or beats everyone else's price. So, I'll buy my new game here. Yay new game! Time to head home. Essentially, I just spent a full day shopping and enjoying what is essentially geek city, all for one game.
The thought process for Miyahara is a bit different. Usually, it involves:
hmm, school just let out. Let's head to Omiya and see what we have in Sofmap today. That game looks cool and is only 2000 yen, I'll buy that. Time to head home for dinner. See? Much faster. Much less thoughtful. Much more dangerous to my wallet.
Recent Acquisitions
That's how I came to be the proud owner of most of the things you see in that photo. Well, the games at least. The one on the far left is a game called Oneechanpon, and can't really be described without making it sound entirely gratuitous (which it kinda is). Essentially, you're a girl with a samurai sword and you kill a lot of zombies with that sword. It's simple, I've played a version back in the states, and although I can't understand the story, it doesn't really matter when it comes to the Oneechanbara Series (that is a special edition of Oneechanbara 2). Thus, it fits all the critera for "good Japanese game for me," and playing it is really no problem.
Next up is Chikyuu Boueigun 2 (Earth Defense Force 2). Another relatively simple game. The world is under attack by giant bugs, UFOs, and occasionally Godzilla. Your job is to shoot everything. Once again, I don't really know why I'm supposed to shoot everything (can't follow the story), but the oldest gaming instinct of all time kicks in (if it moves, shoot it) and things get quite fun. The only real difficulty is deciphering the weapon names, but then again, it does encourage me to experiment a little more. So, no harm, no foul.
Last up on the back row is a book that Rev. Osburn bought for me when I went to Kinokuniya (his favorite bookstore) in Shinjuku. It's only available in Japan, is in English, and is written by one of the writers for my favorite gaming blog (Kotaku.com). Inside, it chronicles all the different kind of games in Japanese arcades, as well as some of the people who play them. So far, pretty interesting.
Front row middle is a deck of Casino Royale playing cards (like in the Bond movie). I bought them from an import store called Tokyu Hands that, honestly, seemed to carry just about everything you could think of hobby-wise. A very interesting store indeed.
Finally, the little ball on the left and figure on the right are part of a gashapon. For the uninitiated, gashapon are also called capsule toys. They're similar to the toys you used to get for 50 cents at the entrance to Walmart (you know, the sticky, stretchy hand-thing that would get covered in lint in 15 minutes and instantly become unsticky) except these are a little higher quality, cost a little bit more, and feature anime or game characters instead of Homiez. This one is Battle Waitress Mikuru Asahina from one of my favorite animes The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (yes, the show is about as crazy as you would expect a show with a "battle waitress" to be). She's part of a set of 4 (well, seven actually). So, we'll see how long my willpower holds out until I buy another one. Problem is, you never know which one is coming out of the machine (guess the extras will get to be impromptu souvenirs).
Coming Soon
So, anyhow, that's the skinny on Omiya and the swag update. Still planning to do a week 2 & 3 post... someday. Along with a post on Golden Week and my trek tomorrow to meet a sumo wrestler. Later.
P.S. Alex, I finished Capt. Bluebear yesterday. Freakin awesome.
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