2008 Tokyo Game Show Journal: Day 1

Tokyo Game Show will start tomorrow morning. But before I can go to TGS I actually have to be in Tokyo. Starting tomorrow I will have very little time to see sights or do anything that is not game related. So for this first day it was nice to just take some time to relax. What follows is an account of getting to Tokyo and being there the day before the big event.

This morning I began my trek from the little rural town that I live in to the mega city of Tokyo. Despite the fact that I live in Japan it is still quite a journey.

I met Kate at the train station about 8:00am. She is very excited to be going to her first Tokyo Game Show. Also in this picture is my monstrous backpack, which I hope to have filled with Tokyo Game Show goods by the time the weekend is over.

We arrived at the airport a bit early so we cracked open the DS games while we waited for our flight to Tokyo. We knew it looked a bit geeky but considering where we are going it is basically just a warm-up.

Once on the plane I noticed my seat had one of those controllers that looks like a Super Nintendo (or Super Famicom) controller. Of course its not and thee are never any good games on flights. It’s usually just some variation of Othello or a trivia game.

But for this flight it was not even that good. Above is a picture of me playing an exciting game of “Turn the Volume up or Down” which is sadly the only thing the controller could do.

Luckily I still had my DS. Since I was flying with Japan Airlines, I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to use it after reading this article on Kotaku. However, after the seatbelt sign went off, they said it was ok to use gaming devices. Seems that rule is no longer in effect. Good to know.

At the airport Kate took a bus to pick-up Holli from the other airport and I took the subway to the hotel we would be staying at. One question I always get asked when people hear I live in Japan is “Aren’t the subways and trains really crowded? I saw a video where they had these guys shove people into the trains!” Personally I have never been in a situation like that. The trains are usually about as crowed as in this picture. More during rush less during the middle of the day. All in all, it is not so bad.

I stopped at Toyo Cho, which is where my hotel is. It is also, apparently, CouponLand. Which sounds like an amusement park where my mom would go to save 15 cents on lettuce.

I found the hotel easily and checked in. It was good to be done traveling for the day. Prepared my TGS schedule and relaxed around the hotel for a bit until Kate and Holli arrived.

Since Holli didn’t feel like eating anything unusual her first day in Japan we decided to eat at a nearby Indian restaurant. The girls ordered curry and these quite large pieces of nan bread.

But I wasn’t about to let 2 British girls eat more than me. I have a reputation to hold up as the sole American in our group. So I ordered the set seen above. And it was good, really good.

After dinner I went to a convenience store and I was presented with a choice. I knew I wanted to drink something out of a juice box. But which one? The orange Juice or the booze?

Yes, that’s right you can get a variety of different alcoholic beverages in brightly colored juice boxes. Straw included! There is a large selection, from plum wine to sake and even cheap whisky. In the end I didn’t feel classy enough to drink bourbon out of a small paper box, so I went with the orange juice.

I wasn’t the only one making a hard decision. These businessmen were in the store before we got there. They were reading comics and “other”. They were still there 20 minutes later when we left. For all I know they are still there now.

I’ve lived in Japan for about 5 years now and I’ve been to Tokyo 6 or 7 times. Yet I never really took the time to see the sights. Since I finally had some free time I figured it was a good time to finally see Tokyo Tower.

This replica of the Eiffel tower is actually slightly bigger at 333 meters tall (take that France!) It’s quite expensive to go all the way to the top of the tower (about $14) but it really does offer an amazing view of the city.

Now I am back at the hotel. It’s about 1:30am and it’s time for me to get some sleep. I am looking forward to going to the show once again and giving you 4cr reader the best coverage I can. Thank you for reading and see you tomorrow.