Sunday, September 23, 2007

September 21st to 23rd: Yokohama to Tokyo and the TOKYO GAME SHOW!

September 21st to 23rd: Yokohama to Tokyo and the TOKYO GAME SHOW! (all photos combined here)
It's when i really get to such a big city like Tokyo that i look back and truly appreciate the kindness and friendliness of the other smaller cities and towns i've been true. Someone told me that the closer you get towards Tokyo the more people are unwilling to stop and lend a hand or give directions. I guess that's generally true. Anyway on the way to my Hotel (which i am very glad is outside town) at Toyo, i saw 5 ambulances, 1 police car and 1 fire truck go wailing by. And that's just within my first hour of cycling in town! Which, by the way, is incredibly difficult with all the people and traffic. There are however, courier cyclists swerving in and out of traffic very skilfully.

Passed Tokyo Tower on the way through town.


Outside the Imperial Palace Garden Park, which is offlimits to cyclists, especially the sweaty ones like me

I'm glad the Hotel is much better than what i'm used to staying in nowadays. Conveniently, the Tokyo Metro entrance is just outside the hotel and i'm 3 subway stops from the station to get to the Tokyo Game Show and Akihabara.

Akihabara, well i don't have much to say about it except how disappointed i am that i couldn't find the 2 games i was looking for in any of the shops. The electronics portion is like a hyper version of Sim Lim Square, except most stores have salespersons with loudhailers advertising outside. If you are an anime/manga or toy (as in collectible figures and specialty toy) fan than you will enjoy it more. But seriously, 1 anime DVD (which contains like 2-3 episodes) cost 5000JPY upwards while a regular movie costs around 3990JPY. And those toys figures, which admittedly look fantastic aren't cheap as well. I don't know how the prices are justifiable. Personally, i prefer Osaka's Den-den town better. It seems much more organised and chocked with just as much things.


I came with an empty bagpack and left with it full and 2 more (1 bag is in the white bag) on hand

On to the main event: The Tokyo Game Show! Seriously it does not pay to arrive just on time. Just look at the crowds! (another pic)! Either you come very early or come after lunch, like i did on the 2nd day, to avoid getting crowded out. Queue time was 1 hour+ just to enter the hall. To make it worse, it was a hot day and everyone was literally melting under the sun while waiting. They herded us in lanes of about 200 people and lane by lane we were allowed entry. At least i was wrong, Japanese do sweat (a lot) on closer inspection. Some people just squatted on the ground and played their PSP/DS while waiting.


Capcom girls saying farewell at the end of TGS 2007.


Snake look like he lost a lot of weight..

Once you make it through the TGS sign, you're free to wander around the 8 halls of events and booths. TGS was fun, well i say that because i'm estastic that i managed to get the autograph i was looking for. Caught and called out to Hideo Kojima as he was leaving the hall. His security guards told me to go away (politely of course) but Hideo-san came up to me and took my box and marker and signed. My hands were full so i didn't get to take a picture or shake his hand though.


Crowd leaving the building.

If you love games and don't mind wading through huge crowds then you'll love the show. If you want to try game demos, be prepared to wait, and wait, and wait. Queues range from 30 minutes to 4 hours (Metal Gear Solid 4) to try the games. That said, i queued 4 times to play Guitar Hero 3 on the PS3. I even went head to head with one of the members of Activision's GH3 production team. I lost though. The 8 halls are divided into 3 main lanes so i just spent my time walking back and forth each lane and catching whatever's on stage at the time. Stayed right till the end on the 2nd day, that's when every company's show girls go up on stage and take a bow before the show truly closes. Overall a really great experience for me and if i had the chance, i'll come back and do it again next year.

After i get away from Tokyo, i really have no other places (maybe Saitama and Takasaki City, maybe..) along the way that i am planning to stop over at all in Northern Honshu. The region is described as 'backwater' in Lonely Planet. LP also adds that the people are friendlier than people from Central Honshu, so i'm looking forward to that. A little kindness really goes a long way to brightening up someone's (ie, me) day.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Their show girls certainly look better than what we have back here. How do you handle all the stuff you brought, post mail it back to home?

Anonymous said...

1. major synching lag means the game is laggy right. when you played gh3 in tgs do you experience any lag? or music can't really hear anw.

2. are you planning to get halo 3? i know you're not a halo fan but it sounds totally blown out of proportion (with good reason) over here. gamespot and probably singapore too.

Gabriel Chin said...

sak: ya, i just mailed a 11kg box back home on Monday..

bert: 1) can hear the music (barely) but when i hit the notes it registers but on-screen, it takes a while before it shows the note being hit

2) i dont know..like you said im not a fan and im not blown away playing the demo as well. for x360, ninja gaiden 2, the last remnant, assassin creed and the new guilty gear probably interest me the most.

ps3 on the other hand, has some interesting games on the way. look up 'the eye of judgement', really sounds like a cool card game for ps3

Anonymous said...

gh3: that is some major shit lag!! i think i am considering playing my gh3 of the future (and rock band as well, i guess) on my standard def tv.

cool games: yes, i have hit up eye of judgement, part of the drive of which is to try and find games that are at least slightly interesting for the platform. caused partly by its own complacency, negligence, and partly by microsoft's doing to try their best to kill them.

Anonymous said...

oh. or maybe an even more drastic measure would be to get these two music games for the ps2.

Gabriel Chin said...

but the ps3 has MGS4...oh man..thats probably going be the clincher for me

Alex Logan Lee said...

OMG, you looked so tanned!