Note: I’m updating this every few days. (It seems that this was a lie.)
2024-12-10
Set out from GLA, long layover in AMS. I love going to the Dutch McDonalds’ here. They always have the Big Tasty and a bunch of frites sauce. I figure you don’t really get great food in an airport anyway, so just get the fun slop. The 13 hour flight into NRT was pretty unremarkable. Kind of hard to play my Steam Deck for long… the RGB30 would have been better for economy class, I think.
2024-12-11
Hit NRT around noon. It’s a little annoying that your train journey from NRT to wherever is probably going to be the most confusing of all the journeys. No, this isn’t the right Sky Access line. My hostel’s really in the heart of Asakusa – I had to reschedule and rebudget, so it was this or a budget hotel halfway between this and Minami-Senju. I made the right call. It’s a super-clean hostel, though the residents aren’t talkative, and there aren’t any events to get to know people. That task falls upon me.
Tenya for dinner. I really liked Tenya last time. I still really like it. Is there a stereotype about “foreigners who eat at Tenya”? Maybe.
2024-12-12
Sukiya breakfast set. First time having tamago kake gohan. I’m definitely into it.
First visit to Akiba of many. It’s not that I’m a huge dork or anything, but it’s the easiest way to get to the Yamanote Line, I swear. But today – yep, game centers, character goods, model kits, all the stupid stuff. I was a little discombobulated to play any of my usual STGs too seriously, so I became addicted to some ancient Banpresto SD Gundam game. Never played it before. One day I’ll get the confidence to sit down and try EXVS for the first time… is some local god going to sit down and instantly demolish me?
I ate chicken nanban at a specialty place in Akiba. It’s an insane dish that I really wanted to try. One bite and it’s the best thing you’ve ever eaten in your life, but it does become a test of endurance if your stomach is still kind of in travel-mode.
I was also able to play Senjin Aleste, finally! It seems like a very interesting game that tries to reconcile ideas from a lot of the genre. The pixel art is really lavish, and couples with a modern pace and sense of effects. It gives me a feeling of “old money”, in a good way. I don’t understand the game system too well yet though. It’s too bad you can’t play it vertically…
A few pieces of Asakusa sushi for dinner after nanban insanity.
2024-12-13
7-11 egg sandwich and a donut for breakfast. Yeah, it’s a cliche, but if you think about it too hard, drinking water and breathing air is a cliche. It’s a good sandwich. Don’t overthink it.
Met an acquaintance who invited me into his office building for lunch. Got an amazing view of Tokyo for free. Nice fellow, talked about a lot.
Yoyogi Park and Meiji Jingu shrine. Wonderful. Got a glimpse of a traditional wedding. I got omikuji here, even though I already got one for the year at Senso-ji temple. How does that work? I prefer the one I got at Meiji Jingu…
Went to Mikado in Takadanobaba. I remember a really distinctive brimstone cigarette-smoke smell last time I was here, and it’s gone now. I sort of miss it. I’m surprised that the Daioujou machines here and in HEY are White Label? I guess it’s an expert’s choice. I’m suddenly struck by lightning with the urge to make a Silent Scope type game that uses exclusively gyro-aiming.
Tempura udon at a local Asakusa place for dinner. I should try soba soon. I’ve had soba once in my life at a Glasgow place, and it made me feel sick. But I don’t think I have a buckwheat allergy. I think that place just sucked.
My wires are crossed when I see kitsune udon on a menu. It’s too close to various drawings of impossibly beautiful women I’ve tapped “Like” on social media over the years.
2024-12-14
Going to Game Center Wai Wai in Fujimidai. Really nice katsudon at a local Asakusa place for breakfast. It’s so charming to see the elderly folk who still run these places but it makes me wonder a little about the future.
Truth be told, I have the “day 3 blues”. It’s becoming clear that I’m not clear of dark thoughts yet, and that I haven’t prepared for this trip as much as I might have thought. It took too many attempts to figure out if someone was asking me “takeaway or eat-in?”. I feel like I’m never standing in the right spot, or walking in the right place, or acting the right way. So I had a weird feeling in Wai Wai – it’s a nice local-feeling place, and the local DFK gods didn’t say a bad word to me at all, but my own mind kept saying to me “you aren’t welcome here, you should leave”. I got my Ketsui 1-ALL, now a point of tradition, and dipped. What if I got a 1-ALL at each game center…?
Ikebukuro on a saturday is really intense.
Not in the mood to speak a word to anyone, I tried Ichiran. I haven’t had tonkotsu in years, and even I can tell that there are better bowls out there. However, super-firm noodles are great, there was a lot of meat, and their special tea actually really hit the spot. I drank all the soup and then felt not-amazing 4 hours later.
2024-12-15
I’ve become addicted to something called “Royal Milk Tea”. A sweet, milky tea drink where you can taste the tea and it doesn’t feel like it’s totally polluting your body. 20k steps a day is proving to be challenging, so Tully’s Coffee is more or less a save point for me right now.
Met an acquaintance in Akiba. Had Roast Beef Ohno. Even the “healthy” leaner option is still amazing. Had it a bit too soon after breakfast, so a small mountain of roast beef really knocked me for a loop. He was kind enough to point out the best spots for gunpla/plamo, but a sunday afternoon crowd was stressing me out, so we cut it off early and will hopefully meet up again.
My acquaintance inspired me to try more Galuda 2. I usually burn out from messing around with zesshikai mode and the over-mode power up stuff, but maybe it could be a more refreshing game if I just play it simply.
I kind of want to get a physical copy of Daioujou Rinne Tensei. This was easy enough for Ketsui, a dumbass like me can read that katakana no problem. But trying to find it in game shops from reading the spines is proving to be an impossible request. At least PSN cards are an option if all else fails.
Went drinking. Drank too much. Felt ill. Feet hurt and are itchy from all the walking. Ate Tenya again. Tasty. Felt better.
2024-12-16
Onigirazu (1) for breakfast. Surprisingly filling.
Riverboat to Odaiba – does it ever actually rain in this town? Every day so far has been pretty much a clear blue sky.
I enjoy the super-advanced-fake-place feeling of Odaiba. Food court indian for lunch? Butter chicken… hmm. Well, certainly not bad. But it’s obvious where I’m heading, right?
Unbelievable to come out of Gundam Base with a massive bag of gunpla costing the same as one master grade in the UK, and then have a guy insist on taking the tax off for you. They scan your face going in and at the checkout, possibly to stop scalpers? I’ve seen all the trading groups – I’m not sure it’s working too well. Now I need a huge luggage case – one of them good problems, hopefully. Shared a small moment gawping out of the window on the Yurikamome with a stranger on the way back.
Seems they do fireworks at night every so often? I’ll come back one day for that, and to see the Unicorn Gundam properly lit up and transforming. Going to Yokohama back when they had the life-size RX-78 would have kicked ass, oh well. Maybe I’ll avoid the Digimon-themed night, unless they’re going to play this unforgettable moment out loud.
Specialty shoyu ramen place tonight. Tons of yuzu in it, super light and easy to eat. Excellent. Back home, if a place does ramen, it’s almost always tonkotsu-style – and honestly, there are some good places, but I would love more variety.
Random friendly guy asked where I was from, and then asked me which football team I support. I had just seen a nasty clip of a bunch of fans going apeshit in the city center back home… what’s the Japanese for “I can’t answer that question”…
2024-12-17
Akiba today for some more gaming and a renewed attempt to find DOJ Rinne Tensei. An acquaintance reached out and recommended me a bunch of places to eat around here – plus, I feel more at ease now, so there are less and less reasons to be boring and go to a safe chain or whatever.
Curry rice for lunch. Place called Alba? The Gaelic word for “Scotland”…? I think it also means “Sky” in one of the romance languages. Neither make sense to me, but the curry was speaking a lot of sense indeed.
I get a little tired, and Ageha speaks to me from the ESPGaluda machine. “Fear not, my child. Here, you can take a seat for 25 minutes for only 100 yen.” I get the clear despite entering the last boss with no lives and only half a bomb gauge.
I wanted to try a burger, but couldn’t really see anywhere that looked great, so I went for an Ace Attorney hamburger instead, which features flavorful miso as a seasoning, and ramen instead of a burger.
Kameido in the evening, to a Touhou-themed bar with an acquaintance. I wonder if he was worried that it’d be full of Kaiji looking guys going “damn… another fuckin’ foreigner… pisses me off…”. Anyway, everyone had enough English that it was even less trouble than I thought it’d be.
It’s character cocktails. I drank one character from each game starting with EoSD, though petered out a little after SA and just started picking faves. I really wonder if the nice barlady has like a massive list of recipes or if it’s a sort of improvisation around colours. The Yakumo Ran drink tasted almost exactly like a boozy version of a blue slushie drink, which is honestly not unwelcome.
I really wanted to do karaoke. I did that one Sekken-ya Ancient Temple arrange and couldn’t think of anything else that seemed remotely possible. I kinda yelled through most of it, which was fun and hopefully not too obnoxious.
I’d love to go back once more before I finish up.
2024-12-18
Good news: I made it to Kusatsu. It’s a beautiful hot spring town, and seems to have a sprinkling of purely aesthetic snow every 15 minutes or so. It’s literally like a particle effect got turned on. I’m not used to subtle weather. I felt like a very smart boy when I read the kana on the bus screen that the name derives from “smelly water”.
Bad news: The only place I could find that served food between lunch and dinner hours was a soba place. It was delicious. However. I now know for sure that I can’t eat buckwheat soba. (Nothing life-threatening or anything, just unpleasantness.)
Slept it off and missed my shot at the onsen. Good thing I’m here for two nights.
2024-12-19
Early morning onsen. That’s the ticket.
Kusatsu is bigger and more built-up than I expected. They’ve got like a tropical zoo and an airsoft range and all types of things. I was the second-best shooter this season, apparently? I guess niche things like this are often just where some friends hang out and share their hobbies with passers-by – it had that vibe, at least. I do just want to enjoy the comfy Japanese room and bathe too, though…
Yubatake at night as the snow got heavier. There’s a christmas tree and some of the steam is RGB lit, Jerry. A peak aesthetic moment of my life. Google Maps is much less useful for what’s open and what’s not around here, and I don’t really understand the opening times, so I just kind of stumbled into an izakaya for dinner. Stir-fried pork intestines with garlic stem, chicken wings, gyoza, beer.
Nobody around at the onsen. I guess this is the genius of coming during weekdays. The cold snowy wind goes really well with the hot water – is that a thing most people like? Is that why it was so desolate during the evening?
If I miss one everyday thing from this country, it’s going to be the strong 7-11 sparkling water. It hurts to drink. It’s amazing. I am told there is yet stronger water to be found.
2024-12-20
The return from Kusatsu. Took a bit of time to wander around Karuizawa.
Back in Asakusa, I finally decided to get gyukatsu. I fell in love with this place 7 years ago, and yep, it’s still pretty much exactly as I left it. Extremely recommended meal. I barely had to queue, though I was lucky enough to get there just before a huge group wanted to take over the tiny spot.
Found the Quick & Crash machine in Akiba (GiGO 3, it’s tucked away, easy to miss). Spent a lot of money on it in a very short time. It whips ass but you don’t get a lot of time for your money. Best time right now is about 5.5s. Also: The Keisatsukan 2, aka Police 24/7 2. A game I was almost sure that I sort of hallucinated until I saw it there in front of me. It’s a lightgun game that tracks your movement via IR, letting you take cover and dodge bullets. Feels more responsive than similar VR games released in 2024, thanks to the physical gun.
Trying, kind of desperately, to find a Silent Scope machine in Akiba, but I think I need to go to Mikado.
2024-12-21
Checked out an airsoft range around Akiba and a few of the surrounding things like the massive shrine. Airsoft is so crazy good. I would love to go home with a luggage case full of Tokyo Marui guns and get put in jail for it. Weekends are crazy, so I just decided to take a few lines out to a random spot and slowly walk back home, stopping at parks and such as I like, trying not to use my phone to navigate, fun way to spend an afternoon.
Tried to just wander into a few places. Egg Baby Cafe. Skytree. Huge queue and sold out respectively. Maybe it’s the time of year, but man, kinda not keen on trying to do anything “big” on the weekends without preparation. Walking is catching up with me – got a nasty blister.
My hostel bed is feeling seriously stuffy after a comfy Kusatsu hotel room with a mental Japanese air conditioner. If it was cold, I’d be doing great – using a hostel in the summer sounds like it’d be hell on earth.
2024-12-22
Laundry day, more or less.
Broke down a bunch of my Tokyo loot to fit a case better. A second case may be an option… hmm.
I did get MOS Burger – the default burger with the meat sauce and massive tomato wedge was actually pretty nice, but the fries were just not great. Go with the onion rings and you’ll be a happy camper I think.
2024-12-23
Went to Meguro for a stroll. Saw the Sky Garden – a ring-shaped garden 8 floors up. Mostly for dog-walkers and a little sparse in the winter, but you still get a nice view of the skyline.
Made it to the Egg Baby Cafe. You go to the other side of the world for an egg sandwich and somehow it lives up to the hype.
Met an acquaintance in Akiba for more Quick & Crash and some dinner. I wasn’t feeling too great so we just went to a kaitenzushi place and marvelled at the extremely huge menu. You can get tempura and udon and whatever at these places? I ate horse for the first time. My family are all huge horse-lovers (as in, alive horses running around), so maybe this meal will be a bit of a secret.
2024-12-24
Sort of a random day today. Went to Marunouchi. It’s hard to get across the sheer scale of places like this until you’ve been. They had a bit of a winter fest thing going on, and I really wanted to feel a bit “christmassy”… I walked down random streets for hours and hours. Gigantic tonkatsu set lunch.
Went to Odaiba again for the night-time fireworks. Wasn’t a super-long display, but was a good one anyway.
I’ve fallen a bit ill, stomach issues.
2024-12-25
I walked around so much yesterday, and still have an upset stomach, so this Christmas, I give myself the gift of doing nothing. It’s a little bit “wow japan!!!”, but those energy gel pouch things are amazing if you can’t keep food down, and they’re in most konbini.
2024-12-26
It’s my birthday today. I should get myself a gift that’s not a gunpla kit… but I have no idea what I even want. This whole thing has been my gift!
It’s actually hilarious. I turn 3X today, and this exact morning, I started getting some weirdo sudden back pain. But I have the same attitude to age as ever – due to a weirdo inhuman super-repressed first 25 years of my life, the older I get, the younger I feel. That sounds cliche, but in my opinion, a slow miserable decline would be a far worse cliche.
I finally got one of those arcade Aime IC cards for saving scores and achievements and whatever. I thought you had to register online or something – no, you just buy one out of a machine. Helps a little bit navigating Taiko/Voltex song lists if it shows what I’ve already played. Uhh… which one is just normal Saitama 2000 and not the hundred million remixes…?
I’m back in the world of the eating with a big-ass fried chicken bento box. Life is good.
2024-12-27
Still trying to find a Silent Scope machine somewhere. Found a Bone Eater machine in Mikado Takadanobaba, which is placed extremely awkwardly for a tall fat guy – the gun is at, like, waist height, so couldn’t really get into it.
I keep reading about more and more Japanese game centers closing down. HEY is still my favourite, and it’s so hard to imagine, but eventually I guess even it’ll either go away or become unrecognisable. These machines, these boards, are only getting older and older. Platforms like exa seem kind of tethered to this type of spot, too – they’re definitely more at home here, in this shrinking corner of the world, than they would be in like a ufo catcher place. Since I don’t have all the information, I’m not going to get too sad about it – but I’m definitely intent on enjoying these places while they’re here.
My (late) birthday dinner is today, a tempura kaiseki course. It was good, particularly some smoked squid, though I feel the meals that make the biggest impression when travelling are in the mid-range. Like, “this food is this good and it costs THIS much?!”.
Went out drinking in a few places. Everyone keeps saying my Japanese pronounciation is good – well, whether they’re just being nice or not, I’ll take that win. It’s easy to downplay it and say it’s a language with extremely consistent pronounciation, but I’ve talked to a lot of fellow tourists, and I’ve heard some absolutely heinous ways of saying things.
Despite introducing myself as a game programmer, I still can’t really answer the “favourite game” question. Somehow, not every random person in Tokyo has an intricate knowledge of Cave STGs. But I did throw out Gyakuten Saiban once and had a really long conversation about it, so in a small way, I’m still among my peers.
2024-12-28
My train on the Ginza line was yellow and had a bunch of retro fake-wood panelling in place. But it was also full of non-stop Fortnite ads. Not sure…
Went to the Dawn Avatar Robot Cafe. It’s a spot where you’re served by robots remotely piloted by disabled people. You get a bit of a chat with them now and then. All the pilots have good English, it seems. One has very clearly practiced a cool-headed robot girl voice. It’s a cute spot, would recommend. The nature of such a place really prompts some… difficult questions, but since I don’t actually know how disability works in Japan, I’ll be quiet and sip a hot chocolate.
Realising, unprompted, that you’re a 20-minute walk from Akiba or Ueno or whatever feels like unlocking a Dark Souls shortcut. Laundry and paperwork this evening.
Last 10 days of my trip. It feels like I’ve been here for longer but I already know I’m going to miss so many things. This Tokyo winter has been absolutely perfect for weather – sunny, crisp, dry, chill. If I become rich and successful, hitting the skip button on UK December weather might become a tradition.
I’m going to think carefully about a) souvenirs for family and b) places I want to revisit.
Regarding Comiket… it’s a rare opportunity, but I don’t think many of my favourite artists are in attendance, and I feel like I’m taking up too much space at the best of times, never mind a historically crowded comic market.
2024-12-29
Today is Mt Tsukuba. The last day of the year that the buses and so on are in operation.
I really wanted to go up Mt Tsukuba at night, but it seems that’s just not possible if you’re not spending the night there – last bus home leaves at 16:40. However, I did get to go at sunset, when the sky famously turns purple. It was a very clear day so I could see all the way to Mt Fuji and the Skytree. There are more shops and such than I thought there’d be, so honestly in hindsight a night in a nice hotel might have been a nice move.
Thoroughly embarassed myself with my dismal verbal-Japanese skills trying to get a bite to eat before going back to Tokyo. Felt too stupid to even convey food into my face. Well, some extremely onion-y mazesoba distracted me.
I suddenly have a huge urge to go to Comiket on day 2, despite having made no preparation. Seems that’s the day for Touhou Project stuff, so maybe it won’t be quite as intense as day 1 when it’s all the very popular gacha franchises etc…? (Don’t tell me that LostWord has made Touhou a gacha franchise, you’ll give this old-timer a heart attack)
I’ll hit Akiba first thing in the morning and see if anywhere has a PM Entry wristband.