On our second trip to Tokyo, we indulged ourselves with lots of video game-related activities. The main attraction this time was the annual Tokyo Game Show. We bought tickets for both public days, with a special access ticket on the second day to get us in early. Besides TGS, we also checked out some arcades in Shinjuku, walked around Akihabara, ate at a McDonald's decorated for the new Pokémon games, and found our way back to SEGA Joypolis. All in all it was a great time, especially since we could explore on our own schedule without having to go to a virtual reality conference.
September 17th, 2010: Like last time, we took an overnight bus to get to Tokyo. It was just as uncomfortable as before, and it dropped us off really early on Friday. We were able to leave our stuff at the hotel and explore until check-in time (which was 2:00PM), so we went exploring in Shinjuku. There, we found various arcades and played a bunch of games, like a giant robot fighting simulator game, some rhythm games (DDR, Pop'n Music), and electronic darts. We got back to the hotel in time to check in and relaxed on our comfy hotel beds for the rest of the night.
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September 18th, 2010: Saturday was the first day of TGS, so we got up early (well, somewhat early) and got to the convention hall area at a decent time. The train station was packed, and the walk to the convention hall was a mass exodus of Japanese and tourists. We waited in line for a couple hours just to get into the hall, and it was even more packed inside! At one point, it was so
crowded that I was moving by being pushed, and I almost fell down (and onto other people) more than once.
Despite the crowds, there was a lot of good stuff to see. Many big companies had booths, like SEGA, Konami, Sony, and Microsoft, and there were some smaller companies, too. As with every convention the big companies were showing off their new products to hype up attendees into buying their products: Sony had a bunch of PlayStation Moves; Microsoft had women playing the Kinect; Konami, SEGA, and others had demos of their new games. Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't usually attend TGS, so there wasn't a booth with Nintendo games. There was, however, some merchants selling products like Nintendo plushies, so they did have a small presence.
Another big part of TGS is the cosplay area. Many men and women (but mostly women) dress up as their favorite game characters and pose for photographs for the many attendees. Japanese cosplaying is serious business, so the costumes are all professional-level stuff. The convention hall even had a dressing room and designated backdrops for cosplayers. Japanese men, who know the routine, stand in line at the person they want to photograph and take turns snapping pictures. Cosplaying is just one of those things that are a strange part of the Japanese culture.
Since our special ticket was for Sunday, this first day was mostly scouting out games we wanted to play tomorrow. I did play a few games today, but the majority of the things I tried were played on Sunday. We managed to get to the Pokémon Center in Tokyo after the convention, however, to pick up a copy of the new Pokémon games, Black and White. Saturday night was therefore committed to starting this new game.
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September 19th, 2010: Using our special pass, we got a new bag of goodies (including a t-shirt and pin) and early access to the convention hall. We got to avoid the large line of people that we were stuck in yesterday, and we had about a full hour to scourge the hall before the mass of people came in. In the allotted time we had before doors opened for regular guests, we played double the number of games we had played the day before over the course of the whole day. Needless to say, the $30 ticket for Sunday was definitely worth more than the $10 one we purchased for Saturday. The rest of Sunday was mostly walking around the convention hall like the day before. Having played a bunch of games and got a bunch of free stuff earlier we were satisfied with the event. I definitely took home a couple pounds of swag over two days of convention...
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September 20th, 2010: The last thing we wanted to make sure we did in Tokyo was visit Akihabara. We definitely found it, but I don't think we saw most of it. It seemed like it was much smaller than Den Den Town even though Den Den Town is supposed to be a smaller version of Akihabara. Regardless, we found lots of arcades with UFO crane games in them and other familiar games. The only other thing we did in Akihabara was visit a maid cafe. It was quite the experience, just because it was so much different than anything you would find in the States. The food was a little expensive, but I guess you pay for the whole visit. I shared a plate of ice cream and pancakes with Jared I, who had the maid write "Dry Bones" on our plate. Overall, it was a unique tourist activity that is one of Akihabara's specialities.
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September 21st, 2010: On our final day in Tokyo, we travelled back to the mall area we found last time we were there. During the previous night, we had ventured back here to find the Pokémon McDonald's and today we spent some time eating and playing our new games there. We walked around the mall briefly once more and then ended up back at Joypolis. We decided to buy the first-level discount ticket which gives you about six hours of time before they close (last time we only had four hours, which wasn't enough time). We got to go on many more of the rides, as well as some that we went on last time. It definitely made up for what we missed the first time we went.
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I would say that our second time in Tokyo was more enjoyable than the first. We were there for fun this time and we had more time to see what we wanted to. (We also weren't dying from a 13 hour volcano-climbing hiking trip.) I know we definitely didn't get to experience everything that Tokyo had to offer, but we were satisfied nonetheless.
