I've finally gotten my laptop back onto the internet! I found a little internet/manga cafe nearby Kokubunji station. I went inside after staring at a sign outside that seemed to indicate that I could bring my own laptop inside and have it work. The deal is that you buy a drink, and they bring it to you along with a time printout (and an ashtray). You pay for the first hour and then additional 30-minute blocks, and there are racks and racks of manga, as well as ethernet connections. Sweetness! I'm still wondering if the drink is included in the bill - guess I'll find out when I leave. I uploaded lots of pictures to my webspace. I really need some sort of photo organizer account so I can explain them all... Oh well, for now, this will have to suffice.
As you can see, I went to Shinjuku today! The photos start with some shots around the dorm where I live, and then move on to photos of Shinjuku's skyscrapers. I went to a tall governmental building (I forgot the name already - I'll have to look it up) and took an elevator up to the 45th floor, which is where the next batch of pictures come from. I also saw some interesting souveniers.
I then visited the nearby park and wandered for a bit, before heading back to the busier center around the train station. I wandered for a while in the maze of streets, never really worried about getting lost as it's very easy to orient oneself by the skyscrapers. Plus, all roads lead to the train station. X3
I went into some arcades! Pachinko parlors are stupid, but the arcades are cool! Because space is limited, all arcades are several floors tall, and have different things on different floors. Purikura (I think they're called) are extremely popular - those are those little photo-booths where highschool girls go in droves. Interestingly enough, guys aren't allowed on the purikura floor by themselves (maybe not so in all arcades, but that was the case in this particular one).
There are all sorts of iiiiinteresting games in the arcades. The fancy shooter games are gorgeous, with huge screens and guns. The gambling games are very numerous and very popular. You know those games where you put a token in, and if you're lucky, it will push the other tokens around to make some fall out of the machine? Those aren't popular at all back in the States, but they're all the rage here. Fighting games are set up interestingly - instead of playing side-by-side, the other person sits on the other side of the machine with their own screen, so you can't see who you're playing against. Here's another odd one - horse racing games. You sit there and... bet. Or something. I didn't really get it. There were also classic games, which Sarah would appreciate. UFO catcher-type games are also hugely popular, as are bemani-type games. I had a heck of a time finding a DDR machine - DDR is not nearly as popular as Drummania, or Guitar Freaks, or Beatmania. I got to play a round of Pop'n Music. I'm sure I traumatized the guy who was waiting behind me, I sucked so much. >_< Next time I'm going to play Taiko no Tatsujin - it looks hilarious! Trust the Japanese to come up with a taiko-drumming game.
Anyway, I'm out of time for the evening, so I'm gonna go. Have a look at the rest of the pictures! :3
- Flykyr Skysong
Current song: Some weird oldies playing in the background
Current mood: Annoyed (at still being sick)
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