One of my favorite things about Japan is the prevalence of arcades. In the United States, we have very few true arcades; places like Chuckie Cheese’s are far more common.
In Japan, however, arcades are everywhere. There were several in Osaka, but the best arcades were in Tokyo, especially in Akihabara. On one of our last days of the trip, we had some free time and decided to go to the giant Sega arcade.
[akihabra without cars]
It was the weekend, so the whole street was closed to motor traffic
[solid snake]
All I can say is that it was unbelievably awesome! I won a Toad (from Super Mario) keychain at a strange version of crane game. Further upstairs, around the fourth or fifth floor, we found the Mario Kart Wii arcade, complete with steering wheel and pedals.
[Nic and I playing Mario Kart]
Did I mention these were the unreleased levels?
The controls were wild, and I hadn’t played this version before. Nevertheless, my inner gamer saved the day.
[I win]
The other awesome video game place was a little store off a side street of Akihabara. It was an old-school Nintendo store, and they had everything an 80’s gamer would want. Kyle bought an original Famicon, which was Japan’s equivalent to America’s Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
By the way, Super Mario Bros. 3 is quite possibly the best game of all time.
One Comment
yes! the arcades were awesome! we visited a few arcades, including a sega one in Osaka. we also played the mario kart game hahah. it was so sweet, the levels were new AND you got to race each other! when we sat down, the camera took pictures of our face and put it on our character. it was completely ridiculous seeing my face on princess! I wish we had more cool arcades around here… the only one’s ive saw recently have been in big cities, really expensive, and way too advanced. It seems like the ones around now are getting way into virtual reality crap – i love the old school games. at the sega arcade you could play the original street fighter, mortal combat, etc