Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Day 4 Tokyo Japan - Japanese Hamburgers suck, Exploring Shibuya, Harajuku again, Pre-TGS industry party

*Late posting on Thursday morning.

Tuesday - I can continue to live after meeting infamous game developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

I spent the day exploring Shibuya, and trying to get to more of the stores I had listed on my iPhone. For breakfast/lunch we decided to try some familiar food after getting a craving for Hamburgers, so we checked out 'Freshness Burger'. The pictures in the window looked appealing enough, but soon we were disappointed. Japanese Hamburgers are tiny pieces of sh*t. Tasteless too. I'm sorry but a Hamburger should be loaded with a thick beef patty, and actually seasoned. Maybe I just had a bad experience at this fast food joint, but the hamburger was so bad, I seriously wanted my money back.

No wonder the young Japanese kids are so slim, when they smoke, walk everywhere, and eat tiny ass hamburgers... I think I'll still to Japanese food while I'm in Japan.

After the meal we went off to explore with no real planned agenda. Our adventures took us from Shibuya, to some place I can't remember, and then to Harajuku.

Lots of walking... we passed by some Love Hotels, saw some Google event, and passed by some cool looking stadiums.

Toy stores, Secret Base, and Plus 16 were kind of hard to find, but I'm so glad we did! Plus 16 had an incredible collection of pricey large scale figurines, while Secret Base had more traditional Japanese monster vinyl toys. I picked up a DIY toy, and shirt.

Also in the same building as Secret Base in Harajuku, was another cool designer of the brand 'Erostik'. I couldn't resist getting this shirt.

Later that night was the Pre-TGS industry party at Africa restaurant in Daikayama. It was raining like a bitch, and we showed up like wet dogs. The party featured many developers from Konami, and Sega, as well as game press people. The highlight of the night was the biggest fanboy experience of my life -- meeting and speaking with Tetsuya Mizuguchi. I introduced myself and told him about my appreciation for Rez, but I couldn't help but let my fanboy enthusiasm show. I'm sure he was used to hearing all the same praises over and over again from different people, but I didn't care, I was talking to Mr. Rez himself! Fucking fangasm nut busting, awesome. The downside of the party was that the drinks stopped flowing early, and I never really got my buzz on, which was kinda lame considering the price of getting in. On the plus side I got to meet a whole bunch of new contacts, and am planning a trip to check out one of Sega's studios in the coming days.. exciting!

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