Yeah, that's my bed by the window, the sofa bed one. Hey, it's horizontal, so it'll be a million times better than any aeroplane seat!
Breakfast's at 7am tomorrow morning, and we're expected to be there. Won't find me complaining, but I do wonder what sort of surprises a breakfast in this sort of place is gonna throw at us. Best not thought about for now, because now is the time for Big Thunder! Yes, my quest for the elusive 53yen chocolate bar has proven successful, and I have two of the golden nuggets of sugary treasure sitting in a plastic bag waiting to be eaten. But I'm savouring them, oh yes, for when the time is right.
Coffee and onigiri were sensational after so long. It's a real sign of being back in the country, that taste. Both shopkeepers seemed very pleased that I was able to buy my items correctly, as well, which made my heart swell a little.
But first, one very good reason why this hotel is like God's way of welcoming me personally back into Japan. There's a Bic Camera 5 minutes away, the route to which involves walking through Yodobashi Camera. That's my two favourite stores right there. And you know what? That road also had a Traders on it, where I spotted a copy of Sexy Parodius on the Playstation for 3000 yen. Tempting offer, despite technically owning the game already on the PSP in the form of Parodius Collection, for the sensational multiplayer. Though thinking about it, challenging people to a game of Sexy Parodius sounds like an easy way to lose friends...
The small neighbourhood between Keio Hotel and Shinjuku Station appears to be some kind of Yodobashi Fortress, with five or six different versions of the shop dotted about in a grid shape. There's the Yodobashi Camera for electrical goods, the Yodobashi camera for toys and games, the Yodobashi Camera for travel goods. And don't let me get started on the Yodobashi phone shop, with its hundred-odd staff, all working for different phone companies and all trying to shout out the others. I'm not complaining necessarily, I've just always thought the idea of multiple copies of the same shop, differently specialised, in the same area was a bit off. I'll cut a long story short and tell you I didn't buy anything, save the food. There were more tempting offers out there, though. Gundam Musous 1, 2 and 'Special', which I'd never heard of. Slimes from Dragon Quest as key chains, phone charms and child's cutlery. Pokemon Smash EX, or whatever it's called. There's a lot of good stuff out there, and a pity that much of my money should really be saved up for when I'll invariably need it for rent etc. over in Kobe.
I also found myself buying a funny set of one bottle of some melony soft drink and one of Pocari Sweat, which I am reminded now with a stomach ache is actually rank-tacular. It TASTES like you'd imagine sweat does, y'know? Maybe it's just the name but... that taste...
Much of my time was spent traipsing round the shops, killing time before the quickly approaching 5.30pm, at which time I will move down to the lobby area to play on the DS in the hope that Steph will magically appear. I spent a good long while in the one arcade in the area, actually, which despite it being Sunday afternoon, a time typically spent doing lazy things, was hosting two events. One was a Shin Samurai Spirits tournament, with some kind of Hello Kitty biscuits up for grabs, and the other was a demonstration of the power of the brand-new Gundam vs Gundam EXTREME arcade game's 8-player scrambling system. There were some sixteen machines for this latest game in total, pretty much all taken up by smoking youths and glasses-wearing miscreants. But wow does that game look good. Heh, not that I had a go, you understand; I'd get ripped apart in a most humiliating way, no fun for anyone. But wow. It's like it takes every suit from every Gundam Battle game (including my beloved SEED Destiny Rengou vs ZAFT II Plus) and shoves them all into one beautiful, beautiful melee. This is including brand new Unicorn suits and some stuff I've never seen before. Crossbones and stuff. Ace to watch, I spent a long time there. Also got briefly mesmorised by a new fighting game called Aqua... something. Something girly-sounding. And by the looks of it you send cute little girls into bloody fights with each other, and occasionally against burly men. The characters in question were all characters from popular dating-sims-turned-anime (not that I'm an expert on the subject...) and flailed about with the most ridiculous-looking attacks I have ever seen a young Japanese man exclaim over. The highlight was a match between a girl who looked about 9, who ran gaily across the battlefield with a handbag slung over her dainty arms, who took great pleasure in ripping apart a girl about the same age except she was clearly a robot, whose only means of defending herself against this bloody onslaught was a simple broom. And every time she turned around her eyes went all swirly. It was quite a match, let me tell you.
It's 5.23, I should be off soon. Tomorrow will mostly be speeches from CLAIR's admin team, followed by workshops about life in Japan and so on. You have to choose some to do, so I'll have to pick wisely over brea-
Oh hold on, there's something I was meaning to say but haven't yet. It has come to my attention that I'm more fashion-conscious than I realise, and no this is not a good thing. The first problem is that I didn't bring any comfortable shoes to wear when not in a suit, so suit shoes it is. They still look quite nice, quite smart-casual, when worn with one of my new pairs of jeans, except the jeans require a belt that I... also forgot to bring with me. I say require, I did just fine today, but it'd be a handy addition, let me tell you. One solution would be to wear my shorts, which I DID bring, and which DON'T require a belt, only when you wear formal shoes with cargo shorts the whole thing comes off as ridiculous. Do you see my point? I shouldn't care about all this, but I do, and it's very inconvenient.
And then there's the fact that NONE of the above goes well with a bright blue raincoat. I love that coat, but it doesn't suit formal shoes nor cargo shorts. I've really done myself a disservice here. At least I have a lot of pastel shirts. Silver lining, and all.
Anyway, that's that. I'll write again tomorrow if anything important happens.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment