Today is brought to you by not getting out of bed, getting to multiple places just past closing, and The Great Big World of Japanese Arcades.
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It’s pretty much what it sounds like. We slept. A lot. I think we’re all a little exhausted still from our trek + wild days of travel (which is a little embarrassing right? We should be in better shape/feeling the zest of travel and wanting to see all that we can see. But alas, that’s not what’s happening).
This led to us deciding that we wanted to see the Osaka Castle. Which, by the time we got to it, had been closed for about ten minutes. The park was still open though, so we got to wander around the battlements and see the moat (always in favor of seeing a good moat).
It got cold though and the mosquitos descended upon the land like they were trying to invade. We escaped, but not without about 8-10 bites each.
We needed to change into clothes better suited for Bug Battle, so we headed back to the apartment. On the way, we hit up that ramen place that was closed yesterday.
It was really good but it was also like drinking gravy. It was one of the heaviest meals we had on this trip and I felt like I could maybe die. I think I almost did a little bit on the metro. But I wanted to get to the top of the Sky Tower, so I held it together because I’m always here for a good city skyline at night.
Only to get there and find out that they had just sent the last elevator up for the night.
Yeah.
But I had held it together that long, so I figured the night now needed to last as long as it could to make the near death spice really count.
So we met up with Marisa’s friend Emilie, who is awesome and also studied abroad in Edinburgh and is doing the JET program like a badass, and she told us about The Arcades. Which, we had been in a myriad of Panchinko & Slots so we thought we were ready.
But we weren’t.
These places are literally 24/7 (which you can’t arrive late to) 10 floor, whole buildings dedicated to every kind of game you could imagine. They have a bowling floor at the top. I’m not sure why I’m so shook about that but really.
The first game we hit was a classic. Taiko Drummaster was a favorite of 12 year old me and I suck just as bad now as I did back then, but the power of playing on a Big Arcade Size Drum is too good to pass up.
I’m not even sure what the next game we played was called but it was multiplayer and required a lot of button smashing, so it was really right up my alley.
And then came the Dance Master 300 (or whatever). It was literally the futuristic version of DDR that 7 year old me dreamed of. You got on a floor that lit up (lit up!!! Are you kidding me??? It showed where your feet were and everything) and followed vague instructions. I honestly had no idea what was going on.
But the guy next to us sure did.
He was hitting all the notes with Dancing Queen style and flare, still in his Business Suit, with his brief case leaning on the machine, like he had come straight from work. Imagine that. Imagine being office mates with this guy, working with him, and not knowing about his amazing dancing abilities. You would have no idea.
There was a lot of people like that. This guy was killing it at DDR, using both pads and the back bar. He was all set up, with a sweat towel and a huge water bottle. The wildest game was this, I’m not even sure how to describe it.
It had a large circle with buttons on it and a screen in the middle. You pick a song and the screen shoots bubbles at the buttons on the outside of the circle and you have to hit them in time. The display is also a touch screen so sometimes you do some fancy moves with that.
I’m not sure if that makes sense but point is, it’s complicated and difficult. I watched Marisa and Emilie play as I was out of coins. It looked rough. But people are insanely good at this game, which isn’t surprising considering the dance game pros.
This game gets wild too. People literally have it on lock. They bring their own gloves. Here’s a video as example (and comparison of beginner skill vs. expert). Their arms literally fly all over the screen.
And finally, we did a photo booth. My friend would always show me all the photo strips she got when she visited and I always wanted to try it, so honestly it was a dream come true.
The thing is, I already have big bug eyes, so you can imagine how good a picture that intentionally makes your eyes even bigger would look.
Yeah.
After that, Emilie had to leave, so Marisa and I wandered. We made friends with these very drunk men who really wanted us to come to karaoke/bar/food with them. I got proposed to. The best part was when Marisa said something that they didn’t understand. Instead of saying they didn’t understand, they just started singing Justin Bieber’s “What Do You Mean”.
I’m a little sad we didn’t go to karaoke with them after that.
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