October 3, 2010

Some time ago I went to entertain myself at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) and boy was that an experience. I am a big fan of video games and such, although recently I haven’t been able to get my “nerd-on” as much as I am used to because of lack of time, so it no surprise that I would absolutely love this place–kind of. The line to get in was quite brutal, even though I got there early. In the fiery land that is Japan (Tokyo area) during the summer I stood in line–out in the baking sun–for about 2 hours before I finally reached the entrance. I really messed up by assuming Japan was going to be cooler than Pennsylvania–what made me come to that conclusion I am not sure, I think I may have mixed that notion with something else…what a twat I am. Anyway, once I got in there were numerous booths for different video games and other technological items. One of them was this booth displaying some goggles that allowed you to play games anywhere by enabling you to view the screen through the goggles. It was a pretty cool idea, but the current technology definitely hinders the full potential of the device.

I could go on in deep detail but I think I’ll let my pictures explain that. What I do want to focus on is the Otaku, or nerds in Japan. Now everybody pretty much has their own opinions about Otaku. Some think that they are unsocial and do nothing but spy on girls and look at porn–real or anime–all day in their mysterious dwellings. Some think that they relatively your stereotypical normal person except that they have a extreme interest in some sort of nerdy hobby, such as collecting trains, stamps, cards, etc. My personal opinion is that you cannot generalize the Otaku into a single group, since they all have their own interests and attributes that make them all unique in their own way. It was weird however seeing some Otaku just taking pictures of girls wearing cosplay or booth babes (attractive women in provocative uniforms that advertise products at TGS) for extended periods of time. The one I timed, and it was a full 17 minutes of straight picture taking of one girl! I could only wonder what that Otaku was going to do when he got home. Thank the heavens that free tissues are everywhere in Japan.

I plan on going to Akihabara sometime soon, so I will probably make that my next update. Until then!

***so apparently I still cannot upload photos. Maybe I’ll make a Flicker or something. Heck I’m so used to this blogs shortcomings that I didn’t even get mad this time! Maybe they should trash this and just ask us to make public facebooks for our specific study abroad program…

Location: Japan