Undamned and Greg are heading to Japan!

Eps · Post by **Eps** » Sat May 06, 2006 1:52 am

GaijinPunch wrote:Japan has really low FX rates, although I'v never had to exchange in a hotel, so wouldn't know. Even the airport is less than half the service fee of using a bank/airport in the US, and even more savings than that fucking ripoff country called Great Britain.

Fucking rip-off is right. Everything to do with gaming is almost twice the price it is in the US. You can bet that when the DS Lite launches here it'll cost in the region of US$250. However, by then I'll have moved to the US and will be enjoying those (relatively) cheap gaming deals.

To get back on topic: Greg, am I understanding you right - your wife lives in Japan while you live in the US?

One way to avoid nagging I guess...

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat May 06, 2006 2:43 am

Specineff wrote:
GaijinPunch wrote:ATM machine.
Sorry for being a jerk, but you also misunderstood the meaning of "ATM".

No I didn't. Haven't you seen those videos at youtube.com?

To get back on topic: Greg, am I understanding you right - your wife lives in Japan while you live in the US? Shocked One way to avoid nagging I guess... Wink

I think they both live in the states, and were going back for a visit, when undamned decided to 3rd wheel... either that or Greg is a very gracious host.

greg · Post by **greg** » Sat May 06, 2006 9:16 am

My wife lives with me in Arizona. We're just visiting her family. Since we moved there from Japan in 2002, we come back here once a year to visit her family. In January of 2003 we came for a month (and visited the Ghibli Museum), in spring of 2004 we visited for a month and I met up with EightOne and Yamo Skrap off the forum here in Tokyo, and last year we came back in the spring again for 2 1/2 weeks. The same goes for this year. UD has been wanting to tag along for the past few years, and now this year he's finally able to come along.

I'm not too gracious of a host though, because we sent him on a bus for five days so that we can just have some quiet time with the family.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Sat May 06, 2006 10:16 am

Where do your in-laws live again? Tacking on a few days on top of a trip to Tokyo can really suck the life out of you if it's far enough. Even w/ the relatively quick trip from Hawaii, going out to the sticks is a lot of work.

greg · Post by **greg** » Sat May 06, 2006 1:08 pm

My in-laws live in the mountains of Nagano-ken. It's about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Tokyo. Not too bad. Now if it was in Fukuoka or Hokkaido or someplace, it would be a big problem. UD and I were in Tokyo for five days, but my wife left after the third day to go on ahead to be with her family. We're flying back on Tuesday.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Tue May 23, 2006 7:57 pm

So you guys going to tell us what booty you came back with? Any super rare stuff?

judesalmon · Post by **judesalmon** » Tue May 23, 2006 8:23 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:...ripoff country called Great Britain.

True, but the one benefit we have in the UK is that when we go abroad, the strength of the Pound gets us even more for our money.

Post by **undamned** » Tue May 23, 2006 8:45 pm

Dave_K. wrote:So you guys going to tell us what booty you came back with? Any super rare stuff?

I've been slowly getting back into the groove and haven't even sorted my photos or anything, heh.

Well, here's what I can think of imediately:

Ranma 1/2 Puzzle SFC (cool paper/rock/scissors game)
(some snakes puzzle game) SFC
Harmful Park PS1 (no spine and a bit of fading) $50
Sin & Punishment (complete) $15
PC Engine (suitcase thingy) $5
Ridiculous amounts of T-Shirts!
PC Genjin PCB $200
G-Net Mobo (brand new in box) $120
Mr. Driller 2 POP
Gundam Wing Serpent Custom 1/100 model
(some other Gundam model)
Keroro Gunso gashapon and a plushie bank!
2 awesome Gungrave art/interview/merch. books
Gundam Master Grade book (covers all the MG models made to date)

That's all I can think of at the moment...

It was pretty amazing just walking into G-Front ant Try and seeing the stacks of PCB's and factory kits. They definitely make the most of their space, so you really gotta look thoroughly to catch it all cause it's so packed in!

I should be doing a little story of my trip sometime in the next few months.
-ud

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Tue May 23, 2006 10:42 pm

you only bought two PCBs (where ones not even a game!)!?!?

Post by **Dave_K.** » Tue May 23, 2006 10:55 pm

Guess I was expecting to hear you snagged Yuki Buta Man-P and Cyvern Plus.

Although a PC Genjin PCB is very cool!

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:20 pm

How is PC-Genjin? Is it even in Mame?
Something I've completely missed. A rare PCB I hear.

Congrats on the loot!

Arznei · Post by **Arznei** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:24 pm

undamned wrote:
Dave_K. wrote:So you guys going to tell us what booty you came back with? Any super rare stuff?
I've been slowly getting back into the groove and haven't even sorted my photos or anything, heh.

Well, here's what I can think of imediately:

Ranma 1/2 Puzzle SFC (cool paper/rock/scissors game)
(some snakes puzzle game) SFC
Harmful Park PS1 (no spine and a bit of fading) $50
Sin & Punishment (complete) $15
PC Engine (suitcase thingy) $5
Ridiculous amounts of T-Shirts!
PC Genjin PCB $200
G-Net Mobo (brand new in box) $120
Mr. Driller 2 POP
Gundam Wing Serpent Custom 1/100 model
(some other Gundam model)
Keroro Gunso gashapon and a plushie bank!
2 awesome Gungrave art/interview/merch. books
Gundam Master Grade book (covers all the MG models made to date)

That's all I can think of at the moment...

It was pretty amazing just walking into G-Front ant Try and seeing the stacks of PCB's and factory kits. They definitely make the most of their space, so you really gotta look thoroughly to catch it all cause it's so packed in!

I should be doing a little story of my trip sometime in the next few months.
-ud

All I saw was:

HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK
HARMFUL PARK

Post by **Dave_K.** » Wed May 24, 2006 8:21 am

GaijinPunch wrote:How is PC-Genjin? Is it even in Mame?
Something I've completely missed. A rare PCB I hear.

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?let ... me_id=7187

Not sure if this is true, but KLOV says the PCB was based on the TG16 game? (not the other way around??)

Post by **undamned** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:37 pm

GaijinPunch wrote:How is PC-Genjin? Is it even in Mame?

It's hot, man. If you like the original one's you should be all over this one. I'm not sure if it's in mame or not...

The gimmick in this one is these little happy faces that you collect (by bashing them with your head, of course!). They just accumulate atop your cranium and make your bashing that much bigger. You get a bonus at the end of the level for maxing out the amount of happy faces on your head.

You are given the choice of about 20 different levels to play on and every few levels you beat you get to fight a boss of your choice (about 8 total). Graphics are SNES worthy and very colorful/fun. Bonk can eat meat and get angry, amongst other Bonk-isms, like climbing walls with his teath!

Two player simultaneous game-play is super bonus too

Dave_K. wrote:http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?let ... me_id=7187

Not sure if this is true, but KLOV says the PCB was based on the TG16 game? (not the other way around??)

Big thanks to the hose-monkey that posted some pics from a home version on KLOV (the last 2 pics look like they are actually from the PCB).

Yeah, it's a 1994 game, so it post-dates most home releases.
-ud

greg · Post by **greg** » Thu May 25, 2006 1:29 am

My booty:
PCE:
Spriggan 2 (for only 4,000 yen... normally it's twice that much)
Terraforming
Knight Rider

SAT:
Detana Twinbee Deluxe Pack
Kaitei Daisensou (Anybody want to buy my North American In the Hunt now?)

PSX:
Punch The Monkey (a Lupin the 3rd rythm game, haven't tried it out yet)

PS2:
Shadow of the Colossus
Sol Divide + Dragon Blaze
Gradius 3&4

DC:
Under Defeat LE
Radilgy (unfortunately Sega Direct must've ran out of telephone cards)
Sakura Taisen 4

SFC:
Lode Runner Twin
Umihara Kawase
Sufami Turbo unit with SD Gundam Generations

Laserdisc:
Macross: The Movie

DVD:
Nausicaa
Howl's Moving Castle

Toys:
LOTS of Keroro Gunsou figures and such (aka Sgt. Frog as the translated manga title goes--- the manga I'm really hooked on these days)
Urusei Yatsura Lum figurine
Minmay from Macross figurine (wearing the Flashback 2012 concert outfit)
Votoms box gashapon
Plush dolls of Rilakkuma and Keroro Gunsou
(My wife scored three Domo-kun plushies for half off clearance... Domo-kun stuff is becoming harder to find unfortunately. On our next trip, we will hunt down the Domo-kun kiosk in Tokyo Station.)

Plastic Models:
Two Macross Strike Valkyrie models (one in fighter mode, one in Battroid mode)
the Griffon from Patlabor
V Dash Buster Gundam (from V Gundam)
Unit 3 Gundam from 0083 (minus the Stamen attack vehicle)

Plus I got a really cool Sony MD/CD mini stereo for my computer/hobby room. Neat stuff. I can't remember anything else.

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Thu May 25, 2006 3:10 am

Nice loot guys.

I wanted to go to Japan, but I don't know Japanese and I herd that Japan is very racist towards Americans (I could be wrong).

I herd that in Japan there's signs in Japanese that saids "Japanese only" and stuff like that.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu May 25, 2006 4:09 am

Fighter17 wrote:Nice loot guys.

I wanted to go to Japan, but I don't know Japanese and I herd that Japan is very racist towards Americans (I could be wrong).

I herd that in Japan there's signs in Japanese that saids "Japanese only" and stuff like that.

You're hearing one side of the story. There are plenty of foreigners from all countries that have lived there long term with no problems, despite the relative racist elements.

It really works both ways though. White people get paid more than Japanese doing the same job.

greg · Post by **greg** » Thu May 25, 2006 3:11 pm

He may be talking about Okinawa. There is a lot of anti-foreigner sentiment there, and for a good reason. I never want to go there. The only racism I ever encountered was in Sasebo, a Navy base town near Nagasaki. I can only imagine that it was insignificant compared to Okinawa.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:53 pm

Fighter17 wrote:I wanted to go to Japan, but I don't know Japanese and I herd that Japan is very racist towards Americans (I could be wrong).

To be fair, just about everyplace these days has some beef or other against the USA, heh heh.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Thu May 25, 2006 10:46 pm

Japan's isn't necessarily anti-American though. Read around on the net. The most famous racism case of late is about a Russian national resident of Hokkaido (he might even be naturalized) being refused service at a bath house (where you take a bath, not fuck a prostitute).

You don't see too many of these places in Tokyo, these days. I assume many of them originated in trying to keep out GI's, which is very understandable if you ask me.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Fri May 26, 2006 3:39 am

GaijinPunch wrote:
Fighter17 wrote:Nice loot guys.

I wanted to go to Japan, but I don't know Japanese and I herd that Japan is very racist towards Americans (I could be wrong).

I herd that in Japan there's signs in Japanese that saids "Japanese only" and stuff like that.
You're hearing one side of the story. There are plenty of foreigners from all countries that have lived there long term with no problems, despite the relative racist elements.

It really works both ways though. White people get paid more than Japanese doing the same job.

Racism is stupid and evil, but, sadly, there probably isn't a country in the world where it doesn't exist. Heck, there's probably been racist incidents on Antarctic bases.

I'm sure that the vast majority of foreigners, regardless of skin color, experience no discrimination. I want to go to Japan BADLY! Not just for the gaming, for the people; I love the Japanese! I knew several Japanese students in college, and they are very outgoing and friendly people. I even knew one Japanese guy who is a Christian, and, though I've lost his email address, perhaps there's some way I could get in touch with him, and even stay with him-if such things are done in Japan.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Fri May 26, 2006 10:42 am

dave4shmups wrote: I even knew one Japanese guy who is a Christian, and, though I've lost his email address, perhaps there's some way I could get in touch with him, and even stay with him-if such things are done in Japan.

haha.. umm yeah, doesnt sound suspicious at all m8

like someone said racism is everywhere, i dont think it gets any worse than being refused into a bathhouse in japan which can hardly even compare to south africa or the US.
i doubt its an issue to concider when going to japan (tho i havent been so i guess i could be wrong), enyways the japanese are tiny, if they come at you waveing burning crosses just beat them up

(jk)