Tokyo shopping and gaming spree, April 2006 picture log

[greg]

Undamned and I went to Japan together back in April of '06, and nearly five years later, I am finally finishing what I started in building a Web page photo gallery of those days together. We joined up with a longtime friend of mine who was stationed at Misawa at the time and I showed them around Tokyo.

http://stevethefish.net/life/life033.htm

On this page, you'll see pics of Hey (Espgaluda II was the big deal at the time), around Akihabara, the Nakano Broadway Building, Ikebukuro, and some other sight seeing around town such as Asakusa, Ueno, Tokyo Tower, and Odaiba.

It was nostalgic to go through these pictures and compile the page out of pictures UD and I took with our cameras. It's also sad that some of these stores no longer exist (R.I.P., Snoopy Town Harajuku).

[StarCreator]

Brian is also a good friend. One time when I was driving with him, I said, "It's a good thing that it is socially acceptable to pick one's nose while driving." Brian replied, "Well it is common, but I wouldn't say it's socially acceptable." At that moment I stopped picking my nose.

Thanks, I needed that.

[sven666]

looking guud guys, shame brian already had cut the fro tho (seriously, time to bring that back!), would have looked aces piloting the robot

[greg]

I'm looking at the page with my work laptop today, and a whole bunch of the images after the Try store won't load. Everything in the addendum at the end is blank. I hope nobody else is experiencing that. It may just be the crappy browser I have at work.

[drauch]

Super jealous on those big Dirty Pair figures!

[dcharlie]

Inside a game shop (I forget which one).

that's Friends

http://gameshop.ocnk.net/

[greg]

that's Friends

http://gameshop.ocnk.net/

Oh, I think you're right! The wall to the right is where the Super Famicom selection is, and then further right is where the register counter is. Right?

[Pointman]

Wow the exit to Akihabara Station has changed a hell of alot since then. It's cool to look at old pics of Akiba, I bought my Masterpiece Grimlock from Toys Golden Age (ludicrous price to boot)

I've combed Nakano Broadway from top to toe but I never noticed a shop selling pcbs there before. Is it still there?

[GaijinPunch]

ud is the nicest guy you'd never want to meet in a dark alley.

[greg]

Super jealous on those big Dirty Pair figures!

Yeah! I think I scored them for like $100 or some ridiculously low price. The Epoch Dirty Pair figures would only appear on auctions on a rare occasion. Some guy in Mexico put them up for sale on eBay and nobody bought them. I found it in the completed auctions. I offered to buy them for a little bit over the starting price, and he accepted. Cha-ching! You can see them in a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hUVnw-CVsA

Wow the exit to Akihabara Station has changed a hell of alot since then. It's cool to look at old pics of Akiba, I bought my Masterpiece Grimlock from Toys Golden Age (ludicrous price to boot)

I have another pic of the same scene with a big ad for Shenmue for the DC. I think I have another one with a big ad for Sakura Taisen 4 for the DC too, I think.

I've combed Nakano Broadway from top to toe but I never noticed a shop selling pcbs there before. Is it still there?

I don't think so. I haven't noticed the place on subsequent visits to Nakano.

[Skykid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hUVnw-CVsA

Jesus greg, don't take this the wrong way dude, but you make my gaming habit feel like a respectable pastime when I see these vids. You're in otaku zesshikai mode!

[jonny5]

I read your page for a few hours the other night Greg; I like your writing.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, it was interesting to follow your thoughts through several years.

Oh and kind of odd, but I always have mental images of what people on the forum look like, and I always imagined you looked pretty much like your buddy Galen. Weird.

[greg]

Jesus greg, don't take this the wrong way dude, but you make my gaming habit feel like a respectable pastime when I see these vids. You're in otaku zesshikai mode!

Ree hee hee hee! Yeah, that was established on this forum perhaps a few years before you joined. Perhaps it was on a previous iteration of this forum, but we had a discussion on how friends can give you crap for having nerdy interests and such. We'd posted some pictures and several people agreed that I might be an otaku in overdrive mode. The funny thing is the comments I get on my original nerd cave video. "YER NEVER GONNA GET LAID!" or "HOW OLD R U" and ridiculously judgmental comments like that. Sorry guys, I've been married for nearly ten years and I even have a kid, which proves I've had sex at least one time in my life (Which reminds me, Mom owes me fifty bucks). Unfortunately, pretty much all the stuff you see in the videos are all boxed up waiting for us to move out since we're in the process of a short sale/foreclosure.

I read your page for a few hours the other night Greg; I like your writing.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, it was interesting to follow your thoughts through several years.

Oh and kind of odd, but I always have mental images of what people on the forum look like, and I always imagined you looked pretty much like your buddy Galen. Weird.

Heh, well he has hair and I don't. I'm the one wearing the red Ikaruga shirt in those pics. I have even less hair than those pics that were taken five years ago. I think everyone already recognizes Undamned in the pics.

Anyhow, thanks for the comment! I used to get feedback on my homepages up until I removed the mailto tags for my e-mail address. I figure that most people aren't clever enough to decipher that "atsign" equals "@" and "dot" equals "." A lot of my thoughts have changed since I'd written those essays, but I decided to just leave them alone since they reflect how I was at that point in my life. Like when I was still living in Japan, I actually still bought into the concept of the "American Dream." After a string of constant contract jobs, long periods of unemployment in between, an embarassingly high amount of debt and now a foreclosure, I've come to realize that the "American Dream" doesn't exist anymore. Unless you're from India, but that's another topic.

I've had my homepage since around January of 1995 when I taught myself HTML when I was sick in bed one day. I've always preferred the handwritten HTML webpage, but that's rapidly disappearing because of the blogosphere. I don't like blogs much since they limit my creativity, and I prefer the "table of contents" approach rather than tags. There are many blogs I enjoy, but I just don't want to do that for myself. As a result, there's a real lack of people who find my stuff, but I don't mind. Occasionally I've posted some of the stuff on this forum, like the letters to Kermit the Frog and Chris Isaak. I'm glad you enjoyed reading some of the stuff there.

[Skykid]

Jesus greg, don't take this the wrong way dude, but you make my gaming habit feel like a respectable pastime when I see these vids. You're in otaku zesshikai mode!

Ree hee hee hee! Yeah, that was established on this forum perhaps a few years before you joined. Perhaps it was on a previous iteration of this forum, but we had a discussion on how friends can give you crap for having nerdy interests and such. We'd posted some pictures and several people agreed that I might be an otaku in overdrive mode. The funny thing is the comments I get on my original nerd cave video. "YER NEVER GONNA GET LAID!" or "HOW OLD R U" and ridiculously judgmental comments like that. Sorry guys, I've been married for nearly ten years and I even have a kid, which proves I've had sex at least one time in my life (Which reminds me, Mom owes me fifty bucks). Unfortunately, pretty much all the stuff you see in the videos are all boxed up waiting for us to move out since we're in the process of a short sale/foreclosure.

Ah fuck em, geeks rule the world while all the jocks flip burgers.
You're certainly not the only one with an all encompassing Anime/Japanese/Star Wars mania, at least it's a decent hobby. And you got laid and married at the same time too, so that actually puts you way ahead in the nerd kudos stakes. When the anime chick becomes a satisfactory replacement for real-life socio female interaction, that's when there's a problem worth discussing.

[greg]

When the anime chick becomes a satisfactory replacement for real-life socio female interaction, that's when there's a problem worth discussing.

Yeah, or like this sad moron. I swear, what is with these wussy Japanese guys swearing off the love of a real woman? Bunch of pussies. I don't wanna hear anybody complain that guys like me or GP are stealing Japanese girls away when there are guys like this out there.

[Skykid]

When the anime chick becomes a satisfactory replacement for real-life socio female interaction, that's when there's a problem worth discussing.

Yeah, or like this sad moron. I swear, what is with these wussy Japanese guys swearing off the love of a real woman? Bunch of pussies. I don't wanna hear anybody complain that guys like me or GP are stealing Japanese girls away when there are guys like this out there.

No fear of you and GP stealing much away, you boys are married! Playtime's over.
Still, I see no boundaries in race when it comes to lust or love. See something you like, go get it.

Unless it's a blow up doll.

Seriously though, I can't rag on the guy too much, I feel too sorry for him. He's totally screwed in the head and obviously has a deep rooted issue when it comes to actual women. I blame society.

[drauch]

Eh, I mean, whatever. If that's what makes him happy so be it; he's not causing any harm. I say if it isn't living (and never did) it's probably okay to stick your dick in it.