Umbrella games

I've met the gamers!

Admittedly, so far, it seems our Japanese counterparts mostly go for the lighter gaming fare, but a game is a game, and I'm not complaining.

To begin from the start: After several misses, I was finally going to have the time to go to the Yellow Submarine - and knew which Yellow Submarine to go for. So immediately after my classes, I went off to Akiba to search for the store, guided by the red marker dot the helpful store attendant in the last week's Yellow Submarine miss helpfully painted onto my map. However, it seems the treasure was moved in the meantime - the store was nowhere to be found. The ex did not mark the spot.

I knew it had to be somewhere in Akihabara, and I did not yet want to admit defeat (even though it was quite probable I (was) already lost); so I started wandering around aimlessly (well, aimfully, though I had no clue where the bloody target was); but my staunch spirit paid off, as I looked up and spotted my Holy Grail!

So, where there's a banner, there's a store, so up I went - but when I came to the store, it was way too small to hold any gaming. At first, the attendant had a blank look on his face, and then he got it - "kaado geemu?" "hai, kaado geemu ya boodo geemu nado!" Then he pulls out a real Akihabara map - not the photocopied flyer they had at the other store - and showed me where, exactly and finally, I can find a game.

During all that time, it was raining. Not too fun. But I finally arrived, and was welcomed, and accepted into Carcassonne: the New World, that no-one really knew rules to, except this one guy who was just leaving. I won. I later found out we had some rules wrong; I still would have won. Lucky game :)

I met the founder of this event, who rode the train for one hour in each direction each Wednesday with a suitcase-sized sampling of his 300-odd collection; I met the tall BGG liaison guy improbably called Joe; and I met two Germans who studied in Kiwiland together, of which one was visiting the other for a week, and the other is working in German Embassy for half a year. Had a long chat about nontrivial games with the latter, while the former charmed a female gamer, and received an email address, despite the fact that the only language they could communicate in was his very rusty French.

I got invited to the special Heroscape day the following evening, so I came back and played a bit of that. Funnish, certainly beautiful, but not that much involved. "Age 8+" summarises my impression rather succinctly.

Change of topic.

I am amazed sometimes at the practicality here - when it rains, every store (yes, every store, including the hardcore software ones) have cheap umbrellas for sale. Wherever you are, you can avoid getting rained. (Bad English, works in Japanese, so meh.)

Also, the first time I saw another Japanese umbrella-related surprise was in my cafeteria. Don't know yet if they do that elsewhere; I'm sure they must, but I haven't been to any other very public place while it rained. They put umbrella condoms at the entrances, along with a big disposal bin. You come inside, you put the tight baggie over the dripping part so there are no accidents while you're inside, and you take it off when you're done and drop it into the provided bin. Quite convenient.

Otherwise, many other places, for instance most of the buildings in my Uni I've been to, have umbrella lockers. You put your umbrella inside and lock it, and take the key. There may or may not be a deposit required. Ever gone somewhere and had no clue what to do with your big wet stick? Well, not in Tokyo.

Except in subways. But then, we have these great signs telling us how to behave.

Change of topic.

Things really work differently here. When we gaijin were leaving the Wednesday gaming, we heard someone calling after us. It was a policeman running after us. He was holding a piece of paper, and when he caught up with us, he said we dropped it. It was the email address mentioned five, or seven, paragraphs earlier, depending on how you count them.

The next day, I was getting off in Nezu (from the train!), and I noticed that the escalator that was out of order and under repairs the week before was back in function. I probably would have noticed anyway, but what really drew my attention to it was not a what, but a who. There was a construction worker, or a train line officer, or whoever it was wearing a helmet and a uniform, standing rather motionlessly next to the bottom end of the escalator, extending his white-gloved hand in its direction, inviting people to use it. I would not be surprised if that was all he did that day.

That said, I see a lot of people with a strange job description, at least according to my worldview so far: standing in front of their stores and holding up a sign advertising something in the shop, or the shop itself. They are not yelling anything (that's apparently another job), just standing around holding a sign, which probably could just as well stand on its own, with a bit of proper propping. They did get my attention though, so I guess it works.

Change of topic.

So I finally bought the One-Seg tuner for my PSP. So now I can watch TV. Or rather, what passes for TV in Japan, which is mainly strange game shows I don't understand yet, strange talk shows I don't understand yet, and strange food shows I don't understand yet. Hopefully, one day, with the help of the intensive lessons I'm taking, that will change. My understanding, not the programme. Did I mention over three hours of classes every day, plus homework? We even have listening homework. The teachers upload mp3-s to the web server, which we download and listen at home. Fun! but a bit tiring.

So now I have to also write the handouts because the book circle was moved to Monday this week, and tomorrow I've signed up to go see some Tea Ceremony so I have to get up early, and there's so little time...

At least I'm well stocked in grapefruits. Thanks, 99!