Robot Claw

That’s Kristin’s vegetarian breakfast skillet, which she said was great. We went to a breakfast restaurant and somehow avoided eating too much since the food was plentiful and delicious. As it turned out we’d need the energy!

The subway here is artistic and retro-futurist and reminds me of Paris or Berlin, which I’m happy to say since it makes me sound cosmopolitan. We took a train to the old 1976 Olympic stadium to visit the Biodome, which is an indoor zoo occupying the old Olympic velodrome.

In four large biomes animals can be viewed in convincing approximations of their native habitats. Some of these – like the tropical rainforest seen above – are so cleverly engineered it’s not at all obvious how the animals are kept in their enclosures since there’s no visible fences (and indeed some, like a sloth, are free to wander where they like in the vast space).

We saw lots of birds (including penguins in a very cold Antarctic biome), fish and many different mammals. It’s a wonderful attraction, probably the best of its kind I’ve ever visited, and definitely worth a visit if you’re ever here.

In the afternoon we explored the ‘underground city’, which is an expansive network of shopping centers and tunnels running under much of the downtown area. Apparently there’s a total of 32 km of tunnels, and although we didn’t explore them all we managed to travel about 2.5 miles underground as we made our way to the Old Port area on the St Lawrence river. This is a tourist destination full of restaurants and souvenir shops and – right on the river’s edge – this:

I’ve never seen a Ferris wheel I haven’t ridden, so naturally I had to ride this one as well! Kristins not a fan and waited down below as I threw them my $31.50 and hopped into my own private car (which normally seats 8).

The wheel was very tall, very smooth, and very comfortable. The weather was wonderful and I got lovely views of the city and the river. The ticket included three rotations and although I’ll admit it was on the pricey side I’ll say for me it was worth it. Recommended if you like Ferris wheels 🙂

Shortly afterwards the skies became threatening and we ducked back into the underground city for our return walk to the hotel. Our timing was fortuitous since a heavy rainstorm soon fell, but since we’d found the underground pathways we stayed nice and dry.

It was a long and tiring day. Will we have the energy for tomorrow’s plans? Wait and see…

We’re in Canada! We drove up to Montreal today, which was a trip of about 3.5 hours through the beautiful Adirondack mountains. Crossing the border was easy and the wait wasn’t very long, and before we knew it all the signs were in French!

Our hotel room is unexpectedly fantastic. It’s big and comfortable and the bath could hold a hippo with space to spare (I’m only slightly exaggerating; it’s truly enormous). We’ll be very relaxed here for a few days.

We learned today that Canada is a country in which most stores are still closed on Sundays. Even some fast food places (such as McDonald’s) were closed! So we just wandered around the city this afternoon to soak in the vibes. As it turned out there was a massive pride parade in the city today and it was full of people – many in outrageous outfits – so that was amusing. It also made it even more unusual that almost all shops and restaurants were closed!

We went to a big church and saw the above sarcophagus in which a senior priest was buried. This wasn’t the prime tourist attraction church in the city, but the main one was asking $16 just to walk in the door so we passed.

We discovered a ‘Barbie expo’ in a mall near our hotel so we stopped off for a gander. It’s a mysterious display of hundreds of Barbies with no explanation or documentation (or entry fee), so I assume it’s someone’s collection they’ve just put on display.

We had no idea this many collectible Barbies existed, and it was a treat seeing them all. Our favourites the the ‘Vampire’ and ‘Empress Of The Aliens’, and I look forward to both of them taking lead roles in the inevitable Barbie film sequel 🙂

It took us a while to find dinner, but the fish and chips we shared was great. On the way back to the hotel we got caught in a sudden torrential rainstorm, but the discomfort of wet clothes was soon abated by a steaming hot bath 🙂

I’m at the airport waiting to board. After a very long holiday I’m going home, which in many ways is always the best part.

I went a bit crazy with the blog this past month. I hope you enjoyed reading it all, and I apologize if some entries were too long.

According to my pedometer app, I took about 577,000 steps during this entire holiday, an average of about 18,000 a day. I’m surprised by that; I guess I’ve still got it in me!

But for this trip the last step has been made, the last rice ball eaten, the last crane game played, the last ¥ spent and the last postcard sent.

I’m sure I’ll be back one day 🙂

The last of this miniseries for this trip will deal with a few notable items I saw in the retro toy and game shops

Let’s begin with this box of E.T. trading cards. It’s not sealed, and it wasn’t clear how many packs were inside although since it was at Mandarake it was probably complete. I was tempted, but the price (about $125) was just too high. Should I have bought this?

Here’s a series of Star Wars shampoo bottles from the early 1980s! We all used to have some of these, but how many of us kept them! I was tempted by the R2 (about $30) but didn’t buy it. Should I have?

Keeping with Star Wars, how about this plastic ruler from the old Tokyo Disney Star Tours ride. I suspect this is unimaginably rare, but do collectors exist that would pay the ¥28000 (about $175)? Should I have?

You don’t see boxed AD&D figures (from the 80s) much, and even rarer are they in this good condition. It’s a pricey thing though, at about $95. Would you have bought it?

Here’s a true rarity for Japan: a boxed 1980s Doctor Who figure, and in spectacular condition as well. In another time with more luggage space I may have been tempted by the ¥8000 price (about $50) but not this time.

I’ll end with this UFO laserdisc set. I love this show and dearly want to rewatch it all, and why not on laserdisc? This had beautiful artwork but weighed an absolute tonne and was obviously out of the question as a purchase. But at only ¥80 (about fifty cents!) I was very, very, very tempted!

It wasn’t all resisting temptation. I did buy a few intriguing and dare I say ‘special’ items. After I return I’ll showcase a few in a post.

Game centers in Japan are where you go to play arcade games or win prizes from crane games. They’re also full of gacha machines that vend trinkets and little toys for anywhere from ¥100 and up. Depending on the size of the game center, they may contain other activities as well.

Retro arcade gaming seems to be picking up steam here, and in addition to the worlds best arcade (in my opinion), Hirose Entertainment Center (which I blogged about a lot last year), one of the big Akiba GiGo arcades has now converted one floor to retro machines.

Game centers are very popular in Japan, and the ones in Akiba are always flocked with locals and tourists alike. The biggest draw seems to be the crane games, and the contents change at a dizzying pace.

This machine with standing otters as a prize is in a game center in the station I walk past every day to and from the hotel. One day these otters turned up – they hadn’t been there the day before – and I watched a couple feed money into the machine trying to win one (they didn’t). The next day the machine contained new prizes, and I never saw the otters in any other machine. This has happened a lot just this past week alone, and the release calendar on one of the big Taito game centers shows they get new prizes an average of two per day.

The variety is as always mind-boggling, and it seems anything can end up in these machines. In addition to the vast quantity of anime merchandise including figurines, I saw bike pumps, freezer bags, toilet paper and the always popular food and snack items. Almost everything is licensed as well, and the licenses are as varied as the contents.

Winning is never easy, although more than once this trip I got (very!) lucky on my first coin. I tried to win the above figure and was unsuccessful, so I walked to a nearby reseller and bought her outright. Almost anything you see in machines can be bought from such places, who obtain them from people who win and then sell them for profit!

I love the crane games, and always look forward to seeing what’s in them and tossing a few ¥100 coins in to try my luck. I wish I’d had more luggage space this trip; I certainly would have played more!

Gachas continue their inexorable path to covering Japan, and even more so than cranes the trinkets in them can be just about anything. Want a minidisc keychains, a Jason ring, a voice-activated RPG-themed room alarms or a kpop ring with your favourite singers name on them? Just head to the nearest bank of gacha machines!

What about a drag queen acrylic standee? A mini model kit of a camping girl? A tiny model fishing rod? Or even a model ‘flat gacha’ machine? Once again they have you covered.

Some game centers include pachinko machines like this Godzilla one I played for about five minutes on just ¥100 (and I still don’t know what was happening). They have entire floors of medal based games and gambling games (like horse racing). They’ve got networked quiz games and racing games and all sorts of IC card based games. I’ve blogged about it all many times over the years, and I still wish the USA had such a robust system of high quality entertainment complexes like the Japanese game center.

It’s one of the many reasons I love visiting here. Every time I’m in Japan I spent hours in these places and I love to see how they change each trip. I’m happy that they seem to have weather covid and are booming again 🙂