Finally, An Idolmaster Post!

About 20 years ago BandaiNamco released the first arcade game in the Idolmaster series. These games are about raising ‘idols’ (cute pop stars) and have become their own industry, with more than 20 games in this series alone. This is the latest one:

This was released about two months ago, and it has a strong presence in Japanese arcades right now. The place I took the above photo (Namco arcade in Nakano) had about ten machines. Here’s a closeup of the controls:

Six buttons, four sliders and three switches! The game has two modes: a rhythm game and an idol-producing game. It costs ¥200 a go, which is expensive, but from what I’ve seen in arcades the cabs seem popular.

I’ll add that this series is all but unknown outside of Japan, and I don’t believe any of the arcade installments have ever been translated into English. Perhaps this is due to the theme, or perhaps it’s because they use IC cards, which is a technology that American arcades (which have mostly devolved into ticket redemption rooms) never embraced.

This game looks extremely complex, and I haven’t yet played it. In addition to the price, the two game types and the intimidating controls it even has a card collection system! Instruction leaflets are available near the cabs in the arcade, and inside we can see there are 94 different cards available:

These are IC cards and you can see the scanner in the photo of the controls above. When scanned, the cards do things like change the idols outfits or their phrases when they perform. Note also that this game has some male idols too, so everyone can enjoy it 🙂

If you get a card you don’t need or already have, the arcades have these little boxes you can use for trade. The idea is put yours in and take one out that another player has left. It’s an honour system, which of course still works here. These sorts of trading boxes are common for all IC-card games, and arcades usually have a half-dozen or more.

As I said this series is a phenomenon, and in one of the arcades I visited yesterday I found a binder containing…

‘Producer cards’! These are faux business cards created by players. The cards contain social media contact info and which idols they usually use in the game. The idea is that you make these as if the idols are real and you’re their real-life producer. Then you exchange these with other players to build community. The binder was full of these – hundreds of them! – and it’s obvious the ‘Vol 1’ on the cover was not optimistic.

Recently KLS and I were talking about aspects of Japanese culture I’d be more into if we lived here, and arcade culture probably tops that list. I’d love to get ‘into’ one of these game series heavily – although probably not this one – to the extent I interacted with all this periphery in the arcades. A man can dream 🙂

It’s A Beautiful Day, Don’t Let It Get Away

Look at that sun! When I went to bed last night it was raining heavily and today I woke up to this. However all wasn’t perfect since it was a taxing 76% humidity (according to my phone) and even a short walk outside in the heat was sweaty.

It was another day of shopping for me. I’m front-loading the shopping since tomorrow I leave for ‘parts unknown’ for a week. Today I went to Nakano Broadway, one of my favourite shopping destinations in the world.

As usual I had as much fun perusing the stuff I didn’t buy – such as this Close Encounters action figure (from 1977!) – that I didn’t even know existed, or this nearly $4000 Gyaos toy (from Gamera) from the 1960s:

I bought many things – including a grail item or two – which I’ll blog when I get home, and overall it was a very successful shopping day. In fact both of these first two days of this Japan trip have, and I daresay if I was to go home now I’d return with a bounty comparable to entire previous trips to Japan 🙂

Maybe I’ve just reached maximum level as far as Japan shopping is concerned…

There’s a couple of arcades in Nakano mall, and one of them has a Gunpla recycling box in it. The idea is you put empty runners (the leftover frames when you build a model kit) in the box, and they are recycled by Bandai.

I’ve seen these for years and always wondered if people used them, but just after I took this photo an attendant came and emptied it, which I watched in fascination. She opened the box and pulled out a massive amount of empty runners, which she loaded into bags.

Look at it all! I wonder how much is Gundam and how much came from other model kits? I’m impressed (although not surprised considering Japan) that there didn’t seem to be any other waste in the box: people only used it for its intended purpose. It makes me wish I could recycle mine as well!

It was very humid when I left Nakano, and since I had a few mundane things to buy to prepare for my odyssey ‘up north’ I wandered around Ueno taking care of that. Crowds were thick and I definitely wasn’t the only one happy the rains were gone.

Tomorrow it’s time for the bullet train, which is always an adventure. Seven nights await in locations new to me. It’s going to be fun!

Rainy Shopping

I noticed the above magnet on the inside of my room door:

I recall the first earthquake I ever felt in Japan was when I was staying in this very hotel about six years ago. Afterwards I went down and asked at the front desk what happened and they just smiled at me 🙂

Today I shopped in Ikebukuro, which has become a traditional ‘first day’ experience these past four or five Japan trips. It started raining and I bought an umbrella, but by lunch the rain had become torrential and shopping became a bit of a challenge!

I bought many things, but they can wait for future posts. I also put a bunch of money into crane games and gacha machines, and the above was my first win (it only cost ¥100). I think it’s a stuffed oyster and I hate it, but if anyone wants it let me know.

And if you’re wondering why I even won it, as I walked past the machine I saw one of them was within an atom or two of falling and knew I could easily win it… so I did!

I had dinner at Sushiro. Once again I had ‘hamburger steak sushi’ which KLS thinks is an abomination but I think is delicious! By this point I was extremely tired, sore from carrying heavy shopping bags, and my shoes were saturated. It was time for a bath, to do the laundry, and for an early bed to catch up on the sleep lost last night!