The Jones Report: Tokyo Game Show 2008

Crispy Gamer enjoys Suntory time in Tokyo all this week.

by Scott Jones, 10/9/2008 8:07 PM

(Page 1 of 2)

Fourteen hours in coach.

That's how long it takes to fly from New York City to Japan.

By the time the wheels of the 747 mercifully touched down at Narita International in Tokyo yesterday afternoon, the plane was practically depleted of food and clouds of B.O. wafted up and down the aisles. The bathrooms were demolished; toilets were clogged; trash bins overflowed; worst of all, there was absolutely no T.P. whatsoever. Two small men at the back of the plane argued loudly and nearly came to blows over how far was considered too far when it came to reclining your seat. A bucktoothed Chinese woman seated next to me merrily clipped her nails, the trimmings ricocheting around the cabin like shrapnel.

Gift bag
Put your face very close to the screen, hold a dirty sock under your nose, and squint as hard as you can. Voilà, you're at TGS.
It was like some kind of airborne version of "Lord of the Flies." The sole reminder that we were actually properly civilized people was the fact that we all had our own tiny little touch-screen televisions that were showing us the "Sex and the City" movie (take Steve back, Miranda!) or maybe, once that was over, a two-year-old episode of "The Office."

Fortunately, I had a fully charged DS and a copy of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood to keep me busy. I'm not the biggest BioWare fan; I'm even less of a Sonic fan. Yet somehow I wound up clocking 10 hours with the game on the flight. Of course, I hold all forms of entertainment to a different, far lower standard in the sky. For example, I'd never go out of my way to watch the "Sex and the City" movie on the ground. But at 40,000 feet? Sure, what the hell. Same goes for games. We'll have to see how Sonic Chronicles holds up now that I've got two feet on the ground again.

Shampoo bottle
A gratis shampoo/conditioner sampler bag? Guess I can check Aunt Carla off the Christmas list this year...
After landing in Narita, I located the SoftBank kiosk to pick up my rental cell phone. I handed over my credit card to the kiosk attendant, then filled out the necessary paperwork. When the man returned my credit card, he carefully placed a tiny red gift bag on the counter near my hand. "This is a special gift for anyone who uses a MasterCard," he explained in halting yet perfect English.

I peered inside the bag. "It's shampoo and conditioner," the man said. He seemed a little embarrassed by this part of the transaction. "Very high quality," he assured me.

I looked at it. He was right. Shampoo and conditioner. "This is wonderful," I said sarcastically.

"Ah yes, so very wonderful, isn't it?" the man said, starting to laugh. I laughed too. And the two of us stood there having a good, long laugh over the tiny gift bag of shampoo samples that apparently he is required to dole out to anyone who rents a phone using a MasterCard.

Yellow giant
This Norton AntiVirus giant stands guard outside the Makuhari Messe. Feed him three pieces of spyware, and he'll let you pass.
I went to a cash machine to take out some yen. I can never remember the yen-to-dollar exchange rate. Being jetlagged on the far side of the International Date Line (it's actually a day ahead here as I type this) certainly wasn't helping my math skills. I took out 3,000 yen -- a massive amount, I was certain -- then dragged my carry-ons to the nearby bus ticket counter. "I need to get to Shinagawa, to Tennozu-Isle," I explained.

« Prev  1  2  Next »  

Responses

  • unangbangkay
    unangbangkay

    Oct 11 2008 2:37PM

    Final build of Mirror's Edge! You BASTARD!

  • Flynn
    Flynn

    Oct 10 2008 3:41PM

    Looking forward to those Q&As, Scott.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to comment. Log In or Register now!
Filed Under: video game, videogame, Tokyo Game Show 2008, TGS 2008, Scott Jones, Japan, Narita International Airport, Tokyo, Ben Judd, Capcom, Bionic Commando, Tsutomu Kouno, LocoRoco, Q-Games, Dylan Cuthbert, PixelJunk, GameSpy, Team Xbox, Kotaku, Nintendo, Dai-Ichi Seafort
  • Bookmark It:
  • Add This Page to Digg
  • Add This Page to Del.ico.us
  • Add This Page to StumbleUpon
  • Add This Page to Technorati
  • Add This Page to Slashdot

» The Game Trust » Features RSS Feed

Eye Candy

Most Active Groups

  • WTF DO We Do Now? (384 Topics)

    451 Members | Updated: 10/14/2008
    WTF DO We Do Now? If you are not sure what group to be in and don't like heavy r...
  • Super Smash Bros. Brawl (218 Topics)

    341 Members | Updated: 10/14/2008
    A forum for discussion of the game to end all games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl. T...
  • .;~*] gamer girls [*~:. (108 Topics)

    197 Members | Updated: 10/14/2008
    we are all out there. lets get to know each other (now more moderated than befo...
  • Graveyard Shift (50 Topics)

    75 Members | Updated: 10/14/2008
    For those of us more active at night,to talk about whatever .
  • Ryches trivia corner (22 Topics)

    23 Members | Updated: 10/14/2008
    Answer questions for fun.You get the answer right you get to ask the next questi...

© Crispy Gamer, Inc. All rights reserved.

By continuing past this page, and by your continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.