The mall

I woke up to the breakfast that consists of Steamed Okra, Slice fried potatoes, and a small cup of yogurt. Since I’m in Japan, I’m going to try everything at least once even though I know that I hate Okra. Well, I still hate Okra. :p But I ate it just to be polite. Afterwards, Peter and I went to Shinagawa to meet up with my Jeh (Older brother), Melissa (Jeh’s Wife), Roger (My other cousin and Peter’s brother), and Joyce (Roger’s girlfriend).
We met up and headed to Kawasaki and its mall. Now, I have to say, Japan malls put the US’s to shame. We’re talking 3 stories of Bellevue Square Mall. Also as you might have already guessed, their arcades SERIOUSLY puts Gamesworks to shame. This mall’s arcade is just as big as Gameworks. Inside it consisted of about 50 UFO catchers (Claw games) with scuffed animals from small to big, models from different anime, and candy from pocky to potato chips. The UFO catchers have a different objective than the US claw games. In the US you are suppose to actually grab a hold of the items and pick it up. In Japan the objective is to flip it into the prize hole. They purposely have a little corner sticking over the hole and you’re suppose to aim for a corner and lift it a little and when the claw lifts the prize up a little and I’ll slip out of the law and the momentum when the prize drops, it’s suppose to be enough to tip the prize into the prize hole.
Another UFO catcher game is when the prize is hanging from a ring that is dangling of a horizontal bar. You’re suppose to claw at the ring and if you claw it correctly it’s suppose to slip the ring off of the bar and it’ll drop into the prize hole. These two games are for actual stuffed animal, models prizes..
The food UFO catch’s objective is similar to the first. The food is dangling over the prize hole but it’s contained inside a capsule. You are suppose to claw at a small stuffed animal, in this case a small rabbit, and if you if it correctly, till drop into the prize hole. There is a string that is connected from the rabbit to the capsule and a yank and the capsule will release all the goodies into the prize hole.
The arcade also had Street Fighter 4 set up and I played a few rounds of it. It is very different from all the other Street Fighters. It’s a bit more slow paced than its predecessors. But all in all it’s a solid game. They also had a ton, about 40, of Tekken 6 machines set up for tournament play complete with LCD monitors that showed currently players and replays of the best players playing. They also have a quiz game that’s pretty popular. It pits you against other player in and out of the area. So, basically you could be playing against someone in the same arcade, one in New York, and Hawaii all at the same time. It’s a touch screen monitor and a big buzzer inn front of you. It’s a round robin contest between 3 other people. At the of each opponent you select a genre and he does the same. Genres include Video Games, Geography, Technology, Language, Math, Pop Culture, and many many others. Basically who has the most points at the end wins and gets recorded into your profile that is saved into a card that you use for next time you play.
The arcade also has lots of video slots, pachinko, virtual bingo that you play against other people, coin tipping games (those games where you use tokens/coins as the actual item and you’re suppose to knock other coins off the ledge). But the thing that takes the cake is the virtual horse racing. You get your own leather seat with a small table in front of you. On the table is a touch screen monitor with hi-rez graphics with tons of stats about the horses. Win records, stamina, injuries, speed, and the like.
There are tons of Gundam games as well. Some are strategy games that have the same set up as the horse racing game. Some play like Virtual-On. This is getting pretty log so I guess I’ll be quick in ending this.
Nothing else happened much. Browsed the mall for the whole day, buying a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks. All the sizes are one smaller. Vientes are Grandes, Grandes are Talls, are Tall are Shorts. Had Tempura + Noodles for lunch and Curry Tonkatsu at restaurants. Fantastic food. Got back to Iki’s house at about 9 as the rain started to really pour again. Seriously, crazy weather we’re having now.