Warspite & Vacation ending soon (02.04.24)

Konbawa! It’s night time here in Tokyo, and tomorrow is my last night in Japan. I’m a little dizzy from drinks but hopefully I can articulate my thoughts fine here since it’s been a while.

    Japan has been great, not in a theme park way but in a quality of life sense, the people clearly work hard here and have accomplished creating this lovely city. Theres so much that needs to go into creating a well behaved intelligent society like this, it feels like a different world compared to life back at home. Even with a language barrier I’ve had more meaningful interactions than 6 years spent at home in North Carolina’s suburbs. It’s just hard to meet people there as a self employed person who does work online, no one walks around there’s no where to go besides a few bars etc etc… but I want to talk about Japan, not home.

   A few days ago I went to the sky tree, as well as the movies to see Demon slayer! It seems like demon slayer was just a special rather than full movie but it was still fun enough, I’ve just been loving going to the toho cinemas to sit down and enjoy anime with other people . I’m even going to rewatch gundam tomorrow on my last day here. As for the sky tree, it was interesting going up and seeing the view of the massive city, but I think activities like that don’t excite me especially with how touristy attraction they can feel. I’m here to see Japan be Japan, rather than be an amusement park for the sake of tourists,  of course there were plenty locals but still. Then I just walked around the area and saw the wonderful neighborhood.

   I’ve been buying lots of Doujinshi for the sake of reference and gifts! Akihabara ended up turning into a hub of sorts for me with how much I’ve been revisiting it to see different things in the otaku culture. It is funny seeing other tourists gawk over Pokémon cards and other things while I browse too but that aside, I went up to the arcades and finally gave them a try, I tried shoot ‘em ups, the FGO arcade and Kancolle’s arcade game. i think I’ll be leaving Japan with kancolle’s arcade game as my favorite, it’s an absolute money sink but the gameplay and team management had been super fun to me. I love the dodge and attacking mechanics present in the game, I could see how people are addicted to it, and then there’s the part where the machine will actually dispense the characters card that you rolled for 100 yen! I love physical trinkets with games, so having that aspect for arcade is perfect. 

    Yesterday when I was learning the Kancolle game, a Japanese fellow with his friend sat next to me to play on the other kancolle machines and he looked over and noticed I was new to the game with only a few cards, so ten minutes later he spoke to me in the English he knew and handed me tons of cards that he had but didn’t use and told me to have them to help me get started, then he handed me warspite and told me she’s a queen elizabeth class ship and speaks English like me, so I should have her. The card is in a case so I think it was a card he actively used… it was really kind of him. It allowed me to play lots of the game without feeling obligated go roll for new characters. I thanked him and then again when I left the arcades around 9pm. That was the first time I stayed out so late, absolutely enjoying the comfort of ”third place” in life being the arcade. Being expensive aside, having multiple arcades with 7+ floors of cabinets to play must do wonders for the average salary man. Then returning home and having affordable food food to eat from anywhere really is magical. I drew this warspite incase I saw the guy who gifted me all those cards again today, he didn’t show up but I would’ve liked to show him since it was a card he took out for me. That interaction meant a lot to me since I’m such a quiet person minding my own business all the time, but do yearn for a more social life, or at least one where I feel like I’m not someone who should be ignored or stay invisible . It truly felt like a more mensoncul interaction than  what I’ve experienced with any online game stranger in a long time. That interaction with the game actually being very fun totally has me addicted. Tomorrows the last day I’ll be able to play it and I know the mobage/pc games are very different so I won’t try them. If anything it just amplified the experience I’ll miss very much in Japan. The cards will go from usable tools for a fun game to bring trinkets with no function or purpose at home sad only to remind me of whats available in Japan.

anyway I’ll go to sleep now, again tomorrow is my last night here so I’ll probably post again. Hope you like the warspite drawing. I’ll probably be drawing more kancolle soon. I attached a picture of the arcsde cards i was gifted as well. Good night