Sunday arcade afternoon - Japanese-style

Wow! Arcades sure have changed since Mommy and Poppy were in high school - that and of course this being Japan, they have now gone Digital with a capital 'D!'

First off - arcades, Pachinko machines and even full-on casinos can be found practically every 200m in Shinjuku. The Taito Station that we visited was spread over 8 floors! On the 6th were the photo booths, with queues a mile long, packed full of teenage girls perfecting their doll-like selfies. The 5th was dedicated to DanceRush Stardom (think Dance Dance Revolution on speed) - this is where the teenage boys hang out and some of them got pretty intensive workouts. On the 4th were the Guitar Hero derivatives - and again some insanely talented and dedicated “guitarists” - one was even a white guy. The 3rd floor had more traditional arcade games - imagine banks of Double Dragon or Space Invader machines.

On the 2nd floor younger kids play Pokemon and the like. Ben is actually quite into the game and kindly let Davy play on his team - “winning” seemed to require repeatedly hitting a button as quickly as possible - in fact, losing did not seem possible. The 1st floor is for so-called medal games, notably a luxury virtual horse betting zone. Pick-em-up and gumball machines were located on the ground floor and finally, the basement was for Street Fighter-esque games and tournaments.

A thoroughly Japanese experience - and lots of fun on a rainy Sunday afternoon.Read more