Like most males of my generation, when I was in junior high school I loved video games. Truth be told I still do – although now a days I have little time for them. On many a school lunch hour – I would hang out at a nearby convenience store with my friends, huddled around a stand-up console version of Shinobi, Karnov or Ninja Gaiden feeding them quarters like we were getting somewhere. Back then a quarter in your pocket was a great feeling: you’re guaranteed a good two minutes of adrenaline pumping excitement.

Ahh – the good old days…

Today’s youth will not experience the evolution of gaming the way we did: seeing the latest gaming technology at Quikmark next to the milk fridge and racks of pornographic magazines … not in your living room! While Japan is unique in that it still has a healthy “game center” industry – for the most part such business ventures are dead thanks to consoles and hand-held gaming.

A prime example exists on Azusawa-doori in our neighbourhood. If you didn’t look carefully – you’d swear this shop is just someone’s trash – certainly nothing worth investing any time and money into. It’s almost worthy of the title “haikyo”. Nine times out of ten, when I walk by this place it’s as depicted below…

game center haikyo

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Geekiness, Tokyo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.