Go to coffeeshopping

The great vaguely similar coffee shops showdown

Without coffee there’d be no mornings, no games industry, no Japanmanship and, let’s face it, no civilisation. Though Japan has a great and tasty tradition in a variety of teas they don’t do black teas very well. Luckily the same cannot be said for coffee, of which there is an enormous variety available for home consumption and an excess of coffee shops dotted around the country. I’ll be looking at some of the more famous brand shops and cast my opinion on them as a pro-am coffee consumer. Keep in mind that there are many more than the few mentioned below, but these are the most common in my experience.

Doutor http://www.doutor.co.jp/
Garish décor and limited, microwaved food makes Doutor (pronounced “Do’h-tor”) sit happily at the lower end of the market. Their coffee is passable and comes in a variety of sizes. Some shops have smoking sections separate from the non-smoking, some have it on separate floors, others have a glass wall. Regular coffee costs from 180 Yen for a small cup, to 280 for a larger mug, no refills. The cakes and muffins are all slightly too prepackaged and cheap to be really tasty but they do the job.
Rating:

Veloce http://www.chatnoir-jp.com/veloce/veloce.html
Though this place is slightly cheaper than any of the others, not offering specialty coffees, and its décor is pleasantly mock-European, with its small tables and barstool-high chairs, the whole experience feels a little unsatisfying. With the tiny tables it isn’t a good place to park yourself for longer periods to study, for example, but the seats are comfortable enough. The food on offer is the usual microwaved toasties and some cakes or muffins. The coffee is passable but more importantly it’s cheap.
Rating:

Segafredo http://www.segafredo.jp/
This Italian chain tries the more trendy approach in décor and some shops have fairly decent and comfortable seats too. They offer a little more variety in foods and also serve alcohol. The larger shops have separate smoking floors but the smaller ones lump it all together. The coffee is pretty good here and though not quite the cheapest, it’s not that expensive. Small and medium coffees come in cups but the large is served in a paper mug like the expensive coffee chains, so this is a fair amount of black gold. The food is edible but really, with coffee and cigarettes who needs food?
Rating:

Excelsior http://www.doutor.co.jp/exc/
This coffee shop, part of the Doutor Group, has a logo which bears more than a striking resemblance to that of Starbucks’, especially noticable on their shop signs. It’s a little cheeky but I’m sure it has lured some unsuspecting customers their way. It has a rather cavalier attitude towards smoking with the different sections often separated by no more than a bench, plant-pot or little sign. Some branches make more of an effort but generally the non-smokers will have to occupy the same space as us smokers. Obviously, for me this is hardly a problem but it does allow for the possibility of whiny non-smokers tutting and casting hurtful glances, which can really spoil your enjoyment of a good coffee and cigarette combo. Their Mocca has more cream on it than any of its competitors’.
Rating

Tully’s http://www.tullys.co.jp/
Coming from the same city as Starbucks the resemblances are uncanny, from the logo to the silly naming conventions for the cup sizes and the wide variety of specialty coffee on offer. The biggest difference is that Tully’s doesn’t have that hoity-doity attitude towards smoking and usually offers separate, glassed off areas with nice leather chairs for us smokers. Usually, in fact, the smokers sit more comfortably than the non-smokers, as it should be. They also offer a variety of foods, from the usual cookies, which are very good, and muffins to sandwiches and some plate meals. It’s a little pricey but the coffee is great and the food tasty. On busy days the smoking fishbowls can become a little too dense but usually it’s a comfortable sit. They also offer a variety of coffees to brew at home; the beans are ground for you while you wait. Their one-shot Espresso Shake, though pricey at 450 Yen, is the best summertime pick-me-up I have yet come across and can give you both an ice-cream and caffeine headache at the same time. Great stuff!!
Rating:

Starbucks http://www.starbucks.co.jp/
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of this little mom’n’pop chain of coffee shops but there are a few of them in Japan too. Originally the chain that kicked off all its competition it is also the one with most hubris. Recently in a press announcement they told us of their plans to increase the prices a little. This was to keep the staff in good wages, which is fine, but also as a little payback for them investing so much in Japanese real estate, which is just taking the mickey. On top of that greed they also flatly refuse to allow smoking on their premises, a tactic that is bound to enrage people, well, like me. They are also the one chain store that has started putting up signs telling people not to hang around too long on weekends. So no studying or loafing around reading a book, just consume, pay and go away. Not very welcoming. And to cap it all off they have the silliest names for the various cup sizes their coffee comes in. No, Starbucks can go ingest itself, its competition in Japan has much better on offer.
Rating:

Honourable mention: Dunkin’ Donuts is one of the few places where they do coffee refills. For those on a budget not concerned about greasy tables this is a passable alternative.

~ ~ ~

In the end it’s a close run thing between Tully’s and Excelsior. Tully’s décor is a little less garish and I appreciate the separate, glassed off smoking sections with their comfortable seats, but Excelsior has wisely stayed away from the silly naming conventions for their differing sizes of cups and offers ceramic mugs for use to those who plan to utilize the shop’s many seats. Excelsior also has a stamp-card system where every 10 purchases gives you a free S sized drink or takes the price of one off of your larger drink purchase. Tully’s only has these kinds of special offers at selected periods, even though they do offer better freebies, like a free Tully’s mug or coffee beans for a full stamp card. But then again, Tully’s is about 20 yards closer to our office so I find myself drinking their coffee a little more often.

Arts and Crafts

Occasionally on industry or gaming forums someone will inadvertently kick off a debate, usually by mentioning 'Ico', whether or not video games are considered Art, with a capital A. These debates rage on and on and never reach a satisfactory conclusion. I can understand the desire of so many invested interests battling for video games to be taken seriously. Video game violence is the fashionable political bandwagon of our age and many ignorant and media-hungry political figures are picking up this non-issue as an easy vote winner when terrorism and immigration aren’t quite enough. There is serious investigation and study to be had there, but they’re only interested in vilification and easy popularity. In the face of this a lot of people with good intentions are trying desperately to portray games as a mature medium by forcing the epithet “Art” on it. It’s a little like one extreme viewpoint battling another.

But are video games Art? No, they’re not. My viewpoint revolves around confusing the medium and the product, in the same sense not all books are literature and not everything shot on film is a masterpiece. Games are a medium and though it is certainly one that can facilitate art, the products, the games themselves, individually, are not. I also think you can’t make art accidentally, and the main driving force behind almost the entire catalogue of products out there is the bottom line, filthy lucre. I have yet to see a game that was made for the sake of itself, (Duke Nukem doesn't count). Decision makers are often producers or CEOs with a background in business management, law or banking; these are not people with Art-capable souls, as we all know.
So to quickly get past this, my own viewpoint, I say games are a craft, require immense amounts of creativity and drive, but are not Art. The medium is mature and should be taken seriously, even if the industry behind it is well into its moody teenage years and has a way to go yet before being considered anything but childish.

But what do the Japanese think? Now I have to be careful here. Making generalizations about a culture I am in but not part of is always difficult, and I’m sure other observers may have differing viewpoints. But what strikes me as typically Japanese is their appreciation of design, visual arts and aesthetics. It’s usually in the vein of “style over content” but nonetheless they seem to enjoy many aspects of the visual. Manga artists release books with selected works, video game character designers have shows at Design Museums and industrial designers have many monthly and weekly magazines devoted to their output I have not witnessed any heated discussions about games as Art in Japan, possibly because I’m looking in the wrong places, but they are certainly appreciated. Though they are toys, let’s be frank, people here have no qualms about seeing video games as something to be savored more than just toys. And that is what I like best.

There is no crime in seeing video game art as something you can hang in a gallery or study in glossy books. There is no harm in savoring the experiences and stories as you would a good book or exciting film. In short, you do not need to make games into Art before you can take them seriously and appreciate their impact on society and your soul. Why is the West so hung up on this? If something is too childish or not listed amongst the Greats of History it must be collectively found to be Art before one is allowed to let it run its course and be appreciated by the wide public. It’s not Art, just appreciate the craft and skill that has gone into it and the esthetics of the final product or experience. That should really be enough for you.

That said, I guess if we all agree to call it Art anyway we at least have strong ammunition for the political anti-games movement. Or we simply have to wait for the next new medium to come along for ignorant people to be afraid of. Or we can just pooh-pooh the political vultures and hope they go away; they usually do. Either way, don’t let’s force video games into a compartment it doesn’t belong. Games are fun, games are great experiences, games are escapist, games often look great, and games push technology along to an extent. If the archeologists of the future think of it as Art, well, that’s their problem. Let’s just hope they don’t dig up the E.T. landfill.


What do you think, in one word or less?

Are games Art?

• Yes.
• No.

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Another day in paradise

It’s the day of my medical check-up which allows me to sleep in an extra hour and miss the firs half of the working day. Last week some colleagues were complaining about having to get up extra early to be there on time, which just goes to show how much earlier my working day begins than any of my colleagues’. It’s one of those days where the train decides to take twice as long to reach its destination but thankfully I scheduled in enough time, a hang-up from my London days combined with a morbid fear of being late, and the carriage isn’t crowded.

At the clinic I hand over my bodily fluids, previously collected in the supplied containers and change into an ill-fitting turquoise jimbe, a clinical pajama of sorts, and squeeze into washable slippers several sizes short of comfort. As I sit amongst the throng of salarymen near the wide-screen television in the waiting area Mr. Womaniser comes in. Mr. Womaniser is a colleague, a pretty good, level-headed artist with an unfounded but eagerly promoted reputation for playing the field. He looks very tired. He pops into the changing room and joins me, his jimbe and slippers a perfect fit. It’s quite busy and it takes a good half hour before my name is called out. I make my way to a separate room where I get started off with the hearing test. A male nurse is a little flushed and asks me if I speak Japanese. “Ganbarimsu!” is my usual answer, which means “good luck to me!” and never fails to raise a smile, a laugh even, as it does now. He then proceeds to explain in faltering English how this test works. “Um, um, earphone, um, sound, press, um…” “Yes, yes,” I say in Japanese, “I press the button when I hear a sound.” “Press, button, um…” The tests starts and finished, the nurse telling me “very good!”

Next are the scales, eye test, iris photograph and blood test. For some reason I get nervous when they take my blood pressure. This always happens and as soon as my arms goes into the machine my heart rate skyrockets. It’s a silly thing and usually requires some calming from the nurses and a second try. Not this time. I recon they presume I have high blood pressure. I am told to wait and another half hour goes by as I watch a small television where an old guy is teaching viewers to not eat crap food and go walking once in a while lest you drop dead.

Finally I get to see a doctor, a small, round salaryman type who has the obvious grin of a Japanese man confronted by a gaijin, He has my form in front of him and asks me if I wrote it as the kanji is very good! “No,” I admit, “the wife wrote that. Kanji is beyond me.” He is a little disappointed but not enough to kill his enjoyment of actual gaijin interaction. He asks to listen to my heart so I open my jimbe top and let him have it. He asks me if I sport and though the temptation is there to mention Wii Sports, I decide to answer truthfully. “I thought so,” says he and indicates his stomach and points at mine. Great, a doctor pointing out my little love handles, very comforting and not a little hypocritical considering his own build. But he’s right; I hang my head and agree with him. My brush with physical activity in Japan deserves a post in itself so I won’t go into that right now.

The heart cardiogram, graph, whatever it is, passes uneventfully as does my chest X-ray, save for the technician exclaiming surprise at how tall I am. I’m not really; back home I can be considered short but amongst the Japanese I might be a giant. Next is the dreaded Barium shake. The room is small, filled almost completely by the swiveling table with an office on the side with a window through which the technician will bark his commands. I take the awful powdery stomach medicine, the worst part of it all, and down the Barium without a problem. On the table I’m having a lot of trouble with the commands; I am tired, I can’t understand the Japanese through the distortion of a microphone or the guy’s Japanese is a little too polite for my level. Either way I make him come out of his office to direct my position on one occasion; I have to hold one arm here, one there, legs together to the side, slightly turned on my right but not too much, shoulders here, stomach there. No wonder my Japanese fell short. The table then tilts forward and I momentarily hang upside down. Luckily that’s the end of it and I’m given four laxatives, which I don’t use, and the go ahead to clear off, which I gladly do.

I get to the office around lunchtime. Immediately I am forced to fill in some crazy forms that should have been filled in last week. It’s an annoying status report type affair and the whole team is busy cheating off each other and asking “what did you fill in there?” and “can you PM me that so I can copy it onto my form?” The Barium sits very heavy on my stomach so I decide, unwisely, against lunch. Skipping breakfast is easy as I never eat it, but lunch too? It’s not a problem really, especially as I can look forward to a nice home-cooked meal tonight. It will have to do. Mr. Womaniser comes in an hour after I do, which is odd as he was only 10 minutes behind me at the clinic. But I can’t blame him; he probably took his leisurely time getting back to the office.　I am told the girl who does administrative work for our boss and always comes in 45 minutes after me was stuck in front of a locked door, waiting for the next person to arrive with a key, some 60 minutes later. I guess I do have an important function at the office; to unlock the doors and switch on all the lights. Poor girl.

Because I missed the morning I feel strangely compelled to put in extra hours. This is silly, of course, especially since the Barium has reached my gut and it feels like someone punched me in the appendix. Walking is a little painful so I go to the toilets but have no luck there. I decide not to leave too late anyway but sadly I am not quick enough to avoid being given extra tasks for this week. Had I already been gone the tasks would probably have been delegated to someone still present, but alas, they fall to me. I shouldn’t really complain. The task is something different from what I’ve been working on, which is always good for a breath of fresh insight, and if there is one thing I hate more than tedious tasks it’s being bored at work. Besides, I’ve been quite stroppy lately and have a feeling it’s beginning to effect my standing. “Ganbarimsu!” I say with a smile, or a smirk at least, which should ease some possible tension in that area.

The train back is packed fuller than usual. When I get stuffed in with the crowd, as if by some kind of arse-magnet, I get pushed towards a fat, middle-aged guy with a shaved head, save for a small flat-top, who absolutely refuses to make space. He obviously could take a small step sideways which would accommodate most people, but no. He even offers resistance、leaning into the crowd, me, for daring to encroach on his space! In situations like these I do my usual trick: I quickly step aside, as much as possible, so the guy falls towards me. Caught in the act! You were pushing, you arse! He gives me the eye. I impassionedly hold his gaze for a good 10 seconds until he turns away with a “fecking gaijin” look on his face. I see he is wearing sports gloves, possibly golf, as winter gloves. A few stops down a few people get off so I decide to take a few steps away from him. It’s a defeat, maybe, but I was in no mood for a train confrontation today.

Though Flat-top gets off further down the line even more people get on and it’s a real struggle to remain upright. With my thick coat, the heat of the commuters’ bodies all pressed together and the sheer physical effort it takes, holding straps and pushing against metal bars, to not fall over sweat drips off my face and I feel itchy. I get a little claustrophobic and try to clear my mind; just a few more stops. Once I get off I am almost soaked so I wipe my forehead with a tissue which quickly disintegrates.

After a nice meal of home-made oden and potato salad I play the wife in a few rounds of Bomberman 94 on the Wii. She is pretty good, certainly good enough to last several rounds until the playfield is miniscule with falling bricks. As a result I am no gentleman and don’t let her win; I batter her completely and she loses every game. Sometimes I’m a little too competitive, but she appears to be having fun nonetheless. I certainly am! Afterwards we watch a disturbing and dramatic television report about a 21 year old guy in Shibuya killing and dismembering his 20 year old sister. As always with cases like these, which are disturbingly common, the report utilizes dramatic music and shaky close-ups of grainy photographs and sad scenes of flowers left in plastic buckets as a remembrance. At times like these the Japanese are conflicted between their need to gossip and their desire to remain distant from the nastiness so we see presenters conducting interviews with apartment building intercoms as neighbours anonymously gossip on national television. We cut back to the studio where a male and female presenter put on grave expressions and chat to each other about how terrible this is. And terrible it is indeed. It may be because of selective reporting but when crimes occur, which isn’t that usual, they always seem to be of the extreme psychotic kind; random slashing, baby stabbings, serial murder. And Japan collectively tuts and shakes its head but little changes.

The Barium is still coursing through my colon. It’s not so painful anymore but I dread to think of the blockage it has caused for the next time I will try to relieve myself. I guess that is something to look forward to tomorrow. That, of course, and the extra tasks I had shoved upon me today but as I said, at least it’s something to keep me occupied which will make the day go that much faster. I just hope the guy comes to refill our vending machine. He hasn’t been since the new year and it’s almost completely empty now. A drastic situation indeed.

At least I‘m almost over my cold.

Japanese for silly people

One of the most fun aspects of the Japanese language is the use of onomatopoeia, even in speech, officially phenomimes and psychomimes, to denote emotions or feelings or simply used as shortcuts. It sounds ridiculous to start with but these are such fun that I often can’t help myself using them. Be warned that using some of the more esoteric ones will raise some eyebrows and possibly cast aspersions on your maturity or sexuality.

This is the sound of your heartbeat. If you are nervous and your heart beats quickly you can indicate so by saying “doki doki”.

Shiny, sparkly stuff. As in “kira kira little star”. Or if someone finally had a good wash and his face is all gleaming and shiny, or after you have viciously attacked your teeth with a toothbrush.

Officially, if one can speak of official translations, this is the sound a gun makes in comics, but can also be used to denote doing things in quick succession or “like a shot”, as it were. For example “just create these assets quickly and gan gan put them in the game.”

If you’re the kind of person to get terribly excited about things, you can tell your hapless compatriots by exclaiming “waku waku”. Holding up two balled fists in the air while keeping your elbows tucked in your side will complete the picture.

I always thought this was the sound a monkey makes in comics, but apparently it can also be used to denote excitement and general happiness.

If you have been starving yourself or it’s lunchtime you may want to tell whomever you are talking to how famished you are with “peko peko”. It’s the sound of your empty stomah screaming for immediate attention.

To be “pera pera” is every foreigner’s dream; to be fluent. Of course it can be used for any language but if you’re speaking Japanese and people tell you how “pera pera” you are it means your Japanese is pretty good. Remember though that your Japanese is only fluent if people stop telling you how good it is. “Pera pera” is somewhere midway between “Nihongo jouzu ne!” (“You’re very good at Japanese!”), which means you can just about say “hello” and “thank you”, and the absolute lack of compliments, which means you are truly fluent.

After you have soaked in a nice volcanically heated spring water bath your skin is smooth and lovely and “tsuru tsuru”; it denotes the smoothness to the touch. It can be said of many things, like a salaryman’s bald head or that strange rubber robot toy.

This dubious one is quite literally the sound a well-endowed woman makes when, say, jogging, or playing extreme volleyball on the beach of a tropical island. Very little imagination is needed here in understanding or using this particular onomatopoeia.

There are literally a “quite some” amount of these, so a quick Google search should provide you with countless more minutes of hilarity and confusion.

Personal growth is the new High Score

What makes Wii Sports such a deliciously entertaining and addictive experience for me isn’t so much the fact it’s been designed specifically to bring out the best in the Wiimote, the fact my own personal Mii is on screen or even that is allows me to get decent scores in sports that I would never be able to achieve in real life, like breaking that elusive 100 point barrier in bowling or actually hitting a ball in baseball. These are all good reasons to like the title in itself, but what really swings it for me, no pun intended, is the personal growth charts.

I am not quite sure which game brought it first, possibly Sim City or some such, but I distinctly remember liking it in the DS title “Brain Age”. Rather than keep track of your best performance in the way the old high-score did it charts your development, or lack thereof, over the whole time period that you’ve been playing. Now in Brain Age it is pretty much required, but to find it also a part of Wii Sports is great! Why judge or remember me on the best score I have ever achieved, or the latest score I managed, when I can see how well I’ve played over the last month? Anybody can have a good day and “accidentally” bowl a perfect score, but if that is a mere blip on their overall chart, as opposed to a steady and ongoing climb, it makes life a lot more bearable for the losers.

Also it gives a long-term aim to the whole experience. Why should I play a game every day, even for just a short period, if only my best ever scores count? If it is part of an on-going measurement of my skills I am more likely to invest my time and effort into a quick daily whirl. The idea of a graph showing personal growth is, to me, the best thing to happen to games in a long time. I want to see it in every title produed from now on.

Now hang on, you may say, it fits perfectly well for sports titles or other non-game products that need to chart personal achievement, but what about your quick fix games? When I said I want it in every title I meant every title! And why not? It doesn’t take much to implement and can add so much to the experience. And I’m not talking about individual achievements, I'm talking general game proficiency. Take these examples:

Tetris – a daily chart of average line clearance and scores. Don’t save only my high score, save every score! Then show me in a chart how well I’ve been playing. Ah, I see last week I had my highest ever score, but since then I’ve been playing like a cow.
Zelda – Keep a chart of my time spent, a week, on play sessions. How many rupees did I collect last week, how many did I spend? How many times did I die? I see it took me two weeks to reach the 50% mark in the overall story but only 1 week for the last half.
Animal Forest/Crossing – How many letters did I send or receive. How much did I walk? How much did I spend compared to this time last month?
FPS games – How has my accuracy improved? Have I become more or less profligate with ammo? How much damage did I take or deal this week?
RTS games – How much did I build? Or destroy? How many game sessions did I win last week as opposed to the week before? What units did I rely on most?
RPG games – How much did I grind? How quickly have my levels increased? What happened to my kill rate since I equipped the Androgynous Mantle of +5 charisma? Which weapons did I use most?
Life sims – How quickly did my circle of friends increase? How much money is my personal avatar worth in the game world compared to last month? How popular am I with the virtual girls since I installed that hot tub? How much of my life have I been wasting on this game over the last few months?

Then there is cross referencing. I see I have been playing this RTS game with 75% efficiency and success, as opposed to that FPS game, which I only managed to clear with 50% proficiency. Maybe FPS games aren’t my strong point. I see I have spent more time on Mario Galaxies than on Zelda, but only in the first week. My aim in Red Steel is a lot better than in Metroid or Call of Duty. The possibilities are endless.

And with internet connections and friends lists this opens up a whole new level of competition. Import your friend’s stats for Wii sports and ghost them onto your own. He may be as good as you but it took you a few days to reach that level rather than two weeks. He may have trounced you in that baseball game but it was an obvious lucky streak, compared to his recent dire performance.

Maybe it’s the secret and until now surprisingly well-hidden statistician within me but these little graphs open up more in the game than anything else. It used to be that any n of N collection mechanism had me hooked until I reached a 100%, no matter how tedious and boring it got. But with these graphs I feel the drive to see an upwards trend, and I want to see my performance over the entire time I have invested in the game. I should start a “performance graphs in games now!” campaign, akin to UK:Resistance’s excellent Blue Sky campaign. Statisfy me! Pun intended.

Dead giveaway

I noticed something fairly obvious the other day. When interviewing at a company you may want to get an impression if that employer demands lots of unpaid overtime from his employees. Usually you won’t get a tour of the studio; that doesn’t seem to be the done thing in Japan. But if you’re lucky the way to the meeting room brings you along the work floor, in which case you should take the opportunity to take a quick peek at the desks of your possible future colleagues.

Don’t look out for bedrolls. They are quite common but not always used. I worked with a guy once who, in the three years he was my colleague, never once unrolled the sleeping bag that was permanently lodged under his desk, along with stacks of manga and empty Cup Noodle containers. No, check for mobile phone chargers!

A mobile phone battery, even if it’s gone wonky over the years of use, can at the very least last two and a bit days. Myself, as someone who makes a point of never staying overnight, always put my phone in its little cradle as soon as I come home and take it out the next morning before going to work. Game developers are not known for their social skills so it’s unlikely the younger employees will have a lot of people to talk to. These people you can ignore anyway. These are the ones who mistakenly believe working all hours of the night is acceptable, just because it’s the done thing and they don’t have wives to scold them when, or indeed if, they come home. No, you want to check the desks of married people, preferably with kids. From a quick headcount, a count I did in my head, I’d say roughly 30% of any average company falls in this bracket.

If these married people, people who theoretically have actual lives outside of work, are not home often enough to stop their mobile phones from copping out, they will be the ones with chargers on their desks, if overnight or late night stays are commonplace in that company. If you manage to catch a glimpse of the work floor try and spot these chargers. If of, say, for example, a 100 desks there are more than, on average, 10 or 20 chargers it means good people stay late or overnight far too often,

I checked this at our own company and the mathematics work out. Most of the colleagues that I know stay overnight on occasion had chargers on their desks. Some didn’t, but the people that never stayed overnight invariably did not have these devices. Thus, my theory goes, counting telephone chargers is a very effective way of gauging if your future employer will have unreasonable expectations regarding your working hours.

Alternatively you can try this easier method: ask yourself the question “is this a Japanese company?” If the answer is “yes” then expect to work silly hours. And buy yourself a second mobile phone charger.

Go to eating: Tanto Tanto

No matter how tasty, healthy, fresh and gorgeous Japanese food may be I guarantee there will come a time while you’re in Japan for any prolonged period that you crave a decent Western meal. There are plenty of restaurants that offer non-Japanese cuisine and they obviously differ in price and quality, so you’ll need to shop around a little. But if you fancy a decent Italian I can heartily recommend Tanto Tanto, located on the 8th floor restaurant park of Shibuya’s main Tokyu department store.

Though they immodestly claim to have a diploma from the Italian Pizza Association, APES, which sounds like a made-up qualification if ever there was one, their pizzas are very fine indeed. Their menus, in Japanese and Italian, offer the usual dishes which can be eaten Western style, each to their own, or the far more pleasant and social Japanese style, where smaller plates are provided so everyone can share from the same dish. A decent and romantic meal can be had by two persons, including starters, some main dishes and desert for around 10,000 Yen (US$ 85, EUR 65).

If you want a nice dinner with linen tablecloths and subservient waiters who know where to put the cutlery and how to twist a bottle of wine to stop it dripping, all without breaking the bank, you probably should try out this restaurant.

Location: Shibuya is a centrally located area where a lot of train lines converge, including the Ginza, Hanzomon and JR Yamanote lines. The main Tokyu department store can be reached from Hachiko Square in front of the station, by going left towards the 109 building, pasing it on the right hand size, then opposite Donki. You’ll recognize it for having expensive brand shops all over the ground floor.
Website: http://www.gnavi.co.jp/gn/en/g188300h.htm
Map: here

Health and Efficiency

It’s not all doom and gloom being part of the Japanese machine; health insurance is pretty good and companies, by law, must organize yearly check-ups. For this alone there are countless specialty clinics that deal specifically with the queues of salarymen sent out to see how decrepit they have become over the year. These checks are usually pretty rigorous and give a pretty good status indication of your body. And though they are sometimes scheduled in busy periods and they can be a little bit of a chore I always follow them uncomplainingly as you really can’t mess about when it comes to health.

Today, the first day at work this year, I was greeted by a fat envelope on my desk containing all the necessary information for my check-up next week. A little guide of how to get to the clinic, an appointment sheet, a questionnaire asking the usual “do you have an illness?” or “do you smoke?” and a little DIY feces collection kit. The latter consists of a flushable paper sheet which is to catch my movements, a little eye-lash brush type affair to pick up the aforementioned evacuation and a thankfully airtight plastic vial to store it in. A lot of fun, as you can imagine. Also in preparation I must not eat a thing for roughly 12 hours before the appointment.

I can expect the usual. Apart from the feces I will also have to provide a urine sample, probably on the day. Then they’ll cart me off to a desk where a kind nurse will pierce my vein for a drop of blood. They are very good with this: always clean needles and in my many check-ups so far they’ve never missed. After that I’ll probably have a chest X-ray while the nurses hide in a reinforced, lead-lined control booth. I must remember to wear a T-shirt that day as buttoned clothing will have to be removed. Or I may be asked to strip off completely and walk around in the Japanese equivalent of clinical pajamas.

Following there may be a check, I’m not quite sure of what, where they attach some clips to my leg and arms and send some Volts through me; it is totally painless and takes about 1 second. It may check my heart or something, I’m not sure. An eye test is also on the books; a little tabletop game where you peer into a machine which shows U shapes in various orientations and of decreasing sizes and you must waggle a joystick in the direction of the open end of the U. I wish they had a score counter on this; the competitive games-player in me always takes over at this point and I try my damnest to play it well.
A hearing test next; put on some headphones and press a button when you hear a beep. And finally a weight/height check. At some clinics you will be escorted to see a doctor who may talk you through the results, or you will be asked if you desire to speak to a doctor or not.
A few weeks later your company’s administration will dump a sealed envelope with the results on your desk, all your organs and functions graded E to A and comments where necessary.

Judging by the two hour slot I have been allocated I’m getting the quick test. I’m not quite sure what the criteria are but you may sometimes get the “full test” which can take the whole morning. I had one on my 30th, so it may be just for some benchmark age brackets. The tests are the same but with two extra activities. You may get an echo-scan of your gut, a humiliating process where a nurse rubs a gelled-up camera over your guts. And possibly the Barium Shake. This is legendary and veterans always tease the newbies about how unpleasant it is. This had me very nervous but it really isn’t such a big deal. You are given a Barium milkshake to drink. This is quite heavy and not unlike trying to drink liquid brick. It doesn’t really taste of anything so the best thing to do is open your throat and let the gooey stuff slide in as quickly as possible. It is usually preceeded by the much more unpleasant chalky stomach medicine.
Once imbibed, you are ushered into a small room with a massive metal table, not unlike the thing James Bond was strapped on before the red laser made its way up to his privates. A nurse will hide in a control booth and bark orders at you through a speaker: on your left side, on your back, on your right side, on your stomach. All the while the table tilts and twists around. At some point a mechanical arm may come out to prod you in your stomach. A camera takes photos of all the barium in your system and thus provides a good view of the shape and state of, I believe, your actual stomach.
Afterwards you are given some laxatives to help move the Barium outwards, as some people get awfully clogged up with it. Indeed, it will lie heavy on your stomach for the rest of the day.
The best thing about the full check-up is that often you get given luncheon vouchers to use at a nearby café or restaurant; a little present for “fasting” for a few hours and walking around with a brick of Barium plugging your exit.

I’ve heard people, including Japanese, complain about doctors in Japan; they lay down laws, don’t encourage questions, the opposite in fact, and sometimes one can put serious doubts over their competency. There are good doctors out there, but you’ll have to shop around. When it comes to yearly health checks, though, there isn’t really much that can go wrong, especially when it’s so institutionalized. They just check the status of your organs; very little can go wrong there. It is aimed at the Japanese though, so during an earlier check, back in my podgy days, I was deemed too heavy for a Japanese person a little shorter than me; their graphs didn’t quite reach as high as my crown. Other than that it’s all pretty useful.

Also answering the “do you smoke?” question with a “yes” may possibly qualify you automatically for a lower grade for your lungs at certain clinics. I told a doctor this once during a later check-up and he checked my chest X-rays again, listened to me breathe and just shrugged it off. “Your lungs are fine!” he said. “But I smoke, admittedly very light cigarettes, about a pack and a half a day!” He looked over my X-rays again. “It’s absolutely fine,” he said. Doubtful but good news, of course.

Though the forms and questionnaires are usually only in Japanese these can be filled in beforehand so you can ask a colleague, girlfriend or wife you help you with that. During the checks themselves some very basic Japanese would be useful but you could bluff your way through it without. As long as you can handle “go here”, “go there now”, “hold this” commands you should be fine.

As a hypochondriac I am always a little nervous before these check-ups, but afterwards I always feel relieved. My results are pretty much always good and it’s very heartening to know these check-ups occur every year. That is good going, and it’s one of the better aspects of working in Japan. If you get bad grades for something you know you’ll have a year to work on it before the next check-up, and often you get given booklets with advice. Don’t eat too much bad food, don’t lie in front of the telly too much, you fat pig, that kind of stuff. They take it all quite seriously here and this is definitely one tradition am very happy to follow in.

I just hope I’ll be over this blasted snotty, throat-rasping cold by next week.

Japanmanship opinion poll

I've been looking for ways to expand Japanmanship and involve readers a bit more. After searching around and testing some free poll websites I have decided to try AddPoll.com to see if this blog has had any influence, positive or negative, on its readers.

Has reading this blog changed your mind about working in the Japanese game industry?

• No, but it wasn't an ambition of mine anyway.
• No, the bitter ramblings of one whiny Brit can't dash my dreams!
• Yes, you killed my dream, you scoundrel!
• Yes, I had toyed with the idea but I don't think I'll bother now.
• I don't feel one way or the other about it all;

view results

Will Wii Win?

Yes. But I’m not quite stooping to one word posts yet, so let me elaborate.

Just a day into my traditional but sadly cut short New Year break I had some good karma; I had spent a morning vigorously cleaning the house, the “osouji”, the traditional year end big clean, and with everything sparkly and shiny I went out to buy myself some lunch. On the way to the supermarket I figured I might as well try the local Tsutaya, a DVD rental shop that also sells games (game rentals in Japan don’t exist, not since the Dreamcast’s heroic attempt to start some). I usually avoid them as they don’t really have a good loyalty points system and their games are always slightly dearer, or seemingly so, compared to other shops. As I walked in there was a big sign with the usual “out of stock” in big red kanji but also a line telling me to ask at the counter. Glancing around a bit I spot a few DS Lite boxes, a few Xboxen, a fair amount of dusty PSPs but no Wiis. The shop was fairly empty and at least two cashiers were bored, one of them looking at me expectantly. So I go over to her and ask “You don’t have any Wiis, do you?” expecting the answer no. “Let me check!” she replies and as I turn I say “well, thanks anyw…what??!” she disappears through a door leading to a backroom and returns not seconds later carrying a brand-spanking new Wii. Inside my head the Zelda achievement tune goes off.

Even though I’ve had plenty to keep myself busy this short break I have had a jolly good go on the Wii and all in all I am fairly impressed; moreso than I was expecting to be, as an outed fanboy and not being entirely new to the machine. I sincerely believe, sales figures proving this fact already notwithstanding, the Wii will make a huge splash in Japan, and I’ll try to detail some reasons why this may be the case.

Image
With the massive and unparalleled success of the DS and DS Lite Nintendo already have a strong foothold in the games market, one they had almost lost with the Gamecube vs. PS2. The Gamecube did alright in Japan but not amazingly so. And I remember it was on the back of that that the announcement of the upcoming DS was met with derision and scorn. “Who needs two screens?” “Touch screen is so gimmicky!” “PSP will kill the DS.” These were all “predictions” I heard from people who should really have known better. It may have taken a little while but it is undeniable the DS rules the handheld market and, in Japan at least, left the PSP in the dust.
With some major selling titles out right now, including Nintendogs, Pokemon, Brain Training and a variety of other non-game product, Nintendo seems to be, once again, the by-word for gaming fun. The Wii and its marketing seem to enforce this idea. You want to have fun, as much fun as you’re having with the DS? Well, the Wii is your obvious choice, the adverts seem to suggest.

Whereas Sony and the unlucky but plucky Microsoft are pushing power over anything else, Nintendo has wisely focused on the products, the products that will sell the console. The Japanese, though exceptions exist of course, are really not that bothered about GPUs, CPUs and memory. 50 GB discs are really not worthy of mention compared to, say, DS/Wii connectivity or being able to play Mario by waving a white stick around.

User-friendliness
To paint a little too simplistic a picture, when Microsoft integrated on-line capabilities into the Xbox it took as its base the way PCs handle it: friends-lists, browsing, etc. It was all slightly computery. Sony copied Microsoft in this regard. Only Nintendo had the foresight to rethink the whole situation and came up with the Mii channel. Why have a friends-list when you can have little cartoony versions of you and your friends walk about in a virtual space? Little characters that are not only great fun to create but also turn up in a variety of games as players or audience. It’s such a simple and elegant gimmick I am not surprised the usually apathetic Japanese are suddenly coming acutely alive to the idea of on-line gaming and sharing.

Even connecting the Wii to your Wifi network is easy as pie. And once you’re on, you’re on. I have heard some people complain the interface is terribly childish and rubbish-looking. It’s true it isn’t all shiny, neat buttons and cool imagery, but think about it from a non-gamer’s perspective. It’s easy to navigate! Have you tried going from A to B on the PS3s (and PSPs) slick but obfuscated interface? Compared to that the Wii’s simplicity is obviously a strength. It may turn off some, what people call, “hard-core gamers”, but it’s fairly obvious Nintendo isn’t aiming at that market. They seem to be supplying fun for everybody rather than those few hard-to-please “hard-core” types who will, let’s face it, bitch and moan about anything and demand to be heard on forums and, ahem, blogs.

The simple, big-buttoned and easy to understand interface and on-line connectivity of the Wii will do a lot more to bring the Japanese on-line than anything the competition has tried so far.

IPs
Aside from the controller, which is novel, new and therefore exciting, Nintendo is sitting on a veritable goldmine of IPs, and the Japanese are hungry for them! Zelda, Mario, Pokemon, Animal Forest, only one console plays these. And what do the people in Japan want to play? Exactly.
Though we still have to wait for Mario (and as someone who’s played part of it I can say it will most definitely be worth the wait!) Nintendo is already providing a back-catalogue to keep us occupied in the Virtual Console channels. Harking back to the previous point, getting Wii points is easy; just buy a card, enter the serial number and download away! And though the selection isn’t so huge right now it does already offer old games of the kind people love. Mario 64, the pre-N64 Zeldas, Street Fighter, some classic shooters. How many times can I buy, play and complete “A Link to the Past”? Well, at least one more time, apparently. And at these prices it’s a pretty good deal too. If you find Maio 64, the original cartridge, expect to still pay 5000 Yen (US$ 42, EUR 32) for it, but in Wii points it’s merely a 1000 (US$ 8.4, EUR 6.3). Famicom games go for 500 each (US$ 4.2, EUR 3.2), and Super Famicom nearer 800 (US$ 6.7, EUR 5). On top of that it also offers PC Engine and MegaDrive games and soon MSX too!

But can old games sell a console? No, obviously not. But they do offer a cheap, impulse-buy alternative to gamers waiting for the next iteration of Mario or people who simply want to relive the glory days of the 8 and 16 bit eras. And though Microsoft is offering some excellent titles through their Live Arcade service they are more expensive and unknown IPs. Even their library of classic games cannot match Nintendo’s. With fashion-hungry people like the Japanese you cannot underestimate the power of an established IP. Just see how many copies Gundam for the PS3 sold, and hat is, by all accounts, a travesty of a game.

Size and price do matter!
Size maybe not so much, but image does. The Japanese like their slick designs and that may explain why the Gamecube wasn’t quite the success Nintendo was hoping for. But the Wii is small, compact, slick and clean. Exactly the kind of thing the Japanese go ape-shit over. Compare that to the curved, bulky designs of both the Xbox and PS3 and it may give a little clue as to the apparent early success of the Wii.

But that can only ever be a very small part of it though. Price is probably the clincher. If you’re earning little money, as a lot of Japanese are, and you have a family to support, 60,000 Yen (US$ 500, EUR 380) for a toy is simply too much of an expense. 25,000 (US$ 210, EUR 160) though reaching the upper limits of impulse-purchase bracket is a much fairer price to ask for a console and will probably push those people on the fence towards the Wii. So it is less powerful? But who needs power if the choice is between Resistance: Fall of Man and Pokemon Battle Stadium? You have two young kids and they want to play games; obviously the Wii is going to prove the best value for money with the most appropriate and loved games.

Rich Uncle Sam
Nintendo probably realized the major market for games these days is North America. Apart from maybe one or two major titles Japanese games sell by a factor of n more in the US than at home. Very few companies really know what to do with this and continue to focus on the home market rather than, as any successful publisher would do, the US one. Nintendo realizes the power of the American market and with the launch of the Wii acted on it appropriately: it released in the US first. Sure, Japan and Europe followed closely behind, in an interval short enough to not piss people off too much, but still, the US was first. This is not a dig at Sony for delaying the EU launch of the PS3 so much thereby enraging a vocal minority of hard-core gamer with internet connections, but it simply shows Nintendo’s level headed approach to the global market for gaming which is slanted towards the Americas. This does little to explain its apparent early success in Japan but it is worth mentioning. Having more units out there for this almost-global launch did put it ahead of its closest competitor though. Wiis were sold out everywhere but new supplies were being provided constantly. It’s true that even these sell out immediately, but they seem to be making more of an effort than Sony in keeping shops as best supplied as they possibly can.

Fan loyalty
In Japan companies know customers expect free goodies for loyalty. If you extent your newspaper subscription for example you get given all manner of household goods, washing powder, washing up liquids; all this after you have already pledged your money to them. It’s a little thank you present for being such nice customers. This goes a long way and Nintendo play that game very well. Club Nintendo in Japan is actually worthwhile; the presents you can get on points are usually pretty cool. Gold and Platinum members, which depends on how many points you accrue, get given extra freebies, probably at quite a cost to Nintendo. Last year it was a calendar and the Wiimote television remote control, this year a limited edition Tingle DS game, not available in the shops, or a customized Wiimote battery cover featuring your favourite Mii character. It’s all pretty useless but really makes the fan feel special and appreciated. They didn’t ask for this stuff but they get it, for free; it’s not available anywhere else so it has collectable value too.
So far neither of the competitors has instigated anything remotely similar to Club Nintendo.

~ ~ ~

The early victories of the Wii over the PS3 must be taken in context though. Don’t forget that Sony utterly dropped the ball with not supplying adequate units for its launches and the fact the PS3 sold less is very likely mostly due to there being fewer PS3 available. In the long run only a fool would predict the PS3 will fail; Sony has an incredibly strong brand in the Playstation and even their recent hubris and bad decision making can’t kill a whole console line outright. No, the PS3 will do admirable sales eventually, I am sure of it. The Wii though has a head-start and has already won the battle for the hearts and minds of the Japanese public, The year’s major purchasing season is over and Wii and moreso the DS ruled it. Sony will have to wait for the next big purchasing season or hope the constant trickle of sales throughout the year will bring them up to speed, but they really could have used this festive period for a big early push.

In the end it is injudicious to speak of winners or that hateful term “console war”. If all three players are successful the real winners are the gaming public and, in turn, the game developers and publishers. For me or any developer or gamer to wish for a clear winner or clear losers is self-defeating and unconstructive. I certainly hope the PS3 can keep its fair share of the market and the Wii will keep selling, as well as Microsoft finally cracking that Japanese market that has eluded it so far despite some heroic efforts. As a consumer though, my choice is clear: the Wii is providing me more value for money and fun than either of its competitors could hope to manage. It may change with the release of new titles and some much needed price drops, but this final financial year’s quarter Nintendo is rightfully laughing all the way to the bank.

Go to shopping: Books

English books aren’t that hard to find in Japan; the selection may be limited and the price a little excessive, but all in all English language printed materials are not uncommon. Even smaller Japanese bookshops may have a little corner with English books though they are usually of the trashy airport novel variety or the latest big hit, like Harry Potter or whatnot. If you’re the kind of person who really likes to read Dan Brown you can stop right here; the rest of this post is probably too verbose and sesquipedalian for you and will focus on getting real books in Japan.

So what if your tastes are a little more discerning? Well, there are still a few options out there before you resort to Amazon. Book1st, for example, in Shibuya has a sizable chunk of one of its floors devoted to English books. This includes a lot of guide books to Japan and Japanese language learning books, but also a fair amount of novels and non-fiction. Prices can be a little high, 1,200 to 4,000 Yen (US$ 10 – 33, EUR 7.6– 25) for paperbacks, especially if you compare them to Japanese books’ prices. Again, your choice is somewhat limited. Book1st also has a fair amount of magazines but these too are quite expensive, often rivaling paperbacks in price.

Website: http://www.book1st.net/
Map: http://www.book1st.net/shops/index.html

The cheapest magazines, though not entirely that cheap, I found at Tower Records in Shinjuku. Several of the Tower Records branches have fairly extensive English books selections, including the Shibuya one. These are good places to look for art and design as well as niche interest books. The Shibuya branch has, for example, an American comics selection; not only your superhero crap but also Crumb, Clowes and the like. If you’re looking for translated Japanese comics this is also a good place to check out.

Website: http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/
Map: Full list, Shibuya and Shinjuku

If you’re aiming for a large volume of English books in the hope to strike it lucky, Kinokuniya in Shinjuku is probably your best bet. Located behind “Times Square”, next to the rail tracks, it is a fairly sizable store with part of one floor devoted to English language books and magazines. Prices are in line with the other options mentioned above.

Website: http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/
Map: http://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/04f/d03/tokyo/01.htm

For people on a budget there are two alternatives. One is book swapping; find a group of likeminded individuals and swap books around after you’ve read them. The commercial variety of this would be the second hand bookstore and though fairly rare in Tokyo they do exist!
One I know if is the Blue Parrot shop, which used to have a store in Akihabara but I guess business wasn’t quite good enough. Their remaining shop is in Takadanobaba, or “Baba” if you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about, which is a little bit out of the way. They take your old books in return for store credit and the stuff they have on offer is quite varied, though as with all second hand shops, the quality and choice available is usually the luck of the draw. You can, however, pick up fairly cheap raggedy copies of novels here, if you don’t mind them with smoke-stained pages and barely coherent spines.

Website: http://www.blueparrottokyo.com/
Map: http://www.blueparrottokyo.com/location.html


I’m sure there are more second hand bookshop, in fact I know there are, but their names escape me for now. Don’t expect to run into them regularly as they are few and far between. However, if you fancy a day of book shopping I can recommend Tokyo’s equivalent of Charing Cross Road. The Kanda-Jimbocho area is littered with bookshops, from your regular ones, to specialty stores to academic bookshops; there is a lot on offer. The availability of English books is hit and miss, but it’s worth checking out. I know of one store there, all grand bookcases and leather-bound treasures, that had a fair amount of great novels in excellent editions, but for no less grandiose prices. It’s a great place to hang around and browse though. Seeing as it’s around Meiji University ou can expect to find a lot of students there as well as academic types. A good day out for any book lover!

Handy list of stores: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824/jp-kanda.htm

Then of course there is good old Amazon. Obviously the .jp version offers better deals when it comes to delivery, often totally free in fact, but like its bookstore brethren the English books on offer are somewhat limited. You’ll probably have more luck there than at any bookstore if you are looking for something terribly specific, but don’t be surprised if, in the end, you’re forced to rely on the .com one. Delivery will be a little pricey, around US$10 per package and they always screw you over. “Make the fewest number of packages” for them means it’s perfectly okay to send one book on a Monday and a second of a Tuesday, both with a separate US$10 P&P fee, the scoundrels! But when it comes to choice and ease, well, it doesn’t really get better than Amazon, does it?

So in conclusion: if you plan to move to Tokyo you don’t have to stress about shipping over all your books, there is plenty to be bought over here. If you’re a visiting tourist who did too little research, places like Book1st offer you the range of phrase and guide books you should have bought before coming over. Now the only problem remains: where the Hell are you going to store all your books in that tiny tatami apartment of yours?