The Best Day Ever

So before I start on the "Best Day Ever" I just want to quickly talk about valentines day, in Japan usually the girl has to get something for the boy to let them know that they are interested. Then a month later on what is called "White day" the boy is suppose to return the gesture if he is also interested in the girl. It really puts all the pressure on the girl and is more of a predating thing. That said many people also treat it like we do, only with the woman doing the planing. My wife did nothing as she has been Americanized but I did get a box of chocolates from my mother-in-law.

My wife and I went back to the Italian place (the one with the chicken in "awesome sauce") to celebrate the day. As was expected it was great, we ordered pretty much the same things but this time we saved the bread for that sauce. After we left we were walking to the bus station and we noticed this pub, ma you didn't tell me you had opened a pub in Japan.

 Okay now for the "Best Day" story, it is mostly about games but there is things about the trip and other things that might make it worth reading even if your not into games.

So lets start, I was contacted by someone on eBay asking if I had bulk supplies or other rare items (they missed out on the orange controller). I told them I didn't have anything at the moment but after talking I found out one of the items he was looking for was bulk orders of N64 memory cards. I knew that I had seen Memory Cards and Rumble Paks at Hard Off, a lot of them. So I decided that I was going to make a trip to Hard Off to see if I could stock up on what he was looking for. The day started off by being strategically pushed out of bed by a heat stealer. He had about two thirds of the bed at this point.

In order for me to get to Hard Off I was going to have to figure out how to get there without being driven. I needed to be able to spend time there and if my wife drove me that was not going to happen, I would be rushed from the moment we walked though the doors.

This was not terribly hard but there were some unknowns. In order to get to the store I would first need to take a bus to Hakata station, then take a train (which I had not done), I knew the station was close to Ikea but I wasn't sure how close (though I knew it was within a few blocks). Then I would need to walk to the store which was no big deal as I had done the walk from Ikea before on trips with my wife.

When I got to the train station I asked the information booth about where I needed to go to get on the train and which one I would need to take to get to the city/town I was going to. This satiation is pretty big maybe not Grand Central but perhaps Penn Station, so its easy to get confused as to what track you need to go to (especially if you can only read half of the signs). After talking with the girl at information I was able to easily find the train and track I needed to take and I only had to wait about 10 minutes.


The train showed up and I was on my way into an uncharted realm, it was actually really relaxing and fast. It took about 30~40 minutes to get to my stop. When I got out I was surprised at how close it actually was to Ikea. I mean it was right there, right there.

Thats the station on the right

It took me about 10 minutes to walk from the station to Hard Off, it was a really nice day. The tempeture was around 50 or 60 degrees the kind of temature where a sweater is good but a jacket might be too much. There were a lot of kids playing in the park and birds were singing and over all it just felt good. I hate the cold weather we have been having lately so it was good to see and feel the change, hopefully it stays like this for awhile.

Anyway I got to Hard Off and walked in, the first thing I did was to head over to the hardware section to look for those memory cards. Looking though the bins I did find a few things for myself (of course), first was a Game Boy Advance rechargeable battery with the charger ($3). I also grabbed a Ice Clear Gameboy Color for $5 the unit itself was in great condition but the screen does have a few scratches, an easy enough repair if I choose to do so. I almost forgot to mention it but I also found a black GBA ($3), the screen protector was beat to hell but the shell is fine and I could just get a replacement screen protector if need be.

I then came across a white Sega Saturn controller ($1) the color was pretty good there was little to no yellowing. I also found a gray saturn controller but the buttons colors were different and the shoulder buttons were also different from each other, there was a sticker over the logo in the middle so I couldn't tell if this was a V.Saturn or H.Saturn controller. Long story short Sega allowed Hitachi and Victor to produce there own branded Saturns for deals on components and these are a little more rare. I took the risk and picked it up for $3, later I found that it it was not a V or H Saturn controller, I'm not totally sure but I think it was just someones own custom job (aka crap).

Unfortunetly when I got to the N64 stuff they had lots of Rumble Paks but only a handful of Memory Cards and they wanted about $3 each which was the price the guy was willing to pay. So that was a big strike out I had been hoping for a price of $1 each and was looking to pick up about 50. Had I been looking for the Rumble Paks that would have been doable as they had tons for that price.

I made my way over to the games and looking through the Super Famicom games I picked up Bastard ($1), Aladdin ($3) and WildTrax ($1). I was excited to find WildTrax (known as Stunt Race FX in the USA) as it is one of the FX chip games and I had been looking for this to do a project. I was thinking to overclock it to make it run a little faster on the SFC seemed like something I would have some fun with I just need to find a good electronics store around here.

The N64 section is pretty small but I did manage to find one game I wanted which was Wave Race 64  at just $1 how could I say no. I then moved over to the Sega section, taking a look at the Dreamcast games I picked up Soul Calibur ($3) and Incoming which I was actually going to put back because they wanted $10 but I forgot and ended up buying it.

Next up was the Saturn games, the ones that I ended up with were Virtua Cop ($1) and Virtua Cop 2 ($1 this time with the right game inside), Nights into Dreams ($1) and Shining the Holy Ark ($1).  P.S. I really hate the price tags at Hard Off they never come off easy and leave behind that sticky residue. Its weird because at Book Off the tags are easy to get off and leave nothing behind.

At this point I was ready to go as they didn't have anything else that really interested me, I mean they did have a Mega Drive (Genesis) model 2 in the box but they wanted $45 for it. Had it been a model 1 I may have thought about it, besides that it would be hard to carry back as all I had was my messenger bag. So I went to the register to check out, this was made harder by the fact that the cashier was speaking really softly so I couldn't hear him. Of course when I would ask him to say it again or that I didn't hear him he thought I was saying I didn't know Japanese so he would take a few seconds and try to think of the english. This happened a few times and was really annoying because if he would have just spoke louder I would have been fine. It was a minor thing but at this point I was tired and feeling a little defeated, I had hoped to be walking out with a giant bag of Memory Cards and that was not the case.

Once I was outside I took a look down the road trying to see if I could see any other game stores. I know that when driving there in the past we did pass a few. I thought they were close but walking and driving are totally different when saying "close". On top of that I would have to walk back to the road for the train station and then pass it and keep going. I decided I would go ahead and walk down a little bit to see if I could find anything. I ended up walking for about 20 minutes and was about to give up and turn around when I noticed a store up ahead, the name of it was Eco-Book basically a chain recycle center like Book Off. The store was pretty big and it said they had CD's Books and Games, sounds good lets give it a shot right.

When I walked in it was pretty busy it was Sunday after all. I was able to find the game section pretty quick but it was mostly new stuff Wii, Wii U, PS3 (side note PS4 is not out in Japan yet, the USA got it first wtf? We won't have it till the 22nd), PSP, Vita, DS and 3DS.

 

However going further in I came upon the retro section and .....

oh .... my...... GOD!! 

The first thing I saw was the case displays at the end of the aisles and they were filled with stuff I wanted to buy. Umm Super Famicom Jr. in the box uhhh yes please, but not this time at $90 I didn't have enough money.

There were bins of Game Boy games (which oddly enough were really expensive, around $3~$8 per game) some complete with the box others loose.

Going down the aisles they had Super Famicom, N64, GBA.

The next aisle was Xbox (original), PC and PS1. Followed by Game Cube, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast and more PS1. At the end they had a bunch of fight sticks and the like.

They also had the best selection of Xbox 360 games I have seen at any store in Japan. I mean they had a bunch, usually if you can find 40 games in one place that would be really, really good. Most of the time if, thats if, a store has 360 games its around 10 to 20 games. They had way more than that and the prices were pretty good.

On the back wall they had a ton of PS2 games.

I was really like a kid in a candy store, I mean really think about that statement people say it a lot so I think we forget what it really means. The second I saw this stuff I wanted to see everything in that one second I was full of energy I didn't know where to look or what to pick up first. I would pick something up and instead of looking at it I would be reading something else on the shelf. The only thoughts I had were "oh.. Oh... ooOo... wow.... oh...look at that....whats that ....Oh...wow... OOoo... want it....oh....WOW...ooo..that ...Ahh.. what really ...uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" I mean I didn't know what to do. The only thing I knew was that I was happy, really happy perhaps too happy. 

Once I got composed (which didn't really happen) I started looking at the Super Famicom games. They had a few good ones but on some games they seemed to know what they had so prices were according. That said somethings were just crazy cheap. Looking at the boxed games I picked up a few at super low prices, Super Tecmo Bowl II Special Edition ($.78), Street Fighter ($.28) and CosmoGang ($1.78). Next to that they had a few boxed N64 games and I picked up Pilotwings 64 for $1. Those were all with the box, are you kidding?

I then started to go though the loose carts and found some really good deals. The first game I found was Area 88 (UN Squadron in the USA) ($4),  F-Zero ($.48 I kept saying things like "Ha 48 cents.. mine!"), Donald Duck in Maui Mallard ($6.78), Tecmo Super Bowl ($.48), StarFox (which I had really been trying to find for a long time) ($.28), The Lion King ($4), Super V.G. ($.48), Super Fire Pro Wrestling Premium ($4), Rockman X ($7), Rockman and Forte ($8.78 I had bought this same game at Mandarake for $21 a few weeks ago), Rock and Roll Racing ($.48) and Sailor Moon R ($1.78).

Looking thought the Game Boy games I got The King of Fighters 96 ($2.78), Daiku no GenSan Robot Teikoku no Yabou ($4.78) and Kunio Kun Soccer in the box ($3.78). Again these were oddly all priced pretty high for some reason. On the PS1 I only got one game which was Street Fighter Zero ($1) to complete the Zero Series on PS1 for me. Now I have 1,2 & 3. On the 360 they had a few things I was interested in but in the end I only got one, Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta it came with the collectable dvd disc at a reasonable $26.78.

Going over to the Dreamcast section I grabbed a few games,  Capcom vs SNK Millennium 2000 ($1), Virtual On ($5.78), Marvel vs Capcom 2 ($9.78), Street Fighter Zero 3: Saiko ($9.78), Sonic Adventure International ($4.78) and Incoming ($1, remember how I just spent $10 at Hard Off for the same game...Gah)

Then on to the Sega Saturn I started with Super Puzzle Fighter II ($4.78 I almost missed this game as at first I skipped it but was glad I took a second look), Samurai Spirits 3 ($1.98), Choro Q Park ($4.78), The House of the Dead ($2.98), Street Fighter Zero 2 ($1.98), Fire Pro Wrestling 6 Man Scramble ($.98), Nights into Dreams ($.28, again I had just spent $1 at Hard Off not as bad this time but still thats an increase of 476% damn) and DecAthlete ($.98).

I picked up a Game Cube Keyboard controller ($9.78) and then I asked for some help to get something out of the case. What did I get you ask, well the Pikachu N64 of course (random) for $29.78. I should be able to get $100 to $150 no problem on eBay, the controller alone goes for $35. Personally I think it is the dumbest thing ever (I mean the reset button is his foot) but money is money.

When you get things from the cases they take it up to the front, the clerk asked me if I was finished and ready to check out. I said yes and he went to take my basket, I kind of held on so he wouldn't drop it. When I was sure he had a hold on it I let go and he noticed how heavy it was and he smiled and said wow. I normally am at a check out for anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes not the case this time I was there for about 40 minutes, no joke. They, yes they there was 2 of them, had to open everything and make sure it was in good condition etc. It was kind of funny and were we talking about how many items it was. I told them if I had a car it probably would have been more.

at the counter

After I paid and left I had to walk back to the train station I thought I was going to die. I had three bags from that place and still had the bag from hard off. Half way to the station I stopped to reorganize everything, I was able to put all the CD based games in my messenger bag and then to reduce the bags down to 2. this was better but it was still really heavy. At the station I again had to ask about what track and what train I would need to take. I was able to relax on the ride back to Hakata station which was nice.

After leaving Hard Off I was a little down but now I was feeling really good, though I just wanted to get everything home. Once at Hakata I went outside and waited about 10 minutes to catch a bus that would drop me off right in front of my house, rather than having to walk a few blocks. Seems obvious but the one that makes me walk a few blocks usually comes every 8 minutes but I got lucky and only had to wait the 10 minutes for the close one.

So that was a busy and pretty good day but it wasn't over. When I got home I talked with my in laws and my mother in law told me I had got a package. I am expecting a few things in the mail and she knew that so it really wasn't a surprise. I asked if it was my Xbox, She was the one helping me talk with the service center and get everything set up, but she said she didn't think so and that it was probably something else. When I opened the box it turned out that it was my Xbox!! Thank god, finally. I took it upstairs and hooked it up but I wasn't able to test it out as my wife hates games and was not as happy as I was to see it back. I was able to test it today and it seems to work just fine (at the moment).

One downside is that I lost my save file for GTA V which I thought I had saved on the USB but apparently it was saved on the hard drive. Oh well. They also gave me one month of Xbox Live for my trouble so that was a plus.

So that was awesome then today I got another package. This time it was a fight stick for the Saturn, I got it with the box and it has a really cool Street Fighter Zero 2 art style. I can't wait to try this out too (still waiting on those AV cables), it makes nice click sounds when you move the stick and I like the white with red buttons. It also has a nice build quality and is pretty heavy.