A New Bag of Goodies

Xbox Update:
I forgot to mention it in my last post but I have received my replacement 360 and (knock on wood) all seems to be fine. I did notice on the last one that the tray didn't look like it was closing all the way which is probably what was causing the read error. Sis it looks like you can un cross everything again.

As I mentioned in the last post I had finally got a new messenger bag. My old one was nice but it was just that old and there were a few things I didn't really like about, for one it was really hard to get inside while it was on my shoulder. I had been looking for a new one for the last 5 months or so, I didn't think it would take that long but I just couldn't find anything that looked and felt right. My wife and I were out for dinner the other day and afterwards we just happened to walk past a leather shop that had a bunch of bags. There were a few nice ones but I finally and I mean finally settled on this one.

Its all hand made blah blah.. the leather smells great. Its smaller than my last bag which I think my wife is hoping well lead to less game purchases, which no joke may do just that. The key for me was it was easy to flip up the top and get to the inside while walking with it on my shoulder. I couldn't help but feel like I was shopping for a purse at times. "Officer that man stole my European carryall!"

I also had picked up a few games last week so lets quickly go over those. Lets see, first up was Shikigami no Shiro Episode III ($20) for the Xbox 360 which I got at the same store I had gotten a bunch of Xbox games for reasonable prices. I had been hoping to pick up a different game that I had seen there awhile back but it was gone when I got there. Also while I was there I found a copy of Dodonpachi Daioujou ($35) for the PS2 which was a game that I had been looking for since the first time I came to Japan so I was kind of shocked to finally see it in the wild.

The next day I headed to the regular places in Tenjin first up at book off I found Super Mario and Super Mario 3 for the Famicom (NES in the USA) both were only $1 so I picked those up. They also had a Super Game Boy 2 which goes for about $20 on eBay I picked that up also for just $1.  Finally I picked up a copy of Mario Golf ($5) for the Game Boy Advance which was in the box. After I got home I was able to see that the copy was in fact complete as it had the included wi-fi adapter with it.

I then headed over to Mandarake where I picked up a few Sega games. First up as always I went to the Saturn section and decided to finally pick up Pikura ($12) which I have been debating since the first time I walked in to the store. Its a nice set and it came with the original packed in calendar which was never used so is like new. If you need to schedule something with for back in 1997 I'll be able to mark it on my calendar now so just let me know.

I also came across Pretty Fighter X ($3) and another copy of Gals Panic SS ($5) I sold the last copy I had for $40 so this was an easy pick up.

Moving over to the Dreamcast section I grabbed another copy of Shenmue II ($10) and another copy of Space Channel 5 ($5) I had sold the other copies I had bought before. I also picked up a game that was the reason I bought a Dreamcast back in the day, Jet Set Radio ($8, known as Jet Grind Radio in the USA). It was not the more valuable De La Jet Set Radio but the only other copy I have seen while I have been here was going for $20.

A few days later I went back to my favorite recycle shop to see if they had got anything new in. It had been awhile or at least it felt like awhile. When I got there I was surprised to see they had got a good amount of new things in. There were 2 black Game Cube consoles, loose, and a few games for SFC and Saturn. Nothing that was too interesting but they also had got some Game Gear games in, looking though them I picked up Sonic 2, to go with the copy of Sonic 1 that I had got a while back. I also got Mortal Kombat II with the manual and found a copy of R-Type II for the original Game Boy. As usual all 3 games were just $1 each.

Then yesterday I went back to Mandarake and picked up a HORI mini N64 controller ($20) it had the same color scheme as the N64 controller I got a few weeks ago. Anyway these mini controllers are pretty hard to come by and are really nice to use with games. The joy stick is more like the one on the Game Cube only bigger.

I also finally decided to pick up the copy of Rockman X3 ($10, MegaMan X3 in the USA) for the Saturn. I also got I Love Mickey and I Love Donald ($12) for the Saturn which is just a port of some Mega Drive (Genesis) games. Then in the Dreamcast section I picked up Sonic Adventure 2 which was a nice pick up at $3. To round it out I grabbed Gradius II ($5) for the Super PC Engine.

After I left the game store I went to pick up my wife, we were going out to dinner. Once again we were going to go to the Italian place so I was excited. When we walked in they were pretty busy they only had one table open, I had forgot it was Saturday night. Now, we have only gone to this restaurant twice before but we did talk with the people that work there, they were interested in the usual foreigner things. Where are you from? English? etc. So I had talked to them but nothing major, so I was surprised when we walked in and asked if there was a table to have the owner say "Oh, Michael. Hello". Yep thats right its a first name basis kinda thing, I'm pretty much a rock star. "Oh Mr. Michael right this way sir we have been saving a special table for you", at least thats what I heard anyway.