Glyde, ikimasu!!

Embarrassing Moment #5


And I was doing so well. Actually collided with a young woman on my bike today. Didn't see her as she came out of her doorway and clipped her as I passed. It looked pretty painful to me, but she didn't seem too fussed. I guess I have to thank anime for my ability to reflexively apologise profusely, but I don't think it quite worked, as when I asked if she was okay, she responded by throwing my question back at me. It was pretty awkward. Then I did the whole one-handed-prayer gesture and rode off. It's times like this I wish the Japanese were a bit more aggressive. It'd have felt a lot better about the whole thing had I received some kind of reprimand, as I'm pretty sure it was my fault. But no, just an awkward, worried smile, and an apology. Stung more than any blow.

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Two posts in one day, eh? Lucky you.

I quite firmly don't believe in karma, but if I did I would say that the reason I had such a rubbish encounter was to balance out the fact that I finished another life goal today.

I played Mobile Suit Gundam: Senjou no Kizuna at the Namco Wonder Tower.

Not familiar with the name? No matter. Just watch this trailer and you will understand why this was such a big deal. It's in Japanese, but you shouldn't need to know any to appreciate it.

See?

Admittedly it was a bit pricey. You have to create an account first, which costs 300 yen, and that gets you this lovely pilot ID card:


This one tells me that my name is Glyde, I'm a... umm... I think that's 2nd Lieutenant, and that I'm fighting on the side of the Principality of Zeon. I've played once, and have 240 points to my name. Pretty cool stuff.

The game itself is a work of art. Here's the waiting area which is stage one of the playing process.

You've got a row of seats to sit on and watch the games currently taking place. Standard matches are 4 v 4, with 8 v 8 for the better players. Being an absolute beginner, I was in a 4 v 4. There were 8 machines in the Tower, but the games all play over the internet, so I was with 3 other complete beginners who also picked Zeon against a team of absolute beginners who picked the Federation. Being absolute beginners, we got suitably weak machines to play with, and because we were all so poor at playing barely anyone got killed. Except a guy called 'WILLSON'. I dealt with him.

Sitting in the cockpit it a terrifying, yet awe-inspiring experience. The guys at Namco have done everything to try and get it feeling like you're in a Mobile Suit, and the pulled it off spectacularly. You get 2 games for 500 yen (about £2.70, didn't I say it was pricey...), and each game lasts until a team wins or the 5 minutes of game time runs out. It was time out on both occassions, so winners were picked based on damage caused.

You get 2 levers with a number of triggers, and 2 pedals. Left lever controls melee combat, right controls ranged. Left pedal jumps, right dashes. The levers also control movement, and work in the style of Virtual ON or Katamari games. That is, both levers forward to go forward, both back to reverse. Both left to strafe left, and right for right. Left forward and right back is a rightwards turn, and you can guess the rest. Oh, and if you pull the levers away from each other you lunge forwards in a tackle.

I take pride in coming out as the top player on both occassions, I'll try not to let it go to my head! Don't worry, when I'm playing the game in a few months time I'll be having my pride handed to me on a silver platter by 10 year old boys and 30 year old salarymen alike. Regardless, I adored playing this game, and it was well worth the money spent.

Having said that, I think I'll wait until the JASSO fund is confirmed or denied before I do go back. And when I do I want to take friends. I know Mark will play, at least.

Whilst in town I also finally picked up a phone strap. Or rather, I picked up a couple of little Felynes from Monster Hunter on the PSP and realised they didn't have a strap attached so I bought one seperately. Finally I feel like my phone is complete! I also searched until I my vision blurred for the Baroque manga, to no avail, so decided on starting a new series I knew nothing about. Took a while to pick a book that looked like it would appeal, and finally settled on volume one of 'Steam Detectives', an old Jump manga about, well, steampunk detectives. It looks really cool, and all the books were a mere 105 yen (60p) so it may well end up as a good series to follow.

That's it, I'm tired and hungry. Tomorrow is church softball, so look forward to that. I don't know if I am... heh.

Thanks for reading!