The Tokyo Game Show is one of the premier gaming industry events in the world, which is not surprising seeing as many famous gaming companies are based in Japan - Sony Playstation, Nintendo, Sega, Konami etc.
It just happened to be on while I was in Tokyo, so I thought why not!
Getting to the event however was not one of my best efforts on the Tokyo transport system. Coming from Hatagaya, I had to catch a quick ride to Shinjuku, and then transfer trains to get out to Daiba. However, once getting on the train and knowing it was a ride of half an hour, I busied myself with some reading and completely forgot my transfer. I ended up most of the way to the other side of Tokyo, almost to Ueno, before I checked my location and realised what had happened. Crap.
So I hopped off the train and got immediately on one traveling back the way I'd come. Finally arriving back in Shinjuku (almost where I started), I headed out to Daiba once more. Luckily the ride out to Daiba is worth the ticket price on its own, as you take the monorail - the train travels on a loop around the harbour and then over the bridge. It's a great way to see the city.
I'd been to Tokyo Big Sight the year before so knew my way around, however I couldn't find the Game Show. Not wanting to waste time looking, I talked to a very helpful young lady sitting in the information booth, who luckily understood a little English. She quietly pointed out that the Tokyo Game Show was not being held at this venue, but at another one called Makuhari Messe which is way the heck out in Chiba. Holy shit, after all that - I'd gone to the wrong damn venue!
The lovely girl was very helpful though, and gave me explicit instructions on how to get there - drawing notes on my map. About an hour later I finally arrived, quite late ...
It was immediately apparent that I'd made it to an Otaku (geek) event, with the obligatory super-cute maids handing out promotional fliers outside the venue.
More promotional girls were drawing attention to the latest combat-type game, and here's a pic of some guy getting his pic taken with them.
It was a 15 minute walk from the station to where the show was being held, but finally I got inside. It looked like loads of interesting stuff was going on, the halls were packed with people, large video screens everywhere, and lots of people trying out the latest games. But of course it was all in Japanese and so actually taking part was difficult (and the queues were long in any case).
Luckily there were plenty of gorgeous promo girls around ...
But it wasn't just the paid promo girls posing for the cameras ... outside the building some cosplayers had setup camp too. These girls don't get paid, they just like having their photo taken.
