First of all I must apologise about the unexpected two week hiatus. To cut a long story short I spent most of the time occupied by a hyperactive nine year old and ended up passing on my Pokémon knowledge to him. The first two articles have focused on certain gaming landmarks within Japan. Places that would no doubt be on the top of most people's 'to do' list if visiting Japan, and rightly so. However this particular article shall look at the larger picture; the state of video gaming in contemporary Japan as explored through random anecdotes.

We all know video gaming was shaped into what we know of it today in Japan. Before Microsoft came along all the successful home consoles came from the East and while recently many developers and publishers have been popping up all over the world the big names in the industry still operate within Japan; Nintendo, Konami, Square-Enix et al. Furthermore, it is often believed that gaming is far more accepted in Japan than in the West, where it is often blamed for everything from damaging eye sight to causing terrorism. But just how is gaming treated over in Japan?

When I was in Japan just over a month ago a certain Nintendo game was the hot topic, and it seems fitting that this article is published shortly after it hits our shores. Wii Sports Resorts was heavily promoted in many shops and on television adverts. The adverts themselves are very similar to the ones that feature sportspeople against a black background that are being broadcast here. In shops standees and leaflets explaining exactly what Motion Plus is and what it offers were the main forms of promotion for the hotly anticipated title, which seems to work judging by the sales figures.

During my week in Tokyo I spent a lot of time hopping around on the JR overground lines and they featured little TV screens which showed adverts, several of which were promoting upcoming games (and one that featured George Bush promoting a drink randomly enough). One advert in particular caught my attention and still confuses me. It started with an image from the woods in a few SNES Mario levels and had several screens of writing (which I didn't understand) and at some point had SNES Mario running along the screen and jumping up. I'm sure it was saying something, maybe something environmental, but there was no direct link to a game, no Wii logo (so it's not as if it was promoting the WiiWare service) and I don't think it even featured a Nintendo logo.

While aimlessly wondering around a shop or shopping centre (it is difficult to tell which is which over there sometimes) in Osaka I stumbled upon a playable Wii so I did my best to fumble may way through. Many of the games I had played before, such as Mario Kart Wii, but I selected a random game and as it turns out it was some bizarre quiz thing. After randomly guessing a few questions, and failing every one of them, I gave up and changed the game. This time I got Fragile which I had a bit more success with. It was interesting and probably would have been a lot better if I knew what I was doing (as I got stuck quickly) but nonetheless, if it captivated me in a clueless state I'd imagine it will be even better when I know what the hell I was doing. Thus for me the game went from another random Japanese game to one I am now interested in. At this point I decided to give up playing the Wii (and a small Japanese boy was giving me "as if you know what you're doing" eyes so I figured it would be best to leave it in his more capable hands).

Overall I feel that the perception that everyone and their dog loves gaming in Japan is a bit of an exaggeration within the West, and I saw far more Westerners wearing gaming gear than locals. I personally did not feel that gaming was that much more prominent in Japan than in the West, over than the obvious exception of Akihabara. Whether this speaks more about the growing acceptance of gaming within the West or how important being able to assimilate yourself within a culture to really know its relationship with something such as gaming is debatable. Japan will always be seen as a gaming mecca, but this isn't to say the West is slowly catching up. But we're used to delays right?

I apologise for the lack of new photographs this week, but there's really no relevant photographs. The next two issues shall be focusing on Japan in general, a mixture between experiences and reccomendations for anyone going. However if you have certain issues you want me to address, or questions to be answered please feel free to post them in the comments and I shall try my best to address them. Thank you for your continued support.