Yesterday on the TGS show floor, a woman flagged me down and asked if she could have a moment. Since she was a normal human and not one of those vinyl booth babe robots they send out to smile painfully at smelly nerds, I actually complied. She handed me a notebook whose cover said, “What is the coolest thing about Japan culture to you?” Then she asked me to draw my favorite thing about Japan. It was awkward and uncomfortable! So I drew the first thing I could think of, having just come from Square Enix’s booth: a DS with a Dragon Quest slime on the screen.
Then she told me she writes for the Nikkei Daily and I realized that she was probably going to post my stupid doodle and a photograph of me drawing it to the Nikkei website. D’oh.
Then the marker she had given me to use exploded in a gout of fizzing black ink.
It’s nice to know that being in Japan can still be a bafflingly surreal experience.
good thing you’re an artist, then.
Did you know that you’re quoted in the Wiki page for the Wii?
My mom and I were interviewed by Yomiuri when we were at the ’05 Aichi Expo a few days after it opened. I don’t remember any of the answers I gave, though, but for some reason I’m hoping I came across as an overexcited gaijin. Next time I’ll be chill.
Was “I’m huge in Japan” too obvious?
I look forward to seeing this picture.
SQUARE ENIX BOOTH YOU SAY
Jeremy,
Can you please ask the folks at Level-5 what the heck is going on with the US release for the sequel to Professor Layton? Japan is already on the 3rd game in the series and we’ve heard absolutely nothing about the sequel (other than the short blurb in the instruction manual for the original) for those of us in the US.
Thanks!
You do realize that the people working the booths at shows like this are hired help who have no real connection to the company and wouldn’t have the first idea about international licensing, right? And even if they did, Nintendo would never let them say a thing?
Jason: You wouldn’t happen to be Jet Pilot over at Game|Life, would you? He’s been asking Chris and Jean the same thing…
@ Parish
Yes, I realize these people are just low-level peons. However, it never hurts to ask (maybe they can point you in the right direction for an answer). Even if they just gave you a blank stare that would be about the same information we have right now.
@ R. Kasahara
Nope. Just a Professor Layton fan hungry for the sequel. Apparently I’m not the only one (which is a good thing).
Not to take away form your experience, but isn’t it possible she was just looking for some random (baka) gaijin?
Well, of course she was. Why would you even think otherwise?
So was the pen supposed to explode, like one of those candid camera things? My only real knowledge of japanese culture comes from anime and youtube videos, so I imagine every microphone there shoots water up your nose and there’s a foam boulder waiting to roll at you around every corner.
Also, possibly, emus in bathrooms.