This weekend I went with Maiko and two of our friends to a Tokyo neighborhood called Kichijōji (吉祥寺). I hadn't been there yet, so I wasn't sure what we would find. Needles to say, it was a pretty interesting place which was dominated by a large and dynamic shopping area. This was not just another boring department store or Ginza-like area. Kichijoji is crazy busy, and full of life. While walking around, we stumbled upon a large sign that proclaimed "Plaza Capcom".
As luck would have it, we needed buy something from a store within the Plaza. So, not having been in a Japanese video game arcade in sometime, I convinced Daisuke (our friend) to head down to the basement level with me after we were done shopping. The girls begrudgingly followed, and what we found was amazing. We all know that efficiency is something that the Japanese are known for. Also, in Japan, playing games and eating food are both very popular activities. That being said... I give you Grocery Shopping Gaming:
Yes, that is ice cream, just like you would find at Safeway.
And yup, those are cans of Pringles -- and these were not the only machines in the store (I only managed to get a few pictures while the staff wasn't looking). The floor was littered with these games that had various food goods and household items. It was better than any grocery store I've ever been to -- you had to play to get the item you wanted and if you lost, I guess you would not be eating that night. :>)
With more than nine years of experience in IT, Tyson Kopczynski has become a specialist in Active Directory, Group Policy, Windows scripting, Windows Rights Management Services, PKI, and IT security practices. Tyson is the author of the new book Windows PowerShell Unleashed (read a sample chapter and learn about the drawing for a free copy here). Tyson has been a contributing author for such books as Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 Unleashed and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Unleashed (R2 Edition). He has also written detailed technical papers and guides covering various technologies. As a consultant at Convergent Computing, Tyson has worked with next generation Microsoft technologies since their inception and played a key role in expanding scripting and development practices. Tyson also holds the SANS Security Essentials Certification, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Security certification, CompTIA Security+ certification and SANS Certified Incident Handler certification.
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