That huge Kasumi poster is mocking me. A promise of things to come, but things that haven't and may not. Something I notice: Her hands are adnormally large.

Ichabod appears again, breezing by, not even stopping. Oh, I geddit. Waiting for the Xbox 360 is not cool. Whatever.

He walks down the empty street at a brisk pace. I know I'm taking a big chance, but I decide to give up my place in line and kill time. At this point, that's all I have to do is kill time before it kills me. I decide to stalk Ichabod.

He takes a turn down a side street. I follow. He doubles back. I follow. He stops in a convience store and buys a can of milk tea. I do likewise. He heads down the street back towards Sofmap.

I leave him be.

To my right, there's a huge crowd on the other side of the street. A line stretches around the side of a building. There's a TV crew filming, so I cross to check it out. Guys hold ceramic PSPs, Mircos, DSs. Ah, found the breed I was looking for. Game otaku.

The line is stretch around the block and trumps the line of computer otaku. Perhaps this is my 360 promised land? I approach a guy in a navy blue trench, hair slicked back, smoking a cigarette. A cool otaku.

"What is everyone waiting for?"
"Figurine," he says, snuffing out his cigarette.
"Figurines?"
"At nine o'clock, they go on sale."
"There's tons of people."
"This is nothing. You should see the crowds when mecha or robot figurines go on sale."

I don't ask him about the 360 launch. Not even worth the effort.

Xbox Launch [Official Site]

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