Some holiday. It's late Thursday morning, between 10am and noon, I forget. With the country shut done for the Golden Week holidays, families board trains, load up cars and head to the seashore, the mountains or the Monster Hunter Festa. Trying to find the damn thing, walking through an underground shopping area out by Osaka Castle. I pass more and more people with PSPs, so I know: I'm close.

Getting into the main exhibit hall requires waiting in line in one room to get into another room. Fortunately no one is in this room. Well, not "no one," but "no one."

The other room, however, is packed. We're herded through a zig-zag line, and a woman in a Monster Hunter shirt talks into a bullhorn, apologizing for the wait. The exhibit hall, it seems, is crowded, and Capcom is only letting people in as people come out.

Forty minutes pass, seconds punctuated by PSP button clicking. Everyone has one of Sony's portables, and they're all playing MH Portable 2nd. The game's a smash in Japan, moving something like half a million copies on drop day alone. It's the biggest hit for the PSP, and the game is nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. The guy with chapped skin in front of me is talking about it, the short woman with too much make-up behind me is talking about it, and the gaggle of lanky teens next to me are talking about it. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is breathing Monster Hunter Portable 2nd and the Sony PlayStation Portable. Well, except for this guy.

And an old DS at that. Total punk. Yah, I know it's blurry. I got excited.

We're finally ushered in the exhibition hall. Going in, I knew this was a MHP 2nd rally. There will be players competing in Monster Hunter, footage shown from the game and MH goods like stuffed animals. In short, it's Monster Hunter and that's it.

There's a stage with people sitting on the floor. Families, friends, all of them have PSPs. Multiple PSPs. And they're all playing Monster Hunter Portable 2nd, I imagine. An inventory of my surroundings:

A large sword.

Figurines. Behind glass. (There is glass.)

Dudes with hair-dos and PSPs.

Monster Hunter art.

Fake meat with fake fire.

A sign that tells me to turn my PSP's LAN function off, not to take pictures and not to eat large pieces of meat in the event hall. The Nintendo DS is in the fine print.

In the back, there's a "Goods Corner." Over the mob, I can make out various Monster Hunter plush toys. An event staffer tells me that it's not possible to go look at the goods. Too many people.

Near the exit, there's a display for a MH card game coming out this summer. Looks somewhat complex as it involves a mat. Child sit on the floor next to me, playing it. They've already figured it out. Combine this with the upcoming MMO Monster Hunter: Frontier, and Capcom seems dead set on capitalizing on the series full tilt throttle.

I kinda linger for a moment. Yup, it's Monster Hunter, it's portable, it's the sequel, and I hear it's popular in Japan. Like I said, some holiday. Brian Ashcraft