[thanks GameVideos]

The Tokyo Kotaku Party will be held at Shibuya's Trump House. There is no cover, and our event starts at 8pm and ends at 11pm — we've got bedtimes, you bastards!

We've already posted the location's Japanese website. Great if you can read Japanese, but not so great if you can't. Look at this, here are directions we've found on the internet for Trump House in English. Thanks internet!

It's a 5 minute walk from Shibuya Station. From Shibuy Station's Hachiko exit, cross the street to the Mark City/Inokashira Station building. Turn left, walk past the UFJ BANK, and then turn right on the next corner across from the bus area. Walk 2 streets up and it is on the right side on the second floor.

Here is a Japanese map with ZOOMING.

Know: If you are going, we would like you to send us an email at tipsATkotakuDOTcom. This is not an RSVP. I repeat, this is NOT an RSVP. There is no list, and we are not doing the RSVP thingy. Instead, we are trying to get an idea of how many people will be occupying this golden room with us. Got it? Good. So if you are going, shoot us an email with "Party" as the subject line.

Smooooooches.

Map info from Vanity.

Visitors can download the "Ikspiari Nintendo DS Guide" to their DS, DS Lite or DSi platforms. The download contains a guidebook for the whole Ikspiari complex, games (a quiz, locate the fairy game, etc), information about Ikspiari and a message board for people to draw pictures of rabbits. We guess.

The narrow space (3.5 meters by 45 meters long) was designed by Japanese firm Sako Architects and allows folks to check out online game portal Hangame — and do it in style.

The concept for the space is a "future park" where space age designs meets a curved cave motif. More pictures in the link below.

'flatflat' store in harajuku, tokyo by sako architects [Design Boom via JeanSnow.net]

APPRECIATION OF YEN AMENDS SALE
used only
10 percent discount
The foreigner discounts 10 percent with the cash register. Please buy it in the all-time low.
It is when presentation of ID is nessary.

Crap English and bad machine translation aside, this is a rather interesting idea. The shop seems to recognizes that many foreign visitors do look for good deals on retro game items while in Japan. According to Game|Life's Chris Kohler, the shop didn't ask him for any identification, which could mean foreign residents getting paid in yen could get a discount as well. Not bad, not bad at all.

Tokyo Retro Store Offers 'Foreigner Discount' [Game|Life]

R-Tuned [Official Site via Game Watch]

June 28th, Saturday
•Yodobashi Camera Shinjuku 10:00AM - 11:00AM
•Sofmap Omiya 2:30PM - 3:30PM
•Yodobashi Camera Yokohama 5:30PM - 7:00

June 29th, Sunday
•Nagoya Station Bic Camera 10:30AM - NOON
•Osaka Yamada Denki Labi1 4:00PM - 5:30PM

Seems like signatures are mostly being limited to game packaging (Premium Pack is okay!), so that means no Kojima signed cigarette boxes. Bummer.

GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS　ワールドツアー　in JAPAN [IT Media] [Pic]

Hit the jump for a totally non-game related clip from YouTuber tokyocooney. A totally brilliant non-game related one.

We thought the safety of our customers is our top priority. We deeply apologize for the cancellation.

"We were just talking about it. We didn't fly in until last night and I didn't know about it until I got off the plane," Hayashi said through a translator Wednesday afternoon. "They told me there is stuff going on in the media in Japan, there is a game that was involved and it just so happens it was Ninja Gaiden DS."

Masahiro Kanagawa, 24, told police that on March 19 he decided he wanted to attack his sister and a local elementary school, but changed his mind and instead randomly picked a home and went inside and killed a 72-year-old man. Four days later, police say Kanagawa went to a shopping center and stabbed eight people, one of which later died.

The day after the stabbings, at least one television station pointed out that Kanagawa had a copy of Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword in his bag when he was arrested. The game went on sale in Japan on March 20 and police told at least one outlet they are looking into a possible connection.

"There is always going to be a motive for everything that happens," Hayashi said. "There is always a reason and a motive for a way a person acted and in this case, we are almost a party that has to react to a situation that obviously we didn't expect would be triggered by our game."

"Whoever has seen (the connection) in the news and the media we hope that they know what the true reason is, what the truth is behind why this person did this and that it's not connected or directly related to our game."

Kanagawa, who was a gamer, had been involved in at least one national Dead or Alive tournament in Japan and made it the finals, but Hayashi said that he had never been in contact with Tecmo or Team Ninja.

Hayashi, who says that he thinks the game is appropriate for teenagers to play, added that police have not contacted Tecmo or Team Ninja and that he believes the seemingly tangential connection between the stabbing and his game was one created by the media alone.

"The media should not be the ones answering the questions or defining the reasons why this incident happened," he said. "I want to believe that whoever is watching the news has their own judgment of what went on."

"What I said just now is more of a message to the media. Obviously there are victims here, the people who died and their families, so hopefully they don't see that as me trying to defend our company or product. That's just my message from me to the media. The media can report on these tragedies but they shouldn't just assume or lead into a question that doesn't have a definitive answer."

I pre-ordered Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! at the Shinjuku Bic Camera in Tokyo as after playing the demo I was really interested in giving the final product a serious playthrough. Today being the release date, I headed over to Bic Camera as soon as I could leave work. I arrived at the store around 7:30pm, got my copy and was told that there were holding a Japanese-style raffle and to take my recipt over to another section of the videogame area.

For those that don't know, a Japanese raffle is a kind of lottery where when it's your turn, you spin a hexangoal box around a few times, and out comes a colored ball to determine your prize. I got the lowest level - a "high quality oil cloth."

The highest reward were fairly large posters for the game, and when I got over there, some guy in a flashy jacket was bent over one of them with a pen in his hand. In case you hadn't guessed, it was indeed the
director, Toshihiro Nagoshi, autographing some of them. I didn't feel right asking for his autograph since he was already making the posters for the winners, but I had the good luck to see that he was on his way out - the poster I had seen him sign was his last.

We rode down the elevator together (with his staff), and then as we got off I worked up the nerve to ask him for his picture. One of his staff was kind enough to offer to hold the camera so I could appear in the picture too...

For a guy as flashily and expensively dressed as he was, he was very nice, and to be honest a bit tired - I think the final push had taken it's toll, as his pants were a bit dirty too.

Crazy Otaku Dude [fuckedgaijin]

I've put together of official and fan-made stuff. It's mostly game-related like Ayane from Dead or Alive (above). So you should be able to pick out Resident Evil, THE iDOLM@STER, SNK ladies, Metal Gear Solid and a fuckton of Haruhi Suzumiya figurines.

Wonder Fes 2007 Summer [Senaka Blog]

Super Robo Ad [Famitsu]