My goals for this trip:
- Locate and buy a used 1981 "Epoch Cassette Vision"
- Do not sink time into following developments in, or writing social media threads about, the United States election (I am not saying this is inherently a bad thing but it is simply not what I should be doing right now)
If I do this right expect this account to consist of pretty much photos for the next month
Okay I asked and apparently Mastodon wants to see what the Japanese Laserdisc cover for "Barbarella" looks like. (In my opinion: This is a very good piece of packaging.)
PS what is this second movie [EDIT: It's The Gorgon (1964) with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee]
Went to a Japanese arcade and was expecting to come out complaining about how everything's rhythm games now but instead I'm walking out just super impressed with the high production values on these incredibly polished rhythm games with compelling mechanical concepts
Also: all the games feature music by Toby Fox. Good for him!
Oh by the way also at the arcade there was an AMAZING ddr successor called "Dancerush Stardom". Instead of the nine plates there's just basically a giant touchscreen, it has depth because it's clear with an array of flashy lights underneath, it richly combines elements from multiple rhythm game concepts (not clear from the video but it often has you drop your foot and slide it left or right), some tracks assume two people on the plate dancing around each other(!)
@spookysquid playing:
Extremely incredibly good: Waking up with the sun
IMO not so good: the sun in Osaka, Japan at the end of October raises at 6 AM and sets at like 4:30 or something
Japan doesn't have daylight savings time, but of course daylight savings time would make this problem literally worse. Sometimes I actually kinda wish the world had daylight savings time in reverse
EDIT: Wait. DST is in the *summer*. Is what I really want for DST to be year-round?
I think as a good socialist I'm not supposed to get excited about "oh look at all these nice consumer products"
But
Wow I really do like Japan's consumer products!!
The temporary deodorant and hand moisturizer I picked up here. I like them more than my regular brands
I like the convenience store onigiri. It fills a hole in my day to day life in North America
Arcades are (in Osaka?) relatively common, relatively cheap, and have games I actually want to play
The map claimed on the grounds the presence of a "Labyrinthian Fortress". We followed the map and found a large building there but there was a $9 entry fee, to see an exhibit about uniform fashion, and no apparent labyrinth. We did find this mysterious Object outside.
Perhaps if you go to the fashion exhibit, and become sufficiently lost within it, the labyrinth will Reveal itself
The sign on the object says it was part of the "Expo Tower" (phonetically transliterated from English) but I can't make out any more.
It kind of looks like beam focused antennas. Maybe it was broadcasting very localized short-range radio?
Or not.
@brook There is an inside :O
I think the inside was only available in the early 70s and then was closed until there was a renovation in 2019
I ... think I remember 'Him', actually. Very faintly.
You're in Osaka.
Is that a remnant of Expo '70?
Wow. I was a little kid. Pretty cool to learn this still exists.
I really do want to go back to Japan for a long trip sometime, somehow.
Back in late 2019, I was talking with my brother and sister about planning a trip with them and their families, and then, whelp. We all know what happened.
Thank you for sharing this.
@Triplefox I want to visit :O Don Quixote
He is famous
@mcc you need to try famichiki. So good it has a mastodon server named after it!
Unless you're vegetarian/vegan of course 😅
How long are you here for?
@mcc 😱😱😱😱😱🤣
fried chicken from Family Mart.
If you're coming to Aichi and need some advice, let me know.
Although you're probably skipping it, most people do😂
@mcc probably? that's the time most places in NA want to stay on if the time switch is abolished (Ontario already passed the law but it requires neighbouring states and provinces to change too, so until America changes, we will keep switching)
i know conceptually, the sun being at the highest point at 1pm and not 12pm bothers people, but the way our modern society is structured, our days aren't spaced evenly around noon anyway, a 9-5 day is 3 hours before noon and 5 hours after, and most stuff closes at 9-midnight, almost all events are held in the evening, most of our days are spent in the latter half of the day, so more sunlight later makes more sense
@mcc I have a crack pot theory that DST was implemented in the reverse of its intent by confused lawmakers, then copied. Whether or not it is a good idea, or whether we should go perma DST, perma-standard time, one blaring obvious question remains:
Why do we go on daylight SAVINGS time at the time of year we have the MOST daylight?
@mcc @spookysquid god dancerush goes so hard
fun to watch, too, especially people doing relays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dJwVOzvna8
@mcc this is so cool! I was wondering how sensing works and apparently it’s a grid of IR sensors in the pad’s frame instead of any sort of pressure sensor that would degrade from use, plus probably a Kinect-like sensor for certain movements
This is an arcade rhythm game called DanceRush Stardom, a similar concept to Dance Dance Revolution, but the dance pad acts more like a large screen and tracks both feet. Here is an example video of
I was about to ask if anyone here knows if there's some sort of home version of DRS, because this reminded me that I have some DDR mats that I meant to turn into MIDI controllers for ages. Been putting it off because the USB adapter I have for them is fucky.
An IR-grid like that seems very DIY-able, but with how lazy I am, I'd still appreciate hints about affordable COTS solutions 😺
@Tekgo @mcc i believe it's a 3ds style depth camera for the up and down notes, it's simpler than a kinect and doesn't do any body tracking (ie it just detects motion, it doesn't care what is moving)
the ir grid is susceptible to dirt and dust, but for long term wear there actually have been cases where the plexi itself misforms and that can be an issue on older cabs
mcc
Clifton Royston
Owen Nelson
Vivienne
Brook Miles
finagle
Shar(yna)Tran/Shark(aeopteryx)
Oblomov
teleneko
Ian Scott 
🐙
Jeff Miller (orange hatband)
Avi Bryant
Ami Angelwings
margot
Pendell 🔜 TFF
james is here
廃墟猫 🐈🌈🐈⬛🐈🐈⬛🐈⬛
Zimmie
Dag Ågren ↙︎↙︎↙︎
PsySal
Jonas Winje
seeegggfault
halcy 
Tekgo
nex
kira :3
phi1997