20 December 2014, Saturday

Oh dang, I messed up the order!!! Well, no matter.

Jump Festa is another one of those manga-esque, game-centered events at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. After lunch at Keio, Chou and I took the trains to Makuhari and went inside. The event was totally free of charge, but it costs like ¥1000 to get there. The place wasn’t as packed as say, Comiket or Tokyo Game Show, but people still showed up. There was a Pokemon booth with a free Linoone for people with Pokemon ORAS, and I was surprised to find out that Yu-Gi-Oh is still quite popular. There were a bunch of “duelists” there playing the card game. Oh, 5th grade memories.

There were a lot of picture opportunities, too – booths with characters set up. I decided to go for the One Piece one.

There were a ton of floats with well-known characters like Naruto, Luffy, Kuro-sensei (Assassination’s Classroom), Kuroko, Ryoma Echizen, etc.

There were also Tokyo Ghoul booths. The Pokemon booth actually had a part for gamers to have battles.

I spent quite a bit of time watching the Super Smash Bros on Wii U tournament. Wish I owned a Wii U. And Smash Bros. I’d love to try out playing as Avatar…

I also played a the demo for the new Phoenix Wright game with Wright’s ancestor as the main and Sherlock Holmes. But since my kanji skill sucks, I was literally the only person who could not finish the demo and was left behind in the booth for the whole 15 minutes while everyone else passed me by. It was so embarrassing and the staff member even tried to give me hints.

I also played the new Dragon Quest Theatrhythm game, which was actually quite fun. But I played it for the lovely free postcard set I got with it! (I asked the staff member if we get the whole set and they said yes, so I said “じゃ、やる！笑”)

Well, for the Jump Festa, I recommend only going if you really like Shonen Jump. Neither Chou nor I were fans, so it wasn’t exactly the exciting experience I was expecting.

 

For dinner, all-you-can-eat pizza, at a place called Grazie by Motosumiyoshi dorm (right across the street). It was totally worth it. Staff go around asking if you want a slice of the newest pizza that’s come out of the kitchen, and you get an entree and appetizer for free. And that appetizer is HUMONGOUS. You eat way more than you can handle. The friend I went with, Tammy, went on an empty stomach and couldn’t even eat that much.