I just got back from a month-long trip to Japan. Though I lived in Japan a number of years ago when I was in school, and though my wife and I go back at least once a year, this was the first trip in about eight years that lasted more than two weeks. Normally I haven’t been able to take enough time off of work to really stay long enough to overcome jet lag, but the new job I started last year happens to have an office in Tokyo, which is extremely convenient. It snowed off and on last month, which was actually quite nice; living in California, it’s not often that I get to see snow, let alone trudge through it in the middle of a megacity.

While I was there I tried to find the Silent Hill arcade game, and while I was able to locate the machine, I didn’t get a chance to play because there was actually a line. Not a long line, mind you, just one sort of suspicious-looking middle-aged man, but the arcade was smokey and I couldn’t hear my friend over the Guitar Freaks racket, so I left. I was surprised to find anybody playing the thing, let alone people waiting to play it. I looked around for another machine but wasn’t able to find one. Oh well, maybe next time.

I also picked up THE Tairyou Jigoku, which is pretty much as terrible as it looks. Still, it’s probably quest-worthy for the same reasons that (equally terrible-looking) Escape from Bug Island is included. I also tracked down a copy of Dino Crisis for $1, which was a deal I could not pass up.

The month in Japan was a month without video games (except for the highly, highly excellent Phoenix Wright: Justice For All), so I’m behind on my Quest progress. But bear with me, we’ll return to regularly scheduled industry rants, game design ramblings, and random horror media reviews shortly.