“Anata no Warehouse” game station

New day , new adventure

Today I will bring you to a very unusual game station (more on that later). I also heard that this place is going to shut down forever in just about 2 days. The urgency creating a strong sense of desire , here I go. But first let’s ride some trains to Kawasaki.

On the way to the station in the quiet residential of Kichijoji.

Satsuma-imo , sweet potatoes stall.

Japanese train are always very quiet , no matter how packed it is. I was chocked this morning because the train was full and we could hear the flies !

The sound of silence

Our first stop is at Tokyo station , a gigantic complex with more than 12 lines , shops and restaurants.

Toilet are just everywhere in Tokyo. My bladder being quite “small” it is just great. You could play the game of trying to never cross toilet while here and I dont think this is possible to win ! ^^

Tokyo station has a beautiful architecture which resembles to our European buildings.

The eye of Tokyo Station is watching

So many nice food shops in this station. I smelled something really attractive and I actually had 8 minutes before the train so I queued to this place.

Press Butter Sand , Mmmmh interesting name , what could that be ?

Biscuits ! It had a strong small of salted butter in that corner , and of course I couldn’t resist 🙂

Yummy ! Crispy , buttery with two layers : salted butter caramel (caramel au beurre salé) and whipped cream. It was very nice , expect to pay 170 yen for one biscuit (1.4 euro).

Okay the train just arrived , let’s head to this game station.
Total it tooked 1h20 minutes to get there , Kawasaki is quite further south of Tokyo. The railway system being so organised , efficient and easy to navigate , you never really feel the time stretching out. But it’s expensive. In Tokyo you pay your train fees for the distance you travel. So the further you go the more you pay !

“Anata no warehouse” , meaning Your Warehouse ..

This game station is unique and quite mindblowing. So basically the whole decoration is on a specific theme. Inside it is all decorated with the inspiration of a “dodgy” neighborhood of Hong Kong called Kowloon.
From research Kowloon was known as “the City of Darkness”. A 2.7-hectare enclave of opium parlours, whorehouses and gambling dens run by triads, it was a place where police, health inspectors and even tax collectors feared to tread. It was once thought to be the most densely populated place on earth, with 35,000 people crammed into a few tiny apartment blocks.

Enought talking , let’s dive into old Kowloon.

Entrance A

Entrance B

Hard to believe that this is an actual Game station but indeed they were many arcade games to play from. Shoot them up , fight games , rhythm , RPG , sport … pretty much all you want from retro to modern gaming.

Metal Slug 2. I had some fun here bringing back some good old memories. “heavy machin gun ..!”

Dance game. This guy was unbelievable. So fast and precise. Quite a show to watch him. Rhythms games in Japan truly are an institution. I imagine this type of game enhancing one’s reflexes into real-life situations. I wonder if studies has been done on that subject.

Off course at that point I wanted to pee again 🙂 Let’s find the … rather unusual toilets.

Toilets , Kowloon style.

The atmosphere in this building felt authentic and quite creepy actually. You can tell that they did great job here. It felt like a space/travelling machine , another world. It was a great experience , sadly it’s going to close soon. Maybe they will try to open another one somewhere which I hope. The place was of course quite crowded as the closure day was getting sooner.

Memories of old Kowloon

Now let’s go to the nearby waterfront of Yokohama.
Bye bye Hong Kong.