Would you risk your fate with this man?
On Tuesday I start working at the Tokyo University Department of Global Health Policy as an Assistant Professor, which means that on Sunday I am moving from Steamy Beppu to the City of Light. I will also be returning to full time work after a year working part time and being a househusband.
This means that my Japanese Warhammer 3rd Edition group has broken up, and my Japanese role-playing plans in general have to go on hold until I can find a suitable group in Tokyo. I don’t know how easy that will be. It also means that I’ll have a lot less time for, and material to put into, long posts, so my posting frequency will go down, which is a shame because I’ve been on a bit of a roll recently.
To keep my posting frequency up I may add a new posting series, about bars and restaurants in Tokyo, because I will be exploring them. I may also put in some taste-testing of various Japanese sake, which I’m becoming interested in… we’ll see. It’s a bit off topic but when I go searching for information about Tokyo night life I appreciate other peoples’ views, so maybe someone will appreciate it being here… also there may be some general aspects of Tokyo life to comment on, so the blog may open a little beyond nerd culture to include general big city culture.
I will of course be trying to expand my role-playing horizons in Tokyo – who knows, I may even play in English! – and exploring nerd life a little. There may also be some Harajuku-related material on here too… we’ll see how busy I am. But the move to Tokyo may well indicate a move to a broader focus on Japanese otaku life, hopefully from the perspective of someone at least slightly involved in it. We’ll see. But for the meantime, expect me to post slightly less frequently, and don’t be disheartened.
The miniature at the top of this post was painted by one of my players, Tencho-san. It’s a likeness of me. You can’t see it in the photo but the book has “Master” written on it’s cover, and on the back of the wizard’s jacket is written (混沌東大), which is Japanese shorthand for “Tokyo University Chaos!” This was part of my going-away present, along with the game Make You Fortress and a collection of cards for the game Make You Kingdom, which contain colour cardboard cutouts of all the cute monsters from the game. I really need to play this game at some point…
A report of the last session of the Rats in the Ranks campaign will be going up soon. In the meantime, any particular requests for investigation you would like to see conducted in Tokyo, please let me know in comments (and yes, if I find a used underwear vending machine I will post a photo!)
Compromise and Conceit 
February 25, 2011 at 5:20 pm
One thing I have been thinking about, as I live in Seoul,. is to start writing posts that would provide background information that could enable people to feel comfortable about running games set here. Perhaps you could do a weekly instalment of some cultural element from the perspective of one of your RPG interests~
February 25, 2011 at 5:27 pm
That’s a good idea! We should both commit to doing that. I think it’s particularly important for Korea, which is generally completely forgotten in popular culture. You could start with an overview of good Korean film or Korean manga!
February 25, 2011 at 7:07 pm
That’s a cool idea!
February 25, 2011 at 9:41 pm
I’m looking forward to the report of your Tokyo life. You could possiblly encounter such interesing sake as “酔鯨” and “TECATE” , which could be “紫蛸(“purple octopus” or “戦鼠(fighting rat)!?!?”
Good luck on you!
February 25, 2011 at 11:30 pm
I was thinking more along the lines of soju tents, subway trains, and salary-man travails, but pointing out films and other works that the locals think are good, or that expats find to be evocative of certain truths could be a fun exercise, too~
I’m game if you are!
February 28, 2011 at 1:05 am
Wow, good luck! I’m sure you won’t have much problem finding a group to game with in Tokyo, in either Japanese or English.
February 28, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Runeslinger, let’s see what we can do! Salary-man travails are also fine, they’ll always suit something like shadowrun or some other gritty modern game. Surely someone needs to adapt the Dresden Files game to modern Japan at some point… and old-fashioned stuff too.
Yumiko, if I can find a nihonshu called Purple Octopus or Fighting Rat I will definitely try it! I don’t like my chances, but in Tokyo surely it’s possible… I found Morroccan beer on my first day here, after all!
mattgsanchez, I did an initial search and I’m going to do more, but so far no good. Still, I need a few weeks to settle in before I start anything.
March 1, 2011 at 1:43 am
Once you get settled in, take a look at the Shinjuku Yellow Submarine. I thought I saw a flier for some English speaking group playing DnD. If you’re interested in playing in Japanese, you can try attending one of the conventions listed in this mixi kantou trpg convention thread:
http://mixi.jp/view_bbs.pl?id=1590618&comm_id=251078
And then there’s this rpg cafe, where it seems like you can drop in anytime for a game:
http://trpgtime.cool.ne.jp/first/
I’m looking forward to reading about reading about the bars in Tokyo, too! I don’t go nearly often enough to find many cool places. I hope your move goes smoothly!
May 4, 2011 at 2:51 am
Best of luck at 東大!
I lived in the countryside in my stint in Japan, so it took me a few years to gather a group together but living in Tokyo will make it a bit easier to find a group.
Aside from the tips from mattgsanchez above, http://www.penandpapergames.com has a search tool for ferreting out players and there are a couple guys on dumpshock that are living in Japan.
April 30, 2013 at 7:39 am
I know it’s just spam, but I suggest you keep it. When else are you going to get such unconditional praise?
🙂
April 30, 2013 at 8:22 am
I think the spam-bots have wised up to my greatness. They now realize that the spam catcher doesn’t stop effusive praise, because it thinks for a blog of this quality such comments must be real!
Alternatively, as I approach teh fifth birthday of this blog, wordpress have decided to deliberately stuff up the spam filter, as an inducement to paying for an upgrade or something…