Finding retro games in Japan 🕹️

September 23, 2023

Recently, I've been hooked on retro games.

Not only are they just plain fun, but they're good for learning Japanese too. It's also really interesting to see how different the characters speak if you've played them in English before.

On top of all of that, a nice handful of games have never been released outside of Japan, so there's a lot to discover as well.

By the way, do you know what retro games are called in Japanese?

I'll give you some space to think.

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They're called レトロゲーム (retro games).

Perhaps that was more straightforward than you might've been expecting since it's basically the same as the English 🤣

If it wasn't, then no worries! All you have to do is show up and hit the Study Now button and it'll feel simple with time ^^

Here's the place to do that if you haven't yet today:

→ → Study Now ← ←

Retro Games in Japan

Retro games are really cool here in Japan.

There are so many second-hand stores like Book Off or Hard Off that carry older games, and there are even stores where their entire thing is selling retro games.

If you're interested in finding some local stores near you, you can go on Google Maps and type in 中古ちゅうこゲーム (used games) and something should come up.

↑ That's also a great strategy even if you're on vacation, wherever you might find yourself in Japan. I remember bringing back SO many video games during my first trips. I actually had to buy a suitcase once just to get them back to the US 😅

As far as stores I've been to, スーパーポテト (Super Potato) is a great one in 東京 (Tokyo). Lots of inventory, and it's in 秋葉原 (Akihabara) which is full of other cool games, anime, etc. stores.

There are a few good ones in Fukuoka as well, such as マンガ倉庫そうこ (Manga Souko) which is in 貝塚かいづか (Kaizuka) and カルチャーアーツ (Culture Arts) in 天神てんじん (Tenjin) which is more central to the main city area.

Tip if you go to カルチャーアーツ: If you have a bag or backpack, the store owner will probably ask you to put it on a shelf near the entrance, so keep an ear out for words like 荷物にもつ (things [you're carrying][e.g. backpack]) and 置おいて (put, place).

You might hear a sentence like 荷物にもつそこに置おいて (Put your stuff there) or such.

A dinosaur

Caleb and Chie have also been hooked on retro games recently, and just bought a CRT TV.

I swear it looks prettier in person.

This was the inspiration for last week's writing prompt ^^

They bought it from メルカリ (Merukari), which is essentially the Japanese equivalent of eBay if you're in the US.

Honestly, Caleb and I were a bit scared buying it because it said ジャンクです (It's junk) but then said レトロゲーム用ようにどうぞ (Feel free to use for retro games) shortly after that… which sent us on a search to find the exact meaning of ジャンク.

Turns out, ジャンク can be used both for something that is broken, or something that has no value to the user anymore. Thankfully it was the latter, as the CRT TV works, and the スーパーファミコン (SNES) looks amazing on it.

By the way, if you want to say CRT in Japanese, you'll need to say ブラウン管かん (CRT), because ブラウン is one of the people who helped invent it. Kind of the same vibe for how we say レントゲン for X-rays.

But you already knew that if you checked out last week's writing prompt ^^

Speaking of which…

Weekly writing prompt:

You're lined up at a shrine with your friend waiting to pray to the enshrined 神かみ (deity, god). You notice that people seem to be very specific with their bowing and clapping when they pray, but you haven't quite figured out what you should do yet. You whisper to your friend…

Post your responses here and let's talk about them!

Feel free to ask for help if you want to say something specific as well. Both myself and other students will be in there offering advice and help~

We got a ton of responses to last week's prompt and it was so much fun to read and give feedback for everyone. Such good responses from students of all Japanese levels ^^

Here's one of the responses a student gave:

And here's my feedback to help make it more natural (this was part of a longer conversation that you can see here):

Feel free to request future writing prompt topics here.

Some cool Japanese

I recently saw a lesson on NativShark about mythical creatures in Japan and saw something that I've heard talked about before but only had a vague idea of:

There are a lot of other really cool creatures that I didn't realize actually have quite tricky translations in that lesson too. Turns out a 鳳凰 (phoenix) is different from a phoenix that you would see in the west.

Go check out the lesson here and learn about the others in there~

If the above Japanese is difficult for you, all you need to do is keep hitting the Study Now button, and you'll understand it when you get there. Especially when using a study resource like NativShark, you'll be fine as long as you show up as much as you can. This screenshot comes from a lesson in Phase Three, Unit 50.

NativShark goodie bag

The content team released another 4 new Phase Three Units this week~

The lesson in Unit 108 is great. There are so many things in there that I wish I had known before I moved to Japan.

New Phase Three Units

New Podcasts Episodes:

The Konnichiwa Podcast

Hot Sauce! - Spotify

Thanks for reading,
Ty