Funky Japanese arcade...

In the news recently there were reports than an arm wrestling game in some Japanese arcades had broken three people's arms (that's three separate people -not one person with three arms). So when Thom said he'd found a similar machine in a nearby arcade, OF COURSE we had to go and try it out.

Here's the machine, looking innocent:

And here's me, choosing my opponent. On the screen you can see the selection of racial and sexual stereotypes than comprise the potential foes you can battle. My favourite was the black guy with the enormous red lips - I think it might be where Herge got his ideas for Tin-Tin.


Despite bracing myself to hear a snap in my humerus, the machine was actually pretty weak - me and Thom both completed it with little strain. So what I suspect actually happened was a Japanese salaryman fell over whilst peeping into a girls' purikura photo both, but needed a better excuse to give his wife when he rang her from casualty.

Sally (Thom's girlfriend) also had a go on this train simulator:
It's difficult to gauge her success - on the one hand, her punctuality was second to none; however, this was mainly because she didn't stop at any stations and just powered through while the little simulated Japanese commuters shook their tiny fists. Still better than Virgin Trains though (satire).

Thom also had a go on this boxing game where as well as smacking the hell out of your opponents, you also sometimes had to dodge. Sadly, the menacing looking thing at head height didn't shoot out and smack you if you didn't, your character onscreen just got a punching.