Brilliant!

Training is almost over, and I'll be heading off into the mountains very soon. As I've caroused my way across Okayama, I occasionally stumble across things that make me exclaim, "BRILLIANT!"; concepts or items that truly need to be imported back to the U.S. Here's a short list:

-No sales tax! The price you see on products is actually the price you pay. What a concept! Brilliant!
-Trains that depart and arrive on time. And not within a few minutes, but literally exactly on time. I spent four years taking Amtrak back and forth to college, and not once was it ever even half and hour on schedule. Brilliant!
-Heated toilet seats that detect pressure and heat up when you sit on them. Brilliant!

-Today I went with some of the other trainers to Joypolis, a gigantic arcade:


Arcades, called 'Game Centers' in Japan, are all over the place and include a lot more than video games; they usually have pachinko, puzzle games, 'grabber' prize games, photo booths, etc. Joypolis is the largest game center in Okayama, and let me tell you, it was HEAVEN. Why was it heaven? Well, just to the left of the above picture, was...
So, a game center next to a pasta place. But it gets better. Here are some pictures from inside the game center:
ABOVE: Game over man, game over! Here's another shot of the giant animatronic Xenomorph inside of this game:



ABOVE: 'The Lost World', Jurassic Park shooter game. My favorite arcade game of all time. Mike, I finally beat the chameleon dinosaur!

ABOVE: A gigantic gold statue of Sonic the Hedgehog. This sucker was ~10 feet tall.

ABOVE: The legendary 'Dirk Pitt' game that you can also find at Crossroads movie theatre. You fight underwater and shoot at Mutated Marine Lifeforms(tm).

To recap: A gigantic game center, next to a pasta place. And to finish this heavenly picture, next to the pasta place was a Crepe restauraunt. I got a caramel crepe that was like so good it was like eating an orgasm. Seriously, this whole setup is, in a word, (together now...)
...BRILLIANT!