Shop located in the backstreets of
Nippombashi in
Osaka,
Japan. Go there, and you can play LAN
Counterstrike or
Starcraft -- 3 hours for 300
yen. It is truly
heaven on earth.
This was one of my very first writeups on
everything2, and since then, one of my best friends from
Rotary Youth Exchange went back to Japan on a
study abroad program at
Ritsumeikan University. A month or two before he left, we got into a
message board discussion with the author of the webcomic
Krakow, who had just moved to
Kyoto, and we asked him to hop on the
Hankyu line, ride down to Nippombashi, and tell us whether Hakoniwa was still there. He reported that he couldn't find the place, but we were still optimistic: maybe he was lost, maybe he was just stupid.
So my friend got on his Air Canada flight to Kansai, and settled in at Ritsumeikan. A few days later, he got together with his naikokujin girlfriend and took a trip down to Nippombashi to check out the minidisc players and see if Hakoniwa still existed.
But Hakoniwa was a FIGURINE SHOP! A FIGURINE SHOP! No Starcraft, no Counterstrike! It was a blow to our collective hearts, and I almost felt like crying when I read my friend's e-mail.
Rest in peace, Hakoniwa Taisen.