Airsoft In Japan
 

I will eventually merge this with my other thread (Gaijin Thread) but for now, going to keep it separate and allow some folks here, especially the newer ones, to ponder this.

Oh the flaws of western society.... This is just one of many

I can't stand playing with young kids around here. 16-17 year olds are usually alright, but the paintball place near St. John's allows kids as young as 12 to play when they do airsoft, and they're infuriating. I really wish someone would smarten them the fuck up about following rules and listening to instructions.

That said, a heirarchical society like Japan's might potentially have its own share of problems as well, so I wouldn't necessarily jump to any conclusions about the green-ness of the grass on the other side of the Pacific.

But it is fact that children in japan are not "infantilized" like they are over here.

They are treated as "adults" and are expected to show respect and be responsible from the start. We spoonfeed our children and "protect" them too much of everything, in my opinion.

Not that it's inherantly bad, it's merely a culture difference with each their lluses and minuses, but while we are talking about children and airsoft, this is definitely a plus for them on that particular subject

Wouldn't airsoft fields be expensive in Japan? I mean given that their country's land mass is smaller than Saskatchewan's and that they have more people in Tokyo than all of Canada. With the mountains and agriculture and land needed for people to live on, I'd imagine that there's not much land left for airsofting.

Aren't we sheltered? So stereotypical.

Clearly by looking at Aqua's picture, there is plenty of land for airsofting.

Sure it might be more expensive but so are a lot of other things there.

not to mention that it's ridiculously safe over there. I saw kindergartners taking the tokyo metro by themselves, meeting their moms at another stop before parting ways. Primary school kids on the yamanote train... hanging out with schoolmates till one got to their stop and got off, the next stop the other 2 got off the train together.

I remember in grade 1 when I walked to school alone or with my brothers, I never see that anymore... all the kids here get dropped off or bused in.

From my experience there for just 2 really short weeks, some things are more expensive.... some things are not. Some things are very reasonably priced, even by our standards. The entire country is not compressed and built up like tokyo, and areas like aqua is playing are probably an hour trainride if that out of town. I drive more than that to get to some of my local fields. There's plenty of places in the countryside or suburbs to setup a field like that.

Dasright: Perhaps prices have gone up, but Paintball Paradise in Regina used to be $25 to $30 for regular games and we paid $50-60 for the bigger milsims put on by Demon, sometimes even more depending on the pyro that was used.

Today's game (9am to 7pm) was 2,000 yen which is $20. I paid the extra $5 for a big massive bowl of curry & rice which is home-made at the field. Nothing beats a big 180-person 'Castle Defense' game only to walk off the field and pick up a giant bowl of rice covered with Japanese curry & pork. Delish.

On the topic of kids, here's Taka, a 9 year old that plays along-side us from time to time.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...21633671_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...41158131_n.jpg
His father also plays but again, like Naoki, is rarely side-by-side with him.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...25409555_n.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...84499726_n.jpg

To give you an idea of how 'little' space Japan has... here's one of the fields we play at. It's called 'Battle City' and has a urban skirmish feel to it.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Chiba...%EF%BC%91&z=18

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Shisu...re,+Japan&z=18
Here's the field we were at today. It's the top one and called 'Desert Union'. The to the South is called Union Base.
A good idea of about 1/3 of the field layout of Desert Union
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...48168540_n.jpg

So now you have an idea of what kind of space we're dealing with.

I need to go there and play the shit out of airsoft !!! fields are awesome

I have always said that if I win the lottery I will open up an airsoft field just like this. The skirmishes that could be had at this place would be epic.

I have always been pro-children when it comes to airsoft (under proper conditions of course). I think this is proof that when children are coached/mentored properly about the rules and discipline regarding the sport that good things can happen.

Man, I'd love to play there. I like how they even have numbers on little hills :) "Enemy behind #9". This over security might be North American thing because I don't remember anything like that back home while growing up. Than again, it's 80's I'm talking about. Maybe things are changing everywhere now. We used to play around with springers in my teenage time. As long as kids didn't shoot animals and random people nobody really cared. Had battles going on in parks, local kinder garden, after kids would go home, construction sites etc . :) 3 beat cops with a German sheppard showed up one day, gave us shit for playing on kinder garden territory, shot some targets with our toys and cut us loose :)

It's a combination of the "new digital info-age" and the positive-reinforcement bubblewrap of NA society.

I need to visit Japan still one day soon :|

Also, hi Vlad :)

If any of you are interested, here's a video my mate put together from his GoPro footage from yesterday.

Desert Union June 1, 2013 - YouTube

Aqua, are all those venues airsoft only? I don't see any nasty paint goo. That's bad ass to have places like that just for airsoft. TM Spas 12 with a stock is also bad ass, not too many of them around. I remember someone mentioning you owning one in another thread few days ago :) Did FPS/metal parts laws changed over the years or you guys still play with stock guns?

Also, hi Gabe :)

Yep, these are airsoft ONLY venues. Going to play paintball is incredibly difficult since there are very few fields and I can only think of one place I've EVER seen sell paintball gear. That said, we had two paintballers (speedball players) play airsoft with us this last weekend. I damn near got lippy to one of them since it SEEMED like "bounces dont count" with those two.... grrr...

Guns CAN have metal bodies now but the fps limits remain the same - max at 93 meters/sec using .2's.

sadly when I was there I didn't have enough time to visit echigoya in shinjuku or akihabara, even though I was probably less than a block away from the shinjuku store, I didn't know it was there until I returned to the hotel and didn't have time to go back.

Gear is super expensive there, I did find some surplus and costuming stores, they wanted something like 4200y for a basic condor belt, which you can get here for about 20 bucks. 4200y for those not keeping track is about 45$. I didn't trip over any airsoft specific stores either, but in terms of what you can get, it's probably all TM.

Taxes and levies on anything non domestic made are apparently quite high which are reflected in the price.

Hard to do everything you want and see all you want to see in just 2 weeks.. especially my 4 city schedule... all the more reason to go back. :D

Echigoya was certainly a sight for sore eyes, though that might have had something to do with it being raining and late at night. I'd agree gear is pretty damn expensive, but I'd argue most of it is imported, so you have levies and tariffs to deal with.

Accessories like holsters were more reasonable, I got a Level 2 Blackhawk holster for 4800 yen ($50), and the equivalent in Calgary is at least $100 if you want the real deal.

If you get the time, First-JP in the outskirts of Osaka is a good place to spend a few hours. They have a surplus shop, a separate Oakley shop, a main shop with guns, gear, accessories, and around the corner is a Kill-House that allows walk-ons with no gear. Something like 1000 yen for three games, 1500 for five, 2500 for ten (at least, that's what I've been able to glean from their signs and site).

First-JP was a good place for TM parts and guns, quite affordable. Had a big consignment wall too :)

Next time in Osaka or Kyoto I'll have to make sure I have time to go there for a skirmish or three :D

I knew there was more than one reason I liked osaka more than tokyo.

I suppose they're aren't any fields near Gotemba/Fujiyoshida, I'd hate to take a long-distance train in order to shoot some bb's at people. Then again, I don't think I'm fluent enough in nihongo to play airsoft in Japan anyways...

You don't need to speak Japanese to play airsoft in Japan. That's like saying you need to now the optical dynamic variables of an infrared signal before you're allowed to play laser-tag ;)

Back in New Zealand one of the guys always brought his 9 year old son to games (and to monthly competitions) used to give him a pistol with a 200rd mag connected to a canister on his back. Best thing, the only issue anyone ever had was his tactical advantage of being so short and he was more mature than a lot of the "adults"

Great pictures Chris. Would certainly be a great place to play.