This past weekend I did the right thing and spent time with the family. We decided to head out and go for a drive into the mountains. The mountain roads in Japan are great fun to drive on for me, very picturesque for the wife, and something different for the kids. 😀
Driving through this tiny little town, out of the corner of my eye, I catch what seems to be a discarded arcade cab. After debating with the wife to turn around for 30 seconds or so, we turn off the main road and head back in the general direction. Initially I thought I might have been imaging things (dreaming of arcades and gaming while trying to be a good family man), but then there it was! An early Taito cab! It was well and truly beat up, and due to the location very difficult to actually get a closer look, but to find it there was just plain weird.
To give you an idea of just how weird this location was, I took two pictures. Picture one shows the right hand side of the car (rice fields and dirt), and picture two shows the left hand side (Taito and rubbish). Both these pictures were taken in exactly the same spot though.
Picture 1:
Picture 2:
As you can see by those pictures this thing truly was in a strange place. It looked as if it had been there for years…. Sad sad times indeed. Yet another classic arcade cab bites the dust…. 🙁
When in doubt… take the PCB 🙂
This place wasn’t open and I wasn’t in the best position to just get on their property and rip it apart. I will be taking tools next time I head down there though – just in case of course. 😀
This plays like a horror film, with picture 1 drawing you into a calm and peaceful setting and then bang, picture 2 knocks you on the head with the unexpected carnage.
Not sure if that was intentional or not, but nicely done. 🙂
It felt like a horror film too let me tell ya! 😀
Yeah, bring the tools, save that board! 😀
It might be a while before I am up that way, but maybe I can get ‘good husband’ points by suggesting that we go for another family drive… Albeit with a trailer attached to the car. 😀
I like Frank’s horror movie call – good timing since it was Friday the 13th last week 🙂 Wifey and I celebrated by watching some old school horror flicks, and Frank’s apt description made me think often first Evil Dead movie 🙂
Nice! You know I remember some arcades back in the day that resembled horror flicks. 😀
This is one of the things that I love about living in Japan – finding random, surprises like this everywhere you go:)
Let me guess: if the wife wasn`t with you, you would have tried to cram that into your car or strap it to the roof. I know that is how it would have gone down with me:)
If the wife wasn’t with me I would have definitely tried to at least contact the person who owned the property the machine was sitting on. As it was, it was quite hard to get to it without looking like a criminal.
Next time I go down that way I will be better prepared – that means without the wife if you’re wondering. 😀
Since several months have now passed….what was the fate of the cab? Did you manage to get back up there?
Hey Xevious,
Unfortunately no… I haven’t found the time to do anything that I would call fun recently – real life has had a pretty harsh hold on me of late. As it’s winter here now, anything that might have been left of it would probably be pretty much trashed too. 🙁