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