Have Americans and other westerners ever played in retro video arcade game centers in Japan?

This should answer your initial question. https://gogonihon.com/en/blog/japanese-arcades-a-stop-you-have-to-make/

Your biggest challenge might be Covid restrictions. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/japan-travel-advisory.html

This link provides up-to-date information on Covid details in Japan. https://jp.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

It sounds like you’ve already studied up, but there are so many behavioral do’s and don’ts in Japan. I have looked at several websites and each one seems to offer yet another tip. It sounds like you’ve already done some research on this but it doesn’t hurt to do more.

Let me ask this: Are there any video retro arcade game centers in Japan remaining anywhere that you might know? The reason I ask that is because I hear many game centers had closed down permanently, and been destroyed in large part because of the Covid pandemic. I just wondered if there were any left standing anywhere in Japan. I’d still go to Japan to see all kinds of other beautiful, and exotic things as well as old video game consoles and things of that nature. Thanks.

Try contacting a travel agency that specializes in Japan. they might be able to give you up-to-date information on video game centers. Who knows? They might even be able to offer you a package deal.

However at the moment, you might not even be allowed to enter Japan.

Travel for tourism and most other short-term purposes is still not permitted, and there is no indication that this will change in the short term. Visa-free travel is suspended. Travelers who believe they qualify for an exception to Japan’s strict entry controls should contact their nearest Japanese Embassy or consulate for information.

The Government of Japan makes no distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers in its COVID-related entry requirements. Vaccination status has no impact on an individual’s eligibility to travel to Japan, and Japan’s quarantine restrictions apply regardless of vaccination status. https://jp.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

I’m sorry, but you make it sound like no foreigner can ever visit Japan at all due to the Covid pandemic which I feel obviously won’t ever end at all. I’ll bet most other countries have closed their doors to foreigners for all eternity because of this pandemic if that’s the case.

@Nick88 I am not “making it sound like” anything. I am simply telling you the way conditions are at this point in time.

I don’t know what country you live in. I am in the US. There are certain amount of politics involved I suppose, but right now Japan is very strict about visiting. The borders are basically closed except for companies that have employees in both countries.

I know this is true because of what my daughter who lives there says, and I have another daughter who is an RN and works at a med check place that gives Covid tests to Japanese citizens who work for a company in the US and are headed back to Japan.

That means my daughter is getting married next month and I can’t even go to the wedding! So if you think you have it bad, consider my situation! we will have to watch the wedding online.

@snowberry he lives in the US.

And I find it hilarious that he was attacking you. You didn’t even say anything about his character. He was really paranoid that someone would try to judge him for his interest, even if that’s not true. Apparently I’m his big enemy now.

He was upset at the pandemic and even suggested that we should all stop taking vaccines and just focus on… developing a way to travel in time. And all of that for what? So that he could finally go to Japan and enjoy arcade games and Japanese women?

I have been trying my best to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was genuinely interested in Japanese culture. But the way he constantly felt the need to justify himself, how he ran away from hard questions, and how he thought of himself as a victim just made me run out of my patience. If he was really genuine, he wouldn’t have to go out of his way to tell people so. People who constantly have to tell everyone they are “nice, honest and respectful” usually aren’t.