You have probably heard that Tokyo Game Show was a bit disappointing this year; that the number of attendees was down, there were no big announcements, and some companies were missing from the floor. All this is true, but in one way this year’s show surpassed all others.  A lone bright spot that showed the world that Japan is not only still on its game, but towers over the world when it comes to one thing. 

Yes, I’m referring to the hotness of the booth companions. These legendary beauties have long been a high point of every show, for years stretching back into antiquity.  TGS 09 had some of the cutest, most gorgeous girls ever and thanks to the low attendance, they were more accessible than ever. 

However, these vixens of video gaming require certain strategies if you want to walk away with their contact information, or even just get them to talk to you. Dale and Nick have been witness to the 50ft. Samurai technique and asked that I share it with you. The next time you are waiting in line to play Mushihime-sama Futari strike up a conversation with the booth companion. If you can manage to land a date with one of them, your name shall be as legend.

Step in the Dojo and let the learning commence…

Ok, the first step is, do not ask to take their picture, and do not break your camera out to do so. Doing this automatically labels you as the otaku photo-guy, which these girls deal with all the time. The problem is, most of these guys will put the photos up on sketchy quasi-porn sites and the girls don’t like it, nor to be reminded of it.  If you are there to take pictures, don’t hit on the girls, or at least don’t take the picture of the girls you do talk to. 

So now that your camera is stored away, ask the girl a question in English. Any question is fine as long as it is not “What’s your name?” You can ask that later. Chances are she speaks some English, and some girls will surprise you by being serious current or past students of the language. Either way, this catches the companion off guard and immediately removes you from the “just another show attendee” category.

For the next two steps it will help greatly if you speak Japanese. As a side note: it’s a lot easier to start conversations with these girls if you live in Japan as most foreign visitors to TGS don’t. That’s not to say it’s impossible to get a phone number or email address from these girls as a visitor, but again, being a foreigner who lives in Japan differentiates you from the crowd. This is crucial.

OK, so, step three. As the conversation continues, begin sprinkling Japanese words in with your English then gradually move to speaking mostly Japanese with English sprinkled in. If you are with Nick Chester, this is the point where he will start laughing at you.  Finally, reveal that your Japanese is good. She will most always laugh and slap you on the arm. This is good. You want this to happen. As a rule, companions do not like touching the people at the show, so if they are you have hit pay dirt.  Now it’s time to hit her up for her address.

The girls at the show aren’t supposed to give out their contact info, or accept info from “customers” so if you ask and she is down with telling you, you are in. Now for step four: logistics.  If her manager sees her getting anything or handing anything off, you are going to get her in trouble and they may call “security” to tell you to go away.  That will end your plans rather quickly so I suggest this:

Have a pen ready. Also, make sure to get a pamphlet, catalog, whatever from either the girl you are talking to or someone else. Pretend to be asking her about something in the catalog, such as:

“Do you think Assassin’s Creed II will sell well in Japan?”

It doesn’t matter what you say, really you just have to make it look like she is working instead of teaching you her email address. 

If logistics prevent her from writing something down you can always hand off your email address to her and ask her to contact you. This has a pretty low success rate, though. Of the girls I have passed my info off to, only a few have ever gotten in touch with me.  Those that write their email down almost always answer back. You can pretty much rely on the rule that if she is willing to write something down and get in trouble, she genuinely wants to get in touch with you. 

So now you know the secrets, the inner path to flirting with and getting phone numbers from booth companions. I ask only that you use your knowledge wisely and carefully.  To inspire you I have included a gallery of the lovely ladies of TGS, one of which gave me her email address. I leave it to you to guess which one. 

Good luck, my students, and may these teachings find you well in the line for Bayonetta.