Shop located in the backstreets of Nippombashi in Osaka, Japan. Go there, and you can play LAN Counterstrike or Starcraft -- 3 hours for 300 yen. It is truly heaven on earth.
This was one of my very first writeups on everything2, and since then, one of my best friends from Rotary Youth Exchange went back to Japan on a study abroad program at Ritsumeikan University. A month or two before he left, we got into a message board discussion with the author of the webcomic Krakow, who had just moved to Kyoto, and we asked him to hop on the Hankyu line, ride down to Nippombashi, and tell us whether Hakoniwa was still there. He reported that he couldn't find the place, but we were still optimistic: maybe he was lost, maybe he was just stupid.

So my friend got on his Air Canada flight to Kansai, and settled in at Ritsumeikan. A few days later, he got together with his naikokujin girlfriend and took a trip down to Nippombashi to check out the minidisc players and see if Hakoniwa still existed.

But Hakoniwa was a FIGURINE SHOP! A FIGURINE SHOP! No Starcraft, no Counterstrike! It was a blow to our collective hearts, and I almost felt like crying when I read my friend's e-mail.

Rest in peace, Hakoniwa Taisen.

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