I went to Game Market

Good evening. This is Yatsuhashi @ Togakiya.
As those who follow me may know, I participated as a circle in Game Market 2025 Spring on the upcoming Sunday, May 18th.

Since this was my first time participating as a circle, both as Togakiya and as an individual, I was quite nervous, but I think it was a fruitful experience. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who visited us that day and picked up our circle's works.

With the greetings out of the way, I thought I'd write a report on the battle since I went to the trouble. On the day, Nagiiro Mint, Nanahoshi Tento, and I were standing at the booth. I live in Okayama Prefecture, so I traveled from the furthest away among the members. My main role was to bring the setup supplies. Since I have setup supplies for doujin activities in other genres, I'm basically just using them as a side thing. However, since I'm not good at organizing, I usually end up suddenly needing something and asking for help. This time, I lost my screwdriver...

Well, my journey began the day before, on Saturday, May 17th. I boarded the highway bus "Shin-Kurayoshi Kaido Express" from Okayama Station.

There were five passengers including me. There's no way this is profitable. I don't usually take highway buses, but I had a small errand in Misasa Onsen, and when I looked for a good way to get there, I found out I could take a highway bus to Misasa, so I decided to take it. However, I was getting off at the Misasa Town Hall, which is about a 45-minute walk from the hot spring area. I thought about walking, but it was hot. It's only May, you know? I came wearing long sleeves, for heaven's sake? I wondered what to do, but I heard a bus would come in 10 minutes, so I waited for that and went to Misasa Onsen. I quickly finished my errand and went into a random diner. I ordered the 980 yen yakisoba set meal, but...
This is 980 yen.

Wait, isn't this too much?
Because I was served a much more substantial set meal than I expected, I missed one bus, so I decided to take a bath even though I hadn't planned to. However, I don't really like hot springs in the first place (then why did you go to a hot spring?), and I heard this hot spring is extremely hot, so I was wondering what to do when I discovered a place called "Kawahara-buro" (riverside bath) on the map. I thought it was just an old public bath, but it was seriously a riverside bath. Moreover, you could see naked men and women from the road. Wait, is this a mixed bath?
In this day and age, I didn't know that a mixed open-air bath visible from the nearby road, even if it's in the countryside, existed in a hot spring area that isn't even a hidden gem. I hesitated, but since I was there, I decided to try it.

It was incredibly hot.Well, of course it was. There were multiple tubs (can you call them that?), and when I tried to enter the one with fewer people, it was too hot to even get in, but the one with people seemed to be cooled with water, and a local old man urged me to get in that one. Well, it seems tourists come here too, so they must be used to this kind of thing. It took courage to get in, but I learned that once you're in, you'll manage somehow.

I was afraid I'd miss my bus if I soaked for too long, so I left the bath and took two buses to Kurayoshi Station. From there, I headed west on a limited express train to Matsue. My destination, Makuhari, was getting further and further away, but I didn't care. The reason I came to Matsue is this ↓

I am an otaku of content called "The Idolmaster Million Live". If you don't know what that is, I recommend you watch the anime first. It's rare for collaborations of this kind of content to have projects in rural areas unless it's a special sacred site, so I was happy and came all the way to San'in, which I have no connection to, even though it's in the same Chugoku region. There's one more thing I want to say: I love the town of Matsue.

The town of Matsue is beautiful. It is a city of water built on both banks of the Ohashi River, which connects two lakes, Lake Nakaumi and Lake Shinji. From the bridges in the city, you can see beautiful lakes and townscapes in every direction, and houseboats pass by. It is also a town of history and tradition, starting with the existing Matsue Castle keep. It's wonderful.

To get from Matsue Station to the manhole cover in question, I had to cross the Ohashi River, and just by doing that, you can see the good parts of Matsue. And if you go west from there, there is the Matsue Shinji-ko Onsen Station of the local Ichibata Electric Railway. I almost missed the train and ended up having to run while carrying my setup supplies. If I missed the train here, I'd have to wait an hour, so it could have been game over. Then, I was swayed along the shore of Lake Shinji on a local train and arrived in Izumo City, the home of the world-famous Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine. However, it was past 6 PM, so it wasn't the time to go to Izumo Taisha. The night journey begins from here...

Huh?

You've got to be kidding me. It's already the night before, so how can I be stuck in Izumo City? No, this is seriously bad. In the city, personal accidents might be relatively common, but this is Izumo, Izumo! For some reason, when I visited Izumo two years ago, I was also stuck due to a personal accident. What is going on, really? Are the gods of Izumo hating me or something? The only saving grace is that, unlike natural disasters, personal accidents can be dealt with if you wait. About 20 minutes after the scheduled time, the train I was supposed to take arrived.

The Sunrise Izumo sleeper limited express. A single beam of light piercing the night of the archipelago. The eternal longing of travelers. It takes lonely me far away. Together with its partner "Sunrise Seto", it is the last sleeper train in Japan.

I've been rambling on with poetry, but as someone living in Okayama who loves traveling by local trains, I ride them quite frequently. That said, this is my first time boarding from Izumo City. Actually, the truth is that I decided to make a detour to Misasa Onsen and Matsue with the sole intention of riding the Izumo train from the first station to the last. By the way, I only got my hands on the ticket this morning. It's surprisingly easy to book like this if you're traveling alone, so please do give it a try. A one-of-a-kind night journey awaits you.

Look, that doesn't mean I want to go on a trip where I don't know when the train will move due to a person being hit on the tracks. Seriously, what am I supposed to do now? The train left Izumo City, but it was stopped before reaching Matsue. It's because of train congestion. In this San'in region, where there are far fewer trains running compared to the city, there were seven trains backed up with the accident site at the front, and we were waiting at the very end of the line. Because of this situation, we had to wait even longer after service resumed, and the delay reached roughly one hour.

I took a shower on the train and had a late-night drink with cola (Note: I cannot drink alcohol), but I seem to have fallen asleep somewhere before arriving in Okayama. The next time I woke up was just past 4:30 AM, and I was right in Enshu-Hamamatsu. We had been running with a delay of about an hour. Well, at this rate, we would arrive in Tokyo around 8:00 AM. Actually, the schedule has quite a bit of leeway, so we can make up for some of the delay, and we might arrive before 8:00 AM. I stayed awake for a while, but by the time we reached Numazu, we had made up nearly 10 minutes of the delay. At this rate, we should be fine.

I took a short nap, woke up near Ninomiya in Kanagawa Prefecture, and spent an elegant time eating breakfast while watching the scenery outside the window as we approached the city. A delay of about an hour is fine, as I'll still make it in time for setup, so there's no need to worry.

The train stopped before Yokohama. Huh?

I wondered what happened, and it turned out the fire alarm had gone off inside the train. Was it a cigarette or something? I really wish people would stop doing that. This train has a smoking car, which is rare, so maybe someone got confused and smoked in a non-smoking area?

After about 15 minutes, the train finally started moving and arrived at Yokohama. Even though it was Sunday, it was a busy morning, and I think it must have been incredibly annoying for the passengers to have an express train that had come all the way from Izumo blocking the Tokaido Line. There was nothing running in front of this train anymore, so it was the final sprint to Tokyo.

Arrived in Tokyo at 8:21 AM. That's a 73-minute delay. Well, that's part of the thrill of long-distance travel. With that said, I met up with the organizer, Mint Nagiiro, in Tokyo and headed to Makuhari Messe via the Keiyo Line. By the way, since Mint-shi heard I would be an hour late, they took their time for an hour, so I ended up waiting for them as usual.

So, we arrived at Makuhari Messe just past 10:00 AM. Isn't that cutting it pretty close? We hurried to set up.

Fortunately, since we didn't have many items, we were able to set up in a short time. Shachihoko-maru, who also posted about us on their website, came to greet us. Thank you so much. We don't have any connections, so we are very grateful just to be found.

As a point of effort on my part this time, I enabled credit card payments. In the image, the white object next to the book is the credit card terminal. I think this is a special circumstance, but in the doujinshi world of travel-related works where I am mainly active, the penetration rate of cashless payments is extremely high, and you can buy doujinshi even if you run out of cash. That's why I had bought this terminal, so I brought it along this time. Honestly, I wanted to make it a small selling point since I don't think there are many circles at Game Market that accept credit card payments.

Soon after the doors opened, Tōtō Nanahoshi joined us, and after that, I mostly just minded the shop. The first thing I was worried about was whether anyone would come to buy. After all, we have no name recognition, and I don't think there are many people coming here specifically for Sword World. I thought we wouldn't even sell ten copies, but there were many people who stopped in front of our space and picked up the sample copies, and there were even groups who came and bought multiple copies. I am truly humbled.

The most frequently asked question was about the distribution of "Part 1 only." Regarding this, I have nothing to say but to apologize for failing to finish it. I really wanted to have Part 2 ready in time, but production didn't progress as much as I had hoped. There were people who said, "I'll come back to buy it when Part 2 is ready," so I will strive to have it all ready for the next opportunity. I hope you will look forward to it.

By the way, regarding credit card payments, some people did use them. Achievement unlocked. However, there was a strange feeling in not performing the "ritual" of handing over cash, which should be an inherent part of distributing doujinshi. I have to say it has its pros and cons.

Personally, the biggest thing I should reflect on is that I didn't bring any food. I've participated in circles at Comiket and other events many times, so I should have naturally realized that food would be necessary... Conversely, it's possible that I've become too accustomed to it and stopped preparing properly. That's no good.

In the second half, I had some free time, so I visited places distributing Sword World, including Shachihoko-maru, and nearby tables to buy books that caught my interest. Every time I go to a doujin event, I think about how there are countless things I want to buy, which is tough. I want to buy scenario books and board games, but I can only see a future where I go bankrupt if I buy too much. Thinking about that, I refrained from walking around the large venue this time. That said, I did manage to get a fair number of scenario books, so I look forward to playing them again.

I heard that the crowd at Game Market thins out significantly around 3:00 PM, so our circle also started packing up. We managed to hand over books to those who came at the last minute, even though it was cutting it close. I won't disclose the specific number of copies, but it exceeded the amount I had tentatively thought of, so I reached my goal. Once again, thank you all so much.

On the way back, I stopped by the adjacent building for the first time, and I was troubled by the sheer number of games that made me want to stop and look, and eventually buy. If I kept doing that, I would miss the bus to Haneda Airport, so I had to leave the venue in a hurry. By the way, this is my own fault, but since I moved to the countryside alone, I also have the problem of having no one to play with even if I buy board games. Of course, I meet up with circle members a few times a year like this, but we rarely have time to play board games at a leisurely pace. I enjoy TRPGs online to some extent, but I feel like that's not quite their true form. That said, there are many ways to enjoy things online, and since Togakiya is ultimately a circle of online players, I feel like that will be the main approach.

So, because I live far away, I left a bit early on my own and headed to Haneda Airport by bus. In the end, why did I come here? Well, I came on an expedition, of course. Since the majority of Togakiya members live in regional areas and I love traveling for events, you will likely see me whenever we participate in one like this. If you happen to see me, please feel free to say hello, and I will notice you.

As an aside, there is finally a prospect of being able to distribute the digital version as well. I have already received requests from people saying they would like to get it if a digital version were available, so I would be extremely happy if you could introduce it and help spread the word.

Well, with that, I would like to conclude this report on my first participation in Game Market Spring 2025. Hmm, what was this in the end? Well, I'm sure other people will write proper content.
My next event participation is planned for Comic Market 106. Game Market was fun, so I wonder if I'll come again? I look forward to seeing you all again.