Spending a Special Day at the Arcade

Last weekend, we went to an arcade to have some fun. Although @dennnmarc looked like he was not a fan of this kind of place, citing that he doesn’t like noisy crowded places, I am grateful that he still accepted my birthday request.

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I spent the majority of my summer vacation inside my house, writing, studying, and sometimes playing online games. This became my repetitive routine for several weeks, and I was so close to burning out. Since my birthday was coming up, I thought of something that would give me a temporary high and an escape from my monotonous activities at home. Thus, the idea of going to an arcade came to mind. I shared my plan with Denn, and I appreciate that he was okay with it.

_{The volume of mall goers was normal given that it was Saturday; children don't have a class and some of the employees are on rest day.}

After Denn’s shift, we met at the mall where the arcade is also located. Despite the heavy volume of people, I immediately spotted Denn, and a smile spread from ear to ear as I saw him walking towards me. I greeted him and immediately invited him to go to Tom’s World, one of the well-known arcade places in the Philippines.

You could see from outside that there was a heavy pack of arcade enthusiasts, some waiting their turn to use the game machines. “There were lots of people!”, I said in a loud voice as the noise of the surroundings overwhelmed us.

We entered the premises, and the noise of rejoicing teenagers, the retro-themed music from the arcade machines, and the clinking sound of coins from players who won hundreds of tokens echoed through the air. Everyone seemed to be having fun and didn't mind the ticking of the clock. The positive and joyful atmosphere inside the arcade was contagious, making me even more excited. Due to my excitement, I pulled Denn along and explored the entire place.

After wandering around, we went to the token booth to buy some tokens. Surprisingly, the queue wasn’t long given the volume of the crowd. The transaction went smoothly and quickly, and I was able to get the tokens immediately after paying. I paid 50 pesos ($0.85) for 10 tokens. Fortunately, the price of the tokens hadn’t increased since the last time I went to the arcade.

With tokens in our pockets, we headed to the arcade game machines we found interesting earlier. First on our list were the shooting game machines. There were several kinds, and it was up to us to choose. What hooked our interest was the Terminator Salvation machine.

As the name suggests, the arcade machine was inspired by the movie The Terminator. The goal of the game was to shoot all of the cyborgs on the screen using the guns we held. Since the language was in Japanese and the gun controllers were a bit defective, it took us a while to grasp the game. In fact, the game was already over by the time we figured it out 😂.

Next, we played basketball. Although this is not my sport, it challenges me to always aim for a high score, especially when I have an opponent. Since I had Denn as my opponent, it was even more challenging as I wanted to impress him 😏.

It turned out to be fun and was probably the game I enjoyed the most. Even though I missed and made some embarrassing throws, I just laughed it off. On the other hand, every time I consecutively shot the ball into the ring, a confident smirk could be seen on my face. As a result of my slightly good basketball performance, I reached the 4th round and got a high score. Sweet! 🤌

Of course, Denn wasn't going to be outdone. He inserted three tokens, grabbed the balls, and started doing his best to reach my score. With a serious expression, he continued to throw the balls into the net as if his life depended on it. What a competitive guy.

He finished the game, and his score almost reached mine. We were both out of breath but thrilled with our efforts. As I looked at him, his expression gave me satisfaction because somehow, he enjoyed staying in this noisy and crowded place.

After a while, we decided to cool down as we needed to catch our breath. We went to the claw machines and checked if the stuff was cool enough to spend the remaining tokens we had.

There were lots to choose from, ranging from small cute plushies to medium-sized stuffed toys. There were even machines offering edible prizes like candies. I wasn’t sure how those worked, but maybe you insert some coins, and the machine pushes the candies little by little.

However, we ended up not trying any claw machines and saved the rest of the tokens as our tummies started to demand snacks. That’s when we decided to leave the arcade and went to the donut shop to satisfy our cravings.

Look at these mouth-watering donuts from Krispy Kreme. Believe it or not, we got this dozen for free, thanks to Denn and to the voucher he got from Microsoft Rewards! While we were having a feast, we spent the rest of the day talking about all sorts of things. This included sharing the things I was grateful for over the past year and the wishes I made on my birthday. As we continued our conversation, every bite of each sweet donut became a reminder of the bittersweet memories and experiences I had faced and eventually overcome. Through our conversation, I felt a sense of gratitude for the journey I had been on. In fact, I got teary eyed because of that emotional conversation 😂.

As the day came to an end, I thanked Denn for accompanying me in having a simple celebration of my birthday by going to the arcade. The day had been also a perfect escape for my usual routine, and a great day to start another year.

Note: All images are mine unless stated otherwise.

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