[Nathan]

I came by quite a few titles that were hardly aimed towards teens and younger (anime/manga) during my stay. Many were too graphic for children or didn't have a fast story to maintain a teenager's interest.

I only met one self-proclaimed adult otaku, and he was overjoyed to have met a foreigner that knew some of the anime he loved.

It may be my own personal experience, but I found that if you asked if someone played games, they didn't include the Nintendo DS in such a category, only consoles. Maybe because it can also be a learning tool. I discovered later some of my friends that adamantly denied liking games were die-hard addicts of Mario on their DS.

But based only on my own experience, "hardcore gaming" is no where near as popular in Japan as it is in North America. Then again, I didn't go out of my way looking for gamers due to not having a firm enough grasp on the language.