I was going with my brother, and my friend (whose brother also came along). For the purposes of this impromptu blog I won't use any names because I haven't really asked or told anyone that I was going to go ahead and blog publish something about it.
It was somewhere around 7am when the four of us arrived at Chalk Farm road, there were just about a 100 people in the queue before us, right along the wall next to the gate entrance of Stables Market.
My brother brought me back a chai tea latte from the nearby coffee shop, knowing full well that we were going to be there for a little while.
It was starting to become a rainy morning in Camden Town, but that didn't stop Hideo Kojima from coming out (unexpectedly) to greet the line of fans that were queing up outside! This lifted everyone's spirits and he was followed soon after by Yoji Shinkawa - lead character and mecha designer for the Metal Gear series. They passed by with one of their camera guys to film a snippet for their vlog of the World Tour. It's comparable to seeing unicorns out in the wild, because it just doesn't happen!
Soon after the rain really started to come down and a Mexican wave of umbrellas started to go up from the front of the line. Whilst we were in the queue we were given a raffle ticket number, which I was hoping was for a chance to win some Death Stranding merch - but it was just to ensure that we had secured our place in. By 10am the queue had been moved forward and by 11am we were inside the first holding area. I decided to snap a couple of pictures of the interior.
We flicked through the merch brochure and my friend's brother decided to order a mini Ludens figure which he ordered with one of the staff who were walking around with their devices. We spoke with one of the PlayStation staff and she filled us in on what the process was going to be and informed us that the guy who was first in the queue had gotten there at midnight! That's some commitment.
Just as we were having this conversation, we spotted through the window behind her, Hideo Kojima and his PA running along the perimeter of the building opposite us.
The line was slowly snaking around now, and we were getting closer to what we assumed was the location of the photo op. I decided to leave for a moment and as luck would have it I bumped into Mr. Kojima's translator - Mr. Aki Saito, whom you may have seen before as he's been with Kojima Productions for many years now. He's one of the voices on the 'Metal Gear Integral Podcast' featured in the MGS4 game. I had watched him interpret for Mr. Kojima the night before on the BAFTA live stream, and events prior to that. I have nothing but good things to say about him, and after the brief conversation we had (where I asked things like: "It must be difficult is it not, trying to pay attention to 3 languages and having to translate everything right?" To which his response was: "Not at all, since I'm the one writing the scripts!" followed by a wink and cheeky smile) he thanked us for coming out. I said "We'll catch you around!", and shook hands and went to rejoin the queue. Genuinely cool dude.
The excitment was building now, as the many screens around were playing the launch trailer from the game, as well as concept arts that will be featured in the upcoming art book which is scheduled for release in January 2020. Our group started talking about our ideas and theories about the game and it wasn't too long before we made it to the front of the queue where the staff member informed us that Mr. Kojima will not be signing anything today but will happily take any gifts offered to him.
We were soon ushered into the next connecting building, and it was explained to us that once we get in, we must put our bags down on the left side of the next room, and when ready could approach the set to have our picture taken.
Once we were in, on the other side of the holding room, in front of a black drip Death Stranding themed backdrop stood Yoji Shinkawa on the left, and Hideo Kojima surrounded by their staff. It was at that moment I figured out that we'd be getting a picture with both these legends!
The setup was very professional; they had their own backdrop, flash umbrella (don't know the technical term for it) and cameraman. You weren't permitted to take any pictrues with your own camera or phone, but would be provided with your picture at the end.
I carefully placed by my bags down on the left side of the room, and kept calm - using my varied and vast experience of meeting pro wrestlers to my advantage. There's nothing worse than getting overexcited and then botching your one attempt at a picture (like my friend did).
After I put down my things I was greeted by Aki Saito who remembered me straight away and was very gracious before asking if I was ready to have my picture taken. It was time.
I walked up to Yoji Shinkawa, shook his hand and said "Ohayo Gozaimasu" and then shook hands with Hideo Kojima and said the same, which put a slight smile on his face as he also greeted me back with a 'Good Morning' in Japanese. They put me in the middle of them, I put my arms around the two figures that have been such an integral part of not only my gaming - but my life. With my embrace reciprocated, we faced the cameraman in one of my genuinely most happy moments, as reflected by the true smile beaming across my face.
It was worth losing sleep, it was worth waking up early to wait in rainy Camden Town - but none of this had even crossed my mind because I just met HIDEO KOJIMA!
I thanked them in Japanese for this truly precious moment, that will live with me now for as long as I can remember. For some reason they also thanked me in Japanese and seemed very happy, which was priceless for me.
The group as a whole seemed very positively charged after this encounter with The Boss. Next, the PlayStation staffer would take us through into the next room for the Death Stranding Experience. I'm choosing not to delve into the experience here for several reasons, but I may post about it after the game is released, so keep a look out! For me, I had just met one of my heroes so I very much doubted that the best was yet to come.
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