Pokemon Soul Silver Unboxing

I'm learning Japanese. I also happen to spend most of my free time playing computer games (Yes, I'm one of those people). So, in order to learn Japanese while having fun I decided to get myself a copy of Pokemon Soul Silver for the DS, courtesy of renchi.com, a Hong Kong based games retailer for all of your import needs.

Total cost, including express FedEx shipping was about $80 (US) and, shockingly, it was delivered on a Sunday. I've used renchi in the past (for the delectable Demon's Souls) and it comes highly recommended (And for the record, I don't get any kind of refferal points!)

As my old maths teacher used to say - enough of this faggotry. On with the unboxing...



Front of the box. Thanks to my poor photography skills you're unable to fully appreciate the shiny, textured, beautifully illustrated background. Note the Pokewalker in the bottom right hand corner.



Back of the box. All of the Kanji that's part of the game description is annotated with furigana, small Japanese characters which tell the reader how to pronounce it. This is a good sign for me, who can recognize very few Kanji, and read less than that.



Inside the box. On the left hand side is a standard DS game box, wrapped in cellophane. On the right hand side is the Pokewalker, with the instructions on how to use it in the middle.



Up close and personal with the Pokewalker. Initial impression are great - it feels solid and well made.



Bottom of the Pokewalker, from the back. There's one of those clip things from which you could hang a mobile phone charm (of Pikachu, of course)



The top of the Pokewalker, from the back, showing off the infrared sensor. For those who don't know, the idea is that when you're not playing the actual game, you store a Pokemon on the Pokewalker who levels up according to how many steps you take.



The package includes an alternative back for the Pokewalker. From the illustations in the instructions, it's a simple case of removing one screw in order to change the back. This one includes a handy belt clip.



Inside the box proper. Lots of incomprehensible literature and the game cartridge itself.



View of the cartridge from the top, where the infrared transmitter is placed. If you didn't already know it was there it's almost impossible to tell the difference between this and a normal cartridge.



Fun looking stuff that I can't read. Yet. On the left it looks like you can collect points for phat Pokemon lewt and on the right looks like a combined advertisement for the Pokemon World Championships 2010, and some Pokemon game for the Wii.



Inside the manual. Again, there's plenty of furigana to help younger Japanese readers out. The manual has a nice feel to it - it's not glossy but as you can see it's bright and colorful.

Next up: gameplay impressions!