Northern California, Quest to Question

I just visited the opening day of Nintendo’s store in San Francisco! I’m still rather surprised that the store would be established here before Seattle (near Nintendo of America’s headquarters), Los Angeles or Orlando (Super Nintendo World), but I welcome it! The store is located at Union Square, a frequently transited public area anchored by a Macy’s and other shops along with convenient underground parking. It’s also a pretty decent place to watch the iconic Chinese New Years parade!

The simplest way I’d describe Nintendo is as a video game company driven by the idea of play. Intellectual property, hardware, and software are means for people to engage in novel experiences. It reflects the brand’s heritage as a toymaker, instead of hardware (Sony/PlayStation) or software (Microsoft/Xbox) makers. I recommend checking out sometime the website BeforeMario the toys that led into the present-day Nintendo. Having said that, Nintendo’s recent forays into theme parks, merchandise, and animated movies puts them in more direct competition with Disney than other competitors in the video game space.

An image of the blog BeforeMario, showcasing a variety of Nintendo designed toys.

Anyways, those unending theme park lines prepared me to line up just to enter a store in its opening day. What I do wonder is whether this store is aimed at locals or tourists, and to what extent this store varies from the My Nintendo Online Store. For better or worse, I can’t spend much today because I need to save for future travels. My goal is to acquire an Alarmo, the NSO Nintendo 64 controller, which has a historical tendency to be out of stock, and some exclusive merch.

To even get in line I had to log in to acquire a so-called “Warp Pipe-Pass,” and within seconds the earliest timeslots were already booked! Still, I was some-how able to get a reservation for 2:00 PM.

Needed to enter the store on opening weekend. Functioned via a QR code.

I arrived at the reserved time, and the queue nearly took the entire street! I was worried that they wouldn’t let me in because of the wait time, but a store staffer verifying that we had a QR code said I’d be let in. The people in the line seemed to be a mixture of locals and tourists, one that I overheard conversing that they came from Ohio just for this! I also noticed other wear clothing from other Nintendo branded stores, such as the one in Osaka. Though I did hear one mentioning driving one hour from home, so it’s a mixture of both local and tourist. An influencer on privacy within the sphere of technology used the line to interview people regarding the normalized encroachment of data collection. Meanwhile a staff member from the adjacent Westin began distributing water bottles and snacks to people. All in all, I queued for an hour, comparable to waiting for a theme park ride.

When I first entered, my first impression was how densely stocked the store was. This makes the showroom feel larger despite the small space. In the first floor, I saw a mixture of San Francisco store specific merch, specifically a design that had the different franchises follow Mario, whose merch is also in the front. There are Mario T-Shirts, plushies, bags, kitchenware, and the like.

Hmm… That book cover looks like the one that caused a stir a couple of years ago for allegedly plagiarizing the English Super Mario Wiki. I wonder if they updated that book. The front of the first floor has a bit more space to allow traffic to flow between the second floor and the store entrance.

Moving onto the second floor, I was greeted by statues of Link and Inkling Girl from the Legend of Zelda and Splatoon franchises respectively. The second floor with a lack of windows has more space to showcase wares, being divided by franchise including Kirby, Pokémon, and Mario again.

There’s also a giant display for people to try out Nintendo Switch games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe seemed to be the most popular game played there. I went against someone dressed as Mario at Cloudtop Cruise and won in part because motion controls were enabled on the Switch Pro Controller (according to him). A staff member commented how this space will be ideal for watching Nintendo Direct announcements together.

Adjacent are four TVs containing the same demos as the larger panel, of which I used one to play Super Mario Bros Wonder. Behind is a small, but densely concentrated cluster of amiibo.

On the other side of the room was a small panel for people to check-in to receive My Nintendo platinum coins and a sticker. I had to log-in and do the two-factor authentication so I suggest logging in advance should you find this important.

Later I saw former Nintendo staffers and present-day podcasters Kit and Krysta vlogging their opening day experience. I was rather surprised to see them at this late hour, thinking that they would have likely gotten an opening hour reservation. But alas, it seems that no-one is immune to the ‘uniqueness’ of online Nintendo services. I might have sardonically commented as such, eh (to the chagrin of Krysta) oops…

Anyways, towards the back on the first floor, they had the same display of the Nintendo Switch line as in the second floor, except with a tablet to customize the Joy-Con colors to one’s liking. I wonder how long that display will last considering that the succeeding model comes out in less than a month and isn’t yet on display. Accessories were stocked here as well.

I also found the Alarmo and Nintendo Switch Online Controllers in the same section! An employee confirmed that the N64 controller is in stock for purchase if you have an active subscription.

I really like how they display (floor 1 near the accessories, floor 2 near the amiibo), games in the store, each unit having a shelf directly tilted towards one’s view and really allowing the box art to introduce their game to customers. I surprisingly saw the version of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet including the DLC (downloadable content). It’s out of print, increasingly harder to find, and is the sort of item that’d be scalped or be absurdly expensive in the future. If this type of game is still available, I wonder if getting certain editions of games will actually be feasible without needless legwork…

Having returned from the store, I bought:

Nintendo Alarmo [$99.99 USD]
Nintendo Characters Mug [$24.99 USD]
2 Pokémon Scarlet & Violet + The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero [$94.99 USD each]
Total Cost: 315.21 USD (including 0.25 shopping bag charge, excluding tax)
I didn’t get the N64 controller because those two games made me spend $190 than I intended.

But I also got collectable Mario & Link coins with the opening date of the store. It’s a shame that the collectable poster that was given to people who entered in the earlier hours was already unavailable by my allotted time. And unsurprisingly both collectables are already being flipped on eBay.

Only given to the earliest opening day attendees.

An odd observation I made while visiting this store is that quite a lot of merch sold here isn’t available on their own online My Nintendo store. An unexpected consequence is that outside of the more obvious products (i.e., ones that literally say San Francisco), it was hard to tell what products were specific to this store, specific to in-person Nintendo stores, or merch that’s available elsewhere (i.e. Target, Walmart). For example, while Pikmin Pellet Coaster Set is available online, Wall clock doesn’t have any listing. The Mario book I mentioned earlier is readily found at bookstores, but not on My Nintendo. This store also takes inventory from the Pokémon Center, examples being a Pikachu Kitchen Ceramic Mixing Bowl 3-Piece set and the Everyday Fun Kitchen Apron. But the aforementioned complete version of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet isn’t available there. That its here might just be a one-off due to the occasion, but I haven’t been to Nintendo New York in years, and lack a proper point of comparison. Still, the uneven availability of online stock is probably why I found going to Nintendo San Francisco interesting, despite usually overlooking their online store.

I think locals will likely use this store to attend special events like Nintendo Directs, and to possibly buy items that tend to sell out like the Nintendo 64 controller or limited-edition Nintendo games. Tourists will likely buy more of the merch, as it links Nintendo’s IP with non-gaming audiences in an area with both tourist and local traffic. Nintendo actually recently announced that their next store will open in Fukuoka, Japan. If Nintendo’s goal is to spread the reach of their IP, where would you open another Nintendo Store? Seattle? Las Vegas? London?

I was unsure of whether I would cover this kind of trip, but I want to experiment! If you want to see more writing of this type, please give me feedback!

I felt like seeing one of the areas beyond the San Fransisco Bay Area to learn about places I might want to dedicate time to in the future. One such place is Lake County (map) (2020 pop. 68,163), directly north of Napa County (US CENSUS). I saw in maps that it had a large lake surrounded by various local communities and wanted to get a feel of the place.

Some context, Clear Lake is the largest natural existent freshwater lake in California. It has a surface area of 68 mi² (“Clear Lake”). Movement in the San Andreas Fault System, eruptions in the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, and erosion contributed to the lake’s creation. The lake is located between the Russian and Sacramento rivers, with the river it drains to occasionally changing, currently being the later (“History”).

I realized how large this lake is as we started approaching it! The winding roads south of the lake are mostly short and residential, with different kinds of housing surrounded by trees and water. This housing varies from large, elegant houses to small, clustered, lakeside mobile homes. Regardless of housing type, most lakeside residents had some sort of dock, and nearby residents could still access the water through nearby docks, marinas, and local parks like Braito’s Buckingham Marina and Lakeside County Park.

As you approach the west of Clear Lake, the surroundings increasingly become more commercial and industrial, and you enter the community of Lakeport (map), with a 2020 population of 5,026 (US CENSUS). It’s a fairly small town, but it has a small urban main-street with various businesses from restaurants, a clothing shop, and newspaper.

I stopped at and explored the small, quiet, yet comfortable Library Park that separates the main street from Clear Lake. It is a central area in the city that people can congregate and be together. It has… 1) Slides, swing sets, and the like for younger individuals. 2) A gazebo for people to congregate in the shade. 3) A concrete path adjacent to the lake. 4) And docks for boats.

My favorite part was seeing all of the ducks near the water. I am unsure if it is permitted, but I imagine locals feed them. Their presence in the water gives the lake life in an otherwise cloudy and quiet day. This is the kind of park that allows you to wander a bit and also traverse parts of the town without having to cross more streets. I did not spend that much time here though after strangers called out my camera from the gazebo, and instinctually recoiled away.

After you leave Lakeport, there’s a brief section where the road and the lakeshore separate. With the cloudy skies, I felt the surrounding landscape with the trees evoke a mysterious, somewhat muted, yet interesting aura. The clouds covering the sky filter out the daylight, while the foliage-less trees make a stark contrast to the surrounding grass and water. And the apparently broken fence is a curious, and odd detail. I could not resist, and decided to stop the car and take a picture. Locals understandably do not appreciate a car blocking part of the lane, with one giving me the finger. Oops! I hope it was worth it…

The northern coast of Clear Lake appeared to have less houses directly on the lake’s shore. Instead, there was more road directly adjacent to the lake, with more docks attached to the road. There did not appear to be much parking though for outsiders, thus it might be worth researching in advance whether those docks are publicly available to use.

Some of those docks were also wooden, with many seemingly abandoned and left to deteriorate over time. This even includes some houses that are apparently in such poor shape that its bridge disappeared! I wonder if these are still in use, albeit for specific functions, or if it is simply more troublesome to dismantle the remaining structure.

The eastern side of Clear Lake resembles the southern section with more houses closer to the shore. That said, the flora felt less dense in this area. Accessing the surrounding houses is more difficult by a thinner, somewhat more dangerous road. There is a greater sense of privacy as some communities are gated, or have signs indicating that only residents (and their guests) may enter. Said seclusion might be why I saw two deer roaming near the road. They did not seem phased by our presence. You might have slow-down to avoid colliding with unsuspecting fauna.

I did not stop in the city of Clearlake, but it seemed commercial like Lakeport. Much of the signage welcomed anglers. I’m surprised that anglers specifically are a target demographic when the lake is close enough to the Bay Area to be a possible day trip for recreational boaters. It must have something to do with being called “Bass Capital of the West,” with two thirds of catches being largemouth bass, with the heaviest caught currently weighting 17.52 lb (“Clear Lake”). My biggest surprise from Lake County is that while Clear Lake is a pretty place to visit, it is very much a local’s destination. It is much more residential than what I expected, essentially being a bubble surrounded by the Northern Coast, Bay Area, and Central Valleys.

As for my reconnaissance, if you are mainly interested in seeing and enjoying the lake in a single place for the entire day, then I suggest Clear Lake State Park (brochure). There’s trails, swimming, marina, camping, cabins, and a visitor center. It essentially has most of the niceties for travel. It is worth noting that the visitor center when I visited was only open between 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM on Saturdays and Sundays. I also saw a sign promoting a “Story Walk” that occurred at 11:00 AM, in the second Saturday of each month. That said, the ranger warned us that this park tends to crowd on weekdays. You need to decide if the visitor center and “Story Walk” are preferable to crowds.

If you seek to learn the area’s local history, some possibilities include Anderson Marsh State Historic Park (brochure in English or Español), Historic Courthouse Museum, Gibson Museum and Cultural Center, and Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum.

One final potential point of interest is the Calpine Geothermal Visitor Center, open in Fridays and Saturdays and focused on geothermal energy. If you plan well in advance, you can schedule a tour to a concentrated area of power plants known as “The Geysers.”

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t initially sure about writing about this trip because it does not particularly focus on a specific place, but rather the general vicinity. Could you tell me if you would prefer that I focus only on specific destinations, or would you enjoy every now and then more exploratory articles such as this one? I would really appreciate any feedback! Lastly, here is a URL that approximately shows the route I took exploring the area of Clear Lake: https://goo.gl/maps/qREuDzSBTLkMacH3A.

Check out my other pictures from this trip here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAFxjC