15 minute read
AA LEGION: JAPAN
ADVENTURES IN JAPAN WITH LAYLAX!
AS LAYLAX CLOSE OUT THEIR 25TH YEAR IN OPERATION IN JAPAN THE RETURN TO NORMALITY FOR THEIR KRYTAC OWNER’S MEETING VOLUME 5 HELD AT TOKYO SA-BA-GE PARK IN EARLY NOVEMBER, AND REPORTED ON BY STEWBACCA IN THE LAST ISSUE, IS JUST ONE OF THE MANY FEATHERS IN THEIR CAPS AS THEY EMBARK UPON CREATING A TRULY INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE IN THE COMING YEAR WITH THEIR NEW US OPERATIONS AFOOT READY TO SPREAD THEIR AIRSOFT RELATED PRODUCTS, MESSAGE AND CULTURE.
Alongside the obvious coverage of the main event itself, the international team that Laylax hosted for around a week or two at the beginning of November 2022 I also had the pleasure of being introduced to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Japan in both a traditional sense with Masaki, Marck, Ryan and occasionally other members of their team giving us a very pleasant guided tour of the cultural and tourist attractions which we were ably shown around and informed of the significance of. Beyond the obvious beauty of many of the buildings and scenes, or delicious local treats we were habitually engulfing, whenever the opportunity presented itself we also saw the more modern subcultures and idiosyncrasies relating to airsoft and the player base, game sites and industry at large that supports it; Japan, after all is the spiritual and technological home of all things airsoft, and while here in Taiwan the ever growing industry has managed to carve out a majority share of the sheer production and development of related products, it’s impossible to overlook the significance and heritage that Japan represents in terms of bringing us all this (hobby?… habit?… addiction?…lifestyle?) in the first place.
At the Krytac Owner’s Meeting itself, and among the various content that the Laylax team and international guests produced and released during and since the event, it’s clear that so many of the people and ideas touched a great many of us in terms of the way the local players comport themselves not only on the field, but also off it, with a very welcoming and inquisitive nature towards the foreign guests as well as impeccable sportsmanship and honourable play during the games themselves.
Having played extensively in the UK, Spain and Taiwan over these past long 17 years, I’ve seen all manner of issues manifest both on the day and online in the aftermath and
many of us lamented about the problems with airsoft in our own countries of focus, the clashes between play styles or groups, none of which seemed to manifest themselves in Japan! Perhaps we all need to get back to the roots of what this community is and represents at times; a common interest and goals to enjoy together that seems to be a perpetually contentious and threatened gun related pastime whichever corner of the world we find ourselves in.
The openness and individuality of the Japanese player base was writ large on the day with the sheer variety of loadouts lovingly crafted and with myriad Krytac platforms to match; many people evidently pour their heart and soul into crafting their replica guns and tactical gear to an almost Cosplayer level of attention and expertise, and clearly a lot of crossover exists in the two subcultures with lots of zombie, police, special forces, foreign unit and anime-like outfits scattered among the more traditionally clad players, as well as an array of small businesses on site to sell their niche goods to aforementioned players.
The generally warm hearted and jovial nature of the players definitely shone through with nobody seeming to take themselves all that seriously compared to some players I’ve seen elsewhere, and instead focusing on playing to the best of their ability or otherwise enjoying themselves and being supportive of each other in a faultlessly polite and cheerful manner bordering on stereotypical.
VENUES, GAMES, AND MANY TREATS!
Further afield after the main event we took a private tour bus from our hotel in Chiba nearer the airport and Sa-ba-ge park around the outer Tokyo area on the way to Yokohama in the West where we would again stay overnight before taking the Shinkansen, or “bullet train”, to Osaka and Laylax headquarters on the Monday. Along the way the Laylax team introduced us all to “Mokei Paddock”; directly south of our staging point in Chiba, this is a fascinating blend of large- floor-plan airsoft store on the ground floor that borders on a museum judging by some of the sheer variety of original early era niche guns we were all excitedly recognising and drooling over, as well as a somewhat open air and almost Greek market styled street scene themed CQB battle arena on the upper floors!
Sandwiched between both was an ultraclosequarters kill
house style rabbit warren of small rooms and even accessible air vent style crawl spaces; all of this, it turns out, is homed in a former sports centre with the now defunct swimming pool forming the crawl space CQB area beneath the floor of the main upper arena which was built over the pool space itself, while the overlooking floor to ceiling windowed terrace above forms the safe-zone and break area. This allows a turnaround of teams during busy sessions with out-of-game players being able to reload, prepare their equipment, enjoy refreshments and watch the action unfolding beneath with those currently in game.
Maydaysan was good enough to narrate the action and explain the somewhat unique playing style that was unfolding as we watched the players engaging below before taking a tour of the whole playing space between rounds. Ultimate Airsoft Battle – UAB, is essentially a juxtaposition of the ever increasingly popular SpeedQB styles prevalent in the US and Asia as of late, and instead of balls to the walls high speed action the objective is to remain as hidden as possible and methodically and slowly move between cover to achieve a firing solution on the opponents, peeking out rapidly and letting off short salvos or double taps with a pistol or compact PDW style AEG or gas blowback guns and minimising your own exposure and watching all the angles cautiously in the process.
As with SpeedQB this style can be somewhat contentious at times as well due to the much slower pace of the action and the almost risk-averse nature of the gaming making it not everyone’s cup of tea as such with some likening some of the shooting and movement exhibited to near blind firing techniques. But, as with everything else, all varieties of play should be encouraged to my mind and given a niche to work within assuming everyone in that space is playing the same style and within the same rules. Having pored over the vast array of guns and gear in the ground floor shop and seen around the gun workshop spaces upstairs which had some truly rare pieces lying around, we bid the staff farewell and embarked on our cross town highway ride to the opposite side of the bay.
In an otherwise typical and sedate shopping mall resides our next stop; on the top floor, in what used to be an indoor activity centre complex complete with onsite kitchen is Area 41 - Yokohama Airsoft Arena, complete with a reasonably sized onsite airsoft shop, virtual
reality gaming centre, specialised SpeedQB arena and CQB arena complete with overhead catwalks to observe or oversee the action below… which we all availed ourselves of to grab some photo and video content for our various media activities.
Again the pace of the action seemed to be matched only by the enthusiasm but good nature and honesty of the players involved; with many of them apparently being younger and making use of pistols with tracers and doing a blend of SQB or
UAB styles with the cautious peeking and shooting interspersed with feats of athleticism to get to the next available cover unscathed and make room for their teammates to advance behind them. In the case of the main arena the intensity of the action is throttled to an extent with an effective ‘DMZ’ or no go border between the sides of the arena which prevent players getting uncomfortably close and forces them to keep their heads on a swivel and choose their movements and angles carefully to minimise their exposure while maximising their effectiveness.
Up next was the end of the day’s bus tour at Yokohama waterfront! With many of us being obvious horrendous nerds, we wanted to catch a glimpse of the Gundam Base tourist attraction at the end of one of the piers before it is dismantled and moved elsewhere. Again it was another pleasant excursion in good company that allowed many to experience something they just can’t anywhere else as well as stock up on the obligatory memorabilia… ah those three little words; “exit via giftshop!” I also managed to bump into my old flatmates from the UK who live in Yokohama and whom I hadn’t seen for around 5 years since heading to Taiwan, so we managed an all too brief reunion while the rest of the group leisurely moved north along the dockside towards our hotel for the night.
After moving in groups along the waterfront and grabbing numerous pictures of the lights and sights we all eventually arrived at the Yokohama Grand Hotel and settled in for the night, awakening the next morning to spectacular views of the bay below that reminded me of my first stay in Hong Kong. After breakfast it was a case of “to the Shinkansen; post haste” taking a few stops on the Tokyo Metro to Yokohama station and waiting for our high speed adventure to Osaka in the West; we can travel in very similar speed and comfort in Taiwan thanks to the high speed rail company buying Japanese bullet trains, but we don’t get to enjoy the epic views of Mount Fuji on the way round our coast!
LAYLAX BOUND!
Arriving in Osaka we made for Laylax headquarters in the East end of the city with the foothills as a backdrop to the rooftop view no doubt recognisable to many of you from the numerous videos staged up there. The equally familiar top floor workshop studio would serve as a base of operations for many of us over the next few days, with lots of the content creators producing introductory photos and videos of Laylax’s latest products due to hit the market, from their modern surface finished spring sets with multiple different flake free colours to represent different spring rates, as well as their much anticipated CNC machined HOP unit for AEGs, Prometheus range barrels and HOP bucking nubs for optimal performance in a range of environments the world over. I was also excited to get hands on the EMG licensed KrytaC produced SilencerCo Maxim 9 GBB pistol with integral tracer unit; the preproduction prototype of which seems to fit my hands very nicely and I’ve since test fired it at MOA 2022, as well as the numerous P90 AEG upgrade components and modular front rail systems.
Among the various platforms on display were also some of the resident artisanal productions in the
form of GBB pistols with expertly crafted cell-shaded stylised paint jobs that made them look like they were popping out of the screen of anime episodes, as well as custom Krytac Trident AEGs with A-10 Warthog style paint jobs with shark mouth nose art and multi-barrel muzzle cap to boot. I also eyed the Marui Mk23 SOCOM NBB pistol in its tooled-out guise with grip wrap, custom Laylax red dot ready slide and the softened internal valve and hammer spring system that makes for a much lighter trigger pull as well as adjustable power output on the magazine valve to allow optimisation for the power or efficiency bias the player desires! The team were good enough to gift me their breakout holster, valve kit and replacement outer barrel unit to allow me to customise my own Mk23 that I acquired since returning to Taiwan and will be putting through its paces in 2023.
It’s not just about the guns though, Laylax have an ever growing soft goods and tactical gear line to discuss, and at the owner’s meeting event we’d all already been furnished with their excellent Aeroflex breathe easy masks with ballistic protective inserts that allow for good facial protection without impeding cheek weld upon your gun’s stock and also help limit fogging of eye pro with their two piece fabric and plastic construction. Similarly we’d been introduced to the BiteMag hard shell magazine pouches which I made use of with the P90 and since returning to Taiwan have been happily utilising mounted on my belt kit with MP5 GBB magazines with great retention and ease of retrieval and reindexing thus far. Another familiar product being extolled was their container gun bag which I’ve been field trialling the original civilianised denim looking variant of since its release when Jonothan of Airsoftology was good enough to pass it on to me for user testing and which has since served me very well and garnered a lot of interest and envy from my teammates; thankfully the few shortcomings of the earlier model appear to have been addressed in exactly the fashion I would have suggested in the newer variants which have reinforced main zips and stitching as well as more internal space for carrying multiple carbines with a luggage style collapsible zip retained concertina on the outer edges which takes the strain of the main zip. “IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE GUNS THOUGH, LAYLAX HAVE AN EVER GROWING SOFT GOODS AND TACTICAL GEAR LINE TO DISCUSS, AND AT THE OWNER’S MEETING EVENT WE’D ALL ALREADY BEEN FURNISHED WITH THEIR EXCELLENT AEROFLEX BREATHE EASY MASKS WITH BALLISTIC PROTECTIVE INSERTS THAT ALLOW FOR GOOD FACIAL PROTECTION WITHOUT IMPEDING CHEEK WELD”
Alongside these were the variety of company branded T-Shirts and swish looking weatherproof jackets with hook and loop panels for affixing patches too.
MORE OSAKA, MORE!
In the intervening week we were treated to local sightseeing in the form of a trip to Osaka castle, a
highlight for me being a shameless nerd having come from a city with both a castle and cathedral to its name, and the grounds and building itself provided a very pleasant and calm experience among the otherwise busy schedule as well as an interesting touch point with Masaki relating to us about the construction of the local area and its history and culture.
A day trip outing to the local markets of Kyoto to the north was also a highlight for many with the local cooking implements and cuisine on offer being quite literally right up our alley, we were also enjoying progressing along the market stalls and engulfing all manner of baked, fried or frozen snacks along the way while taking in the sights and sounds and the many local people dressed up in awesome traditional Japanese attire before we headed towards the hills and the temples and gates residing there with commanding views of the city below, enjoying the views and postcard-level photo opportunities as the sun crept below the hills in the distance and we retired in force to the train back to Osaka.
As the week drew to a close I had to say my goodbyes earlier than most as my day job had limited my available time out of country; some of the guys like Kev, Norah, Romain, Scott and Iosephus were going to play over the weekend at local airsoft sites while others were travelling onwards elsewhere incountry either to return flights from Tokyo, or further personal travel elsewhere in Japan.
I navigated through the Tokyo metro system surprisingly successfully given my lack of phone network and managed to get all the way to Kansai airport with only one minor error in staying on the wrong part of the train as it split at one station to head along different lines. A quick stop off and return to the previous station and I finally found myself at the airport and on my way back to Taipei with a few souvenirs and a lot of great memories in tow.
I must again extend my sincere thanks to Masaki, Marck and Ryan as well as the wider Laylax team for not only putting on an awesome owner’s meeting event, but for their hospitality and support throughout everyone’s time in Japan, and all the extra insider information and local knowledge they imparted with us regarding the customs, history and culture. I find myself missing the general quiet of the land of the rising sun and homeland of airsoft already, and much as I love my life in Taiwan… it certainly feels like it’s turned all the way up to 11 all the time!
Until next time… fellow shooters. AA
