In the United States, the once-proud pastime of hanging out at a seedy arcade has largely fallen into the dustbin of history (despite a somewhat recent comeback). But there is a land where the arcade never died but evolved and thrived over the last 20 years. It’s a land where massive arcade complexes rise seven stories into the air on consecutive street corners, where new mech games featuring giant Internet-connect pods with wraparound projection screens are common, where rhythm games are still as popular as ever.

I’m speaking, of course, of Japan, and I used the opportunity of my first Tokyo Game Show to check out the famously vibrant arcade culture I had heard so much about over the years. While many locations frowned on taking pictures (and the lighting was generally atrocious in most places), I put together this visual guide to try to capture the feeling of being in a land where the arcade never died.