By the time he actually made his way out, the crowd gathering around the stage had really intensified, with people watching from all the way up in the higher floors.

Kojima made a really nice remark about Hong Kong, and how he wanted to come to the city that created some of his favourite movies. That's pretty much as much as I could translate, as the rest of the talk went along the lines of:

Kojima: "Blah blah blah Japanese blah blah."
Translator guy: "Blah blah blah Cantonese blah blah."

The fact that the two English speaking journalists that I was with didn't really understand it either meant that we were kinda up the creek without a paddle. Ah well, at least there was an interesting video behind them, compiling footage from all their various destinations during the world tour. Those Europeans sure have some hot geek girls! And the Americans are totally nuts too!

After the big talk, it was finally time to hand out those prizes that I was eyeing from the press conference. The team took turns dipping their hands into a model's box to pull out the winning lucky draw tickets, and then presented their prizes to the lucky fans.

This guy is really tall. And skinny.

Signed or not, that paper fan is a pretty weak giveaway.

I don't think it's the t-shirt that this guy wants to bring home.

"I don't know what a Metal Gear is, but sure I'll take a free t-shirt!"

It's Kojima-san's turn to dip his hand in her box.

Guess Kojima-san really likes her box.

For a guy who just won a PS3, he looks only marginally happy.

After that came the big autograph session, where 200 fans who were lining up since the mall opened finally got to get some posters signed. Not included in those 200 fans was yours truly, who wasn't allowed anywhere near Kojima-san. Thus, the brand new copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 that I had in my bag went unsigned.

Anyway, that was my big HK adventure. Click here to see how you can win a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4.

---