So Sega/IGN Japan/Yokosuka tourism board are putting on a Shenmue event for Japanese fans on December 24th from 13:00 to 15:00 in a venue called "Younger Than Yesterday" in Dobuita.
Up to 80 fans can join for 500 yen each. The Japanese voice of Ryo will be there as well as some others connected to the game. It will be live streamed and then subtitled later for international viewers, but if you happen to be in town, go connect with your fellow fans!
A few prominent fans in the west have been invited to record videos that will be shown to the Japanese crowd so they can see why we love the series. A sort of Shenmue cultural exchange I suppose. My cohost Andrew and I will be recording a video, but in the meantime feel free to listen to our interview with IGN Japan's Esra Krabbe:
IGN Japan's Esra Krabbe was dubbed the "#Shenmue Respect Champion" for his passionate and knowledgeable Shenmue panel discussion at #tgs2018.
IGN Japan announcement
Announcement Video
Yokosuka city's announcement
Would gladly swap all of that for one decent patch...
I can finally see SOME light at the end of the tunnel, though. Today's hotfix for Shenmue II on PS4 did actually fix the hard crash at Beverly Hills Wharf. They are at least fixing the bugs in the patches, lol.