He's exaggerating but tanning salons are popular. Depending on where he was, it's a far cry from your average western city population wise. Tokyo is overpopulated after all.
The arcade scene is still alive and well there. Not as big as it used to be in the 90's, but to put things into perspective, there are about as many arcades there now as there was in the US in 1995 (9500 I believe). The stats may be a bit off, but you get the picture.
VF is kept alive by the arcades there, and players from Asia in general are best at Tekken and SF for that reason. You can't be the best by just playing a handful of people repeatedly after all.
I had a few friends who lived there for some years, and currently one who's finishing his MBA there. If things go well, I'll be paying a visit sometime this year but I'd like to stay away from the cities as much as possible. Countryside is where it's at.