# 26

On Friday, I had to stay late at work for a meeting with some of the other English teachers and the vice principal so I didnt arrive in Tokyo until about 10 pm. I went to Vegas as usual. There were still some people there but it wasnt extremely packed. Matt and Honnou were there playing against eachother. I sat down and just started playing. Right before a match was about to start, I felt someone sorta poke me in the ribs. I turn around and Yoshi, the owner of Zin was there at Vegas! Certainly wasnt expecting that. I didnt have time to talk to him cuz the match was starting. Eventually afterwords we found out that he was there to play Gundam lol. We stayed for maybe a little over an hour and after getting some food, Matt, Honnou, and I headed to Current.

As soon as I walked in, Monty was there and bought me a shot because hes awsome.
Eventually Yoshi showed up after having played some good games of Gundam at Vegas haha. Yoshi found out it was my birthday party tomorrow but said he had to work at Zin so he bought me a rum coke. I later offered to buy Monty a shot in return for the one he bought me when I came in and hes like, just buy one for Mogi instead. So I bought Mogi and I a round of Jack shots and then Mogi soon after bought all 3 of us another round of shots! Monty had just bought Current a copy of Death Magnetic (the new Metallica CD) and asked Mogi to play a bunch of songs off it. I had listened to a bit of it at a store like last week and thought it was better than their previous 3 albums (which I dont care for at all) but not as good as anything from the Black Album or earlier. Monty loved the crap out of this album and said it was better than And Justice For All and the Black Album but I totally disagree. To each his own I guess. The rest of the night at Current up until closing was the usual deal.

After Current closed, Matt, Honnou, Yoshi, Megu, Ayano, and I all went to do some Karaoke and more drinkin! The room we ended up getting was freakin huge for whatever reason and had this nice big table in. We could have conducted a business meeting in there, but instead we just got shit faced and sang a bunch of songs off key. I ended up singing... um.... wow I cant remember.... but um.. I know I sang like a few songs. Ayano wanted me to sing a Sonata Arctica song with her so we did um.... some song.... I cant remember.... I think I also sang Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies in there somewhere too. After a few drinks, the girls started to get a bit tired. Ayano ended up laying down and fell asleep using my leg as a pillow. At some point I fell asleep too a bit towards the end. I guess at some point Yoshi took off but left some money for his share. The rest of us headed out as well. I went my own way back to the usual manga kissa while the other 4 headed to the train station to go their own respective ways. I later found out that Matt was, for whatever reason, in a not so great mood walking home and ended up punching a wall or some shit in his drunken state.

The next day, I woke up from a phonecall from Honnou. We had made plans to go together to the random 2 on 2 Game Chariot tournament that would be starting at 5. I set my alarm before going to bed but my drunk ass set it to the wrong time so its a good thing he woke me up. Despite having taken one of those awsome anti-hangover drinks you can buy from the conbini, I certainly had a hangover. I think I figured out the reason since I got one last weekend as well on Friday night. This is kinda nasty but im just gonna say it anyway. From time to time id find blood in my poop. For a while I was worried I had cancer or some shit but I got it looked into while I went to the doctor for my foot and it turns out that I have an internal hemroid. They arnt painful and theres no real way of knowing you have one unless you get it checked. Some of you may recall me mentioning something about poopin some blood when I did snus (Swedish tabacco in a pouch that you absorb through your gums, gives you a wicked buzz) and the reason was obviously due to my internal hemroid. So anyway, the Doc gave me some of this like chinese herbal powdered hemroid medicine which tastes like shit. In addition it seems to have a side effect of making you a bit woozy feeling. I noticed lately ive been feeling a bit car sick when driving and appearently the shit doesnt go well with long epic nights of drinking. Since tonight (Saturday) would be my birthday party at Current, I decided it might be best for me to hold off on the medicine for a day.

After killing a little time beating some random Venom player at Vegas and then him leaving, I headed to Shinjuku station and met up with Honnou. We took the train out to Goi station in Chiba which Game Chariot is right next to. Took a little over an hour. We arrived about 20 mins before the tournament would be scheduled to start. When we arrived, there werent that many people there and I was surprised to see that there were only 2 AC cabs (there used to be like 5 or more every time I went before). In addition, Kaqn wasnt working there today. I played a few games of casuals and won like all 5 of my matches until the tournament started. After signups finished, there ended up being about a total of 8 teams I think. All the teams were 2 man teams except Buppa was there and was on a team by himself. I didnt know who most of the players were but in addition to Buppa, DIO was there too, as well as the Faust player Ojima, and the ABA player Reo (these are the 2 guys I was teamed with during the 3 on 3 that I won at Game Chariot from the blog entree apropriately entitled "Victory at Game Chariot"). This tournament sorta reminded me of that one in a way in the sense that it was a bit smaller and they didnt record any matches. My team mate ended up being a HOS player (actually the first guy I beat in casuals after arriving) named Wagen. Our first opponent turned out to be Buppa, the well known Ky master. I went first and came really close in the first round but he came back with just a little life left. The 2nd round was fairly close too but in the end he got the best of me. I felt like I should have had it since he was good but it wasnt like I felt dominated, I just made a few mistakes and he caught me off guard a bit. Wagen unfortunately lost as well, and just like that we were out of the tournament. Honnou was teamed with a Testament player whos name I dont recall. They ended up losing to an ABA player who goes by the handle AAA. Some other highlights... Buppa ended up taking out AAA and his team mate which was another Ky. There was also a Slayer vs Ky match in which Slayer was losing but suddenly was about to make a huge comeback after hitting Ky with a dead on time super, he could have gone for a huge combo that probably would have killed Ky, but much to everyone's surprised he followed it up with an air HS and it just slammed Ky down to the ground lol! Obviously the dude choked and messed up. From here on out, he shall be known as Slamdunk Slayer. For the finals, it was to be Buppa vs DIO and his teammate who was a Millia player. They decided to make things fair that they would select someone at random who already lost and make him be Buppas team mate. Everyone drew a number at random and the winner ended up being a Venom player. The finals went like this... Millia beats Venom but then Buppa takes out Millia. The final match was DIO vs Buppa. I always thought this was a good matchup for Ky but in the end, DIO took out Buppa for the win.

After the tournament ended, we stayed and played a few more games of casuals. I played against DIO twice and we went 1 and 1. I also played Ojima in a Faust mirror and it went down to the last round and I lost but then I got back on right away and beat him 3 rounds in a row. There were lots of times when we both did scalpel pull from full screen and I would land mine like a split second earlier and kept hitting him and you could hear him yelling from the other side. Sorta like a jokingly frustrated yell haha. Eventually it was starting to get a bit late and we had a long trip back, so Honnou and I said goodbye, got some food from Lawson and headed to the train station. After waiting around for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and still no train, suddenly 3 of the guys from the tournament showed up. We talking with them for a bit while we waited for the train. They were all asking me about my handle (ElvenShadow) and what it means so I explained it to them and they were all sorta like "Oooohhhh!" as they finally got wtf it means. Among them was AAA, the ABA player, and he explained to us that he got his name from not having a name and just mashing buttons when you input your name in games after you win to record your score. The default being AAA and he ended up adopting it as his actual handle haha. Eventually the train came and we all talked a bit more about random Guilty Gear related stuff and when we got to Chiba station we went our seperate ways as they had different trains to catch. Honnou and I played some 2 player Sonic game on the DS on the way back for a bit and eventually arrived at Shinjuku station where we met up with Matt and Honnou's friend Takao. From there, we all headed over to Vegas.

My girlfriend was coming to Tokyo to go with us to Current for my birthday party but she hadnt arrived in Shinjuku yet so we decided to kill time at Vegas. For whatever reason, Basara was there and he was using Testament. I beat his Testmament and then he switched to Anji and beat me. Around this time, Ryoko messaged me saying she arrived so we went to go meet her at Shinjuku station.

After that, we all headed to Current together. We got there fairly early, probably around 10. When we arrived not many people were there yet. Within an hour the place became fucking packed. There was a random large group of foreign guys (who brought a sailor/school girl outfit and were taking turns wearing it 0_o) that came with some Japanese girls I dont know and another group of some Japanese people I didnt know, but aside from that the place was packed with just about every single one of the main regulars aside from a couple people. In addition to it being my birthday this week, it was also Antti"s and Mai's (Mai has the same birthday as me). When 12 midnight hit it was officially my birthday and I became the absoloutly non signifigant age of 26, just one year closer to turning 30 and feeling really old, but at least its a good excuse to get wasted (not that I ever needed an excuse :P). Though Ryoko had gone with me once to Current before, the night she went ended up being a bit dead, or rather a typical Friday (read "the calm before the storm" entree) so she didnt get to meet a lot of the regulars. Tons of people had been wanting to meet her for a very long time so they were all happy to finally get the chance. Throughout the night, everyone just kept buying shots and pitchers and drinks all over the place. There were times I found myself with multiple drinks in front of me due to so many people buying me shit.

The people who are friends of Laura who I went to that club thing with last week called me earlier in the day saying they wanted to come but never ended up calling me back. However, I got a random call from one of Kyle (stunedge)'s Chinese friends who was still in Japan (the guy who mostly plays SF but wanted to play me in AC that one time at Club Sega Shinjuku). He wanted to meet up and play games but I explained to him what was up and he said he wanted to come drinking too. So Ryoko and I stepped out of Current for a few minutes to go find him outside. He showed up with this other French Asian guy (I think it was his boyfriend).

Eventually another one of Antti's Finish friends showed up with a large supply of snus. I decided to have some even though I know what could occur. If I only leave it in my mouth for a few mins I get a buzz without the bloody stool as none of it gets mixed with my spit and swollowed on accident. Ryoko tried one too but she said it tasted like crap... which it does haha.

Later on it was my turn to DJ! This time the let me DJ for like over an hour or something and I brought my CDs with me. During my set, Chip showed up and so did Sawa. DJing was fun as hell. My set was the following (though I cant remember the exact order)...

Symphony X - Eve of Seduction
Dream Theater - The Mirror
Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction (requested by Megu)
Circus Maximus - From Childhood Hour
Sonata Arctica - Respect the Wilderness (I think)
Nightwish - Bare Grace Misery
Seikima II - 蠟人形の館 (rôningyô no yakata, 蠟人形の館?) '99
Evergrey - Mark of the Triangle
ACDC - Have a Drink On Me
Children of Bodom - Little Bloodred Ridin Hood
Angel Dust - Bleed
Symphony X - Of Sins and Shadows
Dream Theater - Another Day
Nightwish - The Islander (requested by Matt)
GGXX #Reload Korean ver OST - Pillars of the Underworld (Ky Theme) (requested by Honnou)

During Mark of the Triangle I had to pee but some chick was in the bathroom for way too long so Bosch led me somewhere outside on the side of the building and told me to piss in a drain lol. I made it back in time before the song ended.

Also, at one point, one of the Finnish dudes requested some ACDC and it just so happened that I cued up the ACDC song for next before he even asked. Great timing lol. I can read minds!

Everyone said they enjoyed the set and rocked out so it was good times. After that, Bosch went back to DJing and people did lots of dancing. At one point they played Wish I had an Angel and I was able to explain to Ryoko how I injured myself as I pointed to them doing the same shit that happened when I got dragged down haha. Luckily this time no one was hurt.

A little later on they served a birthday cake in honor of Mai and me. Everyone enjoyed some tasty cake chased by shots and more beer! At one point Matt was missing for a bit so we went outside to check on him and he was laying down outside by the stairs saying he wasnt feeling good for whatever reason, but later he came back in and seemed fine.

Eventually after one of the most epic nights of drinking ever, they turned on the lights and played Pretty Maids - Please Don't Leave Me (one of the quentisential Current songs). This is ussually the cue for people to leave but most people stayed around for like another half hour anyway haha. After eventually saying goodbye to everyone, I left with Ryoko.

Our plan was to go to Tokyo Disneyland (which is actually in Chiba) at around noon. We got on the train to find a hotel somewhere near there. We ended up falling asleep and waking up back at Shinjuku right where we started which wasted a lot of time. When we arrived at Tokyo station, we decided to just find a hotel around there since it was already past 7 am. After walking around for a bit and finding one hotel that wanted 18000 yen to sleep there for 4 hours and 2 other places that said it was too late to check in, 8 am rolled around. Both of us were tired as all hell and pretty wasted so we decided to just go home. We werent going to get enough sleep and wouldnt enjoy going to an amusement park that required extensive walking and standing in line for hours on end in our current state, so we decided to save it for another time. After sleeping on the train for 3 hours we finally made it back to our town and went back to my place to sleep some more.

After waking up and doing some other things, and Ryoko giving me a kickass birthday present (a brand new pair of awsome fucking shoes that actually fit me, which I desperately needed after buying ones that were too small) we met up with Cynthia and went to a Sushi resturaunt for my birthday, followed by icecream. I pigged the fuck out cuz I was starving and Ryoko and Cynthia insisted on paying for all the food even though I wanted to pay for everyone instead.

In the end it was one of the most awsome birthdays ever. One of the most fun nights at Current ive ever had and it was great that so many awsome people showed up to party with. The only thing that stopped this from being a perfect birthday was the absense of everyone from back in Chicago, but that cant be helped.

Next weekend there will be a 2 on 2 GGAC tournament at Vegas! Shit should be fuckin hype! I'm there!