Current 7th Anniversary party. Admission: 1,000 yen and your right foot.

This weekend started off like any other weekend, but certainly turned out to be much different than I would have expected. I arrived in Tokyo on Friday at the usual time around 8 pm. I headed to Vegas as I often do, played a little GG and a little SFIV. Nothing extremely noteworthy to mention. This weekend, Rock Inn Current would be having its 7th anniversary party both Friday and Saturday nights. I decided to get to Current kinda early since I figured it would be pretty packed.

When I arrived, there were a decent ammount of people there for an average Friday night, but it wasnt really all that packed. I got there around 10 pm which is earlier than I ussually show up. They were charging 1000 yen at the door and you got a drink ticket. Normally when they charge a cover at the door for events, they never make me pay it since they know I would be going there anyway. Most of the time its for metal events which are run by other people and they just use the bar as the venue so the money would be going to them. However, since this time the bar itself was running this event, the money goes directly to them, so they had me pay like everyone else. I didnt really mind since really im only paying 500 yen and they had free snacks all night. Most of the people there were regulars and even the owner of Zin showed up. I emailed Matt to see if he was coming but he said he was too busy dealing with moving into his new apartment in Nakano so he wouldnt make it tonight but would come tomorrow. They were giving away these Current sample Cds which were just a collection of some music they often play at the bar, and they burned a bunch of them wrong and were using them as coasters haha. Basically other than this it was a typical night, drank for a long time and had fun. After they closed at 5, a group of some of the regulars were going to go drinking some more at an izakaya. I went along with them and got some food and more beer. We stayed till about 7 am and then I walked to the manga kissa from there.

I woke up to lots of people sending me emails but went back to sleep. I ended up using my stamp card I had filled up at the manga kissa which gives you an extra 2 hours free, so I slept for a full 8 hours which felt nice. After I finally rolled out of there around 3 pm, I headed right to Vegas across the street. There were people there playing which was cool. Matt met me there as well to play games all day. I played a decent ammount of SFIV as well. Until last week, they only had 1 SFIV cabinet at Vegas but now they have 3. Thats a good sign that the game is actually making them some money since they bothered to order 2 more and those cabs are pretty expensive. I did pretty well with my Blanka actually, getting some wins here and there and even getting a 5 win streak, which is good for a game Ive hardly played. Lots of people were using Gouki. I was doing really well against Balrog (Claw) but was having lots of trouble against E.Honda. I got some good games of gear in here and there as well. At one point, Kawin (Spikey Hair Potemkin), Hase, and Natsume showed up. They were playing eachother for a bit and I jumped in there too. I played a game against Kawin but didnt win. Then eventually, after Natsume and Hase tried to beat him a few times, Natsume won. Hase lost to Natsume and then I got on and I beat Natsume's Dizzy. Then Hase picked Millia on me for some reason (I didnt even know he played millia), and I won again. He rematched me and I lost by a small ammount. Around this time, Matt's friend from back in Oregan showed up. His name was Artur. He doesnt play fighting games very seriously but he used to be really into CvS1 and he is the ex room mate of Hellsap (the Zappa player). He is in Japan for a 3 week vacation. It was around 9 pm so we decided to get some food and then head to Current.

First we stopped at an Izakaya near Current to have a drink and some food. I got this kickass huge ceasar salad for 300 yen and a whiskey coke. After staying there for a bit and chilling and talking we headed to Current at around 9:45. Once again it wasnt extremely packed yet but it was still very early. This time they didnt charge me at the door since I paid last night. Tonight was supposed to be a costume night. Masami was wearing a giant beer stien hat thing which looked hilarious but later he switched to a viking helmet. As time went on, more and more people showed up, and by 12, the place was just as packed as any crazy metal event night with tons of people, and all of them were awsome regulars that I knew well so it was totally awsome. Some of the ladies had some pretty awsome costumes on. Nozomi was dressed as Alice from Alice in Wonderland. Megu was dressed as a cop. Ayano was in one of those nice chinese dresses. One of the girls was dressed as a sexy nurse, and there were also some other various extremely skimpy outfits going on. Antti showed up and a bunch of his Finish friends came as well. I gave Antti the rest of the snus I had since I didnt really wanna use it anymore, he was super happy and like finished 2 whole packs that night. At one point, I noticed a bunch of people were leaving all of a sudden. Matt went outside to see what was going on. One of the regular guys, Mame, had broken his nose. While they were dancing, I guess someone got a little to wild and accidently hit him in the nose. So people were just out there checking on him and stuff. They eventually all came back inside and Mame had a bandage over his nose but otherwise seemed fine. Being drunk is a great pain killer.

Tonight there were several DJs throughout the night, and Sushi told me that I could DJ for about 30 minutes too! Originally I was planning on bringing my own CDs but I was in a huge rush to catch the train on the way to Tokyo and I left them all in my car. However, Current has tons of great stuff so I knew I would be able to put on a good set anyway. Throughout the night they were giving away tons of free shots, people were buying me vodka shots left and right, and beers and all kindsa stuff. I was feelin GOOD! Eventually it was my turn to DJ. This was my set...

Sonata Arctica- Wolf and Raven
Children of Bodom - Bodom Beach Terror
Symphony X - Church of the Machine
In Flames - Ordinary Story
Dream Theater - Overture 1892
Nightwish - Planet Hell

A few people were asking me for requests while I was up there, but I told them I only had like a few songs left and already picked em, but I told the next guy up to play them. Lots of people were digging my set and were rockin out. While I was DJing, Chip showed up with Sawa. One of the Finish guys bought me a vodka shot while I was up there too.

After a little more time went on, one of the DJs played Nightwish - I Wish I Had an Angel. Everyone loves this song so they quickly formed this big circle by putting their arms over the shoulder of the next person, and would run around in the circle really fast and switch directions on occasion. About near the end of the song, Ayano, the girl who was next to me in the circle, tripped and fell over. As she fell, I got dragged down with her and all of a sudden I felt an extremely sharp pain in my right foot. I stood up but it hurt like a bitch so I had to sit down for a bit. I took off my shoe to check it out and it was pretty bad. I wasnt sure how bad it was. Megu and one of the Finish girls saw me and asked what was wrong and each of them gave me a foot massage. Very nice of them. However, I dont think it helped much, and the Finish chick was doing it way too hard, I think she was enjoying it heh. I was able to walk on it but not without limpling like hell and had to go really slow. I tried to walk outside on the front walkway area to get some air and just walk it off. When I went out there, there was a group of people on the stairs. One of the dudes was having a conversation with me about stuff im not gonna get into on here, but he used to live in Canada and was telling me he hates it here and just got back like a few days ago. He spoke good English. However, I still found myself speaking to him in Japanese, and he would reply in English. I didnt even realize why at first but everyone there was laughing really hard since the Japanese guy was speaking English and the foreigner was speaking in Japanese. Ass backwards haha. After talking for a bit, I went back inside.

Current ended up staying open till about 6 am. After they turned on the lights, everyone knew it was time to wrap it up. I spent a while saying goodbye to everyone since I knew just about everyone there (there was like at least 50 people or something there that night). After I was done saying goodbye, I mailed Matt to see where him and Artur went. They said they went ahead to the MOS burger down the street. I went there to find them and didnt see them so I told them they werent there but they were all the way in the back so he came out and got me. I came back and they were sitting with Chip and Sawa. I got a fish burger and a drink and we all talked for a bit. Eventually, Chip and Sawa left, and then Matt, Artur, and I headed for the train station. They were gonna go to Matt's new apartment in Nakano to sleep, they said I could crash there too. I was a bit weary of my foot and it sounded better than the manga kissa so I took them up on the offer. On our way to his apartment, I limped along and tried to keep up. It hurt but it wasnt unbearable, but I was also completely wasted so the pain was deceptive. We finally arrived at his place. I was surprised to see how small it was. His entire apartment is smaller than my kitchen, and his entire bathroom is smaller than my shower. He pays 90,000 yen a month where as I pay 25,000 a month. However, thats the price of living in Tokyo. He doesnt have to take a 3 hour train ride every weekend like I do, so it has its trade offs. He had no furniture yet so I just found a spot in the corner on the hardwood floor. I didnt have a blanket and his aircon was cranked up. I used the plastic shopping back filled with my dirty clothes as a pillow. I fell asleep pretty fast but kept waking up in intervals, tossing and turning.

After about 4 hours of sleeping, I needed to wake up and use the bathroom. When I tried to stand up, I found out that I COULDNT. After being off my foot for this long, and sobering up a bit, the pain was unbearable to put any pressure on it at all. At this point I knew it was at least sprained or worse. I made it to the pisser by hopping on one foot. All the noise woke those guys up and I told them I couldnt walk. They ended up just staying up at this point, it was already like 11 am anyway. After talking for a bit, we came to the conclusion I would need crutches. They went to the drugstore to see if they could buy some but no where carried them. We knew then that I would have to go to the hospital. They taped up the foot with some medical gauze tape stuff to keep preassure on it. The original plan was to have me walk by putting my arms around both of them sorta using them as human crutches, but that didnt end up working for very long. Eventually Artur just gave me a fucking piggy back ride. He weighs a decent ammount more than me so he was able to do it without TOO much difficulty. However, it was quite hilarious and sorta embarrasing at the same time as several Japanese people watched as 3 foreigners walked through the street, with one only wearing one shoe and being carried on the other ones back.

Eventually we made it to a main road after about 10 minutes of walking. We were able to hail a cab and he took us to Nakano hospital. From this point I just hopped on one foot all the way inside to the front desk. They quickly brought me a wheel chair. This was the first time ive been in a Japanese hospital. I filled out some paperwork and gave them my medical insurance card. Not long after, they wheeled me in the back, asked me some questions and took some x-rays. The doctor said it wasnt broken but it was sprained pretty bad. They gave me some crutches for rent which costed me 5,000 yen. They also gave me some pills to take to reduce swelling and pain. After a bit more waiting, I signed some more stuff and then they presented me with the bill which was a little over 10,000 yen (this was IN ADDITION to the 5,000 yen I already paid). This was also the discounted fee after insurance. I never thought spraining my foot could be so expensive. Ive never broken a bone before and the only time I sprained something before this was my ankle in like 1st grade or something. Instead of just giving them the money at the front, they gave me this card. I then had to go to a machine and put the card in, and then the machine told me how much I owed, and I had to put the cash in like it was a vending machine or I was about to get a meal at Matsuya or something. Japan and its vending machines.... wtf...

After that, we headed out and while the plan was originally to go and play games all day, I decided it would be best for me to head back home to figure out what I was going to do. I had to switch trains 3 times, for one of them I had to stand the whole time, the other ones, people let me have their seat and I got to sit in the priority seating area. I slept for most of the entire way home. Since it was my right foot I knew I wouldnt be able to drive a car, so I had to go back to a different train station from where I was parked. I called Ryoko and she was nice enough to come pick me up and go back with me to my place for a bit. She took good care of me and all that. I called my boss and told him what happened and right now im at work, but teaching classes on crutches is kinda a bitch. I dont know how long it will be till him healed, the doctor in Nakano told me to visit another hospital in my town within the next few days. I hope it doesnt end up costing me a shit ton more money.

Next weekend my school has a sports day festival. All schools in Japan have these once a year and they are on a Saturday, meaning all the teachers have to come work on Saturday. We get Monday off instead though. I am just going to take it easy and stay in my town next weekend, most likely playing lots of MGS4 and spending time with Ryoko. I hope this shit heals soon. Most likely wont be doing a blog entry next week as I doubt it would be very interesting. Hopefully in 2 weeks ill be back to my ussual shinanigans.

fuck...