Drinking Battle FINISH!...with special guests, Arturo Sanchez and Render!

I had to monitor a student taking a makeup test after classes ended on Friday but luckily for me, he finished pretty fast and I made it to the train station just in time for my usual 5 pm train to Tokyo. I went right to Vegas and started off beating a random Slayer and then there was this white dude there playing Bridget. Ive never seen him before and he didnt say anything to me so I didnt go talk to him cuz I had no idea who he was. He played against me twice and I beat him. Then some random Jam played me and I won. After that, the foreigner Bridget player tried to beat me again twice but I won again. During the 2nd match against the gaijin Bridget, out of the corner of my eye, I suddenly see none other than Arturo Sanchez (a top US Arcana Heart player as well as an old school Street Fighter veteran) walk in. He saw me and we were both just like "NO fucking WAY!" I knew that Arturo was in Japan for a bit before but I didnt know he was still here. He has been in Japan since after EVO but since he didnt go to SBO I didnt see him the whole time. I actually had his contact info but I thought he was back in the US so I never bothered calling him. Anyway, we were surprised as fuck to just randomly run into eachother. This was the first time he had ever been to Vegas actually. Since I was still playing AC, he decided to go play some SFIV for a bit. I beat the gaijin Bridget 3 more times and then he eventually gave up. I had a good win streak going but eventually lost to some ABA player. Sometime around here, Matt showed up and I told him Arturo was here. We all spent a good while longer playing games at Vegas. Rod (Honnou) eventually showed up too. Osaka B came in and I talked to him a bit. I asked him if he knew of any tournaments going on this weekend and he pointed to one of the cabinets that had a tournament flyer on it which was scheduled for tomorrow. I dont know how I didnt notice it haha. After that, we played a few mirror matches but he got the best of me today and out played me. I played a few games of SFIV vs Arturo with my Blanka vs his Dahlsim. We probably played maybe 4 games total. He won all of them. I got a few rounds here and there but he is clearly a much better Street Fighter player than me (and this is nothing I didnt already know). At some point, Matt was asking me about who the random gaijin Bridget was and I said I had no idea so Matt went to talk to him. Turns out hes some guy from Indiana who has been living in Japan for 5 years and claims to play AC at Vegas often but somehow ive never seen him before even though I play there every weekend 0_o. He knows nothing of the US scene as far as players since he started playing the game after he moved to Japan.

After playing for a bit longer, Matt, Rod, Arturo, and I all went to Wendys. It was cool chillin and talking for a bit while we ate. Arturo has been here since Evo ended and said he really hasnt been hanging out with anyone except for his Japanese girlfriend who he is staying with while hes here. Shes not much into games at all (basically she doesnt like them) so he just goes and sneaks out to the arcade alone when he gets a chance. Arturo said it was cool to chill with some people he knew for a change. After getting some Wendys we headed over to Current.

There was a good size crowd for a Friday with mostly regulars. Rod invited this Korean girl he is friends with from his school to come drinking too. Her name is Mi Seon. We all sat in the back for a while and chilled and drank. Matt and I decided that tonight would be the next chapter of our drinking contest war! Since the first time was a draw and the 2nd time got canceled due to Matt pile bunkering the front door of Current, we never had settled the score quite yet. Originally we set up the score sheet for tonight with Arturo, Rod and Mi Seon's name on it. However, after about an hour or so, Arturo had to leave before the last train. He needed to get back to his girlfriend's place but said he would probly come out to Vegas again the next day.

In addition to lots of the regulars, Maiyuko and Chip were there. I bought the 3 of us a round of Jagermiester shots early on in the night to kick things off. I told Maiyuko about how I saw her friend Chris from the Dream Theater video last weekend. She said she was actually thinking of going to Geronimo shot bar in Roppongi later (the one where he works) and asked if I wanted to come. I said I would probably be down for going.

Mi Seon also taught us this cool Korean game. Its kinda like RPS but a bit different. Theres 4 stances (A, B, C, D) that you position your hands with, A is like both hands together sorta like if you were praying. B is like A but the hands are sorta both twisted to the side but the palms are still together. C is both hands apart and facing up. D is both hands apart facing down. Each person takes turns calling either A B C or D and doing the hand motion. If anyone chooses the same option as the person who calls it out, they get slapped on the hands as hard as the person wants to slap you. If you lose with an A you get one sandwich slap followed by a one handed long slap to the side of your hand. B is the same with 2 sandwich slaps, C you get 3 sandwich slaps, D you get 4. If the person calling it out gets any of the people playing, they get to keep going until no one picks the same option. It just keeps going around the circle. This game is pretty sweet and is good for mind game training lol. It could easily be turned into a drinking game too. I know its hard to understand but if you read all that and was like "WTF is this guy talking about?!?" um... try looking it up online or something heh...

As the night went on, there were lots of fail moments (moments where people would just be passed the fuck out at the bar). Among these fail moments was Rod and Mi Seon falling asleep on eachother for a good while. Looks like they were out of the contest hah. There was also this one dude like passed out all laying on a bench, I got nice pictures of both. Eventually at some point, Chip said he was going home and Maiyuko wanted to go to Geronimo but I told her I would meet her there later. As it got near closing time, both Matt and I were just fucking WASTED! We were drinking at a very strong pace all night, but I was constantly ahead by one drink due to that Jager shot and the fact that Matt cant handle shots. At some point, someone bought Matt a shot of Vodka and I guess he drank half of it and couldnt handle it so he gave the rest to me. Well, while I usually can take shots just fine (Whiskey, Tequila, Rum, Jager, whatever is all good!), if theres one weakness I have its Vodka... mainly shitty Vodka. I was already fucking wasted and the taste of Shmirnoff is just literally vomit inducing... and thats exactly what it did! I made a run for it outside (bathroom was full) and had a nice vomiting session over the balcony outside, and somehow managed to get a few splotches on the clean white pair of pants I was wearing!(though I didnt notice at the time). However, it turns out that Matt also threw up at some point in Current's bathroom, so since we both threw up, the throwing up factor no longer was a valid way to lose the contest. Im not sure who actually threw up first since we didnt find out either of us threw up till a bit later.

At 5 after Current closed, I was so wasted that I completely forgot I told Maiyuko that we would go to Roppongi and Matt, Rod, and I ended up going to PSY. (BTW, I just got an email from Maiyuko telling me that Geronimo was fun and that I missed out cuz her and Kano were there and they took their clothes off 0_o). I basically dont remember much that went on at PSY but appearently I took some pictures haha! We had some more beers and there were some people there, and thats about all I know. I do, however, know that neither of us passed out at all, and we got some McDonalds breakfast afterwords. While we were eating, Matt admited defeat, saying he never caught up with that one drink he was lagging behind. I officially have won the drinking contest! Looks like Matt cant call me a pussy anymore if I happen to randomly pass out at PSY at 6 am again in the future. In all fairness, he drank a shit ton too and it was pretty close. Its a pretty even match for the most part.

I went back to Matt's to sleep over and the next morning we both woke up with BRUTAL hang overs. We both decided to retire the drinking contest for a while since we finally managed to finish one without a tie or a cancellation. Also, I realized that my pants still had orange vomit stains on them... yum... and they didnt smell so fantastic either. I tried to wash them in Matts sink but all that did was make them wet and make his bathroom smell sorta. The solution? Uniqlo! We headed over there and I bought a new pair of pants and was ready for the rest of the weekend!

After that we headed back to Vegas to get ready for the tournament. There was a decent crowd there but it wasnt too crazy packed. Not as many top players at the last tournament I was at, but still some noteworthy ones. We werent sure if Rod was gonna make it so I just ended up signing up with Matt as my team mate, once again entering as the team "No May Please!" (hey, it worked last time!). At some point, another foreigner was there and passed by me. I didnt recognize him, but then he said, "hey you're ElvenShadow right?" Im like, "yea, who are you?" and hes like "Render!". I was like "Holy shit! Whatsup dude!". I only met Render once at one of the EVO tournaments about 3 or 4 years ago so I didnt quite recognize him, but Render is totally a cool guy. Hes a Johnny player from California and he works for HIS travel company. He said he was here in Japan on business for the weekend and just happened to stop on by here at Vegas. He didnt know about the tournament so I told him to enter. We tried calling up Rod to see if he could come and team with Render but he didnt pick up. Render found another team mate but then eventually, Rod ended up showing up after all. Rod entered as well with a Robo-Ky player on his team named Zantohei. The tournament was a total of 10 teams divided into 3 round robin pools and the winers would advance into a finals round robin pool. Since there were 10 teams, one pool had 4 teams, and 2 had 3 teams. My team was in the big pool and went first. Also in our pool was a team of KY/JO, AB/AN, and Rod(IN)/Zantohei(RO).

First was Rod team vs JO/KY. RO beats JO but loses to Ky. Rod beats Ky. Up next was my team vs AB/AN. The ABA player on the team was actually Ryokun, the same ABA that I teamed up with (though he never played the whole tournament cuz of all the Faust OCVs lol) along with Ojima when we won that one Game Chariot tournament from the "Victory at Game Chariot!" blog entree. Matt goes first and beats AN but then loses to AB. I also lose to AB. Next was Rod team vs ABA team. RO beats AN but loses to AB. Rod also loses to AB. We were hoping that Rods team could take them out cuz then it would be a 3 way tie. We had one more hope left. If JO/KY could beat AB/AN it would still be a tie. JO beat AN but then AB just beasted on both JO and KY. Ryokun single handedly beat everyone in the pool alone haha! He does have a pretty beastly ABA.

After that, I didnt really watch the rest of the tournament since I was busy playing casuals. There was this really good Bridget there who Baim told me was famous but I forgot his name. In the end, Render's team didnt win their pool either. The final result of the tournament was HEVEN(VE)/Kishya(FA) winning it all. Im not sure who the other team was in the finals pool. I asked HEVEN and he said he didnt know who they were lol. Casuals were fun and we played for a while. HEVEN actually at some point had 19 wins. I was busy playing other people for a while and when I noticed the cab was open for a sec, I got on and beat HEVEN on my first try, ending his 19 win streak. This led to me playing against various people and for a while it was a fucking Johnny fest! I think about 4 different Johnnys, including Render and Rod were just coming back for more and more but I kept taking them down and ended up getting my own 19 win streak which I eventually lost to Robo-Ky. Render was in a good form though and still has a good Johnny. I then ended up getting challenged back and forth between Matt and Rod for 19 games in a row. Eventually Rod got a win in with his Johnny and ended my streak (WTF is with everyone getting 19 win streaks? Its like the magic number of the day or some shit). Render had already left, Arturo never showed up, so Rod, Matt, and I decided to get some food.

We stopped by the cigar shop near the train station cuz I wanted one, but it was already closed. We decided to have dinner at this Korean resturaunt where Mi Seon works. She was working there and served our table and stuff. We got some bibinba and some kimchi yakisoba and Matt got ramen... plus we all got beers. My hangover went away sometime around when the tournament started so I was ok to drink again, but still felt a bit dehydrated so I drank a lot of water too.

After that, it was time for Current! Tonight started off a bit slower but in the end it was a bit more packed than the previous night. Mogi asked if I was ok saying I was fucking wasted last night haha! I told him I was fine and that I won the drinking contest haha. Antti was there this time and told me that The Snus Man would be coming soon with the goods! There were also these 2 chicks there that we had seen a few times before but never talked to, so Rod and I decided to go see what was up with them. They are both sorta thicker girls, one is white and one is Japanese but the Japanese one sounds like shes an american. Both of them are students at the same university. The white chick is named um.... Kristie I think. The other one was named Yasuka I think. I remember once, the girl Kristie threw up on a table at Current a few weeks ago LOL! They seemed nice for the most part I guess.

Nick also came with this one girl hes friends with but I forgot her name too. She was like wearing sorta like a maid apron thing. There was this funny blue stocking cap with antlers on it that said Finland and had the Finnish flag on it. It was getting passed around like a whore all night and various people were wearing it throughout the evening. I wore it over my Dream Theater cap for extra awsomeness. We put it on Korea girls head while she had another fail moment too.

Mai and Ayami showed up in these sexy dresses. They must had come from somewhere else before hand. Also, this girl Tomoko was there with her friend. I met Tomoko a long time ago but barely remembered. She was dancing all night. At one point I like touched her back as I was like sorta passing by her and it was soaking wet with sweat! Eww....

The most awsome thing about this night was The Snus Man! When he showed up, not only did he just constantly offer snus to everyone all night (I must had done like 7 or 8 of them), but once he got to the perfect level of drunkeness (around sometime after he split this giant flask of beer with Antti) he just became an all out party animal! This guy wouldnt stop dancing and going nuts, and he just wouldnt let people sit down. If you were sitting, he would make you stand up and dance too! He had like the whole bar just dancing at one point or another. I also found out that The Snus Man's real name is actually Kai (vapor thrust!), but he will always be refered to as The Snus Man, because Antti and I both agree that thats a way cooler name! Also, during this dancing fest, Rod suggested that I bust out a Faust dance montage... Basically he wanted me to dance in a way that mimicked all of Fausts attacks and win poses, and I was drunk enough so I did! I combo all sorta shit like jumping kick into crouching kick into standing slash into standing dust. I basically did all his normals and did the good ol' pelvic thrust victory dance! Good times!

The rest of the night was cool. We drank at a good pace and were buzzing like hell from the snus, but this time it wasnt like sloppy wasted buzzed. Antti's girlfriend eventually showed up and they left a little bit after together. When Current was nearing closing time, we organized a PSY after party. Myself, Matt, Rod, The Snus Man, Elisha, and this one really hot chick that is there every once in a while who just showed up like 20 mins before the bar was gonna close named Saori, all went to PSY. On the way there, The Snus Man and Saori were having the most hilarious conversation because she was speaking in all Japanese and TSM(The Snus Man) doesnt really know much Japanese at all. At one point, TSM said something and she was like "kimochi warui" which literally translates to "I have a bad feeling" or more naturally, something like "that makes me feel sick, or thats fucked up" or something like that depending on the context. TSM thought she said something about kimchi and started like naming all these asian foods he likes! Were all just laughing because the whole conversation was fucking hilarious and TSM was all wasted and had no idea WTF he was talking about LOL!

When we got to PSY, Heidi was there among some other customers. Rod spent almost the whole time talking with Saori while TSM was busy trying to get everyone all hype like every time a new song came on! Hes such a party animal haha! Also, at some point, one of the co-owners of GODZ showed up asking why I wasnt at GODZ earlier. I was like, I was at Current, and hes like, next time go to GODZ! Masami also showed up after a bit and he said to Rod "You look like a horny boy" and Rod was like "why?" and Masami said "cuz you have a Saori next to you ". The bar ended up staying open till past 7 am! After saying goodbye, we eventually left and got some Mcdonalds breakfast... again.... (I dont mind the breakfast food, the rest of it has been sucking real bad lately though). I crashed at Matt's again.

This would be the last time I stay at this apartment. Today, Matt was actually supposed to move most of his stuff out of this place since from starting later this coming week, he will be living with a host family (his apartment is small as hell and really expensive). I was gonna help him move some shit but we both over slept and the person who was gonna transport it in her car had to do it earlier. Matt said he would just take care of it later. So we woke up at like 2:30, got some Indian food, and then went back to Vegas again to kill the day playing casuals. Not much worth mentioning today at Vegas. Rod showed up at some point. Mugen was there and he had like 10 wins. I tried to beat him a few tries and eventually ended his streak at 14 wins. Also, I had a lot of good games against Pink Axl (the one that works at Vegas). I started off beating him a few in a row and then he got a few on me in a row and I beat him once more and he left. He was playing really well this day though. Inoue was also there getting some big win streak with Slayer but I didnt play him. I ended up getting 24 wins and I had to leave because it was already almost time for my train so I never got beat by anyone during the streak.

As usual I got some food for the trip home, but this time I got some good pasta from the convenient store. It was much better than crapdonalds. Slept the rest of the way home.

It occured to me later actually that I may have very well recieved an email from Arturo at some point but deleted it on accident thinking it was spam (though the spam has settled down a bit, it still rushes me down kinda bad I only had his number stored so his email would not show up as someone who is stored. ). I feel kinda bad cuz if he did try to contact me perhaps he thought I ignored him, but in any case I really dont know. Too late now. He said hes gonna try to come back again to Japan soon maybe (as hes leaving next week to go back to NY).

Next week I have an enkai on Friday night and Saturday night is the Current Halloween party... which is going to be fucking amazing im sure! I have my costume all planned out too. Also, next Monday is a holiday so... 3 day weekend! Sweet...