Blog post #68

I had to work late on Friday to monitor some students taking a standardized English test. That meant I had to take the next train than usual. The trains in my town run very infrequently… maybe only once every hour. The test ended and it was already getting dangerously close to the time when the next train would be leaving. If I missed that one I wouldn’t make it to Tokyo until 2 hours after I usually get there. I went home and changed my clothes extremely fast and grabbed my backpack. When I got to the train station I parked as fast as I could (which was pretty half ass) and made a dash for the stairs to go up to the train platform. I made it just as the train pulled up.

On the way to Tokyo on the train, I watched Snakes On A Plane on my PSP, it was my first time seeing the movie. All I have to say about that movie is LOL!

When I arrived in Shinjuku, I went to Sportsland to check what time the G3 ranbat would start tomorrow. Start time was 2:30. No one was really playing at Sportsland so I headed to Vegas. It was pretty packed and a good amount of well known players were there. It’s the first time I saw Osaka B in a while too which was cool. Matt was already there when I got there. Rod would be busy all weekend doing something else. For whatever reason, I kept a record of every single game I played Friday night at Vegas, and here it is!

3 wins vs Jam

1 win vs Millia

Same Millia rematches me and I lose

I moved to a new cab which was between Osaka B and Matt. Got a win against a Chipp.

Matt was playing against the same Millia I was fighting before after that. I told him if he wins Ill give him a snus but he lost 3 times. For a while no one was playing me after I beat the Chipp so I told him I would handle the Millia and told him to just play my game vs the computer on the other cab. I then beat the Millia player. Now I was stuck with an interesting situation.. I had a credit in both cabs. For a while, no one played me again so I was just playing against the computer on both cabs at the same time. I guess you could say I was double Fausting (pun intended). After beating the computer like 2 matches on each cab, an Anji challenged me on one of the cabs. I started playing against him and then a Slayer challenged me on the other cab. I had 2 rounds won vs the Anji and just needed one more and then maybe I would have time to make a comeback vs the Slayer who was beating my other defenseless Faust. I sorta got too anxious and lost the next round vs Anji, and by then it was too late for the other Faust. Too bad. I then proceeded to beat Anji so from then I just played the one credit.

I then beat the Anji one more time

Got 2 wins vs Sol

1 win vs Eddie

1 more win vs Chipp

Then Nakamura got on the cab and beat me twice in a row.

I played him one more time and perfected him during round 2. He then answered with a perfect of his own in round 3, but then I counter perfected him AGAIN in round 4 for the win.

Then Osaka B got on and beat me twice but they were both super close.

Then I won vs Slayer

Won vs Venom

Won vs Sol

Won vs Anji

Then lost twice to Sol

Then beat pumpkin Ky 3 times (this guy whos always there who uses Orange Ky)

I finally ended the evening by beating Matt 6 times in a row, though hes getting harder to beat. I see improvement in him.

After that the 2 of us got some food and headed to Current. It wasn’t so packed tonight. There was just the usual Current staff working, about 10 people from Cirque de Soleil, SPG Chris, and Bosch. Matt and I sat and talked with Chris for a while and stayed for maybe like 2 beers and then we decided to just go to GODZ.

GODZ was a little more lively. A good crowd was there for GODZ. We mostly just requested lots of metal and stuff and drank more. There was this young couple there and the one guys girlfriend was really drunk and being really flirty and we sorta talked with them for a bit. The dude was saying he was in some band and was having a concert on Sunday and said he would put us on the guest list to go see it but I didn’t really want to go and was gonna go to a Blazblue tourney anyway. I think he was just talking out of his ass in any case. After GODZ closed at 5 we all went our separate ways to go sleep.. my way being the manga kissa.

Saturday I woke up and didn’t even eat, I just wanted to get lots of practice before the ranbat. I went to Vegas and not a single person was playing GG. I then went to Sportsland and a couple guys were playing so I just stayed there the rest of the time before the tournament. I kept a log of all my casuals before the ranbat at Sportsland as well… and here it is!

I started by playing some pink Slayer for 8 games in a row and the score was 7-1 in my favor.

Won 2 vs Jam

Lost 2 vs Johnny

Won 5 vs Johnny

Won 1 vs Ky

Lost 1 vs Venom

Won 1 vs Venom

Won 1 vs Johnny

Won 1 vs Jam

Won 1 vs Johnny

Lost 3 in a row to I-no and they were all like by a pixel. This guy was good though.

I played him again and won 1.

After that I went to go register for the tournament. MIU was there again to run things. Shoot was also there working but he was just walking around doing typical work like switching out dirty ash trays, pushing in stools, and wiping down screens. He told me he will focus on BB for SBO this year.

I played a few more casuals after registering. I lost once to a May player (I hate May), then I lost to Zero once, then I lost to Mitsurugi once. After that I rematched Zero and not only did I beat him, but I did so without losing any rounds and I ended his small 14 win streak. I beat some other guy and then he rematched me and I lost but it felt nice to at least get a win on him.

Around this time they switched 2 of the cabs onto event mode freelplay and the tournament would start shortly. Some dude was talking with me a bit and gave me props for beating Zero. Shortly after, the tournament started. Lots of big name players were there once again and there was once again something like 80 entrants. Brackets were also once again created by everyone randomly drawing numbers. A few noteworthy matches I saw during the first round were…

Karun vs Mitsurugi. This was the very first match of the tournament. Not only did Karun win, but he did so without losing a round and got a perfect on round 2. Poor Mitsurugi got 2^nd place last time and this time hes out first round.

Tsu (the Eddie I lost to last time) lost his first match to some unknown Ky. Also, Mugen fought Zero first round and Mugen won!

It was now time for my first match. I was to face a Johnny player named Maruyo. I beat him pretty well the first round. 2^nd round I had a good lead and eventually he had a pixel of life left. He fought back pretty hard and started to get a comeback on me and got me down to a pixel as well. With 3 seconds left on the clock, I squeezed in a jumping HS and took the game.

After that I saw Takare (the Eddie who won the Inaka tournament last weekend) play against the same Ky who beat Tsu and this time Takare won. It went down to round 3 but Takare took it with a perfect.

My next match was once again vs a Johnny player. This time his name was Johnnyo. I won the first round. The 2^nd round was pretty close but he ended up taking it. He started to play completely differently and I was a little thrown off. For the 3^rd round, I think I pretty much just stayed in the air too much and was playing too defensive. I should have been more aggressive and tried to rush him from the ground a bit more. I ended up losing and that was it for me. Another match where I really felt like I could have won it but just didn’t play that well. Tough shit for me.

After that I just played casuals for a while and was once again a bit pissed at myself but I tried to shrug it off. I didn’t keep a record of any more casuals at this point but I won a few and lost a few. Eventually people started to clear out and I noticed the tournament was over. I checked who won and the winner was Karun!

At this point I was getting really hungry. Matt said he was gonna come soon but I had no idea when and I didn’t eat all day so I just headed to Wendys for a quick meal and picked up a cigar on the way.

After eating I headed to Vegas. At this point, everyone from Sportsland had moved to Vegas and there were even more players there that didn’t even go to the ranbat! Matt showed up soon after too. Baim and Ririko were there and we were talking with them for a little bit. I also talked to Kawin (spikey haired Potemkin) and he said that hes teaming with Inoue this year for SBO.

We played against lots of good players. For a while I was going really even with Takare’s Eddie, pretty much going back and forth. Eventually he started to pull away and was getting a big streak vs lots of people including Matt and Ririko. Eventually Matt beat him! I also played Kazuki a lot and was getting really close but didn’t beat him. Zero must have been out for blood after his first round tourney loss cuz he ended up beasting the shit out of everyone and Vegas and got a 43 win streak. He eventually lost to Ain’s Ky (the guy who looks like Japanese Floe). When I talked with Ririko for a bit, I asked her if she had an SBO team yet. She said not yet. I asked her if she wanted to team up sometime and she said ok. Not sure if its gonna happen or not but we will see. I also asked Baim why she didn’t go to the ranbat and she said she was too busy shopping for clothes LOL. Towards the end of our time playing, I played a few games vs Ririko but I couldn’t beat her. I hadn’t fought Bridget in forever and her Bridget is really good. It was getting late and I had been playing all day. Also Matt was pretty hungry so we decided to go head out. On the way out I said bye to Ririko and told her sorry for not playing good vs her.

Matt and I stopped at an Izakaya for some food and a few beers before heading to Current. This time Current had a little better of a crowd with a decent amount of regulars there but it wasn’t like crazy packed. Antii was there with his girlfriend and it was cool to drink with him cuz I hadn’t seen him in a while. Also Heidi, Ja, Mu, Rina, and Hibiki showed up. Mogi and Sushi were working the bar. Tonight was actually Matts birthday. There was no big party but Sushi told me that since its Matts birthday, I could DJ for most of the night! Sweet! Matt likes a lot of the stuff I usually play so he said he wanted me to DJ. I got on pretty soon after arriving. Here was my first set list.

Symphony X – The Edge of Forever

Children of Bodom – Silent Night Bodom Night

Alice Cooper – It Rained All Night

Sonata Arctica – My Land (live)

Minstry – N.W.O. (request)

Dream Theater – Lines in the Sand (live)
Dragonforce – My Spirit Will Go On

Hardcore Superstar – Wildboys (request)

Pink Floyd – Welcome to the Machine

Metallica – Disposable Heroes

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give It Away

ACDC – If You Want Blood, You Got It

The Darkness – One Way Ticket (request)

Sonata Arctica – Replica (live) (request)

After that, Sushi told me to take a break and he DJed for a little bit. During this time I smoked my cigar and talked with some people for a bit. After a little while, I was on again and DJed till the end of the night. Heres my 2^nd set.

Mr. Big – Mr. Gone

System of a Down – Question (request)

Led Zeppelin – Misty Mountain Hop

Judas Priest – Electric Eye

Iron Maiden – 2 minutes to Midnight

Jimi Hendrix – Foxy

Kansas – On the Other side

Rush – Bastille Day

Edguy – Hair Force One

John Mayer – Gravity (request)

Children of Bodom – Are you Dead Yet? (request)

Queen – I want it All

Muse – Stockholm Syndrome

Buckcherry – Sorry (request)

Megadeth – Hanger 18

Alice Cooper – Lost in America

Megadeth – Washington is Next

Symphony X – A Winter’s Dream (pts 1 and 2)

Skid Row – 18 and Life (request)

Dream Theater – Prophets of War

Focus – Hocus Pocus (request)

Mariya Takeuchi – Koi no Arashi (request)

Tom Petty – Don’t Do Me Like That

Boston – Forplay / Longtime

Loudness – Crazy Doctor (request)

Queen – Fat Bottom Girls (request but I almost played it earlier)

Iron Maiden – Run To the Hills (request)

ACDC – It’s a Long Way to the Top if You Wanna Rock and Roll

After saying goodbye to everyone, Matt, Heidi, and I left and headed for PSY to drink some more. PSY was pretty packed. Lots of people, including me, bought Matt a shot. I had one too. He didn’t pass out but he did throw up. I didnt see it happen but he said he did and I dont really doubt it haha. We drank till closing, got some drunken food and then we both went to sleep at the manga kissa.

We woke up the next day and Matt had to leave cuz he had to take care of some business, so I headed to Alpha Station by myself to enter the Blazblue tournament. There were a lot of people there for it. I think about maybe 40 people entered. Tons of top well known GG players were there. This was a 2 on 2 tournament. I didn’t have a partner but they took a few single people and then matched them up with partners through random number drawing. I got paired up with a Noel player named Serisawa. He plays as Millia in GG. I played only maybe like 3 games of BB casuals before the tournament started. This was the first time I played BB all weekend. I wanted to play yesterday but the GG comp was too insane and I never got around to it. Ive probly only played like 5 games of BB other than these within like the whole last month so I was pretty rusty to say the least. I didn’t win any of my casual matches but they were all against good players, such as HH’s Rachel. The level of shit people are doing in this game now is just crazy. I don’t even know whats going on sometimes haha. Before the tournament started, there were tons of people waiting to play casuals after a while, so I didn’t have much chance to play much. My partner, Serisawa played a game of GG against a Baiken player who speaks good English that I met before sometime last year. He lost to him and then it made me wanna play, so I got on the cab and played some GG. I beat him and then he rematched me and I lost. Karun started playing GG casuals too on the cab next to me. I ended up playing a few more games of GG cuz I kept winning vs some Sol and then it was time to start BB.

Our first match was against ABEGEN (Tager) and Kiro (Arakune). Kiro being the same yellow Faust player ive posted about many times before. A pretty rough team to have to fight first round. I won RPS vs ABEGEN and chose our side. Serisawa told me to go first. It was me vs ABEGEN. I held out pretty ok for a little but in the end I ended up losing. I pretty much just forgot about like half the options I have and should have played a lot more before the tournament. After the match in retrospect I can think of so many things I could have done that I just completely forgot about. Cant really say I played very well but I also cant say im surprised. Up next, Serisawa went against Kiro. It went down to the last round but he ended up taking out Arakune! Next was Serisawa vs ABEGEN. Serisawa did a really great job and took a round but ABEGEN’s Tager was just too much and we got eliminated first round. I wasn’t the least bit upset, but I did feel bad for Serisawa cuz I didn’t play so hot. He wasn’t upset at all though.

After losing, I ended up playing some more GG while the tournament was still going on. With the tournament going there were only 2 cabs for BB casuals and LOTS of people waiting to play. Some people were playing GG but not enough to where you had to wait long. I played a lot of games vs Serisawa and went undefeated against his Millia. At this point I had an 8 win streak and during our next game, suddenly the game just froze! LOL! I think ive only seen that happen once in my whole time in Japan. Not even sure why cuz all I was doing was standing punch and Millia was just starting to run forward. In any case, eventually the guy unfroze the machine and I played some more games. After some games with various people, eventually there was this one orange ABA player there and he and I ended up playing against eachother for maybe between 1 and 2 hours! I don’t remember the final score of our set but we were going back and forth and I think maybe he got like 1 or 2 more wins than me. He was a smart player, nailed all his big combos, had good footsies, and was good at baiting safeguards. After our last game together, I got up and went to talk to him. I told him I was gonna go get some food cuz I didn’t eat yet all day. I thanked him for the good games and told him he was strong. He told me I was too. I asked him if he had an SBO team yet and he said no. I asked him if he wanted to team up sometime and he said he would be happy to. We exchanged cellphone info. He goes by the handle “Ni”. Ive never heard of him before, but hes a solid player so I would be glad to have him on my team.

After that, I headed to Sukiya and got some food. When I came back, the tournament was over. I checked who won and the winning team was Dio (Carl) and Isa (Arakune). The 2^nd place team was ANG (Carl) and TEN (Jin). I checked how far ABEGEN/Kifa got and they lost far into the tournament to ANG and TEN. After getting back from eating I wanted to play more BB. I played casuals for maybe an hour and a half. I won my first game of casuals vs a Tager player 3 rounds straight. I started to remember to use all the stuff I forgot to use earlier and it made a big difference. Then this one beastly purple Litchi player just fucked me up a few times and got a streak vs a bunch of people. I don’t even know how to block a lot of her stuff still. Probably one of the match ups I have the most trouble with in the game at this point. I played a against a few other various people here and there. I came really close to beating Megane Jin. I was also watching FAB play and it dawned on me that FAB IS Tager! If you took FAB and gave him Tagers body and a slightly bulkier face, he would look JUST LIKE FAB! They both have like the same hair and glasses. I just found that a little amusing. It was getting late and I pretty much had to start heading out. I said goodbye to my partner from the tournament and headed out.

This weekend made me realize that tons of people already have SBO teams decided on. I realized I need to start looking now so that by the time April roles around, I have lots of options to team with. Im gonna try to make an effort to find good players without teams from now on. I also realized I need to start playing more BB. I honestly don’t think im gonna bother trying to get into SBO for BB since I really think im too far behind in the game, but I don’t wanna get too rusty at it since I do like the game. Focusing on GG is a much better idea. If there happens to be a BB qual that’s going on that doesn’t overlap with the time id be playing in a GG qual then by all means I will enter just for the hell of it though since its singles anyway and I don’t have to worry about a team.

Plans for next weekend are still up in the air. Im sure that games and drinking will be involved somehow though :P

Naked Snake

Friday night at Current was the birthday party for a few of the Current regulars. I wanted to go but there was a PTA enkai for my school so I had to go to that instead. The enkai was pretty much your standard enkai with nothing really out of the ordinary happening. In one of the other rooms in the same building, one of the teachers from another nearby school (the one where my friend Cynthia works) was there for a separate party. After the first party, he saw me in the hallway and told me that Cynthia called him and asked if we wanted to go drinking with her in Numata with Liz. I was gonna actually go to the 2^nd party, but drinking in Numata sounded like more fun and the other teacher was driving there and said he would give me a ride so I agreed to go.

On the way there, we picked up this one other guy who I don’t really know. When we got to Numata we met up with Cynthia and Liz in front of a Lawsons and then we went to an izakaya. Pretty much just drank, ate, and talked. After that we went and did karaoke for a few hours and did some more drinking. Nothing too out of the ordinary but it was a fun night. Afterwords, Cynthia took a cab home and split it with the other 2 guys cuz they all live sorta close. I live much farther away, so going home by cab would be way too expensive. Instead, Liz said I could just crash on her couch, so I did.

I woke up the next day at around noon. Liz was on her computer just messing around online. I was planning on going to Tokyo today so we checked the next train time to Tokyo and it was in about one hour. However, because of the fact that I unexpectedly went from the enkai to Numata and stayed the night, I didn’t bring any stuff with me to go to Tokyo (basically no change of clothes or toiletries and nothing to do on the train and stuff like that). All I had with me were the clothes on my back and the standard essentials like my coat, phone, wallet, and keys. I didn’t really feel like going all the way back home to get my stuff since the trains around my area only run like once every hour so the process of going back for my stuff could take over 2 hours or longer depending on how the timing worked out. I figured id just deal with it since it was only for one night anyway. I took a shower (but unfortunately had to use the same clothes; luckily in the winter you don’t really sweat so they were ok).

After that, Liz and I got some pasta at a nearby restaurant since I had time to kill till the train came. Unfortunately, the whole process of eating took longer than anticipated and I missed the train. The next one would come one hour later. At this point I was having second thoughts about going to Tokyo. Liz said that her and a bunch of other ALTs would be drinking at some guys house tonight in a sorta nearby but sorta far town and I don’t really know the guy. If I was to go I would probably be stuck driving there so I really couldn’t drink, unless I got my girlfriend to drive me and come with but she didn’t really seem to thrilled about going. In addition, I had no idea about anything special going on this weekend in Tokyo, and since Current was packed with a party the night before, I figured it might be sorta dead tonight.

After eating, I parted ways with Liz and decided to kill some time at a shopping center across from the restaurant. I tried looking for a contact lens case and solution so that I would at least have that for the weekend. They didn’t sell it in the entire place so I figured I could pick one up later. During this time, I was still debating if I should just stay in Gunma or if I should go to Tokyo. I called Matt and Rod to see what they were up to this weekend. Matt didn’t answer his phone. Rod answered and said that tonight Tomoko (his girlfriend) would be having a few friends over for drinking since her birthday is in a few days or something. He sorta convinced me to come out so I was swayed towards going to Tokyo.

I walked to Numata station, got on the next train, and headed to Tokyo. When I transferred trains at Akabane station, I stopped in at the bookstore there in the station and bought this months Arcadia magazine to check out the tournament schedule. While checking the schedule on the next train, I saw that there was a GG tournament at some random arcade out somewhere in Saitama in an area called Hannou (not to be confused with Rod’s handle, Honnou). It was scheduled for 6:30 pm on Sunday night. I had no idea where this place was or how far it was from where I need to be when I go home, but I figured id look into going to it.

I arrived in Shinjuku at about 5 pm. I headed right for Vegas to get down on some casuals. Tons of people were there again this time playing GG and BB. Lots of well known players were there such as Nakamura, En-Slayer, Karun, Kazuki, Hot Zappa, and a few others. I played various games of GG casuals for a few hours, winning some, losing some. After a while I noticed that Tsu was there (the Eddie player that beat me in the G3 ranbat last weekend). This time I was good and sober so I was eager to get another shot at his Eddie. It turns out he really is a solid player. We had really close matches but he beat me 3 times. After that I played him again and I beat him. I guess I don’t feel so bad for losing to him in the tournament because hes a solid player but losing first round still sucked. After beating Tsu, a Slayer player challenged me. It was a close match but I lost. I went over to look who it was and it was En-Slayer. I rematched him and this time I beat him…3 rounds in a row! He then rematched me again but I lost. I then saw Nakamura and he waved hello. I sat down at the other side cuz he wasn’t playing anyone and we battled. I beat his Millia on my first try 3 rounds in a row as well! After that, I got 2 victories against some Venom(s?) and Nakamura rematched me and I lost. I think it was around this time that Rod showed up at Vegas. I also received a mail from Matt saying sorry that he didn’t answer his phone earlier cuz he was still sleeping as a result of staying out drinking till 9 am with some people from Current after the birthday party and going to PSY. Rod and I played casuals against various people for a while and eventually Matt showed up too. After a few more hours of playing casuals, we decided to get some food.

Before eating I picked up a contact lense case and saline solution at a nearby drugstore. We were gonna go to this izakaya restaurant where everything is like 300 yen but they were packed so we just ended up going to Pepper Lunch which was good anyway. When we left Pepper Lunch, one of the guys who works there ran outside after us. I had forgotten my contact lense stuff that I just bought and he returned it to me. Nice guy!

After that, Matt suggested we stop in at Current just for a little bit cuz he told some people that he would be there again tonight. We got to Current sorta early… maybe around 10:00 or so. There wernt that many people there. The first guy we saw when we walked in was The Snus Man! He was there with another Finnish guy who sometimes comes. The Snus Man had 5 fresh packs of snus for us to buy so Matt and I split em. The Snus Man said he wasn’t really up for drinking tonight and was just drinking coke. I guess he showed up just to deliver the snus since Matt saw him at Current the night before. I felt kinda bad that he had to go out of his way like that. The Snus Man is totally a nice guy. Im definitely going to buy him a drink the next time hes there to stay and drink for a while. The Snus Man didn’t stay very long and headed out soon after we arrived. We said goodbye and thanked him. Taka was there, as well as Mogi, Sushi, and Masami as usual. Also, a couple of guys from Cirque de Soleil were there! The tour was back again for the year, and just like last year, they were staying at a place just down the street from Current. None of the ones that were there tonight were the ones I knew from last year, but I was talking with one of the guys and he said that some of the same guys from last year were there again so Im sure ill see them down the road. They will be staying in Tokyo for the next 3 months. We only stayed for like one beer and then we decided we better get going to Tomoko’s place because she lives sorta far. Tomoko lives in a part of Saitama called Tokorozawa.

We had to take some of the private train lines to get out there that im not very familiar with, but Rod knew the way so it wasn’t such a big deal to get there. On the train, Rod was showing me this cool DS game called Hotel Dusk Room 215 which is sorta like a text adventure mystery puzzle game with cool artwork. The main characters name was Kyle Hyde and Rod said he looked like me cuz we have the same hair cut and facial hair and we both have a trenchcoat haha.

We eventually arrived in Tokorozawa and met up with Tomoko at a 7-11 near her apartment where we purchased lots of beer. From there, we walked to her place. In addition to Rod, Matt, Tomoko, and myself, there were 2 other girls there. One of them was Nao, the girl who was at Mai’s apartment the night that Rod and I were there drinking with her and Tomoko a little over a month ago. Nao was already pretty wasted drunk when we got there. She seemed like she was having a good time. We listened to some music and watched some various stuff on youtube for a while like some old match vids and that awesome Marvel video where they got all that hype with guys yellin shit like “scoops! Hagendaaz! Fuck the Knicks! wear your curly mustache!” and other various awesome shit, cuz Matt had never seen it before. It was hilarious cuz Rod showed it to Tomoko previously and she was randomly saying all that stuff in her cute Japanese voice and it sounded hilarious.

After watching stuff on youtube for a while, we threw on the 5^th Element cuz Rod brought it over and wanted to show it to Tomoko. About half way through the movie, I hear a noise behind me and quickly lunge forward, narrowly escaping the vomit that just had spewed out of Nao’s mouth! It was almost like a ninja vomit cuz she wasn’t all loud about it at all. It just kinda slid out with a slight gurgling sound and JUST missed getting all over my back. As soon as she finished vomiting she started laughing haha. Unfortunately it made a big mess all over the floor and under the table so we had to stop the movie while Tomoko cleaned it up and Rod helped her. It took a while to clean and I felt bad for Tomoko because she worried about Nao the rest of the night, who spent a great deal of it going back and forth between the room and the bathroom, spending long amounts of time in the toilet. While we were waiting for the movie to start back up again during the “intermission” we watched this one bonus DVD that came with the Arcadia I bought. It had some Blazblue strats, and some SFIV match videos. After watching that, we went back to the movie and finished watching the rest of it. Matt and Tomoko started to get sleepy and pass out during the movie. Rod and I made it through the whole thing. I cant remember when, but the other girl went home either after the movie or during the vomit intermission. After it ended we just sorta sat around all lazily cuz it was like passed 5 am and everyone was wasted, though in all honesty I could have kept drinking lol!

After that, we eventually got up and left. Tomoko had to get up early, so Matt, Rod, and I got some drunken McDonalds breakfast and then headed to Rod’s host family’s house to stay the night. Nao took a taxi home.

Rod’s place was pretty nice and he had a big room. It was pretty comfortable sleeping on the floor. The next morning, we woke up and briefly met the host family dad. He seemed like a really nice guy and he asked a little about us and we thanked him for letting us stay. We also played with the dog they had for a bit which was really tiny and super cute with giant eyes and she was chilling on my lap for a while. Didn’t try to bite me even once!

We eventually headed out and got some food at a place that sold various Japanese foods. I got some pork and rice and udon and we split some gyoza. It was pretty tasty. After that, it was time to head to Hannou station to go to the tournament I found in the back of Arcadia. It didn’t take long to get there actually. Before we exited the station, we decided to ask the guys who works at the station really quick how far we had to go to get to the arcade from there. The guy told us that the station we just passed through to get here was actually much closer. Good thing we asked first or we would have been walking for quite a while. Matt already went through the gate but the dude was nice enough to get his ticket back out of the machine so he could get back on the train for no cost. We then headed to the next station; Motokaji station.

From Motokaji station, we tried calling the arcade to get directions. They gave us some vague directions and we sorta tried to follow them. We picked a direction and started walking. At this point it was already getting dark out since we woke up kinda late and took a while to eat and stuff. We didn’t see much of anything down the road we were on. Rod decided go scout ahead real quick. He ran out of sight around a corner and came back about 2 or 3 minutes later saying that he didn’t see much of anything ahead. We decided to choose another direction. We eventually ran into a conbini and went inside to ask directions. The guy inside sorta drew us a little map but told us that it would take about 30 minutes to walk there. The last person we asked said it would only take 10 minutes to walk there. Since we had no idea who to believe, I just called a cab and he picked us up at the conbini. I told him to take us to Sega World and he knew exactly how to get there so it was easy from there. Turns out the road we were on originally was the right way and we were already like halfway there earlier.

We arrived at Sega World and there was this one Eddie player just playing the computer at first. No one was really there yet. We got there about maybe 45 minutes before the tournament was to start. We played some casuals for a while against the Eddie player and people gradually started to come in. The Eddie player was pretty solid. He went through beating Matt, then me, then Rod, then Matt again. I played him again and then I beat him, but he rematched me right away and beat me the next time. He stayed on the cab the rest of the time. I was the only one able to beat him.

Eventually it was time for the tournament to start and there turned out to be a total of 10 people who entered. This wasn’t a very great arcade. It was kinda out in the boonies and they only had like one cab of every game they had. They didn’t even have Blazblue there. After we all picked random numbers they made the brackets.

The first match of the tournament was Matt vs some Chipp player. However, I didn’t watch his match cuz I had to go take a dump. However, when I came back from the bathroom, I saw that Matt had won his match. Rod told me it was pretty much a beat down by Matt. Good shit. Next a few more people played and then it was my turn. My first match was against some Potemkin player. The game was set to 3/5 rounds for whatever reason instead of 2/3 which is usually the standard for tournaments. The first and 2^nd rounds I perfected him. The 3^rd round I almost perfected him again but he hit me like one time towards the end of the round. In any case it was a slaughter and he came up and apologized to me after the match for getting owned so hard heh. I think the guy recognized me from somewhere before cuz Rod said he had this look of fear in his eyes when he first saw me there LOL! His face did look familiar but I don’t remember from where. Up next, Rod played against some other Faust that was there. He used I-no. I don’t remember but I don’t think Rod won any rounds unfortunately. I guess he just kinda brain farted or something cuz I know he can do better than that. For Matts next match he got a bye. For my next match, I had to fight another Potemkin. This time, he was much better than the other one. I was doing very well the first round. I hit him with a scalpel pull and he bursted it and I blocked the burst but I mess up my punish and then I sorta just got thrown off and lost the round. From the rest of the match I was just not playing well. I was trying to play TOO safe and too one demensional and I really should have just rushed him down and mixed him up more. I kept freezing like a deer in headlights when he knocked me down and would go for buster setups and whatnot and he hit me with heavenly Pot buster twice…. Ouch. In any case, I lost to him but I don’t really feel like I should have. I just didn’t play that great, unlike against the first guy. Matt then played again and lost to someone but I cant remember who it was. He was already out of the tournament but he had to play one more match to determine who gets 3^rd place (even though we both got just as far, he got a bye so he was farther in the bracket than me). He had to play the Pot player that beat me but unfortunately he lost to him as well. The Pot player previously had lost to the other Faust. I felt even worse after that cuz the other Faust beat him and I didn’t. After that, the finals were the Faust vs the Eddie player that no one could beat earlier. Faust put up a decent fight but in the end, Eddie won.

It turns out, the Eddie was none other that Takare, the Eddie player who I met at G3 ranbats last weekend… the same guy who was asking me about Latiff. He told me hes actually a highschool student and hes only 18. He said he actually lives only like 30 seconds from the arcade we were at right now. He asked me some more stuff like confirming that I won the singles and teams tournaments at Evo. Then he was asking me some more stuff about Latiff like if he will come to Japan soon and stuff saying he really wanted to meet him and that he admired his combo video. I told him I had no idea if Latiff would be coming to Japan soon but I said I didn’t think so. He also told me that since he is a broke high school student, he probably wont be going to try out for SBO. He told me that the next G3 ranbat will be at Sportsland next Saturday, so I told him I would go.

After the tournament, they put the game on freeplay for about an hour. Everyone just took turns getting on, playing one match, and then getting off and letting 2 more people play. I played several matches. My first match was against the Potemkin I lost to. I knew I could beat him and wanted to run that shit back so I challenged him to a rematch. This time I beat him pretty convincingly without losing a round. I just rushed him down and didn’t play so fucking brain dead this time and it wasn’t really a big deal. I also played against a Slayer player who was in the tournament and lost in a close one where I accidently jumped over his head when I meant to throw him. I press diagonal up instead of just forward and if costed me the match. Later I played him again and just raped him. Also I had a close win with an Axl who I beat. I also rematched Eddie one more time and it was sorta close but in the end I got Eddied out and he won again. Throughout the day I was the only one who was able to beat him so I guess that’s something… but I still wish I had played better in the tournament. During various parts of the time we were there, both tournament and casual play, Rod was busting out all the Marvel “curly mustache quotes, LOL!” It was pretty funny getting all hype at a 10 man inaka tournament, made it more exciting.

Once 8:00 rolled around, they took freeplay off and Matt played like one more match. After that, it was about time to get going since we had to be at the train station soon or I would miss my last train home. We said goodbye to everyone and I told Takare that I would see him next Saturday at Shinjuku Sportsland. We weren’t sure how long it would actually take to walk to the station cuz we took the cab there but we didn’t wanna risk missing it so we left a bit early. Turns out it really did only take like 10 minutes to walk back. We made it to the station with plenty of time so we stopped at the Yamazaki and got some food for the road. We took the train to the next station and then from there we parted ways cuz Matt and Rod had to go the other way. I eventually made it home.

Overall it was certainly not my usual weekend. Kinda inconvenient not having any stuff with me but I managed just fine in the end. Lots of last minute plans that all worked out pretty well.

Next weekend I will go to the G3 ranbat at Shinjuku Sportsland on Saturday and there is also a Blazblue tournament on Sunday at Alpha Station, so I will probably go to that as well.

Still Alive

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