Handheld Game Inn Current

Casuals at Vegas on Friday night were pretty decent. Matt showed up and we played till about 11:30. My record for the night was 29 wins and 11 losses. Most of the losses (about half) were against this one same Eddie player (not sure who he was) who was pretty good. I eventually did beat him though. There were several top players there and I got a win on Bleed’s Johnny too. Mekemeke showed up all late towards the end and I didn’t get around to playing against him.

After leaving Vegas, Matt and I met up with Akiko who was waiting at the manga kissa using the internets. The 3 of us then headed to Current. It was a little slow with only maybe about 10 people there but it was fun times anyway. Rod showed up all out of no where at around 1 or so. He stopped by Vegas after we left there and played Mekemeke a bit and then came to Current. Rod busted out his DS at Current and we were sitting at the bar watching him play Final Fantasy IV remake on the DS. He was just about to fight Dr. Lugae in the Tower of Babil. This is IMO one of the hardest fights in the game, espessially if its your first time playing it and you dont know what to expect. I told Rod if he could beat it on his first try I would buy him a beer. Basically Dr. Lugae has a spell that switches the damage for the battle. Meaning, healing things will hurt everyone in the battle (you AND him) and damage dealing attacks heal. He can switch this effect at random anytime. Rod somehow got super lucky cuz his party would have been totally wiped out but somehow his Rydia was immune to the effects and just wouldnt die. Everything was just healing her. I dont know what he had equiped but it ended up saving his ass and he won the battle since Rydia wouldnt die LOL. I bought his lucky ass a beer. Not much other noteworthy stuff went on there. After they closed at 5, Rod, Matt, Akiko, and I decided to go do Karaoke for like 2 hours. We brought our own booze so it would be cheaper. I bought a bottle of rum and we just passed it around and took swigs. At one point, I went to go take a piss, and in the hallway, I ran into a bunch of people that usually go to PSY. They said they had a room down the hall from where we were at. I popped in and said hi and the 2 of the bartenders of PSY and like 10 PSY regulars were all there. I told them maybe we would join them later. We sang till like 7:30 or something and when our time was up, Rod went home and the rest of us went to join the PSY group for a bit. We didn’t stay long though since it was already really late and super crowded in there and we already paid for our room so we didn’t wanna get charged for theirs too since we weren’t singing or drinking there. After getting some food, Matt and Akiko went home and I went to the manga kissa.

The next day, I woke up at around 2:30 pm. I stopped by Vegas since its right there. No one was playing GG so I just decided to try some SFIV for the hell of it. I picked Akuma and lost a few times to this one Ken who I kept almost beating but just falling short.

The night before, Rod and Matt were talking about checking out TRF to play there for a change of pace so it sounded good. No one else was up yet so I just headed over to TRF on my own and told them to meet me there.

While I was walking around in the shopping mall that TRF is inside of, I randomly ran into Hot Zappa and her boyfriend the yellow Robo-Ky player (I don’t know his name, from now on hes gonna be called HZB = Hot Zappa’s Boyfriend). They said hi to me and I told them I was gonna go play at TRF, they were just shopping.

When I got to TRF, I was disappointed to see that they had no GG cabs set up. TRF is a really small arcade so depending on the day, they often switch out what games they have going in the cabs. Today they had 2 BB machines, like maybe 3 pairs of SFIV machines, and a bunch of Hokuto no Ken. I ended up playing 2 matches of BB, one was vs another Arakune and I lost. The 2^nd one was vs some Jin player and I came within like a pixel of beating him but lost to him too. Im still super shitty and rusty at BB cuz I never play it and I havnt learned any good combos hah. I tried some SFIV and picked Akuma again. I kept fighting these 2 really good Zangief players and a good claw player. I probly played about less than 10 games of SFIV and lost all of them. Some were very close though. Once again, another game I hardly ever play and I see these guys stat cards with like multiple thousands of matches on their cards so I don’t feel that bad about losing to them lol.

After a while, I was growing weary of TRF so I just said fuck it and went back to Vegas for GG. On the way back to Vegas while leaving the mall where TRF is, I stopped by the tobacco store there and picked up this giant fucking super long cigar from the Philippines.

There were lots of people at Vegas now. Rod showed up at some point. I played casuals pretty much all day. I was playing really bad at first cuz my thumb still hurts from last week but after a while I either started to get used to the pain or it just subsided a bit and I was started to play very well. Several big name players were in and out throughout the day. While we were playing, Rod busted out his DS and was playing the Final Fantasy IV DS remake between matches. He was at the tower of Babil 2nd visit and just fought Rubicante. Eventually Matt showed up all late. I didn’t keep a record of my wins and losses or anything but towards the end I got a 30 win streak. It was eventually ended by Rod’s Slayer.

At that point, Rod and I were hungry so we got Ramen while Matt waited at Vegas. I loaded my ramen up with way too much fucking garlic and it was pretty tasty but after a while I couldn’t finish the soup anymore cuz it was too garlicy. After eating, we got Matt and then headed to Current again.

Tonight at Current was supposed to be a Party Hard night which is usually when tons of people come out, but it ended up being just like the night before with maybe slightly more people. A few regulars showed up but it was just a low key night mostly. Antti and a few of the Fins were there but they left pretty early. I busted out that huge cigar I bought earlier and it took like 2 hours to finish smoking it. It was so big that towards the end of it, I had to put it out for a while cuz it was making me feel kinda sick. I don’t think it was the greatest quality cigar but it did taste pretty good until it started to get so harsh towards the end. Just about the entire time we were at Current, Rod was playing FFIV on his DS and Matt and I were just sorta watching him LOL. I was telling Rod some stuff like where to go for some secrets. He beat the whole Land of the Summoned monsters and Sylph Cave during the time we were at Current. This was his first time playing FFIV and Matt is also playing it now but is way earlier in the game. At some point, Yago and Saeko showed up and they suddenly just busted out their PSPs and started playing Monster Hunter 2^nd G on it. Current had turned into a fucking game center with drunk people and metal. Sweet. Throughout the night, people came up to us and we were all having these in depth Final Fantasy conversations and stuff. Everyone in Japan seems to love FF games LOL.

After they closed, a big group of us all headed to PSY (except Rod who went home). It was pretty packed there since PSY is such a small bar and we all piled in. There was this one girl there who was sitting all by herself like in the back towards the entrance. Kunko and Matt were like telling me I should go talk to her cuz she looks lonely or something. I was just like um ok sure… so I said hi to her and made small talk for a couple mins and it turns out shes like the girlfriend of the owner of PSY and was just waiting for him to get off work lol. Once PSY closed, at first, everyone was talking about how they wanted to go to keep drinking more but then suddenly it just sorta fell through and everyone went home. Matt and I got food and then went to the manga kissa to pass out.

Sunday we woke up and the only plan for the day was to enter a 3 on 3 BlazBlue tournament at Club Sega Shinjuku. Matt, Rod, and I planned to enter together. I preferred it this way since all 3 of us never play the game and suck at it, and I would feel bad if I dragged down actual players were currently play the game seriously. Even though I know im in no shape right now to be entering BB tourneys, I figured it would be fun anyway since MIU would be running it and people would be playing GG casuals too. Also, my voice was shot pretty bad after I woke up, msot likely from that harsh fucking cigar, so I sounded really funny when I talked all day.

Matt and I showed up and signed up just before it started. I mailed Rod but he didn’t reply. While we waited for the tournament to start, I played a few games of BB and got destroyed by this one v-13 player. I have no idea how to deal with that matchup. I cant seem to get in on her. If I try to teleport to the other side she just waits and anti airs me as soon as I come out. If I try to move forward I just get barraged with garbage. Same with if I try to summon curse stuff. There seems to be a small area of the screen I can safely summon a cloud in the air, but it doesnt do me much good if I just get hit again when I try to get near her and it goes away hah. This was the first time I fought a v-13 who actually knew how to use the character well. Im sure once I actually learn the matchup it wont be so bad but it certainly seems like she can deal with Arakune pretty well. After that I played a bunch of GG casuals. I got a few games in vs Zero’s HOS and almost beat him but just fell short. Once the tournament started I kept playing GG casuals for a while cuz my team got a bi first round and wouldn’t be playing for a bit. I eventually got a mail from Rod saying he just woke up and probly wouldn’t be able to make it in time.

Club Sega appearently just got these awesome brand new HD cabinets and they looked really nice. They had BB hooked up to some of them and they had one hooked up with GG. They were just setting them up and testing them so they probly just got them not too long ago. I played GG casuals on the nice one and got like 6 wins in a row and then they called my match for the BB tourney so I had to get off. Our match was vs Keba’s team. We went against their Rachel player first. Matt went first for our team with his Noel. Matt hadn’t touched BB in forever and Rachel beat him. I went next and got perfected first round cuz he got me in a loop of combos into knockdown into frog summon pressure and I just couldn’t get out of it cuz im not used to how to get out of stuff in this game. Next round was much better and I was doing very well but I just took too long and time ran out before I realized and he had a little more life than I did. Rod never made it on time so our 2 man team was defeated. I didn’t care at all and just went back to playing GG for a while. After people stopped playing GG, it was about time to just head out and go to Vegas for more GG casuals.

Eventuaslly, all the players who were playing in the BB tourney at Club Sega, came to Vegas to play GG (and some BB). It was a GREAT day for casuals and tons of top players came out. A lot of them I havnt seen in a while. Among them was Isa and 012 who don’t often go to Vegas. Suzume and Bleed were there, Natsume and Baim, Hot Zappa and HZB, FAB was there but he was just playing BB the whole time. Imo and Inoue came too, as well as Zero. There were a ton of other big names too but I cant remember them all. Later on, US Bridget showed up as well as Yuki, the orange I-no player I will be teaming up with from time to time for SBO. I asked someone who won the BB tourney and the winning team was Tokido, Yume, and Inoue. A few highlights of the day were tons of people trying to beat Isa’s Eddie and him beasting hard. I beat his Eddie once which felt pretty nice. Imo and him were going at it a lot and I think I saw Imo beat him twice total out of a ton of times. Also, Seta (the Faust player who was on Hase’s SBO team last year) was there and I played him in one game and beat him in the mirror match which felt nice. Also, Suzume was there beasting hard with his Johnny, and he had like a 24 win streak and I beat him and ended it after a couple of tries. I was talking with Baim a little bit and she was asking me how often I practice and I told her that I only play on weekends and she was like “you only play on weekends and you are this good? Amazing!” I was just like..
“naa ive still got a long way to go.” My final game of the night was against HZB’s Robo-Ky. I beat him and then I had to get up and leave cuz my train home was gonna be coming soon. I said bye to Baim and Hot Zappa who were standing behind me and told them I had to leave. On the way out I said bye to HZB and told him good games.

Matt walked with me to the station and then I headed home. Overall it was not all that eventful of a weekend but I had a lot of fun anyway and I was playing extremely well, espessially on Saturday night and most of the day on Sunday despite my thumb still bothering me. Im very excited about next weekend’s big G3 event at Game Chariot. Saturday will be a singles tournament. After that is the big 23 vs 23 event. Then on Sunday is a special 5 on 5 tournament followed by some other special event that isn’t specified yet. It will be fun to play in the singles tourney and get some good casuals in, as well as watch the hypeness of the other events. Next weekend should be a great weekend for Guilty Gear action!

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Im gonna start this one out on Tuesday. Wednesday was a national holiday in Japan, which meant no one had work or class. I invited Rod and Matt, and their girlfriends Tomoko and Akiko to come to Gunma to stay at my apartment and to go skiing and snow boarding. Ryoko and I cooked a spaghetti dinner for everyone and stocked up the apartment with tons of booze. Everyone rolled in at the train station at around 8 pm or so and I went and picked them up. The 6 of us had a nice big dinner and started drinking pretty heavily right from the start. After dinner, we drank some more and got some drunken GG casuals in. It felt strange playing on console again at first but I got used to it. We did lots of fucking around, picking characters we dont use often, and when we accidently picked shadow characters we just rolled with it and had fun. I had a match or too with shadow Faust where I was just drunkenly spamming item super all day and also did an infinite pogo RC loop combo in the corner lol! After we all got really drunk some stuff happened that im not gonna go into detail about but it was all good. Ryoko had to work the next day and originally wasnt gonna drink but couldnt resist the urge and ended up getting really drunk. She took a nap for a while and sobered up and eventually went home really late. Everyone else pretty much ended up passing out at around 5 am. Luckily no one threw up.

The next morning we all woke up and had some cereal. While I was in the shower, I heard this loud pounding sound. When I got out of the shower, much to my surprise, Ryoko was back. She tried calling me to get inside but I was in the shower. I wasnt expecting her to get off work so early but she luckily was let in by someone after they heard the pounding long enough. She brought over extra ski and snowboard equipment for some of us to use. After we all finished our cereal and coffee and everyone showered, we headed out to a rental shop to rent some equipment and then to the ski place.

Ryoko has a friend who works there so we all got hooked up with discounted lift tickets. We payed for a 4 hour ticket which was enough time. Tomoko, Rod, and Matt snow boarded and Ryoko, Akiko, and I skied. Ive skied plenty of times so Im fine at it. Ryoko has gone with me several times last year. Shes not as fast as me but she can ski pretty well. Matt is experienced with snow boarding. Rod had snow boarded once before. Tomoko and Akiko were first timers. At first, both of them could hardly even stand up and would fall after like one second. Over time, we were gradually able to teach them. At first Tomoko showed some progress as she sorta just snow boarded backwards slowly and tried her best not to fall. Akiko took a little longer but by the end of the day she could sorta do it. It took forever for us to get down the first time cuz we sorta tried to stay together. After that we sorta took turns staying with the people who were inexperienced and other people went ahead and then would meet up with the others after going down once. I think Akiko and Tomoko only went down the slope a total of like 3 times the entire time we were there since it took them so long, but they said they had fun. Also, at first, Matt's snow board was set up backwards so he was facing the wrong way but he had them fix it and he was fine from there. One time when I was going down, I sorta wiped out and landed funny on my thumb. It kinda hurt a little but it didnt seem like a big deal. Towards the end when time was getting low, Akiko was with Ryoko and they were going down one last time. Rod, Matt, and Tomoko were getting tired so they decided to wait and chill on the lodge. I went one more time knowing I could probably catch up with Akiko and Ryoko since Akiko skis slow as molasis. On my way up the lift, it got delayed and stopped like a zillion times so I was sorta worried that if those 2 were already on the slope that I might not catch up with them easy. However, it turns out they werent far ahead of me at all and shortly after getting on the slope, I ran into Akiko. She was on the ground from a fall. She told me she was fine and not to worry and to go ahead of her, so I did. Shortly after, I ran into Ryoko. She told me she had to pee kinda bad so she was going ahead. She said she was worried about Akiko so she asked me to stay and wait for her. At this point the snow was coming down hard and you couldnt see anything farther than a few feet in front of you so it was kinda crazy just standing there waiting for maybe 10 minutes with nothing in sight. Eventually she showed up and I skied down with her and we met up with everyone in the lodge. One thing I found sorta hilarious was the name of the cafe they had there was called Troll Cafe. As we were loading our equipment into the car, I ended up holding the skis sorta in an odd position with my hand that had the hurt thumb and it ended up putting pressure on it in a bad way and it got worse. I think it might be a minor sprain.

After skiing we all went back to my place for a bit. We were hungry so we decided to get some food. We were gonna get pizza at this one place near my house but they rant out of flour (WTF, how does that even happen?!) so they were closed. We ended up going to a ramen place right by my house that I have never gone inside of before and the ramen ended up being really top tier. I had a giant beer while we were there too. Ryoko sneakily ended up paying for everyones tab which was super nice of her. Everyone was gonna go back home tonight but they ended up waiting too long and it was now too late, so they were stuck staying at my place again. We drank some more and played some more casuals while the ladies had some meaningful conversation about life or something like that. After a while my thumb started to really hurt so I needed to stop playing. It was my left thumb so its the one I use to control the stick. It espessialy would hurt when I did fire ball motions, or anything that involved dashing since I would need to hit it very fast. Eventually Ryoko had to go home but everyone else stayed. We ended up staying up till about 1 am but I had to get some sleep cuz I had to work the next day.

When I woke up the next day, I got ready for work and just let everyone else sleep. I told them the night before that they could just leave whenever they want to and to just leave the door unlocked cuz they didnt have a key and I wasnt worried about someone in my town breaking into my place haha.

Throughout the day at work, my thumb sorta hurt. It was worse than the previous night and felt really sore. I went to work and when I got home, they were gone. I was pretty tired from not getting as much sleep as usual and all the drinking so I took a nice nap after work. After waking up, I was considering going to buy Street Fighter IV cuz it came out that day, but the store in my town that had it was selling it for like 8300 yen which is kinda expensive so I figured I would just wait the buy the game over the weekend in Tokyo, plus my thumb hurt so I figured taking a rest from games for the day would be a good idea. Ryoko came over later that night and I spent the evening with her.

The next day, Friday, I headed for Tokyo after work as usual. Near the train station in Shinjuku, theres a Gamers (a game store). I went in there to see how much they were selling SFIV for, and it turns out they had it for like 6900 yen which is better than 8300 so I ended up buying it. They also had these Rockman E capsule sports drinks so I bought a couple of those too. The can looks just like the energy capsules from the Rockman games. Pretty sweet. Im drinking one right now while typing this and it just tastes like any other Japanese sports drink like Aquarius or Pocari Sweat. Not really worth it for the drink unless you want to collect the can. I was sorta hoping there would be caffiene in it.

After that, I went to Vegas for some casuals. Theres this one Faust player who goes by the name Takuya whos always playing at Vegas. He had a 30 win streak when I arrived. I played him and beat him on my first try in a mirror match and ended his streak. I won a few games vs some people and then Nakamura played me and kicked my ass with his Millia. Shortly after, Matt and eventually Rod showed up. The orange I-no player who is often there, who goes by the name Yuki, was there too. I beat him and then he came over and told me I was really strong and stuff. I think hes a pretty solid I-no so I suggested we team up for SBO sometime and he was happy to so we exchanged emails. I played lots of other various people but didnt really keep track of who I played and how much I won, but I would get some small win streaks here and there before losing one or two. My thumb still hurt but I just manned up and took the pain. It was slightly affecting my execution but I was still able to play mostly well. Rod played me a bunch of times and was playing exceptionally well today! I dont remember exactly how many games we played, maybe about 20 or so. He ended up beating me 4 times that night! Twice with I-no, once with Johnny, and once with Slayer. Matt tried a couple times but didnt beat me.

I also think ive mentioned before in my blog this one American Bridget player who sometimes is there. He was there again today and played against Matt a whole bunch. He has been living in Japan for several years and wasnt really involved in the US tournament scene at all so no one would know who he is probably. Hes originally from Indiana. At around 12 it was starting to get dead so we decided to get food and go to Current. We invited US Bridget to come with us and he agreed. Rod was tired and said he hadnt slept at all since he left my apartment (0_o) so he decided to go home.

For a while, we sat with US Bridget and I found out that he works for Capcom at the Tokyo office! We were having some discussion about various things and one thing that I thought was really interesting was that originally when the unvealed the new characters for SFIV at a conference within the company, Rufus was originally black. Not only was he black, but he was your negatively stereotypical huge fat black guy with big giant lips! Its no wonder why they ended up changing his design as im sure many people would be offended by something like that. Just imagine if his popcorn bucket he carries around in his art was a giant bucket of KFC or some shit! LOL! Might as well give him a move involving watermelon and grape soda while they are at it. At the same time im sure a lot of people would have a good sense of humor about it and think hes actually cooler than he is now, but putting racial stereotypes in a game are probably not in Capcom's best interest. US Bridget also told me that according to the people at Capcom, Zangief is infact officially supposed to be gay in the story line. He was also saying something about how Dhalsim is supposed to hate Balrog (Boxer) because he ended up beating up one of his elephants or something! I never heard about that shit before but I dont really give a shit about the SF storyline anyway. Its still pretty funny though heh.

After a little while, out of no where, 28 year old virgin shows up for the first time in months. He sat with us for a bit but didnt really say much. I asked him what hes been up to and he just said, "studying."

Not long after that, Antti and some of the Finnish dudes showed up! As a result, the rest of the night ended up involving lots of heavy drinking! Antti said they were playing poker earlier before they got here and were already drinking lots of whiskey before hand. I wish I would have known about it cuz I havnt played poker in forever and it would be kinda fun. They said if they do it again they will let me know about it.

For a while, Antti was behind the bar and they were letting him pour beers for whatever reason. Matt ordered a redbull vodka and Antti drank some of his extra redbull. Later, Matt was at the bar and Antti ordered a shot or something on accident for Matt. Matt didnt want it, so he secretly poured it into the empty redbull can and asked Antti if he wanted the rest of his redbull. Antti chugged it and got a shot surprise. His reaction was pretty hilarious. I ended up getting a shot from Antti too and happily drank it, so I offered to order him a shot of jagermiester, but he didnt want it so Masami was like "now, I am Antti" and drinks the shot instead. Oh well. Also, Maiyuko's fiance Mikey was there and he just recently got back from Australia. I had a nice long conversation with him and it seems like things are going to go well for him and her so I was happy to hear that.

Once 5 am rolled around, we left Current and Matt and I headed to PSY with the Finnish guys. It was pretty packed there for a Friday for whatever reason. Masami showed up a little later. We drank till closing, got some food, and the Matt and I headed to the Manga kissa to sleep.

The next day I woke up and my head hurt pretty bad. The weather outside was warm as hell though! I was walking around in a T-shirt and it felt fantastic! Its still the middle of February but it seriously felt like it was May or something!

Today was Valentines day. You are probably thinking.. "Why isnt this jackass spending Valentines day with his girlfriend?" Well since Ryoko works at a cake bakery and is the manager there, and since Valentines day is one of their busiest days of the year, she had to work so late that she wouldnt even be able to see me and had to work the next day again too, so she told me to go to Tokyo and have fun and we made plans to celebrate Valentines day with eachother next week.

Today, the plan was to enter the 2 on 2 GGAC tournament at Vegas. It didnt start till 5 and we woke up around 12:30 or so. We checked out Vegas and no one was playing gear, but 2 guys were playing BB so Matt and I played against them. I won a few games with Arakune but then this really good Taokaka came out of no where and just raped me. Matt eventually started to play GG vs some random scrub who showed up. It was pretty dead overall so I just suggested we go get some food.

We headed to Wendys and got some quick food and I bought a cigar for later. After that, we checked out Bic Camera because I wanted to see if they had a better price for SFIV but they were selling it for more than Gamers did, so so far I got a good deal. After that, we headed back to Vegas.

There were people at Vegas now and we got some good games of casuals in. I played against this one Anji a few times and kept beating him. I beat a few other people and then this Baiken played against me. He was pretty good. He beat me and then I beat him in a rematch. Eventually that one same orange May player that was beasting last weekend in casuals was there and he beat me. I then went over to play the Baiken again. We went back and forth for a while. Today, Rod and Matt had plans to team up, so I decided to ask the Baiken if he wanted to team with me. He said he would be happy to, so we formed a team. His name is Hakata. I signed our team name up as "Symphony of Destruction". Matt signed him and Rod up as "Can you masta, babay?"...which is a lyric from the DJ Ozma song One Night Carnival. Good ol Engrish ftw. In the end, only 7 teams showed up for the tournament. I didnt know who most of them were except for Nakamura and Tsubasa who teamed up together. They didnt enter as their normal names. Their team name was "Millia and Anji" and Nakamura entered as "Millia" and Tsubasa entered as "Anji". How unimaginative yet so original LOL. Also, the Faust player I mentioned from yesterday, Takuya, was there.

Our first match was against Takuya and his team mate, a Baiken player named Kirisame Marisa. That meant our first match was a mirror match of FA/BA vs FA/BA. Hataka played RPS and lost so the other team chose to have us reveal our first player. Hataka asked me if he could go first so I told him to go for it. They put Takuya's Faust against him. Takuya defeated Hataka but then I beat Takuya in a Faust mirror match. After that I had to face the Baiken. I won the first round, but then things just sorta fell apart in the next 2. I almost won the 2nd round but I fucked up and he came back on me. Overall it was a very close match but just like that, we were eliminated.

Soon after, the guy running the tournament called Rod and Matt's team. When he read aloud "Can you masta, babay!" it sounded hilarious cuz he put extra emphasis on the "babay!" Rod and Matt had to fight a team of Dizzy and HOS. I didnt check their names. Dizzy defeated Matt but then Rod beasted on the Dizzy. Unfortunately Rod lost to the HOS. I wanted them to win just so I could hear the announcer call their team name again LOL.

After that, Nakamura/Tsubasa fought against the team that I lost to. Takuya went first and beat Tsubasa! Then Nakamura took out Tsubasa but Kirisame Marisa took out Nakamura's Millia with his Baiken for the win! I was very surprised to see this team get eliminated. I at least dont feel as bad about losing to the Baiken though since if he can beat Nakamura in a tournament he must not be too shabby. The finals were between the FA/BA team and against a team of Udei (AX) and Aizawa (SL). I dont remember who beat who in what order but Udei and Aizawa won the whole tournament.

After the tournament was over, I exchanged emails with my team mate so that we could possibly team up again sometime. At first I played a few people in casuals and won a few, and I even beat Tsubasa. However, eventually Tsubasa beat me and then went on this long beasting streak and stayed on the machine for at least like 16 wins or something and was mostly just beating me, Rod, Matt, and one or 2 other guys over and over again. Eventually he lost to someone and then I beat some other dude and got another small streak.

Around this time we were getting really hungry so Matt, Rod, and I went to this ramen place close by that I had never been to. Matt and Rod went there last weekend after I left and this place was top tier as hell. They even refil your noodles once for free after you finish them all, and they had like all the garlic you could ever want!

After stuffing ourselves we went back to Vegas and Heven was there beasting with his Venom. We all tried several times to beat him but I just couldnt get a win on him this time. He ended up getting like over 30 something wins vs various people. Mugen showed up at some point and I said hi to him and asked him when the G3 final tournament would be held. He told me it would be on the weekend of the 28th and that it would be a 2 day event consisting of a regular tournament and a special 5 on 5. He said it will be held at GameChariot just like last year. I will certainly be going to that since it will be hype as hell. Mugen also told me that he thinks im a good player for no reason which was nice of him.

Seta (the Faust player who teamed up with Hase last year for SBO quals) was there and he was beating lots of people up pretty bad too. I played him like maybe 3 times but I just couldnt get a win on him. His Faust was looking really good though. I think hes one of the lesser known and underated top Fausts. I wanted to try to beat him some more but it was getting late and my thumb was really starting to get tired (it was doing fine for most of the day up until around this time) so we just decided to head out and go drinking at Current.

Tonight at Current was a Valentines day party (seeing as how it was Valentines day). It didnt get crazy packed but lots of cool people showed up, most of them being hot girls. They also had free snacks out to eat (thankfully it was stuff that doesnt give you food poisoning like chips and stuff). Akiko joined us at Current tonight as well. We spent a lot of time talking with various people and just getting drunk and having fun. Nothing too noteworthy to mention I suppose. I did a shot of tequila with Rod at one point and drank lots of beers. There was also this really cute chick I never saw before there who says shes a manga artist. She wouldnt say what for cuz she says shes embarressed but its some sorta girls manga. She draw a picture real fast in Rod's notebook and showed us and she seems talented. Also, Kana was there but we didnt recognize her at first cuz she had glasses on and she hasnt been there in a while. She was having a very good time talking with this one foreigner guy haha.

After Current closed we headed to PSY but Rod was tired so he went home. PSY was the usual deal, Masami and Heidi showed up for a little. After PSY, Matt and Akiko went home so I just got some fast food real quick alone and then went to sleep at the manga kissa.

When I woke up it wasnt as warm as the previous day but not so bad. My thumb felt a lot worse than yesterday cuz I probably had it in an odd position while sleeping. The plan for this day was to hit up another tournament. If you remember a few weeks back, there was a tournament in a small town in Saitama called Hannou. Well, they were gonna have another one and there was nothing else going on so we made plans to hit it up. Rod said he couldnt go cuz he had to work at the 80s bar that he bartends at part time now starting at 8 pm but he said he would meet me in Akihabara for some shopping earlier in the day (the Hannou tourny wasnt scheduled to start till 6:30). Matt said he would meet me in Akihabara at around 4 and go with me from there.

I went to Akihabara and did lots of shopping. Walked around a ton of stores to check if I could find a better deal on SFIV than what I payed, but it turns out that out of the zillion game stores I went to, I didnt find anything cheaper than what I already paid for it (6900 yen). I also researched some DS prices because my DS broke last weekend. I want to buy a DS lite. All the places mostly were still selling them for like 16000 yen. Im surprised its still so high given that the DSi is out now (which I dont want btw, id rather just get a lite). The best price I found was for a used DS for 13000 yen which seems decent I guess. I decided to just hold off on buying one for today. I found this awsome Rockman 20th anniversary T-shirt with all the old bosses sprites on the back which was pretty sweet though so I bought that. Rod never ended up showing up and slept in.

At around 3:30 or so, I went to Club Sega to squeeze in some GG casuals. I noticed on the cabs for GG that they had a flyer posted for a 3 on 3 GG tournament that happened yesterday at the same time as the one going on at Vegas. I had no idea about it since I havnt been to Akihabara in so long. This would probably explain why the Vegas tournament had a sorta low turnout, im sure everyone probably went to the Akihabara one instead. Looks like I need to drop into Club Sega more often to check on tournaments more. Osaka B was there so I got on right away and played against him. He had like 14 wins. I lost to him in the first game in a close match but then I rematched him and I ended his streak. Then I beat some Sol a few times and eventually Osaka B rematched me and beat me in a real close one. Around this time, Matt arrived at Club Sega. We figured we should probably head out now if we wanted to make the tournament in time since its kinda far. We decided to get some Doner Kababs first though and ate them on the train.

I was pretty tired so I ended up taking a nap on the train while Matt played some DS. Eventually we got to our destination station but we were running late and the tournament was about to start in like 5 minutes. We took a cab from the station and made it there just in time as they were starting to make the bracket. The guy who was running it let us enter. Besides me and Matt, only 7 other people entered, most of them were some of the same guys from last time (such as Takure, the young Eddie player who idolizes Latif, and also the same good Potemkin, Faust, and Slayer that entered last time). In addition, the Axl player, Udei, who won yesterday's Vegas tournament showed up too.

My first match of the tournament was against Udei. I didnt feel warmed up at all since I only played a few games all day a few hours ago, plus my thumb got much worse since I woke up the morning of this day. I tried to play patient but he basically just out zoned me and for the first 2 rounds I just got out zoned and out poked. For the 3rd round (it was set on 3/5) I was doing pretty well and started to come back on him but I just fell short of winning the round, and like that, I was already out of the tournament (and we were the first match to play). Matt had to go up against the Potemkin player who I lost to last time. He tried his best but lost too. There was also this pretty scrubby HOS player there and the other Faust player ended up beating him like entirely on pogo stance (trying to pull an Osaka B). I was expecting Takure to win again but Udei's Axl was on fire and he ended up beating Takure and taking the whole tournament! The final results were

1st. Udei
2nd. Faust guy
3rd. Takure
4th. Potemkin who beat Matt
5th. Me, Matt, Scrub HOS, Slayer, some other dude

The tournament only took like 30 mins so Takure proposed the idea of us doing a 5 on 5 for fun since some other guy was willing to play too. He just picked the teams himself and it honestly didnt seem very balanced. The teams were like

Me
Matt
Faust guy
Scrub HOS
Slayer player

vs

Takure
Udei
Potemkin who beat Matt
some random Venom
some other guy

Our slayer went first and beat venom but then the Potemkin guy beat our Slayer. then I went against the Po and won the first round by zoning the shit out of him and needed like one more hit on the 2nd round but I fucked up and then in the 3rd round I was all high up in the air and accidently teched with down kick and floated down all slow and he comboed me for free and I lost. I totally had him... blaa.... Matt went next and lost again. Then Faust guy beat Po. Then someone on their team decided to use Slayer instead of whoever else they used before and Faust guy beat him too. Finally Udei played (with Slayer as well this time) and beat Faust guy and that was the end.

We stayed and played casuals for a little while. I came really close to beating the Faust Guy in a mirror but lost to him by a little bit. Matt also lost to him and got really pissed off. Then Takure came and was talking to me about how he used to be that way too and get pissed when he lost and we were talking about how controlling anger is important cuz it just makes you play shittier. Then he was telling me how he has his SBO team already picked (looks like hes not so broke after all). He asked me not to post his team online cuz he wants it to be sorta secret for now but hes teaming with 2 other players that I know everyone who reads this blog is familiar with and it sounds like a pretty beastly team. I played against Takure one more time, went down to the last round but I failed at the last minute and lost. Around this time, I had to leave cuz it was getting late. Matt decided to stay and play longer.

I walked back to the station with plenty of time to catch my train, just enough to get a sandwich and a drink from the Yamazaki. I had to take a route home that im not used to but I looked it up on my phone. After transfering like 2 trains, when I went to go transfer to a 3rd train, I got confused cuz the sign on the train didnt match where the directions on my phone told me to go. I second guessed myself, got off the train thinking it was the wrong one, when infact it turned out to be the train I HAD to board if I wanted to go home tonight. And with that... it looked like I had no choice but to spend the night sleeping at Maebashi station. I mailed Matt and Ryoko and told them how I fucked myself over but said I would live. It was sorta cold out and I didnt bring a coat. Gunma is a lot colder than Tokyo but I figured id just tough it out. After riding the train a bit more when the next one finally came that I could eventually make it as far as Maebashi on (which is still an hour from where I live) I realized I could take the Shinkansen home (the only problem is its like 3 times more expensive than what I would normally pay from this point and I also had my car parked somewhere else). I mailed Ryoko again (who hadnt yet responded to my previous email) and told her I could still make it home on the Shinkansen. She then mailed me back telling me not to take it because she was already in Maebashi! She drove all the way out there just to come pick me up without telling me first because she knew that if she mentioned it before I left, I would tell her not to come cuz I would feel bad, and she was 100% correct. She knows me too well. She really saved my ass though and thankfully I eventually made it home (though very late). She didnt have work the next day till like 1 so for her it wasnt a big deal but I still felt bad about it. She wasnt the least bit mad though. Gotta be more careful next time with the trains when going a way im not used to.

Next weekend, there doesnt seem to be any GG tournaments as far as I know but there is a BlazBlue tournament so I may go to that. Not really sure what else next weekend has in store but it should be fun as always. Hopefully my thumb will feel better by then, as of now it still hurts...

A Decent Showing

I started off on Friday night playing casuals at Vegas. Now that GG has been announced for EVO and that I can 100% for sure attend EVO, it inspires me even more to play seriously. Lots of good players were there such as Natsume, Mugen, HH, Bleed, FAB, Mitsurugi, and Hot Zappa. I started off having a little trouble against some pink Potemkin but after a few loses I beat him and then from there on I was doing well for most of the night. Eventually Matt showed up. I beat HH’s Dizzy and Ky once each and after that he just went and played BB. I also played Mugen a bunch of times and he was picking all sorts of different characters. I beat him every time except I lost one game to his HOS. Also, I played Matt about maybe 10 games. He managed to beat me one time out of our set. This is the 3^rd time hes ever beaten me. I have noticed a great improvement in his game within the past few weeks.

We ended up playing pretty late, like passed 12. After getting some food, we headed to Current. Shortly after, Rod showed up. It wasn’t very crowded there, just a few Cirque guys, Bosch, Yago, and the Current staff. It was mainly just a regular night of drinking with lots of talking about Guilty Gear and other stuff. We stayed till 5 am closing time and decided to just get to sleep so we could get a little extra practice time in the morning. After getting some food, I went to the manga kissa and Matt came as well. Rod went home.

We woke up at around 11:30. Today would be the last G3 ranbat and it was scheduled to start at about 2:30. We headed right for Vegas. There was only like one guy there playing. I played him a bit and he wasn’t very good. I think like one other guy showed up and he was playing against Matt and the guy I was playing left after a while. It was pretty dead at Vegas after being there for a half hour or so, so we just decided to check out Sportsland. There was a purple May player there and he had a win streak. Matt and I both took turns trying to beat him. I cant stand May but after a few tries, I eventually beat him. However, the match I beat him, I noticed my slash button was messed up. I dropped like 3 combos because the slash didn’t come out. I told one of the guys who works there and he fixed the machine. I played the May a bit more and beat him again and then he left. For a while we were just sitting around and there was no comp to play against. Matt was messing around on BB against the computer. I got an email from Rod saying he arrived in Shinjuku. I guess he ended up going to Vegas. He said there was some comp there now and that he beat some female Bridget player who wasn’t Ririko. Matt and I thought about heading over there but it was only like 10 more minutes until signups were scheduled to start so we figured we might as well just wait. After about 10 minutes, people gradually started to show up and then it got packed pretty fast. MIU arrived and would be running the tournament as usual. I asked MIU if he heard about this year’s EVO lineup. He said he hadn’t seen it yet so I told him what was up. He was surprised to hear that EVO was in July and isn’t sure if he can come yet but probably can. When I told him Guilty was a main event, he was happy but didn’t seem all that excited that it was singles over teams. I guess he prefers that format. He also seemed disappointed that there is no CvS2 tournament. I told him that both Guilty teams and CvS2 will probably both have side tournaments run by players in any case. I asked him if a lot of Japanese Guilty Gear players will probably come but he said he doesn’t know yet (which makes sense considering no one probably knows about it yet). I couldn’t talk to him long though because he was busy taking signups. Rod was taking a while to get here for whatever reason so Matt signed him up. He eventually showed up and was debating whether to use I-no or Johnny. Matt signed him up as I-no so he just rolled with it. I got some good casual matches in before the tournament. I beat Taku’s Slayer 3 rounds in a row. Rod and Matt were getting hype and like encouraging me and shit. Rod was parodying the Marvel hype video but instead of saying “fuck the Knicks” he was like “fuck the Seibu Lions!” lol! (they are a Japanese baseball team). I also won a game of casuals vs Tsu’s Eddie and ABEGEN’s Potemkin. Inoue had a 20 win streak with his Eddie. I came very close to beating him but fell short. He eventually lost to some Baiken.

Just to sum things up, after every G3 ranbat, depending on how far you get, you get a certain amount of points and it adds up. They had the rankings list posted from all the previous ranbats. The top 4 as of before today’s tournament were..

1. Batako (ZA)

2. Motsuchi (BR)

3. Kiap (ED)

4. Karun (JA)

Eventually after lots of waiting, the tournament started. Matt, Rod, and I all got lucky and got a bye first round. HH entered this tournament with Ky. His first match was against the Baiken that beat Inoue’s Eddie. HH won his match. HH’s 2^nd match was against my Faust! He seemed pretty cocky (or maybe just being a nice guy? LOL!) and instead of doing RPS to pick what side we would play on, he just let me choose which one I wanted. I was doing well against HH last night so I had confidence that I could beat him. Rod and Matt were cheering me on while we played and lots of the Japanese players watching were getting pretty hype. I ended up beating him 2 rounds and taking the win! Not long after, it was time for Matt’s first match. He was up against Fumo’s ABA. Matt played his HOS really well and ended up taking it! Unfortunately for Rod, he wasn’t so fortunate. He was to fight a Jam player but the name on the signup sheet was unfamiliar. As soon as his match was called, I saw who it was that he had to fight. I asked Rod if he knows who that is and he said no. He assumed by the way I asked though, that the player was good. Rod’s first match of the tournament was vs Karun (who got 1^st place at the last one). Rod put up a good fight and actually won the first round but in the end, too many puff balls to the face eliminated Rod’s I-no from the brackets. Karun went on after that to defeat Nanashi’s Venom. Matt went up against Mitsurugi and put up a decent fight but Mitsurugi is just too good and Matt was eliminated. My next match was against Batako’s Zappa, the guy who is currently ranked in first place. The first round was going very well. I had his life down pretty low and then he got Raoh. I threw out a bomb bag and he managed to squeeze in a DP and hit me out of it, but the bomb bag fell on him and killed him, giving me the first round. The 2^nd round I zoned him really well and just kept him at bay and kept shutting down his summons and was able to take the 2^nd round as well! Once again people were getting pretty hype.

We were now at the final top 8 of the tournament. The top 8 remaining players were me (FA), Kawin (spiky hair Potemkin), ABEGEN (PO), Tsu (ED), Mitsurugi (ZA), Zero (OR), Karun (JA), and Akitan (IN). MIU was announcing the final 8 and was humming this funny song when someone was about to die. I dunno what it was from but other people started humming it too. Zero went vs Tsu and defeated him. Kawin and ABEGEN battled it out in a mirror match and Kawin won. Akitan took out Karun in a good match. That left me fighting against Mitsurugi. Mitsurugi is such a smart and careful player. It was going even for a while and eventually he got me in the corner with the ghosts and I just couldn’t excape for a very long time. I kept blocking and eventually I got out but he still ended up winning. I put up a decent fight but his Zappa was just too much and I was eliminated. We were now down to top 4. Kawin Pot bustered his way to victory against Mitsurugi in a really close one. Akitan took out Zero! Grand finals were Kawin vs Akitan. Akitan did alright but Kawin was just on fire and beasted on his I-no to take the whole tournament!

Im not sure what the rankings look like now as of todays results but G3 ranbats are now over and the final team has been determined. They might have the final results online. If not, I will ask around next week to find out who will play in the G3 finals. Todays tournament had a total of 49 entrants. It was a lot of fun and very hype. Even though I lost to Mitsurugi, I felt like I played pretty well and didn’t feel that bad about it. Matt and I didn’t eat all day yet so as soon as the tournament was over, we congratulated Kawin and talked to him briefly and then Matt, Rod, and I went to get some Wendys and I got a cigar too.

After that, we headed to Vegas to play casuals for the rest of the day. It was packed as hell with lots of people who were at the G3 tournament as well as some other players that weren’t there. I started off strong, getting a win against Nakamura’s Millia my first match. Then I beat Matt, and the orange I-no who is often there that talks to us a lot. After that I started to get into a slump and lost a bunch of times. For a while, Matt, Rod, and I kept trying to beat this one Potemkin. This guy was decent but wasn’t doing anything extremely special, its just that he was in our heads. He kept predicting everything we were gonna do. It was rather frustrating. He had a huge win streak and eventually someone else beat him. Then we started trying to beat this one other Po who was also beasting. We couldn’t beat him either and were starting to get pissed but then we realized it was Satoshi so we didn’t feel so bad. Eventually my losing streak ended and I got a 13 win streak to balance things out, so I didn’t feel so bad anymore. The streak was ended by that Potemkin again but he won by a pixel after a basically killed him and thought he was dead and I fucked up and he came back. I immediately rematched him and beat him 3 rounds. Everyone there today was just on the top of their game and playing very hard and very hungry. I played against HEVEN’s Venom like twice and lost. I wanted to rematch him but there was this one May player on the cab next to it and Rod, Matt, and a few other people were trying to beat this guy forever! No one could stop him. He was at the tournament too and was beasting earlier. I forgot his name but he uses default color. Rod said hes like some really famous May. Anyway, Rod and Matt suggested I try to beat him. I figured why not. I tried and lost. On like my 2^nd or 3^rd try though, I managed to beat him somehow and ended his like 30 something win streak! It felt good cuz I hate May so much. As the night went on, lots of people were still there even very late so we ended up playing till about 12:30! We got so many games in and really felt like it was a good long day of training.

After playing, we stopped to get some curry and then headed to Current. Tonight, there was a metal event. Most of the metal event regulars were there and a few of the normal regulars. Ai was there too! She had plans to go to both GODZ and PSY as well and asked us to come with her. We stayed and drank at Current for a while and I enjoyed my cigar. Then Ai had this one friend. I don’t remember her name, but for whatever reason, when she introduced her, she was like “this is my friend, she is very young”. LOL, that just seems odd to me but whatever. Ai went ahead to GODZ with her friend and then at about 2:30, Rod, Matt, and I left Current and met her at GODZ. SPG Chris was also there, as well as that big Norwegian dude who we talked to last week and some other people. We requested some songs and did more drinking and talking and then Ai and her friend said they were gonna go to PSY and asked us to meet up with them there soon. At about 4:15 or so, we left and went to PSY. Today was Request Man’s birthday but he already went home! I guess too many people bought him drinks and he couldn’t handle it anymore. Too bad, I wanted to see him a plastered on his birthday. There were still tons of people there though and you could barely even move inside there. Eventually Masami came as well as Mai and Hibiki. Also, a bunch of people who were at GODZ showed up too. It was pretty much just more drinking and stuff. We stayed till a little after 6 and then they closed the place so we all had to leave.

We wanted to keep drinking so we got a group together and did like 2 hours of karaoke. Rod was tired so he went home. It was me, Masami, Matt, the big Norwegian guy, these 2 British dudes, and some other white chick. We sang lots of good metal songs. I think I passed out for about 20 or 30 minutes towards the end. I didn’t even remember falling asleep and next thing I know its time to leave. Oh well. I drank a lot and it was already like 7:30 or 8 am so whatever. Everyone went home and I headed for the manga kissa.

The next day I woke up and my head hurt pretty bad. I popped a headache pill and got better eventually. I headed right for Vegas. It was already like 3:30 pm so there were a few people there. I started off by getting a 23 win streak right off the bat. I eventually lost by a pixel to a Millia player. I rematched him, won the first round, and then for whatever reason he went into IK mode at the start of the 2^nd round, stood there, I ran at him, he tried to IK me, missed, and then I think he just left the arcade. I dunno wtf that was about but whatever. Hot Zappa showed up with the Yellow Robo-ky who I think is her boyfriend. I beat him a few times in my win streak and I got a few more games in against him after that. That one foreigner Bridget player who is there sometimes named Ryan was also there. He was having a real hard time vs the Robo-ky but eventually beat him once I think. There was also this really good Millia there and I was going back and forth with him for a while and then he started to pull away but they were all really close. They he chose Chipp on me, won like 2 and then I beat him. Around this time, Matt and Rod eventually showed up really late. Matt had shit to do and Rod over slept. Matt played me after I beat that one dude’s Chipp and then I think he left once Matt got on the machine. It’s a shame cuz I wanted to play that guy more and I also wanted to ask him about his SBO plans. Oh well. I beat Matt and then I got a bunch of games in with Rod. He tried a few different characters against me. Mostly Johnny and I-no. He didn’t beat me but we had some good matches. Eventually, it was time to go so I said bye to those guys and headed for the train station.

When I was at the train station waiting for the train to arrive, I reached in my backpack to get something and I noticed it was all wet. The saline solution bottle for my contact lenses had opened up in the bag and spilled everywhere! My DS was soaking wet. I tried to clean it off and then turn it on but nothing happened. My DS is now broken. Fuck!!! I was pretty disappointed about that but I guess its just an excuse to get a DSi or something. I wasn’t really planning on buying one cuz my original DS still worked fine, but I guess I have to now. Fucking contact lense solution.. At least my PSP was ok cuz it was in a case and my MP3 player was in a different compartment of the backpack so it could have been much worse.

Overall it was a good weekend and I had a lot of fun. I did pretty decent at the tournament and got lots of great games of casuals in. SBO quals are coming soon so its time to keep playing hard. This Wednesday is a national holiday which means no work. Rod and Matt will come out to my town with their girlfriends for the first time and we will play some games at my place and get drunk. The next day we will all go skiing and snowboarding. Should be fun times.

Weekend With the Missus

This weekend, my girlfriend, Ryoko, had Friday and Saturday off work, so we made plans to go to Tokyo together on Friday night. Earlier in the day, she went to Maebashi (one of the cities in southern Gunma) to meet up with her aunt and do some shopping. She was supposed to come to my apartment at around 5 so that we could go from there together to ride the train. However, she was running late due to bad traffic. She said that she might be able to make it to a different train station closer to her house and I could just meet her on the train, so I told her to hurry and just do her best. I told her I would just board the train and if she didnt make it on time I would just get off at the station where she was gonna get on and wait for her there and we could take the next train. Turns out she was still stuck in traffic so I got off at Gokan station and told her I would wait for her at Funayado, a bar/izakaya right by the station and told her to meet me there. She said she would be there in about 10 mins.

When I walked in, I was the only one there except for the owner. I ordered a huge beer and some food for us. Shortly after, this one old guy walked in who is there sometimes. Ryoko ended up getting there pretty late. Traffic ended up being really bad, and in addition, she stopped home first to get some stuff. We ended up only having about 20 minutes till the next train and didnt really wanna rush eating the food I got so we just ended up deciding to take the NEXT train which didnt leave the station till a little after 8 pm. We were talking with the old man most of the time and he ended up ordering all us all this beer and food. He even bought us an order of fugu (Japanese puffer fish, you know what im talkin about if you ever watched that season 2 ep of the Simpsons where Homer thinks hes gonna die). That stuff is pretty expensive and really tasty. In the end, he picked up our entire tab which was probably well over 5000 yen! Pretty lucky shit right there. I told him I would pay it but he insisted... nothing could be done but its all good!

From there we took the train to Tokyo together. Ryoko was all gung ho about drinking some more on the train (she already drank a lot in a short period of time and she usually cant drink very much either). We started watching Battle Royale on my PSP together and then she had to make a few trips to the bathroom. Her period just started the day before and I guess all the drinking didnt go well with it. So for most of the trip to Tokyo she ended up just sleeping with her head on my shoulder while I watched the rest of the movie.

When we arrived in Shinjuku at about 11 pm, she felt better than she did before. We headed right for Current and Rod, Matt, and Matt's girlfriend Akiko were there waiting for us. A few other people were there as well. We spent most of the night just talking and stuff at our table, dancing around being drunk and having a good time. Heidi came too and we talked to her for a while. At some point this one really tall long haired metal dude started talking to her for most of the night.

At around 5 am when it was closing time, we all decided to go to karaoke together. At this point, Ryoko wasnt feeling so well again but wanted to go anyway. She ended up sleeping for a while at first and told me to wake her up after a little bit. After she did eventually wake up she felt much better. We all sang a lot of songs and drank a ton more booze and ended up staying there for like 2 and a half hours.

After that, Rod went home, while Matt, Akiko, Ryoko, and I went to Okubo to try to find some love hotels to stay at for the night. Luckily we found a good place pretty fast, it was only 5000 yen for the night and they said we could stay until 5 pm! We checked in and went into our seperate rooms and then some stuff happened that I wont go into detail about on my blog and eventually we went to sleep.

Ryoko woke up a little before I did and took a nice bath. She then woke me up and I took a shower while she did her hair and all that other stuff that girls take lots of time doing. Eventually Matt and Akiko were ready to so they stopped by our room. While I was waiting for Ryoko to finish getting ready, I was flipping through the TV channels on the TV in our room and there was this really weird show on. It was just a public restroom and it had a locked toilet stall, a urinal, a drain on the ground, and a sink. It showed various women who had to use the toilet knocking on the locked stall door and waiting to pee. The first girl waited a bit, tried to look under the door and eventually grew impatient. She then took off her skirt and panties, propped her leg up over the urinal and pissed right into it! LOL! Then they had another chick who waited a little while but also grew impatient. This girl, for whatever reason, decided to squat down and just pee in the drain on the floor... which I guess wouldnt have been too odd, except she didnt take off her panties! She was just letting it drip through her panties and slowly seep through into the drain! This was pretty weird, and then she takes off her panties AFTER peeing through them and washed them in the sink. Then another girl went in there and did THE EXACT SAME THING! I dont know if this was like a legit hidden camera thing or just some sick amatuer fetish video but it was pretty hilarous! They of course, cenceored out the crotch area but you could still see what was going on pretty easy. We all had a good laugh at the video and then it was time to go.

We were all hungry so we went to a Korean resturaunt where the food and service ended up being kinda so-so. From there, we had plans to go to the Yebisu brewery! We took the train out there and walked for a while and eventually we made it there. Unfortunately the tour hours ended at like 6 pm or something and it was just around 6 pm at that point. We had just enough time to just go into the front lobby and look at some of the merchandise they were selling. I bought a Yebisu T-shirt and we took a few pictures. Oh well, maybe I can check it out again sometime now that I know the business hours.

From there we headed back to Shinjuku. We got some Hagendaaz icecream. After that, we were gonna hit up PSY for a bit but they werent open yet, so instead we went into a sex toy store and looked around. We looked at some ammusing stuff and eventually the old man who works there asked us what we were looking for. We said we werent looking for anything in particular, and then he told us "kaere!" which basically means get the fuck out! Nice customer service... After that, we went inside this one nearby petshop to look at puppies and kittens and Ryoko was swooning over all the cute dogs. There was this awsome french bulldog. It was all white and it had just a little black fur between his nose and his lip and it totally looked like a littler Hitler mustache, LOL! From there, we went to an izakaya for like 2 hours and drank ate and talked. Once 9 pm rolled around, it was time for Ryoko to head back to Gunma cuz she had to work on Sunday. Akiko was gonna go home too. The 4 of us walked to the station, Matt and I said goodbye to our girlfriends and then the 2 of us headed right to Vegas to finally get my first games in for the weekend!

Matt told me that him and Rod had played earlier on Friday night at Vegas and that Matt got a win against FABs Potemkin in casuals. He seemed pretty happy about that. Tonight there was a good ammount of comp once again. Since I had already been drinking and hadnt played yet all weekend, I wasnt playing that great, mostly my execution was just pretty terrible. I started off by losing to a Venom player cuz I ran into my own bomb due to an input error. I played him again and lost again in a close match. Then I saw FAB lose to the same Venom player in a really close one so I didnt feel as bad. I tried one more time and lost to him again. Then I played a mirror match vs Osaka B. I won the first 2 rounds but then lost the next 3 and they were all super close. After that Kawin (spikey hair potemkin) was there and he saw my Children of Bodom shirt and we started having a conversation about metal. Hes a huge metal head and espesially likes death metal. He was showing me some stuff on his MP3 player and we were talking about some bands and stuff and then FAB walks by and Kawin was like, FAB doesnt know anything about metal. So then I asked FAB what kinda music he listens to and he sorta paused. I asked him if he likes game music and eventually Kawin was just like, he listens to J-pop! Heheh, I was just like, thats fine, no problem. FAB looked sorta embarresed heh.
After that, I went back to playing. I fought some Potemkin and lost in a close game. I looked at who it was and it was Basara playing Po. I was like... yea... I aint losing to his Po... so I played him again and won. After that, I beat a Sol player 3 times in a row and then lost to some Slayer. I then rematched the Slayer and won but then Basara played me with his Slayer and I lost to him like 4 times in a row. Almost every single round I lost, it was due to my own execution. Stupid stuff like hitting him with a counter hit 6 HS and then doing a pogo but then the pogo completely just not coming out at all, or stuff like air dashing into my own bomb cuz my super jump came out as a normal jump and stuff like that. I was getting kinda annoyed cuz I really hate losing to Basara after what happened last year with the whole SBO team thing. It was already about 11 pm so Matt and I agreed to just go to Current, I was determed to play serious all day tomorrow anyway so whatever.

Current had a Party Hard night so lots of regulars came out. Rod eventually showed up too. This was the first time I had seen Chip since before I went back to the US for winter break, so it was cool to see him again. This one dude who was there the night before, his nickname is ThrashMetal, was there again. He was asking me about Ryoko. He was like, "was that cute girl with the really big boobs your girlfriend?" Im like.. "yea..." and hes like, "ooh you are lucky!" hah. Then he was asking about Matts GF. He asked how old she was and Matt told him to guess. He guessed 23 and Matt was shocked cuz Akiko is actually 30. Its too hard to tell the real age of Japanese girls sometimes. SPG Chris was also there and he was talking with some chick I never seen before. They left the bar together pretty early but he wanted to meet us later at PSY for more drinking. We also ended up talking to the tall long haired metal dude from the night before who was talking with Heidi last night. I forgot his name, but hes from Norway and here studying Japanese. He was a pretty cool guy. At some point, the entire bar ended up singing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen in unison which was pretty epic. Overall it was a really good night at Current.

After they closed at 5, Rod, Matt, and I went to PSY. Chris called and wanted us to go drinking at this izakaya where that one chick he was trying to get with works cuz they had cheap beer. We told him maybe after going to PSY we would go there. When we got to PSY, there were just these 2 guys there at the bar and the owner working. Rod had bought the Tougeki SBO 2k3 GGXX DVD. PSY has a big flat screen TV on the wall that they use to show music videos or live concert DVDs. Rod asked the guy to put the DVD on at the bar with the sound off and he was totally ok with it! So we spent the next hour at PSY requesting awsome music and watching GGXX SBO matches on the big screen TV getting drunker! It was pretty awsome. It also turns out that one of the guys who was sitting at the bar used to play GG many years ago so he was pretty familiar with the game. ThrashMetal showed up with Kunko and Mai later too and they thought it was pretty funny that we were watching that there. After they closed at 6, we were pretty tired so we didnt end up going drinking with Chris. We got some drunken McDonalds breakfast. Rod headed home, Matt and I went to the manga kissa for sleep.

The next day we woke up and just went to Vegas cuz its right next to the manga kissa. There werent many people there yet but a few were playing. I decided to play some BlazBlue since I didnt play it yet this weekend. There were 2 guys playing on seperate cabs, and both were playing as v-13 against the computer. This is the first time ive seen v-13 in action since she was just unlocked earlier this week. I played against one of the v-13 players for several games. The guy I was playing against turned out to be Vegas Pink Axl on his break. I lost the first few games because it was my first time fighting this character (controlled by a human anyway) so I didnt quite know what was going on. I did fairly well in general though and eventually won. After that VPA had to go back to work. Then Matt played me for a bit and tried her out and I also decided to try her out. She seems really good, super fast, great zoning capability. I didnt really know any of her combos cuz I didnt have them memorized or written down from when I read about her online earlier but it was fun just messing around with some of her stuff. Im not so sure I can see myself maining her over Arakune but she does seem like a character I would have fun playing, so maybe I will play her as a secondary or something and see how it works out. I like the fact that she can hit you from almost anywhere, her normals have decent range, and shes very fast. She sure does take a lot of damage though...

After playing BB for a while, more GG comp started to show up, so I spent the rest of the day playing GG. A few noteworthy people were there. Lots of girl players like hot zappa, baim, and the female HOS who always seems to get pissed off were there. I played hot zappa and won and then she came around to the other side and told me I was really good. I think her boyfriend was there (might be her BF but im not sure). Hes sorta a pretty boy lookin yellow Robo-ky player. I played him once and lost and then this one orange I-no asked me if that guy was strong and I was like, well yea hes good but I can beat him. I tried again and then I won against the Robo-ky. Orange I-no gave me a thumbs up. Unfortunately after that, I dont know why, but i tried a few more times and I just couldnt beat him again. He was beasting on Matt too. I moved to another machine though and then I ended up getting a 14 win streak. I played against this one Venom a lot of times and he eventually beat me cuz I made a stupid execution mistake and he ended my streak. I sorta was annoyed by that, so I started being a dick and taunting him after rounds to give him half meter at the start of the round, and then kept proceeding to beat him anyway heh... Usually I dont do that sorta thing but I was just adjitated that he ended my streak. Eventually Rod showed up sorta late cuz he slept in pretty long after the long drinking night. I played against him a whole bunch of times, starting out with a Faust mirror, then a few matches with Johnny, and eventually a bunch of I-no matches. He played slightly rusty at first and gradually started to step it up. He didnt beat me but it was good games. Matt played me once too and almost beat me but fell short. It was about time to go home eventually so I left the machine with about a 20 win streak and called it a day.

Next weekend is the last G3 ranbat at Sportsland. I will be going once again since its guarenteed to be a huge turnout with top notch comp. There might be another tournament on Sunday too but I forgot to buy the new Arcadia so I will just check later.