Current Turns Eight

I was gonna combine the last entry into this one but I just separated them to make it easier.

Anyway, last weekend (weekend of August 29th), I headed to Tokyo again. I went out there on Friday as usual and met up with Andy at Takasaki station since its on the way. I bought some CD-Rs there last weekend and they were the wrong kind, so I passed them to Andy and he went to go exchange them while I waited inside the gate, cuz if I exited I would have had to pay an extra 320 yen lol. Sometimes Japan has strict return policies but I had the recipt and the package was unopened. Andy had to get the clerk on the phone to talk with me cuz they wanted me to explain why I wanted to exchange them. After some explaining/arguing, they finally agreed and he bought different ones.

We then headed the rest of the way to Tokyo. We started off at Mikado in Takadanobaba. There were a good amount of people there playing GG. Mitsurugi was there and I started off beating his Slayer and he said im too strong but then I asked him for some Zappa action and he beat me like 6 in a row. Then Andy tried against him so I went to fight other people and was getting way more wins cuz those people werent Mitsurugi lol.

While I was playing casuals, I got a call from Arturo Sanchez. He's still gonna be chilling in Japan for a while since he has more time until his visitor visa expires after coming for SBO. He said he was 2 stops away from Shinjuku and would meet up with us later for drinking.

Later on, it was starting to get late, so we decided to go check out Big Box where all the SFIV players go. I was assuming Arturo would be there. When we arrived, he wasnt, so I tried to call him but he didnt pick up. However, there were lots of other really good SFIV players of course. Daigo was fighting against Nemo when we arrived and Nemo beat him with his Sagat. I played 2 games for the hell of it even though I never practice SFIV. I lost to the first person who used Ryu and didnt win any rounds but they were all close. Then I fought an Akuma and I took a round but lost.

We figured Arturo would find us later so we just headed back to Shinjuku. Then Arturo called me when we got off the train and said he was in Nakano but would be in Shinjuku in like 5 mins so we just waited at the exit and then met up with him there.

From there we headed to Current, but on the way, we stopped and bought a small bottle of Johnny Walker and chugged it between the 3 of us real fast on the way to get things going.

Tonight was just a regular night at Current but their 8th anniversary party would be tomorrow night, which is probably why not many people were there. Regardless, we chatted with this one random guy who was pretty cool and then after a few beers we decided to go to GODZ cuz Andy and Arturo had never been there.

GODZ was much busier. At first we were standing and Arturo saw this one chick he wanted to talk to but there were no open seats. We eventually got the table in the back and aftera while longer, some people left so we got to sit at the bar. Arturo got the seat next to the girl and started hitting on her. There was some white guy on the other side of her, who like Arturo, was also from New York. He was pretty much spent the next while talking to the chick and then the other guy tried to butt in and put in his 2 cents or whatever. After a while, Arturo got the girls number but then he got a random booty call from some other girl on his phone and decided to go with the guarenteed shot instead of gambling with this other girl and the cock blocker guy so he said bye and headed out to meet up with his booty call.

After that, Andy and I went to PSY, which was also full. In fact, they had a special deal going on this weekend with 400 yen beers and all the girls were wearing Kimono for some kinda festival going on. It was pretty sweet. Also there was some random movie on the big screen that looked like it was from the 80s. It was some like some movie about 3 people on a desert island and one guy was like doing the chick and the other guy was all out hunting for fish for them and then they build a small boat but the young guy and the girl ditch the guy who was hunting for them, but then their boat sinks and they have to swim back so the hunter guy stabs the other dude with a harpoon and they have this big battle and then it ends with the girl just screwing them both over. LOL! We had a good laugh at it. Made nice background atmosphere while we listened to music and got drunker.

After that we went to the manga kissa.

The next day we woke up and I got an email from Emmet, the new ALT in Numata. Numata is the town next to my town. He's from New Zealand and he actually plays fighting games which is cool. Hes mostly a 3rd Strike player but he has played a little bit of GG before and other fighters too. He wanted to go to this Tokyo Friends party thing today in Akasaka. Basically its some party designed for Japanese people to meet foreigners. Its like 3 and a half hours of drinking for 3000 yen... BUT... the first 12 female foreigners and first 12 male foreigners get in for free! Free drinking for 3 and a half hours?! Sounds good to me! Anyway, he asked me to make the reservation on my phone and I realized it was at Sam & Dave, which was the same place they had the foreigners farewell party for SBO last year in 2008.

Anyway, Andy and I got some Wendys and then went to Mikado. There were people there again which was good. Eventually Emmet showed up so we met him in front of the station and then we played some games. Emmet wanted to play me in 3rd Strike so I agreed. He was way better than I was expecting actually. He beat me 4 times in a row with his Remy. I havnt really played 3rd Strike seriously... ever... but I had maybe only played a handfull of casual matches within the last few years and it has been several months since I even touched the game. Plus, I have no idea how to fight Remy, I think maybe ive fought one Remy player... ever! (I didnt even know you have to block his low sonic boom low.... LOL!) Not to take away from Emmet though, he seems like a solid player and its nice to know that there someone who lives right near me who I can get some games with (at least in SF) sometimes during the week if I wanted to. Anyway, I told him good games and told him I will play better against him next time and went to play GG. I did much better at that and only lost twice the whole time we were there out of like maybe 20 matches. There was a Melty Blood tournament going on so Andy mostly just watched that. Eventually we had to get ready to head out if we wanted to get to that party early enough to get in for free. I wanted Emmet to play me in one quick game of GG before we left but some guy got on before him. I beat the guy and we were low on time so we just left.

When we got to Sam & Dave, there was already a huge line of people waiting to get in. I counted my best as we walked by and I only saw maybe 10 foreigners, so there was still hope that we MIGHT get in for free. Most people looked Japanese. As soon as we got in line, some other guy got in line right behind us who was from Finland and commented on my Children of Bodom shirt and we had a good chat about metal.

When we got to the entrance, it turns out my count was pretty accurate... there were 11 foreigners before us so only one of us could get in free, so we decided to all just pay 2000 yen between the 3 of us instead of one guy being free and the others having to pay 3000. 2000 yen all you can drink for 3 and a half hours is still a great deal anyway.

Anyway, the party was packed! There were like way more Japanese people and lots of cute girls actually. They only had mixed drinks for free but I probly drank like 15 Tequila Cokes while we were there. Emmet claimes to have had like 20 screw drivers and threw up in the bathroom after the like 1st hour of being there LOL! He was still fine after that though. I mostly played wingman for Andy and Emmet because Emmet cant speak any Japanese at all. Andy studied for a year so he can speak some basic Japanese. Im sure it will improve fast after he lives here for a while. Some of the people we met were kinda boring, some were cool as hell. This one girl we were talking to actually works for Koei and is developing PSP games!

There were also these other 2 hot chicks and by the end of the night, they agreed to go with us to Current. So once the party ended, we headed out and went to Shinjuku station. From there, we waited in front since my girlfriend, Ryoko, was just about to arrive from Gunma. She had to work today but since tomorrow was a day off, she was able to take the train out here to join us for Current's party! We met up with her and then headed to the bar.

Current was packed as hell when we got there. I was greeted by like just about everyone as soon as I came in. Just about every regular that matters was there aside from just a few people, but the entire core of Currents cool people were there in addition to lots of randoms. By this time I was already kinda drunk from before so I just kept the buzz going! It was honestly a pretty awsome party. Not many specific details to go into other than lots of dancing and people drinking shots and stuff and just having a fucking good time. One thing that was kinda cool was Ayami, Mai, and Yoshie were cosplaying as Budwieser girls for whatever reason. It looked pretty hot though. I introduced Andy and Emmet to some people and I think they both had a good time, though Emmet looked kinda tired towards the end. Ryoko had fun too! I took some pictures so you can just look at those to see how things were.

Anyway, we stayed till a little passed 5 once they were closing up and headed over to PSY. We got there a little late and they were alrady emptying out the beer tapper so all they had to offer us were cans of Asahi. I honestly didnt even really want one but we already came in so we just said the hell with it and all got Asahi cans. I passed out like periodically throughout my beer, woke up, took a sip, passed out again, until eventually I was able to slam the rest of it and then ended up throwing up in the garbage can by the bathroom. I was fucking wasted from drinking so much all day and hadnt thrown up or had any water or food in my stomach for a long time. Since I threw up in the garbage and didnt make a mess, I felt fine, and actually I felt a lot better once I got it out of my system. The apolagized to the PSY bartenders but they said it was no big deal and also commented on how rare it is for me to throw up. Actually its probably the first time they ever saw it anyway.

After that, we got some McDonalds breakfast as always. Ryoko was fiending for McGriddles and was super happy.

Instead of going to the manga kissa or a hotel, we just decided to go back home since the trains were running at this point. There was nothing going on tomorrow and a long lazy day of sleeping at home sounded loke a good idea to me. We all rode the train back and I slept the whole way. Andy parted ways with us at Takasaki, and then Emmet later parted ways with us at Numata. Ryoko and I made it back to my place and slept till like 5 pm and then just spent the day being lazy and watching X-Files on DVD and I made Chicken Burritos and they rocked.

That about sums this one up. Next weekend is my school's sports day meaning I have to work Saturday and will probably just stick around my area. I doubt there will be anything worth writing about but the next time something semi-interesting comes up ill hit some keys.