Turkey with a side of Heavy Fucking Metal

Friday we had this huge ALT meeting where every single ALT from Gunma had to go to Maebashi for a day long seminar. It was pretty much just like the other 2 years I had to go. After it was over, there was a JET program thanksgiving dinner event. I went with Andy and a few other ALTs I know were there like Jessie and stuff. When we walked in they had this big table cloth made of paper and a bunch of markers and people were just drawing shit all over it. Most of it was Thanksgiving related but I just drew an Alien head and wrote "The thruth is out there." cuz X-Files is cooler than thanksgiving. A girl named Chelsie made the most awsome picture of Andy which he will some day use as his logo when he opens his own resturaunt.

The food was pretty good and I got my fill of like 2 full plates, another half plate, and a bunch of pie so I was good. I split a bottle of red wine with Andy too.

After the dinner was over, a bunch of the ALTs went back to Takasaki to go drinking at an Izakaya. Emmet met up with us at Takasaki station. From there we headed to Yamato, which is an awsome Izakaya I had been to a few times before. They have like liter size beers for only 400 yen! Cant beat that. I gave Jessie a snus for the first time and this one other girl who I just met tried one for the first time too. I was surprised how well they handled it. Jessie even enjoyed it! Pretty cool.

We stayed there and drank for a few hours and then some people came and went as the time went on. At some point like 20 something ALTs were all sitting at our table and I knew maybe 1/3 of them at best. Emmet and I eventually decided we wanted to go check out this one other bar so we left. We walked around for a bit and couldnt find it but then we ran into some of the ALTs from before and ended up going to Karaoke with them. On the way there, this one dude was like making this really stupid joke and he just kept saying it over and over again and laughing a lot. It was kinda annoying so I was like...

me: "Hey you're pretty funny man! I have a joke too!"
dude: "ok"
me "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
dude: "why?"
me: "FUCK YOU!"

I was just being drunk and fucking around, wasnt trying to really start anything. The guy didnt seem to mind.

Anywa, Karaoke was pretty fun I guess but about a half hour before we left, everyone was getting tired as hell. I made sure to expose everyone to Holy Thunderforce for my first song though and half of them just had this WTF look on their faces which made it way more fun. And that one dude who kept making that lame joke at least had good taste in music and was singing along to all the metal I requested.

Andy left early to get extra sleep so when Emmet and I left, we had to find Andy's place by ourselves. Ive been at Andys a bunch of times but he always leads the way when we walk there at night all drunk. We were also coming from a different direction so as a result, we got lost and ended up walking around for a long time. I eventually asked for directions at a Denny's and they said we were really far so I asked them to just call us a cab and told the driver to take us to a place near his apartment that he knew. Once we got there it was easy to find but it was already really late, like past 5 am.

The next day we woke up really late... maybe at like 2:30 pm. We headed out and walked to the station. We got some McDonalds for the train ride to save time on eating. I played some scribblenaughts for the first time in a while and the other guys sorta watched and helped me think of ideas. I ended up having to take a huge dump like soon after eating the McDonalds and I was holding it for like about an hour and a half cuz I didnt wanna use the train bathroom. They are always filthy and they are the squatter type that has no seat, and they often dont even have toilet paper, and using one of those on a moving train isnt very fun. Neither was holding it though cuz it seriously fucking hurt. Emmet was making fun of me about it so I told him "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and he knew what was up. Since we were playing scribblaughts I also told him how I wish I could use my stylus to summon a matter transporting device to teleport my crap into his body so he could suffer instead of me. LOL... but then to make matters worse, as we were pulling into Shinjuku station to get off, the train got delayed and I had to sit there holding it an extra like 10 minutes. Eventually I got off the train and took care of that shit asap.

After that, we stopped at Donkihote cuz Emmet needed a new belt. Today there was another international party. I wasnt gonna go to this one at first either but we arrived in Shinjuku so late, todays party was a thanksgiving one with all you can eat turkey feast, and it was also at the Nishi Shinjuku Hotel on the top floor which is located like 1 minute walk away from Current, so it was just too convenient to pass up. Plus Andy was going too so I figured I might as well tag along.

This one was run by the same group that ran the last 2 I went to. Emmet was able to get his backpack back since he ended up leaving it at the last one and he was lucky that all his stuffy was still inside and everything. The staff recognized Emmet instantly before he even asked about the bag which just shows that perhaps he goes to too many of these things lol.

The awsome black chef dude with the handlebar mustache was there again. Lets just call him Mr. Chefstache. The buffet had all the fixings of a classic Thanksgiving dinner. They had a full bar again and I drank good beer all night. It got pretty packed towards the end. Those chinese chicks we talked to at the last one were there again. Also, there was this girl in a pink hat with her friend. Emmet thought the hat girl was hot so we went to talk to them. We chatted with them for a good while and it was going well. At one point the pink hat girl was holding her friends drink while she was in the bathroom, so she had one in each hand. I told her in America we call that double fisting. So Emmet tells her to say "I love double fisting" and recorded it with his phone. You can find the video on facebook here.

There was also this one girl there all by herself who butted into the conversation and was just annoying as hell and she wouldnt leave us alone. She kept saying really stupid shit. Like, I toasted everyone we were talking to with a kanpai (Japanese way to say cheers), and the annoying dumb chick was like "why are you doing that? Are you trying to get them drunk!? You are a terrable person!" The other thing I dont get was she was speaking to me only in Japanese, which is fine with me as I was as well, but she told me she was married and here by herself. I asked her why she came and she said to practice English, so then I asked her if I should speak English so she can practice and she told me to just speak Japanese. We invited the other girls to come to Current with us and this other chick was trying to like force herself to go along with us. As we were leaving the party, she like forgot something and asked us to wait for her, so we just got the fuck outta there as soon as we could. Last thing I want is some girl who felt like she was practicly stalking me (she just kept following me around and wouldnt leave us alone at the party... seriously...) to find out about the bar I go to all the time.

So we get to Current with the other 2 girls, and Andy ended up bringing 2 OTHER girls that wanted to join him. So us 3 guys are sitting with the 4 girls at a table for a bit. Current was pretty packed since tonight was one of the classic Metal Insanity events. All the usual metal event guys were there, plus Current staff, Ayano, Notchi, and a few others. We sat with those girls for a while and it was going really well for Emmet and the hat girl. The other girl had a boyfriend just as I have a girlfriend and just went to chill with her friend but I talked with her a bit and she was nice. They left before the last train. Also, Tomoko and Mai were there and we told them how we were going to Zin soon. They had never been there so they wanted to come with us.

After a little while, we all went to Zin. On the way there as we were walking away from Current, we passed by the entire International Party staff who I guess just finished cleaning up and were just chilling on the side of the road. They recognized us and said hi, LOL!

Tonight it was Nozomi's real birthday party. She works at Zin. I hadnt been there in forever so it was nice to go back again. There were maybe about 15 people there which is pretty packed given how small Zin is. Just about every single person there was someone I know from Current or from Zin or other bars. This one girl showed up in a very... interesting red dress! You can see it in the pictures. Yoshi was very hospitable as always. We sat with Tomoko and Mai for a while and they were showing us funny videos on their iPods and stuff and they were messing around on my DS. They said they wanna go skiing with me in Gunma when it starts snowing sometime. Eventually Tomoko and Mai left to go dancing in Shibuya or something and we sat with the other people. Emmet got sick of Zin so he went to go check out PSY by himself. Andy and I stayed a bit longer drinking with everyone else. I enjoyed some absinthe which is always awsome. At some point later on, Sushi and Chip showed up with was pretty cool too.

We decided after a while that we wanted to check out Current again cuz the Metal Event was pretty rockin. When we returned to Current, it was still going strong. Emmet showed up right after I did and Chibi Testament had followed him from PSY LOL! She was pretty wasted too. At some point she was standing in the doorway with no pants on.. and I have no idea why. The rest of the time was cool just chillin and listening to music and drinking beer. When the event ended we headed over to PSY.

Some PSY regulars were there. Some girl from Poland was there too who just moved to Japan. I got a beer and ended up falling asleep for like the last 20 minutes or so but I finished my beer. Also, they didnt play any Dream Theater this time which is like almost unheard of for PSY.

After we left the bar, Emmet and Andy decided to just go back to Gunma. I stayed at the manga kissa by myself.

I woke up the next day and got enough rest. I hadnt played a single fighting game yet all weekend and was honestly fiending kinda hard. I started off going to the south side of Shinjuku to go to some of the less busy arcades in hopes to find an empty BB:CS machine so that I could try practicing with the character I decided I was going to main. After watching some vids and thinking about it, I had decided that I am now going to play Hakumen! His new pokes are awsome zoning tools and his back C is very much like Fuasts standing slash, while his new jumping C is like Fausts jumping H.Slash. Not exactly the same but they control space in a similar way and I love characters with good long pokes. He also isnt complete garbage in this game anymore and Arakune was getting boring to use honestly.

I went to Spot 21 and some guy was playing alone but then after I put the money in I realized it was the old BB and not CS... doh! I played anyway, and then after I lost I went to Joybox. They had one BB:CS cab for 50 yen a game which was cool. 2 guys were playing Hakumen mirror match. When one guy lost, he left so I played Hakumen mirror match vs the other guy. This was my very first time using Hakumen in this game. In fact I had never used him in the old BB either. I lost a few but was doing pretty well given the circumstances. I eventually won. Then some other guy came and beat me and then there were lots of people so I decided to check out Club Sega Shinjuku. They had 3 cabs going but no empty cabs. I played against some Jin player and lost. Then I figured I might as well just play at Mikado cuz at least I could play GG there as well. On the way out, I ran into MIU who was working. I hadnt seen him since SBO. We had a good chat. He said that in a week, he will be visiting New York and will be staying with Karl Kablisk. It will be his first time in NY. Pretty cool. He also told me that next week at Club Sega, there is a 5 on 5 GG tournament. If I am in Tokyo I will try to go to it for sure.

After saying bye to MIU, I headed to Takadanobaba Mikado. There were a couple people playing GG but there really wasnt much comp throughout the day. I started off playing against Taku's Slayer. He beat me like 6 in a row or something but then I finally beat him. Osaka B popped out of no where and said hi to me but I didnt even see him play anything at all and then he just vanished. Also, Mike was there playing a bunch of random games but didnt touch any GG. I played against other various people and did well for the most part in GG but the comp died down later on. I also played a bunch of BB:CS. There was much more comp for that today. Despite it being my first time playing as Hakumen, somehow I still managed to get a few wins here and there. I even got to go through the whole game in arcade mode so I was able to test a few things out. Im sure once I learn his combos and just get used to the character, I can get pretty good with him. It was fun and I enjoyed playing so I will probably try to play a bit more BB now, but im still gonna play tons of GG. I havnt been playing any SFIV lately anymore... I guess im getting a little tired of it. During the last hour or so, I talked to Udei a little bit and then played against some May player and was doing really well against him and beating him way more than he beat me. Then I had to go so I told him after winning the last one that I needed to go home, good games etc.

I got some food on the way and then headed to the station and made my way home.

Overall it was a pretty fun weekend. I honestly have no idea what im doing next weekend yet but if I do go to Tokyo I will most likely hit up that 5 on 5 GG tournament.

50 Year Old Sushi

This was a three day weekend. Staying in Tokyo for 3 nights in a row at the manga kissa can be pretty tiring, and I need to save some money, so I ended up drinking in Numata on Friday night. Jesse got a brand new hookah so we smoked a bunch of that at Emmet's apartment. Then we went to an Izakaya and got some food and drinks. After that, Jesse was tired so she went home. Then Emmet and I went to another bar and it was completely dead but the bartenders were nice and gave us a bunch of free shots. We decided to go to sleep around 2 since nothing was really going on and it would be best to get to Tokyo earlier tomorrow.

We woke up the next day and I got to take a shower which was pretty awsome. Then we ended up driving back to Minakami cuz I needed to park my car at a different train station. We stopped at Beisia (big supermarket where Ryoko works at the Fujiya cake store). I wanted to say hi to her real quick but she wasnt at work yet and our train would leave soon. We got some quick food and then got on the train. I mostly played some Suikoden on my PSP on the way there. Its good kanji practice.

Anyway, as always we headed for Mikado. I immediately went to check out the new BlazBlue which had just came out yesterday. Mikado got 3 new HD BB cabs. It was maybe around 4 pm and there was a good ammount of people playing but not too many where I had to wait long to get a turn. I tried out the new Arakune. This was my first time playing the game. He certainly felt much weaker to me. I got beat kinda bad and then decided to try one more as Hazama cuz he looks interesting. I didnt really know what I was doing at all. I honestly havnt been following the new BB news much but Hazama seemed really fun! I like range characters so he seems like he might fit my play style but I will have to try him out more. Once again I got beat and wanted to test stuff out but the guy wasnt giving me any room to breath to even see what all his normals did, but the oroboros drive attack is a lot of fun to mess around with. This week I will probably watch a few vids and read up a little on his basic combos and whatever and Ill try to play the game a little more seriously next week. I didnt really wanna play at 100 yen a credit against people who are already beasting when im just trying to learn basic stuff. Anyway it was nice to try it out a little.

I then went to play some GG. I started off playing a few people doing well. Then I fought some black colored Potemkin that kept beating me by like a hair. I was pretty determined to beat him but then I put a coin in the machine and it got stuck so I just said fuck it and went to play on another cab. I won a bunch and eventually lost to someone and then went and fought the Potemkin again and won. Then Satou (the JO who was on the 2nd place team at SBO this year) was there and I beat his JO. Then I beat his SL 3 times in a row, then he picked PO and I won too. Then we played a bunch more games vs his JO and were going back and forth for a bit. They were some pretty quality matches.

Mike was there too for a bit but didnt get a chance to play him. Also Imo was playing against En-Slayer for a while.

I went back to try another game of BB. I tried Hazama again but once again didnt have much of a chance to test much. Then I noticed Bleed was playing as Hazama. When he lost, I asked him some questions about Hazama and then he told me he thinks the character is pretty weak in general (at least for now). He said he still mains Litchi and was just messing around with Hazama.

I went back to play GG a bit and then eventually this one guy with the SRK handle LetBloodRun showed up. Hes a 3rd strike player from So Cal here on vacation for like a month. He said he heard about me through Arturo and wanted to chill so I told him to meet me at Mikado. His name is Ryan. Seemed like a nice guy. Him and Emmet played some 3S and Emmet told me that Ryan beat him pretty hard with Urien. Emmet was planning on going to another international party. This time it was a thanksgiving one. It was slightly tempting but I honestly didnt really feel like going. Id rather play more games. He convinced Ryan to go with him though, so while I was playing GG the 2 of them headed out to go to the party in Shibuya. Then I played more GG, got an 11 win streak and lost to a good ABA.

Not long after, I got a mail from Andy who was on his way and would be in Tokyo soon. He said there was an Arcana Heart 3 loketest at Club Sega Akihabara today and he wanted to check it out. I figured i might as well see the game too so I headed over there.

Andy was standing in line to play when I got there. The line wasnt nearly as nuts as the BB loketest was. Maybe about 15 people in line at once or something. Theres 2 new characters in the game. I dont know much about it but one has swords and sorta fights like v-13 according to Andy, but I didnt see anyone try her. Theres also a new character which is a little girl who rides an imaginary monster drawing she made and it morphs into all kindsa weird shapes and shit. Very interesting looking character actually. I didnt bother playing the game cuz I know like nothing about Arcana and have only played AH2 like once in my life. Andy said the game feels pretty similar to the old games which I guess is good in a way.

I noticed some JO player had like a 30 something win streak. He beat some HOS and then I decided I wanted to end his streak. He turned out to be surprisingly good and beat me like 4 or 5 times until I finally beat him. I was kinda annoyed though cuz the 2nd time I fought him I lost by literally a pixel. After I beat him he left and no one else was playing and I died vs the computer on accident cuz I wasnt paying attention to what round it was on. Then Andy and I tried a little more BB. Club Sega got 5 new HD BB cabs. I tried out Hazama once more in a mirror match and got raped by some guy who knew lots of combos and setups already. I also tried out Tsubaki and she seemed kinda fun but once again I had no idea what I was doing. Andy tried Noel and said she felt kinda weak but its not like Noel was ever a beastly character and she did get a little nerfed from what I understand.

Anyway, after that we headed back to Shinjuku. I got another last minute craving to play a little more and it was fairly early still so we went to Sportsland. I waited a while to play cuz they only had 3 cabs going at 2 credits for 100 yen and there were actually lots of people there playing GG. Sportsland got 4 new HD BB cabs. I won like 2 matches, then lost to a Slayer barely. Then I used my other credit and rematched him and ended up beating him like 10 times in a row or something. He was starting to get pissed and I could hear him slamming on the cab a little when he lost. Eventually he managed to beat me but I honestly wanted to get out of there anyway and go to Current and get food so I didnt care. Andy told me the guy looked pretty pissed when he kept losing to me, which I always find amusing.

Andy and I got some Sukiya and then got to Current. Tonight was Sushi's 50th birthday party. Seeing as how he is the owner of Current, just about everyone came out. Almost all the regulars were there. Ayano was there and her mom came with cuz she was in town visiting! I was surprised to meet her mom and didnt really know what to say and felt kinda shy for some reason so I just said hi to her and said nice to meet you. It was also Nozomi's birthday (though she said her real birthday is next weekend at Zin so I will probably go to that too) and she was blowing the candles out on a cake when I was walking in. Emmet was already there too. He said that he and Ryan picked up some girls from the international party and were eating with them at some Izakaya nearby but that they werent really digging Emmet so he bailed and Ryan was still there talking with them. This was also the first time I saw Saeko in like forever. She was dressed rather... revealing and had a new hairstyle so I didnt even recognize her till she said hi to me later. Anyway, eventually Ryan showed up and said the chicks from the international party were like kinda old and not so interesting. Lots of people ended up leaving for the last train so it kinda cleared out again. Most of the people that left were like random unknowns so there was mostly just the main Current people there throughout the rest of the night. All the Zin people showed up later too. Piko was having fun messing around with a squirt gun shaped like a penis and was spraying everyone with it and pretending like it was his real penis. Thankfully it was indeed fake and thankfully it was filled with just water. It was pretty funny shit though. Later on, some of the Finnish crew showed up but Antti and Snus man werent with them. One of them just got married so they were all dressed up and drinking to celebrate.

For a while, Bosch was kicking ass at DJing and had like an 11 hit combo of awsome classic heavy metal songs that I love so I was rockin out for a bit, but then he dropped the combo by playing Limp Bizkit or something. Oh well. I heard that Bosch was running another one of those anime events at Current tomorrow from 4 pm to 10 pm so I figured I would check it out at some point.

Lots of people were dancing a lot as always at big parties. I got some cool pictures. Ms. Round Face was there again and was talking with us a good amount, as well as that glasses girl from last week too. It turns out Ms. Round Face's boyfriend is Piko and they have only been going out recently.

Some people got really drunk and were kinda dropping like flies towards the end. Sushi was especially wasted and was like diving onto Andy's lap lol! He left at around 3 or something cuz he was really drunk, but its his birthday so thats good that he got good and wasted. Some dude was passed out hardcore on the benches for a long time as well and it looked really funny. Also at some point I was talking to Doll Girl and she told me how she used to play a little Tekken and KOF which I thought was pretty cool.

We stayed till closing time at 5 and then rallied up a group to go to PSY consisting of me, Andy, Chip, glasses girl, and and some other girl whos name I dont know. Emmet was also going to come but he realized he lost his backpack. It wasnt at Current so he probably left it at the international party. I thought he was behind us so we left but when we got there he was upset cuz he thought we left him behind. Eventually he came back to PSY and was feeling a little better but never found his bag. Masami came later on too and so did Jackie with some girl and some other dude. Natsume played a song by this Japanese female fronted band called Gothic Lolita Doctrine. I never heard of them but it turned out that the girl who was there with Jackie was the lead singer! Jackie said he was their manager. I looked at the CD book and it was indeed her. She was kinda hot. Andy suggested we ask if they wanted to go do Karaoke with us cuz it would be fun and the girl said she would do it if we paid her a lot of money or something LOL! I dont even know who she is so I certainly wasnt about to that. It was a good time chillin at PSy though. Its a good thing Emmet decided to go to PSY though cuz he ended up going to a love hotel with glasses girl. Once PSY closed I got some quick food with Andy, and then he headed home to go back to Gunma and I went to the manga kissa.

I woke up the next day and met Emmet outside. He said that the glasses girl told him she had a boyfriend after they had shacked up. I dont get whats with all these girls wanting to do shit with guys when they have boyfriends lately. Emmet had a beer in his hand already at this point and it was only like 2 pm heh.

We headed back to Mikado and I played a bunch more casuals. I was doing really well for the most part. Started off getting an 18 win streak right away. Eventually lost to some Jam player. I also played against Mitsurugi Zappa once and lost. I got another 14 win streak at some point as well but lost to some really aggressive black Anji. I rematched him won and then he beat me after that again. Then Kuni's Baiken challenged me. Kuni is one of the best Baikens around and I hate Baiken so he beat me like 4 in a row or something. I came like within one hit of winning during one of the games though so I was getting kinda annoyed. Emmet was getting tired of playing and wanted to go to Current. It was about 7:30. I was annoyed enough to stop playing for now and plus I promised people id show up for the anime event so we decided to leave. However, before leaving there was this hot girl playing 3S as Ken. She actually seemed pretty good so Emmet wanted to play her before we left. He played her 2 games and lost every single round. This chick was really solid. I told her she was really good as we were walking out and she smiled and laughed.

We got some food and then went to Current. I knocked back a few shots of rum before going in and Emmet chugged an 8% 500 ml chu-hi can. The anime event was about as packed as the last time we went but this time there werent many cosplayers. Chip, Megu, Michi, Chibilez, Ms. Roundface, Shuji, and some other people were there as well as the whole Current staff. Once again most of the music I didnt know but some classic favorites were played. It was espesially funny having the whole bar singing "You wa shock!" and the Ponyoponyo song lol! I did a little dancing towards the end as I got drunker. Talked to various people. It was good times. I was wearing my Rockman 20th anniversary t-shirt and everyone thought it was awsome. They even played like this awsome vocal/rock remix of the Wily castle stage from Rockman 2 and had this cool video to go along with. I espesially rocked out to that one!

A little after 10, the party was over but the bar stayed open and some regulars stayed to keep drinking. Current was only open until 1 am tonight because the next day, the entire Current staff was going to Osaka for the grand opening of a new bar. The bar was being opened by Nobu (one of the bartenders of Rock Rock). Ill make sure to check it out next time I visit Osaka. At some point Emmet left and said he went to 7-11 and chugged 3 more of those strong cans of chu-hi. Then, Emmet passed out for a like a good hour on the bar. They were giving away some free shots for Sushi's birthday to everyone in the bar which was awsome. Eventually they closed and I said bye to everyone. Then Emmet and I headed to PSY for more drinking. On the way there though, I stopped at McDonalds and just ate a really fast McChicken cuz I was a little hungry.

At PSY it was pretty dead. Some girl who we met at the party there last weekend was there and a few other random dudes. One of the guys there thought I was 40 years old for some reason. I havnt shaved in a while but.. 40? Really? wtf... Also, when we arrived at PSY my ulcer was hurting more than usual. Then I realized I no longer had a snus in my mouth, but I did before I ate that McChicken. The snus was now in my stomach. I tend to avoid eating with snus in for this very reason and I didnt even notice myself swallow it. So.. I went into the bathroom and made myself throw it up. Much better than leaving it in there to make my ulcer even worse. I felt much better after that. This is actually the 3rd time ive accidently swallowed snus lol!

Eventually we were the only ones in the bar. We decided to check out GODZ after we finished our drinks. GODZ was pretty dead too with maybe like 2 other people in the bar. Emmet was tired as hell and despite having just chugged a redbull he just passed the fuck out at the bar with a whole beer in front of him. I guess thats what happens when you start drinking at 2pm and dont stop all day. I just drank and listening to some music and was getting kinda tired too. The bar scene tonight seemed rather dead and Emmet was done for so I figured it would be best to just call it a night. I woke Emmet up and he finished his beer and then we headed out to go to the manga kissa.

We woke up after 6 hours and we were both still tired as hell. My ulcer was killing me. Its obviously not healed and I probably drank too much and ate too much food I shouldnt have eaten throughout the weekend. Plus I spent about as much money as I wanted too this weekend up to this point, so we just decided to go back to Gunma right after waking up. I kinda wanted to play more casuals but I just wasnt really feeling so well.

We waited for a long time for the train to transfer at Akabane and ran into some other ALT from Gunma real quick. Eventually we got on the train and slept the whole way. Then we had to transfer again and it took another 40 minutes at Takasaki which is why I hate taking the train back earlier in the day. Once again, I slept the rest of the way till I eventually got home. I spent the rest of the day with Ryoko which was at least nice.

Next weekend is a thanksgiving JET party and I will also go to Zin for the first time in while. Maybe ill try to play more BB if I get the time and do a little homework first.

High Five to PSY!

On Friday, I had to stay at work later than I was expecting and ended up not making it out to Tokyo until about 10 pm. I headed right for Mikado and played some GG cuz I was fiending to play pretty hard. I said hi to Hot Zappa who was talking to Natsume. Hot Zappa said hello and Natsume just ignored me for whatever reason. Takuya was there fighting Hot Zappa's Boyfriend. I went and played some Testament and won. Then I lost to some Baiken twice in a row. Lately I have really been having trouble against Baiken. I think I hate her more than Millia and Chipp now so shes right up there with May as my most hated character currently. Some other guy got on the machine after that, so I went to go fight against HZBF's Robo-Ky cuz he just beat Takuya's Faust. Udei was sitting at the cab next to me so I said hi to him and then played and won against HZBF. From this point on I stayed on the machine the whole time without losing. Heres exactly how it went down from this point...
2 wins vs MA
1 win vs VE
3 wins vs HOS
fought some Faust whos button broke in the last round but then they fixed it and we played again and I won again
1 win vs MA
1 win vs TE.

After that people stopped playing and they turned the closing time music on. I only had time to play a total of 14 games all night and I won 12 of them so I guess I did ok, but I would have liked to play some more.

After that, I headed for Shinjuku. This weekend McDonalds had 100 yen McChickens as a special! They normally dont even have regular McChickens, just the bigger ones that come in the combo meals. Last time I visited Chicago the McChicken I got sucked but these were way juicier and better quality! Only problem is they put way too much fucking mayo on them but Japanese people love mayo. After eating, I took a couple swigs off my rum bottle in my backpack to pregame and headed to Current.

I hadnt been to Current for 2 weeks so it felt nice to be back there. The only people there when I arrived were Masami, Mogi, Sushi, and Bosch. As soon as I sat down they poured a free round of Jagermiester shots for everyone and then they later poured a free round of nihonshu which rocked as well. Also, Sushi had just purchased Dream Theaters Greatest Hit CD for the bar and it was still freshly sealed. He busted it out and told me to request a song. They know I love Dream Theater so its always awsome how these guys take good care of me when I drink there. I requested Lie and rocked out.

A little later a couple of random dudes showed up, and then Franchesca and her friend came. Sushi was air guitaring with a broom stick and dancing around for a while. It was pretty amusing. He went home after a little while though. I drank a bit more and then Emmet showed up. He was drinking with a girl somewhere at an Izakaya and she went home so he come to chill. Also, this Finnish girl named Meeri came. Shes the one who dressed as a Sailor girl for Halloween. The plan was to go to PSY for their 5th anniversary party but I wanted to at least go to Current to have a couple beers first.

Emmet and I then headed over to PSY. On the way there, we probably got asked for massages by like at least well over 20 "massaji" girls. I dont usually walk over to PSY this early so I guess there are just way more of them out around this time, but it has to be a record for the most I ever encountered during a 5 minute walk!

This weekend at PSY was their 5th anniversary party but it was actually a 2 day event. The cover was 2000 yen to get in but you get 2 drinks and you can get ANYTHING! Some places are really stingy about that but Emmet was getting Long Island Iced Tea and I got a redbull tequila and they were totally fine with it. I was also given a free shot of Jagermiester (again!) from Chi! In addition, they were giving away free PSY T-shirts. The design on them is pretty cool but the only problem is that they are black shirts and the design is like kinda sparkly with like silverish glitter. It doesnt look that bad but im concerned about the glitter coming off all over the place when I wash the shirt later. It was already starting to come off a little on other peoples shirts. The other cool thing was, since we paid cover for tonight, they told us we dont have to pay cover again for tomorrow night, so thats pretty sweet. PSY, being an extremely small bar, was very packed. All the main PSY regulars I see there often were there, and all 5 bartenders who work there were there. Natsume, Chi (aka Imoto-san), Michiru, Yukio, and this new guy but I dont know his name. This was the first time I saw Yukio in a long time, but he seems to be doing well. Hide, one of the owners of GODZ, was also there. They played good music all night and I had a good time chillin. Also, on the big screen they were showing old Gatchaman episodes so it was fun watching the likes of Ken, Jun the Swan, and crew kick some ass while I got drunk. I couldnt help but be reminded of TvC hah. Towards the end of the night, Masami showed up with Meeri. Meeri was given a Tequila shot and didnt want it so she gave me it for free! Sweet! PSY ended up staying open until 7 am! I got good and drunk but somehow didnt end up spending all that much money, awsome!

After they closed, I got some McDonalds breakfast with Emmet, even though I know its not a good idea for me to do so right now, but I was really hungry. I got a Bacon McGriddle set for once to mix it up from the usual Megamuffin set. It rocked pretty hard.

Once the food got maxed, we headed for the manga kissa. I only got the 6 hour package cuz it was already late and I wanted time to play games after getting up. I was kinda tired though.

After waking up, we got some McChickens and then headed over to Mikado. Emmet got his usual hangover beer. There was some good comp there today. I didnt bother keeping track of all the matches I played this time, but there was this one May player there who uses default color. I cant remember his name but Rod and Matt saw him when we went to Sportsland before and said he was some pretty famous May who had lots of vids from back in the day. Hes a sorta chubby guy who looks like a textbook anime otaku. Anyway, I played him about 12 times or something until I finally beat him. It was frustrating cuz I had some really close ones but he kept coming back with some clutch wins and stealing that shit. I was determined to beat him though and can always use good May practice so I didnt give up. After I beat him, he later re-challenged me, so at least he obviously didnt think I was bad, or else he could have easily just played against someone else. A few other big names like Mitsurugi and Inoue were there but I didnt get a chance to play against them. Aside from losing to May a lot, I did well against just about everyone else that I fought.

Today, Emmet was planning on going to another international party. I originally wasnt going to go, but a few factors made me change my mind. I saved a ton of money last night so I didnt mind spending 3500 yen for all you can eat sushi and all you can drink. This one was at an actual bar so I knew the drink selection would be fine. I was hungry, and sushi was sounding good. Also, Andy was on his way to Tokyo and said he was going too. I also got lots of games in today so far, and had all day tomorrow to play, so I figured... why not!

Around 6 pm, we headed over to Shinjuku station and met up with Andy. We transfered to the Oedo subway line and headed to Roppongi. I generally hate Roppongi and try to avoid it but oh well. We found the place pretty easily and only ended up getting there about 15 minutes late. It was at some Australian bar called Quest, I think. At some point while we were in there, there was this white chick who worked there. I asked her if she was from Australia and she said no, shes from London, and told me that NO ONE who works there is even Australian! LOL! Some Australian bar.

Anyway, the place had a full Sushi buffet with some other stuff like salad and cake and cheese! The same organization who ran last week's party ran this one as well. The black dude with the awsome handlebar mustache was there again with his chef uniform on again. This guy is an awsome cook and baker and made the cake from scratch again. They also had more of that home made icream. We ate a ton and then walked around and made the rounds talking to various people. A few nice people, but no one overly interesting. I drank probably about 7 tequila cokes, and I tried this Australian beer called Victoria Bitter. I never had it before but was disapointed with it cuz it tasted like some shit I would have gotten from a crappy 40 of cheap malt liquer back home. Reminded me of like something slightly lower in quality than Mickey's (which is the only malt liquer catagory stuff I actually enjoy), maybe like King Cobra or Old English lol.

There was this one chick who was there who was actually half Japanese and half Russian! She was also a huge metal fan! On paper, that combination sounds pretty awsome but she was like sorta old and not very attractive at all, but we had a nice little chat about metal while I was ordering a drink at the bar.

The bathroom at this place was pretty awsome though. It was just a one toilet small room with a sink, but all the walls were covered in mirrors, so you just saw and endless sea of yourself. It was pretty trippy, espesially after a few drinks! I took some pictures of myself... and myself... and myself... and myself...

Anyway, once they stopped serving drinks a little after 9 pm, we talked to like one more pair of girls and then we left to go back to Shinjuku. On the way back to the station in Roppongi, we passed the main Konami building, which is probably the only actual good think located in Roppongi lol! I took a picture. Maybe I should go visit it one day. Konami has always been one of my favorite (top 3 easily) game companies.

We headed back over to Current again to chill before going to PSY. This time there were a lot more people there. Ayano was at the bar and I gave her a hug and said hi. All the staff was there working and Piko was there too DJing. Also some various random people were there. We sat at the bar for a bit, and then Liz showed up with this one other ex-ALT who now works in Tokyo. We got a table together in the back. There was also this one other girl there who I have seen a bunch of times before but never knew her name. Pretty cute. She joined us at the table in the back. She told us her name but lets just call her Ms. Round Head. She has sorta a round shaped face and also her hair is like really smooth and sorta roundish looking but she looks pretty good. She spent a good while chilling with us and seemed to take a liking to Emmet. However, she got too drunk and ended up passing out with her head on his lap. Then later she woke up and was sitting with Emmet at another table and they like kissed but then she said some stuff about having a boyfriend and Emmet got confused and didnt wanna deal with it so he just came back to join us.

Then later on, Chip showed up! He sat with us at our table and this one girl with glasses joined us as well. Chip said he's now thinking of maybe working at one of the sub-companies of Capcom that developed Biohazard 5, I think some of the Devil May Cry games, and Lost Planet, I believe. Chip told me the name but I forgot what it was. When Emmet finally was introduced to Chip for the first time (they have both been to Current at big parties but never talked before), he was extremely enthusiastic to meet someone who helped make some of the classic Street Fighter games.

We all enjoyed drinking together for a bit and eventually Liz and the other guy had to take the last train back home. Andy went and talked with Ms. Round Head for a bit, and around this time, Meeri, and a few of the Metal Event regular guys showed up (though not together). Bosch was now DJIng and was spinning a bunch of power metal and these guys just started rocking out like it was a metal event lol! Meeri danced with them a bit and I sorta joined them on and off for kicks. We wanted to head out to PSY and they wanted to come with us, when we finally got them away from air guitaring for long enough to finish their beers, we all (me, Andy, 2 metal guys, and Meeri) headed out together to PSY. Chip said he would be joining us there later. Emmet was talking with the glasses girl and Chip and just got another beer.

PSY this time was even more packed than the previous night! I dont even know how thats possible but it happened. It was pretty fucking hard to even move. Lots of the same people were there, plus even more people, and Ken from GODZ came too. Some dude whos been traveling all over the world and just randomly found this place on accident like an hour before was there and he had these really good cigarretes from Indonesia and let me have one so I gave him a snus. He was pretty cool. Must be nice to have the time and money to do all that traveling. I was also talking with Meeri and found out shes actually staying at Masami's place and unforutnately will be going back to Finland soon. Once again Masami came later too after Current closed. Chip, the glasses girl, and Emmet also showed up later on as well. Also, Yoshi, the owner of Zin came with Doll girl as well. I was surprised to see them since it was the first time ive seen them at PSY (that I can recall). Cool to see them though. Just another reminder that I need to drink again at Zin soon cuz its been a really long time since ive gone there. I got a seat at the bar at somepoint (though I dont know how cuz it was so packed) and they had some free snacks which were pretty tasty.

Sometime around 5 or 6, Andy headed out to go back to Gunma. Once again the bar ended up being opened till like passed 7 am. I was feeling slightly tired (but didnt sleep) somewhere around 5:30 or 6, but after getting a Tequila coke and them playing a few songs I liked I somehow just got like this 2nd wind and after the bar closed at 7 I still wanted to drink more! Emmet and I decided to go have a beer at Tokyo Loose. I honestly dont really like the place but it was the best thing I could think of that was opened at 7 am.

We split a locker and put our bags in and grabbed a beer. Some black dudes that worked there or seemed like they did, were talking to us. One of them asked me where I was from and I told him Chicago, and he said he was from Indiana, but spoke with a Nigerian accent. I was tempted to ask him WHERE in Indiana he was from to test if he was BSing me but I just left it alone. Some other dude said he was from Brooklyn but he didnt have an accent. To be honest I really dont care anyway lol. The guy from Brooklyn was trying to get me to dance with this one black chick. I didnt really feel like it but hes like "dont leave me hangin bro" so I was like ok fine. So I go dance with her and shes like trying to get me to buy her drinks and im just like "no" and then she leaves me alone lol! The selection of women there was pretty crappy. Overall it was as I would have expected it to be but I got to drink another beer and thats all I wanted anyway.

After finishing our beer we went to get McDonalds breakfast again. We went to Beatles McDonalds on the 3rd floor. We were talking about one of the girls named Eli who goes to PSY, and then I look up and see her sitting across the room with another girl lol! It was random. So we said hi to them briefly and after we ate we headed out. I then went to the manga kissa and got some rest, but once again only got the 6 hour pack cuz I wanted time to play games again.

I woke up and had some pain again in my chest. It seems my ulcer isnt quite healed yet. Nothing as bad as that one day I went to the hospital to get checked out but noticeably uncomfortable and it pretty much lasted all day. Its my fault for eating too much McDonalds (especially before sleeping) and drinking too much tequila cokes. Should have stuck to beer and ate better so Ill try to do that again and hopefully the ulcer will go away and wont get worse. I already finished all the medicine I got from the hospital.

Anyway, enough about that... Sunday, I headed to Akihabara. Last week, the AC cable for my DELL laptop broke, so I have been unable to use my computer. Theres a DELL store near Akihabara station so I figured maybe I could buy a new one there. Turns out that they have to special order it and then I would have to pick it up like a week later so I just said fuck it and decided I would order on myself online. I just figured this way would be easier but oh well.

Well, since I was already in Akihabara and since it had been a while, I figured I would check out good ol Club Sega. They had 6 GGAC cabs running now and there were a decent amount of people playing but no real notable players were there. Ive been trying to save money lately so playing at 100 yen a game is a little steep but i figured if I just dont lose a lot its all good hah. So I started out by doing really well actually. I got a 20 win streak right off. I eventually lost in a close one to a good I-no player. While I was playing on that cab, there was this dude playing next to me who was using Venom. He started talking to me randomly, saying I look like im pretty good and asking where im from and all this stuff. Eventually he went over to play me on the other side and used Johnny on me. I beat his JO twice and then he used VE and beat me barely. Then I rematched him and won. Throughout the time there, this guy was like constantly talking to me. He asked if I could exchange cellphone info with him. I didnt mind so I did. He seemed like a solid player and I figured maybe would be good as a potential team mate for next years SBO. However, I asked him if he ever tried to enter SBO and he said no because the level of players is too high. While im not arguing that the level isnt high, thats not the kind of attitude a good competative player should have.

I played throughout the whole day and ended up playing there till about 8:30. I was beating most people. There was a female Dizzy player there who I never saw before who was actually pretty good but I beat her the only game I played against her. There was also a Testament who was pretty good but I have no idea who he was, though I would say I went about 75/25 against him in my favor. The Venom/Johnny guy (whos name is Akagi) was the best one there that I fought against. I got another 12 wins in a row at some point and managed to not lose very many games over like the 5 or 6 hours I was there playing.

Eventually it was getting late so I said bye to Akagi and headed out. I got some curry before getting on the train. As I was waiting on the platform for the train, Akagi mails me again with this really long email thanking me for playing with him. Then he starts busting out all the information out of no where like his age, where he lives, and a whole ton of other stuff you normally just wouldnt freely decide to tell some random dude you just met at the arcade and only talked to briefly. Then he jokingly asked me to teach him English hah. Id like to give him the benefit of the doubt and maybe he was just being friendly, but it did come off as a little strange to me. Later on I showed the email to Ryoko and asked her what she thought and she didnt really know what to make of it but told me to be careful LOL! In any case, I dont really care. I hardly ever play at Club Sega and even if I see him again its no big deal. He was a solid player though in any case.

So thats about it. A pretty solid weekend. Next weekend on Friday, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift final version will be out in arcades. We will also be celebrating Sushi and Nozomi's birthdays at Current! I will be back in Tokyo once again next weekend for sure!

The 100th blog post

I cant believe I already typed 100 of these damn things lol...

This weekend, I had to work on Saturday morning for the annual PTA ping pong and volleyball tournament at my main Jr. High School. As a result, I stayed in Gunma on Friday night. One of the Numata ALTs, John, had a small party at his house. About 15 people showed up, mostly other ALTs and about 5 Japanese girls. He cooked a ton of really good food like BBQ ribs, and all kinda gormet stuff. Hes a good cook. He also made some hot cider which I spiked with some rum and it was pretty fucking delicious. After that, he had a bonfire set up outside in front of his house. We roasted marshmallows and stuff. It was pretty cool. Later on, Ryoko showed up. She spent the day in Takasaki shopping with her friends so she couldn’t come for most of the party. She stayed for about 5 minutes but then she just gave me a ride home cuz I had to work early Saturday morning and so did she.

On Saturday morning at the ping pong / volleyball tournament, I played ping pong, just as I did the last 2 years. I was put on the Adult-B team which consisted of a couple other teachers and some student’s moms. We pretty much got owned by the 3rd year students. There was this one girl who was like a fucking pro at spiking the ball really hard. We managed to beat the 1st year student teams at least. It went by fairly quick and afterwords everyone got free onigiri and pocari sweat, just like the last 2 years. I was out of there by noon, made a quick snack while I waited for the next train, and was on my way to Tokyo. Emmet got on the train as well but I pretty much just slept the whole way cuz I was really tired.

Once in Tokyo, I headed to Mikado for casuals. I started off by playing against an I-no who I beat several times until he finally gave up. Then I fought a Potemkin and won. Then this BA player came along and he was really good. I have trouble against Baiken in general and after 6 tries I couldnt beat him. I was getting rounds but I just couldnt get a win in. Then Mitsurugi shows up and plays against him with his Slayer and wins. I was kinda surprised. Then I fought Mitsurugi Slayer and won. Then I played a few games against Mitsurugi's ABA and I won the first couple and then we went back and forth a few times. Eventually I played that BA player again but I still didnt beat him.

Emmet was saying there was another international party today in Ebisu. This time the event specifically said they would have a full bar with real beer. Not only that, but a whole buffet meal with roasted chicken, roasted pork, salad, and other shit. After that last 2 parties being so crappy, I was hesitant to go to another one of these for a while, but this one sounded too good to pass up with all you can drink and eat for like 3 hours for 3500 yen. I figured Id give it another shot.

So Emmet and I left Mikado and headed to Ebisu where we met up with another ALT from Gunma named Dan. Dan said the party was at a place called Seven. I was like... wait... for real? ...cuz thats the same place it was at last time for Halloween. I said this time I was just gonna outright ask them if all they have is crappy drinks or if they have real stuff this time before I even pay to get in. Luckily, as we were waiting for the elevator, some guy rolls up with a whole cart full of Yebisu beer bottles! I asked him if it was for this party and it indeed was! It turns out that this time, it was run by a completely different organization but it just so happened to be at the same venue for whatever reason. They didnt go back on their word either. When we got inside we saw a whole buffet table full of food, and they even had homemade pie, cake, and ice cream! The bar also had just about anything youd want to order so I enjoyed drinking Yebisu and Yebisu black the whole time. I got my fill of good food as well so I got my moneys worth for sure. The chef who made the cakes and stuff was this black dude who had the coolest handlebar mustache ever that was sorta connected to his sideburns. I gave him props for his mad cooking skills. He was a nice guy too. I think he said something like hes been living in Japan for over 15 years.

This one other guy was there again this time and hes ALWAYS at these things without fail! Hes kinda creepy looking, but I dont really know how to describe it. Anyway, if I go to another one of these I wouldnt be surprised to see him there again. We also talked to tons of girls there, most of them just came up to us to chat. For most of the later part of the party, this group of hot girls came up to us and ended up being Chinese. Emmet wasnt interested because he only wants to meet Japanese girls LOL. One of them was like broken tier hot and was talking to me a lot and seemed pretty interested but since im not single I didnt try to pick her up or anything.

So for once we left the party without any girls with us. Emmet and Dan were planning to go clubbing in Shibuya at some place where Dan's Japanese friend was DJing. There was a cover charge to get in so I wasnt interested in going and my plan was to just check out Current by myself. However, Dan said he could get me in for free. Once again, im not a club guy, but if I can get in for free its worth checking out at least, so I tagged along.

We got to Shibuya around 9:30 but the club didnt open till 11, so we went and killed some time at this bar that had 200 yen beers! I gotta say, this place was pretty awsome! It had a decent crowd in there and there was no BS! The beers really were 200 yen each and it was like even a decent sized glass of Sapporo! Anyway we were chillin for a bit and then Dan tried to go talk to these 2 hot chicks that were sitting alone. While Dan was talking to them, Emmet starting sneakily shoving random crap like chopsticks and paper cups and made a huge tower inside of Dan's back pocket. I was surprised how long he was able to do it until he got found out lol! Eventually we all made our way over there and were talking to these girls a bit. One of them left a little earlier so then were talking to the one girl for a while. Dan and Emmet were trying to get her to go clubbing but she said she had to work early the next day. She ended up giving me her email before she left but I stored it wrong so I just deleted it. Too bad cuz Emmet wanted to mail her heh.

After that, we went back to that other club. I forget the name of it though. We ended up being able to get in for free. We put our bags in a locker and then chilled a bit. Drinks were a little pricey at 700 yen for everything on the menu. I got one Tequila coke and then Dan had like a bottle of vodka he brought in so he like spiked the hell out of it and it was like half booze. Some Ex-Japanese porn star was there and she did like a semi strip tease dance (showed off some parts without taking stuff off all the way) which was pretty hot. After that was over, though, the place seemed pretty boring. The other 2 guys were down to go check out Pure so we decided we could give it a look and come back later if need be.

I dont mind going to pure since its all you can drink. We walked there and we were pretty shocked to find out that Pure no longer exists! Appearently the place closed down completely a few weeks ago! That totally sucks because for what it was, it was actually decent place to go drink for cheap! Disheartened, we sorta just walked around a bit trying to decide what to do.

We got some quick food and then when we were in front of the Family Mart, there were these Japanese guy. I dont even remember at all how it started but somehow Emmet got me into another arm wrestling match with another random Japanese dude on the street lol! This time I lost though. He was a fairly big guy. Im not even that strong so I dont know how I did this well up to now anyway haha. Anyway, after that, there were these foreigner guys from like various European countries here together on vacation or something. I dont remember how it happened again but I ended up arm wrestling like 3 of these guys! I beat 2 of them and lost to one of them. My arm was already tired as hell from the first match and after the 4th one it was pretty fucked. I was never one to go around challenging random people to arm wrestling matches in the streets so ill just blame it on a combination of Emmet and Alcohol lol! Its all good though, just in good fun, nothing serious.

Anyway, we tried to get back into the first club and the bouncer was a total dick and wouldnt let us back in. We showed him our locker keys and said he would let one of us go in to get the stuff for everyone. So anyway, I go in first and get my bag, then I come back and were chilling outside and we see the pornstar chick go into a combini! Emmet follows her in there and is kinda like waiting for a chance to talk to her. She leaves, and as shes walking back towards the club, Emmet is just like, fuck it!, and goes after her. We cant hear the conversation and we were expecting him to get blown off fast but to our surprise she walks off with him towards the club! Then shortly after, Emmet comes back telling us she wanted to have drinks with him but the bouncer wouldnt let him back in and she even tried to help him get in too! Oh well. Then Dan went in to get his backpack from the locker. Emmet and I waited for a bit but after waiting for like 10 minutes we tried calling him but we realized his phone wasnt working right so we just said fuck it and decided to take a taxi back to Shinjuku.

We got to Shinjuku around 4 am. We figured we might as well just hit up PSY which would give us 2 more hours of drinking. There was an average crowd there for PSY which was good. SPG Chris showed up too and was telling me about a concert he has coming up so I might go to that. Also, Natsume told me that next week is PSY's 5th anniversary party so I might hit that up as well. I had a couple beers and talked to some people but towards the end I got a little tired and nodded off a little. I didnt drink any redbull all night and was drinking since 6:30 pm and woke up at 7 am for work so I was a little tired out.
After leaveing, we got McDonalds and then headed to the manga kissa.

I woke up the next day after a good 8 hours of sleep and Emmet was already on his way back to Gunma. I went back to Mikado and spent the day playing GG casuals. Some Millia player who recognized me was there and said hi to me. I dont know his name but we ended up playing several games and I won probably about 75% of them. I also played against several other people. Kunihiro was there, as well as Udei (who was playing Testament the whole time for some reason) but I didnt play either of them. I did end up playing against Hot Zappa's Boyfriend's Robo-Ky for a bunch of matches though. I always like fighting him because hes a really solid player. Hes good at reading people and is also really hard to hit and very patient. We started off going back and forth. Then he got like 4 in a row on me, then I answered by getting 3 in a row, then we went back and forth a bit again. Then he pulled ahead and beat me like 5 in a row, and then I beat him twice and he left. I also played against Hot Zappa one game and won. I played a few more games against some people after that, mostly winning. My biggest streak of the day was like 15 wins or something. It was a good casuals session for sure.

After that I made my way back home. When I got to Akabane station, I stopped in and saw the November Arcadia and checked the tournament schedule. There were like absolutely NO GG tournaments listed for the whole month. Looks like another month of just casuals and drinking unfortunately. Mikado has their weekly Tuesday tournaments but I cant get out there on weekdays. Hopefully next month will have some more tournaments. Next week's plans are still undecided but I might go to the PSY party or something.

Halloween 2009: The New Mythology Suite

So I didnt bother posting about the weekend between the last time I posted and the one that just ended. I just stayed and drank in Numata cuz I had an enkai and then drank all night with Emmet and Jessie till like 5 am. I woke up and had terrible pain so I went to the hospital. The good news is my heart is fine. Turns out I have a stomach ulcer. Ive always suffered from really bad heartburn so it was only a matter of time. I got some meds and have been watching what I eat so its no big deal. Also, we went to some awsome shrine with the biggest Tengu mask in the world in the mountains outside Numata. Emmet got his Tengu mask for his costume. For those of you who dont know what a Tengu is, you can see some art here. I spent the rest of the weekend with Ryoko.

Also, last Wednesday I ended up driving to Takasaki with Ryoko and Emmet and we went to Donkihote and I was able to buy some stuff I needed for my costume. This year my costume would be the Symphony X mascot. Actually, there are 2 of them. Here is some artwork of their masks from the first Symphony X album and here is what their full bodies look like on the cover of V: The New Mythology Suite. The Back is the inverted version of the image. Totally awsome album artwork btw. I had dressed up as the mascots before with my friend Mike White during college when we saw the band live at the Metro in Chicago and after the show we even met Jason Rullo (Drummer) and Mike Lepond (bassist) outside the venue. They were totally awsome guys and really dug our costumes. Anyway, I decided to do it again this year for Halloween. Since Mike White obviously isnt in Japan, I needed someone else to go as the other one. I asked Andy to dress up as the other one and he was cool with it since he had no other costume plans, even though he really isnt too familiar with Symphony X. I was the red mask with black cloak and Andy would be the purple with white one. So anyway, when I went to Takasaki I was able to find a crappy black priest robe and took the top part off and it worked well as just a regular black robe that I could wear a hooded sweatshirt underneath and stick the hood out. Now I had a perfect black hooded robe. I also ordered some face paint online and it arrived so I was all set!

Anyway, getting to this past weekend...

I ended up having to go to a meeting on Friday at work and it didnt end till like 5:30 so I had to go to Tokyo 2 trains later than usual. I got there a little before 10 and headed right to Mikado. I hadnt played Guilty Gear for over 2 weeks and was totally in the mood for some good matches. There were a handfull of players there. A few regulars like Mitsurugi and Takuya and stuff. I felt a little rusty but got back into things quick and generally did pretty well, mostly getting small streaks of like 4 or so wins and then maybe losing one or 2. I was talking to Mitsurugi a bit and asked him if there were any tournaments for GG coming up and he said nothing aside from the weekly ones at Mikado that I can never go to cuz they are on weekdays. At around 11:30, Emmet arrived. He played some SF games while I played more GG. At 12 when it was time for the arcade to close, we headed out and went to Shinjuku.

We started out by going to Donkihote. I already had my costume ready but I wanted to check for Andy if they had a white hooded robe. We found something that would work pretty well but it was 5000 yen and Andy decided he was going to make his own out of a sheet and would be arriving tomorrow night in Tokyo.

Before going drinking, Emmet wanted to knock back some spirits so he got a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of coke at 7-11. Were just chilling outside talking and hes drinkin, and some random dude comes up to us. Emmet is wearing his pink Kanji T-shirt again and the guys like "Comedian!" and points and then I start talking to him in Japanese for a good while. We had a good conversation about what I was talking about before with the whole thing how Japanese people wear random Engrish shirts and how most foreigners find it hilarious. He told us hes in some band named Math Gorilla Squared and I told him how that doesnt really mean anything in English but he said he just thinks it sounds cool (I guess it kinda does). The dude was getting his motorcycle which was parked right by where we were standing. After talking to us for like maybe 10 minutes he finally got on his bike and left. He was a pretty cool guy.

After that, we got some ramen at the place that gives free refils on the noodles. Emmet wanted ot go to Tokyo Loose. Im not a fan of the place but I figured since there was no real plans for tonight we might as well check it out. One of those Nigerian guys was out in front and was trying to get us to come in even though we were already going in hah. We checked it out and it was kinda dead, plus they wanted to force me to buy a locker to put my backpack in even though I was fine with just leaving it on the floor by my stool. So I said fuck this place and we left.

After that we decided to check Current. There were a couple people there but it wasnt too packed. I talked with SPG Chris, GFKA28YOV, and some other friend of theirs and they shortly left to go to GODZ. Then I talked with Franchesca, her friend, and this other chick from Finland. Also Masami, Mogi, and Sushi were working and there were like a few random people but that was it. Masami and Piko were arm wrestling girls and the girls were using 2 arms and still losing to them lol. I told Emmet I could beat anyone currently in the bar at arm wrestling for free so then he told Piko to arm wrestle me and I won pretty easily. I was trying to take it easy on the drinking tonight since the alcohol is bad for stomach ulcers. I had one beer at Current and then we decided to check out somewhere else.

We figured we would give GODZ a try. When we got there, it was like packed with guys. In fact, the only girl there was one of the bartenders lol. Emmet wanted to try to hit on girls so we only stayed at GODZ for like one beer. I said by to SPG Kris and we headed to PSY. PSY was a bit better and had a few girls. Eli was there with this foreign chick and Emmet wanted to talk to her but she left to go to GODZ before he had a chance. Bad timing I guess hah. There was this one other girl sitting next to Emmet so he talked with her a bit but she didnt know much English so he was having a hard time having a good conversation. I also ran into this guy named Richard who is friends with that girl Jessie who got me the X-Japan tickets a long time ago (not the new Jessie who is an ALT in Gunma). He and his friend said they were gonna go to Zin. I havnt been to Zin in forever so it sounded like a good idea. He told me he would mail me and let me know if there was anyone there. I waited a bit but he never mailed me. After a little longer, SPG Chris and his friends showed up at PSY but then Emmet and I decided we might as well just check out Zin anyway since he wasnt having a good time talking with that one girl.

On the way to Zin we were absolutely SWARMED by Nigerian guys trying to get us to go to their clubs/bars. It was WAY worse than usual. PSY to Zin is like a 2 minute walk and we got approached by like at least 10 to 15 of these guys on the way! Its like flys on a corpse thats been rotting in the sun for days. One of them asked Emmet to go to his club so Emmet asked him how he got his job here cuz he was curious. The guy tried to change the subject by asking Emmet something and a few of the other Nigerian guys hanging around were like "Wait, answer his question!" to the other Nigerian dude but he didnt want to answer so we just left hah.

Anyway, we got to Zin and it was already closed. It was about 4 am though so I guess it was a slow night for them and they closed earlier. Maybe ill try to go next time.

We were gonna go back to PSY but then Emmet convinced me to check out Tokyo Loose one more time. I didnt really wanna go but I figured they would be closing soon anyway so we might as well just check. Turns out the place is opened till like 10 am! I guess after everything else is closed its a decent option but I wouldnt wanna spend a whole night at that place.

Emmet agreed to pay for my locker this time which I didnt wanna pay for strictly out of principal. This time the place was a little more packed and there were some more girls though this place was still mostly a sausage fest and about half the guys there were gaijin. I hate going to these kinds of places but Emmet wants to meet Japanese girls who can speak English and like gaijin. I knew the only way I could enjoy this place was to get drunker. I had like 3 drinks while we were there, one being a tequila redbull cuz I was getting tired. I only had 7 drinks all night, plus I had some snus in but it was enough to at least give me a good buzz. In any case, all the girls at this club were stuck up and didnt even want to talk to either of us so it was a complete waste of time and we just ended up sitting around watching these people dance and shit. We finally left a little after 7 or so and then got some McDonalds (except I didnt eat cuz of my ulcer and Emmet ate his food in like 30 seconds). After that we headed to the manga kissa.

On the way there, we passed by HUB. HUB is like a chain of British pub style bar/restaraunts all over Tokyo. I generally dont like going there but Emmet was asking about it so I pointed it out to him. As I was pointing at the place, there was this group of Japanese people, 2 guys and 2 girls, probly in their 20s, and they started looking at us when I was pointing cuz maybe they thought I was looking at them or something. Then Emmet said hi to one of the guys and the dude starts like flexing his arm. Then he takes off his sweatshirt and is like showing off his guns and hes like bragging how its all big and shit LOL! I dont know if he was trying to be intimidating or something but then Emmet told him he should arm wrestle me right here on the ground in the middle of the street LOL! It just came out of no where but I was like, sure why not. So I arm wrestle this guy and just take him down really easily. He was all super embarased in front of the girls LOL. Then he tried to tackle Emmet but Emmet got him in a headlock and the guy gave up. I dont know if he was just fucking around or if he really was trying to start something but he quit pretty fast and then they went on their way peacefully. It was pretty random and hilarious!

After that we checked into the manga kissa and slept.

We woke up Saturday morning and headed over to Mikado. I wanted to play some more. Kawin was there and I only got to play him one time and lost, but I took a round. Other than that I pretty much just played some various random people and did fairly well. There was that really good black I-no player who was beasting at this years SBO quals a lot and I played him a good ammount and was doing well, mostly going back and forth.

Now later today, there was another international friends party, like the ones I went to before. I really didnt feel like going to be quite honest, but Emmet kept hounding me about it and I eventually gave in ONLY because it was Halloween and I figured I might as well get more use out of my costume. So around 5, Emmet and I met up with Liz and we went to her place real quick to change into our costumes and stuff. Mine took a little while to get ready cuz I had to paint my whole face. I also had a shave off my beard to put the makeup on, but its all good cuz it will grow back in like less than 2 weeks probably. I would have liked to have done a slightly nicer job on the makeup but time was running out and I guess I did a pretty good job for doing the whole makeup job in like a half hour. The makeup was really good in a way. Once it dried it made like a plastic casing on my face and it peels right off easily. Its good that it wont smear but its bad that it eventually would be cracking a bit around my mouth cuz thats the part of my face that stretches when I talk and drink beer.

So with our costumes ready, we headed out. Liz said she would meet up with us later at Current cuz shes kinda broke. Andy was still on his way and wouldnt arive till around 8. The party was scheduled from 6 to 9. He said he would meet us in Ebisu, where the party was, but probably wouldnt go in cuz it wouldnt be worth paying the 3000 yen cover.

So anyway, we get there and end up getting there a little before 7. When we walked in, the guys at the front table told us we had the best costumes there so far easily. He was right. Unfortunately, this party turned out to be another party foul. Only a small table with some cans of chuhai and happoshu. To make matters worse, they didnt even start letting us drink any of it until it turned 7 on the dot. 3000 yen for 2 hours of crappy alcohol is not worth it. Anyway, at least there were lots of cute girls there and everyone thought our costumes were pimp as hell so like just about every girl (and guy) in there wanted to talk to us hah. I made the most of it and had like 7 drinks and we talked to lots of girls. Tons of people took pictures with me. I had to go touch up my makeup a bit cuz it was cracking around the mouth. While I was waiting in line for the bathroom I was talking with these 2 girls. Around 8 pm, Andy showed up outside so I went out there to give him the makeup I ordered for him, but it turned out that he made a mask out of some cardboard and paint. He did a good job of drawing it acurately to the artwork but it didnt look as cool as if he used the face paint. However, I guess he didnt want to be bothered with putting it on since it takes a long time and he cant wear his glasses with the paint on so I guess this way worked better for him. Anyway, I went back inside and talked a bit more. There were these 2 hot girls that Emmet and I were talking to (the same ones I was talking to by the bathroom) and they decided that they would come with us to Current. As soon as they ran out of alcohol we got the fuck outa there.

We went outside and met up with Andy who was exploring Ebisu and there were also these 2 random dudes who were like visiting Japan and I told them they could tag along cuz they seemed alright and I like giving Current more business. So we all headed over to Shinjuku together. We met up with Liz, Sam (who was dressed as Shawn of the Dead), and this one guy Emmet knows in front of the station and walked to Current.

When we arrived at Current, it was maybe like a little passed 10 pm and the place was already fucking packed as hell. Gradually more and more regulars came and just about EVERY single Current regular was there except for Antti and the Finnish crew cuz I guess they had other plans. There were a ton of really awsome costumes too. Im not gonna bother typing about each costume cuz the pictures will speak for themeselves.

Most people didnt even recognize me at first but everyone thought my costume was dope. The only thing was no one knew what it was supposed to be. Lots of people thought I was Darth Maul LOL! Others just thought I was a zombie. It looked cool so it doesnt matter. I had a printed out picture of the cover of the Symphony X albums and showed it to people and then they knew what was up.

Things cleared out a little bit around the time that the last train was about to leave but there was a solid number of people there all night and all the regulars stayed out till the very end of the party. Even the 2 girls from the international party who originally said they were gonnna go home on the last train, decided to stay cuz the party was just that epic.

Everyone did a ton of dancing, including me. I got good and wasted, and the best part was that my ulcer wasnt bothering me at all. I guess the meds are really helping.

The only really bad thing that happened all night, was that Chibi Testament broke Emmet's 6000 yen Tengu mask! It got shattered into multiple pieces. I didnt see it happen and dont know if it was intentional or not but it sucks cuz it was a pretty nice mask.

I had to keep fixing my makeup a couple of times throughout the night but it only took a few seconds to re apply the part that cracked. Towards the end of the party I was so drunk I didnt even care about the makeup anymore LOL... but it held up surprisingly well.

Other than that though, I have to say that this was one of the best parties I ever went to at Current! Easily!

After it was over, the people I came with all headed out together. As soon as we went outside of Current I ripped my whole face off! The makeup came off really well aside from some of it that was stuck to my eye brows. Andy went home to Takasaski, Sam walked the 2 girls from the international party to the train station and Emmet and I got some McDonalds. I didnt get the Mega Muffin set this time cuz greesy food is bad for ulcers so I got like this lettuce heavy sandwich they had, it was ok. I shouldnt have gotten anything before sleeping but I was just too hungry to resist.

After that, we saw Sam going up the stairs when we were on our way out. We already ate and I was tired so we just said bye to him and headed to the manga kissa. No random street arm wrestling took place this time.

We woke up and Emmet decided he was going to leave early cuz he was able to get a ride back with some people who drove up to Tokyo for a rugby game. I wanted to play more Guilty Gear so I stayed all day and did just that.

I got some quick food and headed to Mikado and played GG all day. Nothing extremely noeworthy to talk about I guess, just a solid day of casuals. Hot Zappa and her Yellow Robo-Ky boyfriend were there too. Kunihiro showed up towards the end and we played some good games. He was doing really well on me with his Anji but then I beat his Anji and he played like a bunch of sub characters and couldnt beat me with them, but then switched to Slayer and I lost by like a hair. Then I said bye to him and left cuz I wanted to get some food before I got on the train to go home.

Thats about it. It was totally an awsome Halloween for sure! Enjoy the pictures!