No Love for Dave Thomas

I headed out to Tokyo on Friday as usual after work. Cynthia caught the same train as me. Emmet decided to show up later cuz he wanted to check out some Jujitsu dojo in Maebashi.

When we got to Tokyo, Cynthia went to Liz's place cuz she was going to stay there and would be heading to Thailand on Saturday. I headed to Mikado for some casuals.

The plan was for us to all get some Wendy's, since this would pretty much be our last chance to do so in Japan. At the end of this month, All 70 something Wendy's locations in Japan would be closing down for good. I did a little checking on the internets and Japanese Wendy's is owned by the same company that owns Sukiya (my favorite beef bowl/curry chain). I guess they just cant compete with McDonalds and would rather focus on opening more Sukiya's. Since Sukiya rocks hard, I wouldnt mind seeing more locations pop up, but at the same time, having the option to eat at Wendy's was pretty nice.

While I waited for the girls to get ready, I played exactly 12 matches of Guilty Gear. Heres the results.
PO win
SL win
MA lose x2
MA win
SL lose

changed cabs and saw my old team mate Honyo who plays Baiken. He was playing as Anji though for whatever reason. Made a little small talk and then...

ZA lose
ZA win
TE win x4

Then the girls called and said they were waiting at the station so I went out there to meet them. Some other Japanese girl that Cynthia knows was with us too. I figured Emmet would be on his way soon but he told us to go ahead cuz he was still in Maebashi.

We got to Wendys and I tried some sorta new Chicken sandwich with a white mushroom sauce on it. I was ok but kinda small and my fries were cold.

After getting Wendy's, the Japanese girl went home and the 3 of us headed to Shibuya cuz some former ALT who is friends with Cynthia was going to be DJing at a rock bar there for like a half hour.

We found the bar and it was mostly a punk rock bar. Not many seats, and not so big but a decent crowd was there. We talked to some random Japanese girl for a bit and talked a little with Cynthia's friend. Overall it was kinda boring there though. They had Heineken on tap just like Current does except they charged 600 yen while Current charges 5. I got a Bass ale after the first Heineken to mix it up. The bar had some signatures of bands that visited there and I saw Opeth had been there. Most likely, they were there just within the last month or so cuz they recently played a show in Shibuya that I couldnt go to cuz it was on a Tuesday. Would have been cool to go but oh well.

After the guy finished DJing we headed out. Liz and Cynthia werent planning to stay out all night and it was pretty much time for the last train. We got on the sardine can Yamanote line train and I got off at Shinjuku. I said bye to the girls who would be going back to Takadanobaba. From there, I headed to Current.

It was a decent size crowd for a Friday night but I didnt know who most of the people were. I talked a bit to Meeri, and a few other people. Emmet eventually rolled in there sorta late. He ended up having his train get delayed on the Takasaki line for like probably over an hour and the cops showed up and stuff. He says he doesnt know exactly why it was delayed but he ended up only making it as far as Ikebukuro and had to take a cab the rest of the way from there and it was like 3000 something yen. Ouch. But better than getting stuck I suppose.

I was also talking to this one guy named Rob. He was telling me that Guns n Roses would be playing at the Tokyo Dome tomorrow! He said that tickets were not yet sold out and that last night in Osaka, they played a 3 hour show! Since the only old members still in the band are Axl and Dizzy, I was reluctant to go and I didnt even know there was a show tomorrow, but if they were gonna play that long of a set, I was down! He really wanted me to go cuz he is a huge GnR fan. I pretty much decided that I would since I had no other major plans for tomorrow except playing casuals. Rob told me about how he met Axl Rose before at an after party when he saw GnR before. He also met one of the new guitar players and showed me a pic of them together. Rob said Axl was a totally nice guy actually which is pretty cool.

The dude Rob (who I will now officially call GnR Rob), was also telling me how he was a former JET who used to work for Fuji TV and now works for Square Enix. He was telling me all about how rough it was back when he worked for Fuji TV, and how he got like 3 hours of sleep a night on average and the place had a bunch of beds to sleep in for the employees because they over worked them so much. He kept this up for 3 years till he couldnt take it anymore. Theres no way I would be able to do something like that, and if thats what it means to stay in Japan and work here after JET, count me out! Im sure I can find something a little less demanding than that though. He said his hours for Square are ok though and mostly works like 11 to 8 on weekdays and gets weekends off so thats pretty reasonable. I forgot exactly what he does but he works on graphic design. He worked on some RPG that I cant remember the name of for the life of me, but he said it flopped pretty bad. The game was rushed and had really bad loading times and slow down. Anyway, it was cool to get some insight on a similar situation as what I might be facing in the future.

The rest of the night was pretty much just drinking and chilling. We headed to PSY after Current as usual and GnR Rob came with us.

GnR Rob bought us a round of shots, so I did the same, and then so did Emmet. We got good and drunk. There were a bunch of annoying Japanese dudes there giving us the whole "WOW! Its a foreigner and im gonna ask him a bunch of stupid questions cuz hes a foreigner!" Kinda guys that were there with Jackie. I dont mind when people ask me stuff but when they are like rushing you down and interupting your conversation and doing it in an almost racist way like theyve never seen a fucking white guy before, its kinda annoying.

After PSY we headed to some random bar that GnR Rob knew about. I dont even remember how to get there but it was sorta near the Hub thats like by Zin. It was just some regular bar but it had really good beers but they were expensive. GnR Rob bought us a round and I got a Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale. Pretty tasty, but I was drunk and passed out halfway through the beer with my hand still around the glass lol. I guess Emmet and GnR Rob talked for a while. Emmet says I was passed out for over an hour but who knows.

After we left, Emmet and I headed to McDonalds. I was making fun of his New Zealand accent cuz I was all wasted and shit. Emmet always talks with really funny slang they use in New Zealand. Like when he has to take a piss, hes like "I'm gonna go take a slash." I find it hilarious cuz every time Emmet goes to pee, I just think of someone winning around of Guilty Gear, "SLASH!" LOL! They have nothing to do with eachother but now I will forever think of peeing and winning rounds of GG as having to do with one another. I guess they both feel pretty good so why not, right? He also says something is "Hard out!" when something is like cool or interesting. Like ill be like "Yo, Emmet theres a party at Current tonight" and he will be like "Hard out!" or something like that. Also, when something is funny, he will just say "Crack up!". Something like "Yo, Emmet, I just beat some scrub like 10 matches in a row", and he would just say like "Crack up!". Its pretty funny with the New Zealand accent. So I was like mimicking his catch phrases and shit and he was like taping it on his phone for whatever reason. He put it on youtube and you can see it here lol! I didnt even remember him taping it until he showed me the video later on.

Anyway, after eating we went to the manga kissa for sleep.

The next day I headed right to Lawson to see if I could buy one of those GnR tickets. Unfortunately they were now sold out, so it looks like I wouldnt be seeing GnR. I was disapointed I couldnt go, but at the same time its good to save money cuz I spent a lot on xmas gifts and the year end enkai for my school next week is like 17,500 yen or something which is a lot of money! Plus I could get more practice in for Frosty Faustings so I did just that, and headed for the arcade.

First I played at Mikado. There were hardly anyone there. I won a few and then ended up beating the game. Then Emmet and I got some Wendy's cuz he didnt get his last chance fix in yet. I got this bacon demigrass double cheeseburger. It was ok. They screwed up my order though and forgot to put the extra patty of beef on there so I had to go back and ask for it. Then later, I found a little hair in my burger that looked like a pube. Pretty nasty. I guess they employees dont give a shit since they will be losing their jobs in a few weeks anyway.

After eating there, we went back to Mikado. Emmet eventually left to go to an international party but I would rather play casuals so I stayed behind. Andy showed up after a while. He played a little GG. There was actually some huge Melty Blood 5 on 5 team tournament going on at the time. I had no idea about it and neither did Andy. There were tons of people there for it and they had the big screen going and stuff.

The GG comp never really picked up for the day and stayed pretty bad. Andy and I decided to go check out Big Box and play some SFIV. I hadnt touched the game in over a month, even online at home.

Daigo was there playing as Akuma. There were lots of other people too. They had 8 full setups going for SFIV. I actually did surprisingly well! I didnt fight Daigo at all, but I fought a bunch of players like a couple Ryu players, a Chun, a Guile, a Sim, and a Gief. I beat the Gief, and I lost my first match against the Sim (who was a master status Sim) but then beat him on my 2nd try which is pretty good cuz its a sucky match for Blanka. I was going even with the Chun and mostly beating the Ryu players. I couldnt beat the Guile though. I just have trouble with that matchup for whatever reason, and he was a master Guile too. Sam showed up and met us there after a little bit. He played some matches with his Dictator and said he got 2 rounds on Daigo's Akuma. I didnt see it and he said Daigo was playing very unorthadox and trying out strange things but then switched to textbook Akuma and it was just all over after that. But I guess getting 2 rounds is still pretty good.

I also recieved a mail from GnR Rob who told me that Guns n Roses played like a near 3 hour and 40 minute set. This is the longest set in the bands history. Would have been nice to be a part of it...

For those of you who are interested, I looked online and the set was as follows...
01. Chinese Democracy
02. Welcome to the Jungle
03. It's So Easy
04. Mr. Brownstone
05. Catcher in the Rye
06. Sorry
07. Band Jam (I Want You Back, Jackson 5)
08. If the World
09. Richard Fortus Solo (James Bond Theme)
10. Live and Let Die
11. Dizzy Reed Solo (Ziggy Stardust)
12. Street of Dreams
13. Band Jam
14. You Could Be Mine
15. Rocket Queen
16. My Michelle
17. DJ Ashba Solo
18. Sweet Child O' Mine
19. Shackler's Revenge
20. I.R.S.
21. Band Jam
22. Axl Rose piano solo
23. November Rain
24. Band Jam
25. Whole Lotta Rosie
26. Knockin' on Heaven's Door
27. Scraped
28. Prostitute
29. Jam
30. This I Love
31. Frank Ferrer Solo (We Will Rock You)
32. Out Ta Get Me
33. Ron Thal solo (Pink Panther Theme/Don't Cry)
34. Don't Cry (Axl, Ron and DJ)
35. Nightrain

Encore:

36. Madagascar
37. There Was a Time
38. My Generation
39. Better
40. Patience
41. Nice Boys
42. Paradise City

I certainly wouldnt have minded seeing a set that long!

After playing for a while, we went to Shibuya to go meet up with Emmet at an Izakaya. He said he had some girls with him from the International party. We waited out in front of the dog statue by the famous intersection in front of the station for a really long time. Some girl was there and she put a PS3 box in front of the statue and just left it there. I think it was some kinda social experiment or something to see what people would do. Some guy checked the box and it was empty. Some people took some pics of it. Not sure what the point was but it was kinda funny to watch. We waited for a long time so I went to go find some beers to kill time. After lots of walking I got them at a Family Mart and then while I was on my way back, Emmet and his party showed up. With Emmet was 2 girls, both of which were pretty cute, and this one random Japanese guy who just sorta followed them.

We walked around a bit and Emmet tried to find the izakaya but couldnt, so we ended up going to another izakaya but it worked out ok. One of the girls had to leave so she went home. The rest of us headed in and had some drinks and food. It was ok but the portions on some of the menu items were pretty small, espesially the pizza which was like bread with a bunch of cheese and sauce lazily thrown on top of it. I guess when everything on the menu is 270 yen you cant really complain. Also, some asshole threw up in the sink in the mens bathroom and I took a picture of it.

After eating, we headed back to Shinjuku and got a beer for the road and went to Current. Current was pretty packed actually. There was some party that Sam was at earlier in the evening and after it was over, he like directed a huge group of people to Current for a 2nd party there. Many of them were actually still there when we arrived which was pretty funny. Emmet spent most of the night dancing with that girl and then left at around 3 am to go to a love hotel. I talked to various people like Chip and this one girl he was sitting by, and Sam and some other regulars. Maybe from about 3:30 to 4:30, Mogi let me DJ behind the bar. It was pretty fun and I hadnt done it in a while. I dont remember all the stuff I played but I played a good mix of some good classic rock and metal and some more obscure progressive stuff that I like too. While I was DJing, Emmet called my phone like 7 times cuz he couldnt find the love hotel but I was too busy DJing to answer. After I finished, everyone said they enjoyed my set which was cool.

After Current closed, we headed to PSY. It was me, Andy, Sam, glasses girl, the random izakaya dude, some other random European guy who wanted to come along, another Japanese guy Sam was talking with, and Jya. On the way there, I noticed Jya and the izakaya guy were talking a bit.　

We got to PSY and it was actually more packed than usual. Lots of PSY regulars there and other people. I was standing next to Jya drinking my beer and asked her why she didnt have a drink. She said she only had 200 yen left and needed it to get home. Shes my friend so I decided to be nice and buy her a beer. Then like 5 minutes later, the random izakaya guy was leaving and Jya decided to leave with him! Then I look at her beer on the bar counter and she had already chugged it! I dont care if she wants to hook up with the dude. She is single after all. But I if I knew she was gonna leave so soon instead of staying and hanging out I wouldnt have bought her a beer heh. Oh well.

There was also another one of those annoyoing Japanese guys who wants to talk to foreigners like an idiot like the previous night. This guy tries to get me to sit next to him and then comes and sits by me and says to me in broken English, "Are you Marine-corps? What is meaning of Marine-corps? 1, 2, 3, 4 we are Marine-corps!" then he was like "Do you like tsuyoi America!? Tsuyoi America is best!" I chugged my beer and went to buy another one just so he would stop talking to me. Like I said, I dont mind talking to people at all, but this guy was just being ignorant as hell! The rest of the night was all good.

After leaving PSY we headed to McDonalds with a few other people. After eating, Andy went back to Gunma, everyone else went home, and I went to the manga kissa.

I woke up and met Emmet out on the stairs. He said last night was good times. We got some Mexican food at this one restaurant in Shinjuku I had never been to. It was decent I guess and affordable but I dont know how often id wanna go back there. The Quasadillas from the Takadanobaba one is better than the tacos and nachos I got at this one.

After eating, we headed to Mikado for more games. Today it was extremely dead. I played against Mitsurugi's Slayer like a bunch of times and just couldnt beat him. He was totally in the zone. Eventually I won and he switched to Zappa and I lost. We went back to Big Box for a bit cuz Emmet had never been there and wanted to see Daigo. Unfortunately Daigo wasnt there but a few other people were playing. I played a few matches and once again did fairly well, winning about half of them.

Each time we walked around to go to a new location, there were a ton of people handing out free tissues. I must have stocked up on like about 15 packs! Score!

We then went to look for this place Liz mentioned to me. She said in one of the side streets around the area she saw a bunch of Children of Bodom posters. Emmet and I found a bunch of posters plastered on the sides of some vending machines in front of some place that appeared to be a ramen shop. The place used the COB logo from their 2nd live album and changed it to their name and instead of the reaper it was like some chef guy with a big spoon or something! It was pretty hilarious. I will post pictures of it on my pics page. The place was closed but it had information about some kinda party there. I wonder if its just a regular ramen shop or actually plays metal or something. In any case, I wanna eat there someday just cuz they are Bodom fans lol!

We went back to Mikado and it was still pretty dead. I beat the same Dizzy player 14 times in a row and was like slashbacking tons of his stuff. I even almost slashbacked the full giant gunflame super. Then I beat some JO player and then I beat a Robo-ky like 6 times in a row till he finally beat me by like a pixel! I had a 21 win streak. Emmet wanted to get going, and the comp was pretty dead so we just headed out to go back to Gunma.

And that concludes my weekend Tokyo adventures for this year! It was a good year and I look forward to going home for a few weeks. I have the year end Enkai Tuesday night and its an all nighter at a really nice hotel in Niigata. My flight leaves Thursday night and I will be on the same plane going home as Andy. I have no plans Wednesday so I may end up going to Tokyo on Wednesday, staying the night, and then catching my plane the next day. I plan to get really drunk before I get on the plane so that I can get a lot of sleep. Jet lag sucks.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season. May your days be filled with, games, metal, and beer! I know mine will! Also, I hope to see many of you at Frosty Faustings!

Until next time!