Heaven or Hell, Duel 1, Let's Get Married!

Its been a while since I updated my blog. To summarize, the weekend I didnt post anything, I drank in Takasaki with Ryoko, Andy, and Emmet. We crashed at Andy's place and then the next day I went ice skating with Ryoko and Andy. It was pretty fun and the first time I had ice skated in years. After that, I went back to Numata and drank with Emmet at a bar all night, but it was pretty uneventful.

Later in the week, we had a holiday on Thursday, so I threw a big ski party at my apartment. I had about 12 people over at my place, which is kind of a lot considering how small it is. Mostly ALTs from around the area, plus some of Ryoko's friends, and Kei. I made a ton of food like a bunch of curry and we had yakiniku, salad, and other stuff. Everyone got pretty smashed and we stayed up till like 5 am playing 4 player wii games like Mario Kart, New Super Mario Bros, and Bomberman. Everyone was getting pretty hype about Bomberman and it was really fun. Kei was mostly dominating everyone. Also Jesse brought over her hookah so we got to smoke some tasty stuff.

The next day we went skiing and Ryoko's sister Reiko, Ayano from Current, and her friend Karl, came to join us as well. We had quite a large group go skiing at Norn. It went well for the most part except that it was snowing really bad so Ryoko was getting worried about driving home and left a bit early. Also, unfortunately Andy fell and injured his shoulder. I dont know the extent fo the injury but something is broken I think. He had to sit in the lodge and wait for us for the last hour or 2 so I felt bad for him. I hope it heals soon.

And now moving on to this past weekend...

Everyone was pretty much busy with stuff so I went out to Tokyo by myself. I decided to just skip the TRF SFIV tourny cuz I didnt wanna go alone and id rather play GG casuals anyway. I went to Mikado and it was a fun night of casuals with good players there. I beat Sadou's JO (the one who was on the 2nd place SBO team) the only match I fought it. Then he played Slayer on me 3 times and I won the first 2 and lost the last one. I also played Osaka B in a couple mirror matches and lost and then someone else got on the cab so I couldnt play him again. Also, I played a ton vs Udei's Testament. I asked him if he dropped Axl completely and he said yes, and that Testament is his main now. We were going fairly even but near the end of the night I was pulling ahead getting more wins. Sadou and a couple other guys were staying behind to watch our matches before the place closed. It was fun times. I told them good games and headed out.

From then, I went to Shinjuku, got some quick Sukiya, and then headed to Current by myself. It was a small crowd in there with only a few people I know and some random foreigners (there seriously has been TONS of random foreigners lately... I dont really want Current to turn into an all out gaijin bar). The whole staff was there bartending, and Bosch was DJing. He played AWSOME music all night long. Like just tons of awsome metal, one after another. Dream Theater, Symphony X, Helloween, Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, GnR, ACDC, Bodom, Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, and tons tons more. It was just straight metal all night long. I talked a lot with the Current staff and some other dudes at the bar and it was one of the most fun nights I had there in a while. Masami was also telling me funny stuff about how when Japanese people hear certain English songs they think it sounds like something else in Japanese. For example, in Kickstart My Heart by Motley Crue, the part where they say "Oh! Yea! Kickstart my heart, give it a start!" sounds like KINTAMA HARU HODO NEBATTA which means "somethings wrong with my balls." also the chorus of I Got The Time by Anthrax sounds like CHINCHIN CHIGIREMAHEN, which means "penis never split" or something like that, according to Masami. LOL!

Anyway it was good times and I went to PSY as always after it closed. On the way there I got a kabob and the guy totally had it already made for me when I got there which was weird. I only went there once before so I have no idea how he recognized me but I think someone else ordered it and he just gave me it first. Kinda fishy but it was still warm and tasted fine, and I didnt get sick so oh well.

I stayed at PSY till closing. The dominatrix chick was there again as well as some other regulars and Masami showed up later too, good times. Went to sleep at the manga kissa as usual.

The next day I went shopping to buy a box of chocolates for Ryoko for Valentines day. I looked around in some stores in Shinjuku and finally found some places in Lunine est by the station. It was kinda pricey but oh well.

After that, it was off to Mikado for a full day of Guilty Gear casuals! There was a good crowd in there all day. They had some weird time reserve free play thing going on where I guess you pay a fixed amount and it was somewhat organized but it wasnt a tournament. When I got there, there was only like an hour left of it so I just played on the other cabs that were not being used by the timeshare thingy (there was 4 for the thing and 3 were just open cabs for whoever so I played on those). I did generally well throughout the day. Kei was supposed to meet me in Takadanobaba and it turns out he just went to Big Box to play SFIV and then left to meet up with other friends so I never ran into him. Andy showed up later though and chilled for a bit. His shoulder now had some sorta brace on it but you couldnt really tell with his clothes over it. He couldnt move his shoulder but was still able to play fighting games. Near the time we were ready to leave, we played one random game of TvC for the hell of it just cuz neither of us play the game at all. Then we left to meet up with Liz in front of the station.

Liz, Andy, and I headed back to Shinjuku and got some dinner at Pepper Lunch. Then we went to Current. There was supposed to be a Valentines Day party tonight but it was kinda dead for a party. It had more people than just a random night but not as many as most Current holiday themed parties. Not to mention that most of the people there were once again random foreigners and most of the old regulars didnt even come. Pretty lame, but the Snus Man was at a table in the back with a few people so Liz and I sat with him. Then Andy came over and suddenly told me he decided he was going to leave and go back home. At this point it was about 11:00 and he had only been in Tokyo for about 4 hours so I was pretty shocked he was leaving so suddenly but I guess his shoulder injury was bothering him. I hope he gets better soon.

Liz and I pretty much sat in the back with the Snus Man and some other people most of the night. Snus Man's brother was there too visiting from Finland. They all kept buying pitchers and sharing with everyone at the table so I bought one as well to share. As the night went on, more people eventually showed up and lots of them were dancing which was kinda fun. Emmet showed up at some point with his new girlfriend Hiromi. This was my first time meeting her, she seems nice. They were drinking at a nearby izakaya till about 2 am or something like that. The rest of the night was pretty much just drinking and dancing.

When the bar closed, Emmet left with Hiromi and Liz went back to the station to go home to Takadanobaba. I decided I might as well get one last beer at PSY. On the way I got another kabab and the guy was surprised to see me show up again at the exact same time. That shit smells so good and im always so hungry at 5 am after lots of beers I cant resist.

PSY was OK I guess, a few regulars were there, and Hibiki showed up. I just had one beer and then left, cuz I wanted to get back to Gunma.

Since it was now officially Valentines day, I had plans to spend it with Ryoko. However, she had to work until 5 pm so I could still go to Tokyo, and then take the last train back and get home and sleep for a bit and then go meet her later.

I ended up falling asleep on the Saikyo line and it was like 7:45 and I was near Urawa. At this point my ulcer was hurting REALLY bad! When I got that kabab, the guy put really hot sauce on it even though I asked for mild. I ate it anyway cuz I was drunk and hungry and it tasted good but I knew it was gonna fuck me up. Espesially since I forgot my ulcer medicine at home all weekend. I think I must have ridden the train back and forth the whole way at least once. In any case, I got up and got to Omiya where I transfered to the Takasaki line and slept the whole way. Then I had like a 40 minute transfer at Takasaki station and I slept there the whole time too but I set an alarm this time so I woke up and got on my final train back home. I finally arrived at home at about 12:00. This only gave me like 4 hours of real sleep in my bed till I needed to wake up at 4 to get ready to see Ryoko, but it was enough I guess. After waking up, the ulcer hurt a bit less but still didnt feel great.

I took a shower and changed and put on a suit and cologne and all that good stuff. Ryoko didnt know it but today I had a surprise for her.

Ryoko and I had already talked about it and we already decided we want to get married. We have been together for 2 and a half years (I met her 2 weeks after I moved to Japan). However, I never officially proposed or gave her a ring. This summer when I visited Chicago I bought her an engagement ring. I figured Valentines day would be a decent time to give it to her. So I opened the box of chocolates I got her and put the ring inside of the center chocolate in the box and re-sealed it.

I drove to her place and picked her up and took her to a restaurant where we got our own private table. We ordered a bunch of food like Steak, cheese potatoes, spring rolls, salad, nabe, and stuff. Then she gave me a box of candy and this awsome Super Mario bros 3 frog suite Mario shirt like out of no where. Pretty awsome (in Japan, girls are supposed to give presents to guys on Valentines day, since they have White day one month later which is like the same thing but for the guys to give to girls, but im an American so I just do it western style). So then I gave her the chocolates and she opened it and was pretty shocked and I proposed and she thought it was like some sorta dream or something. At first she just kept saying "どうしよう!" over and over again which basically in this case was just like an expression of being shocked as fuck, but then I reminded her that she didnt actually even answer me yet LOL, even though I knew the answer already. She said "ぜひ” which basically means absolutely or certainly. After that her heart was beating too hard and she wasnt even hungry for the food when it came lol. I probably should have waited till after we ate but eventually she calmed down a bit and ate some of it.

I aint gonna write about what went down with the rest of the night. You can figure it out yourself lol.

We already decided that we wont actually get married for a few more years, like till im done with JET. I just thought she deserved the ring to make official what was pretty much already the case.

So yea that was a pretty good past week or so. Next weekend I might not go to Tokyo but I dont have 100% solid plans for the whole weekend yet.