After eating, we went to Current. Emmet and Ryan (letbloodrun) eventually met up with us there as well. I spent most of the time there drinking with Antti. He will be moving to Dubai soon which sucks. Hes gonna go with his girlfriend to look for an apartment next week for a few days. He moves there completely in a few weeks, so the next time I drink with him may be the last time I see him for a long time.
There were a bunch of dudes who went to the ACDC concert earlier in the night (they would be playing 3 shows all weekend once a night, I would be going on Sunday), and they all said the show was awsome.
There were also these 3 really hot chicks there that sat at the table next to us. I eventually ended up talking with them a bit. They were all hostesses working at the same club. They said business was slow tonight so they got off early to come here. They all said they like their jobs because they can just drink the whole time and they like talking to people. They said most of the customers are salary men over 40 years old but they dont mind it too much. They were actually pretty nice so it was cool to just talk with them a bit.
I was also talking to Shuji (the pussy-shower guy) and he was telling me how he only sleeps 3 hours a night! He said he had to work tomorrow and was still out drinking all night and said he just sleeps 3 hours a night cuz he works so late and after work he wants to study English so he only allows himself 3 hours of sleep a night and then just sleeps 12 hours on Sundays. Theres no way that can be healthy physically or mentally. I also question how good the quality of the studying someone can possibly be doing in that mental state. I hope he doesnt over do it.
Other than that, lots of random gaijin were there and few other regulars. We stayed till closing, and then went to PSY where it was a pretty standard night there. They had some big huge flower thing in the corner because tomorrow would be Michiru's birthday (shes one of the bartenders). I ended up falling asleep there cuz I didnt drink any redbull all night but its all good. I finished my beer at least lol. After leaving there, everyone went home and Emmet and I went to the manga kissa.
The next day, Emmet and I went to Akihabara for a bit. He wanted to buy a new computer and needed my help cuz he cant speak Japanese. We walked around and went to about 5 stores and eventually he found a good deal on one. It turns out that most of the stores that sold computers with English operating systems (which is what he wanted) at least had one person there who spoke some English so he could have probably done it ok on his own but oh well. While in Akihabara, I also noticed they built a brand new Club Sega right down the street from the old one, just a little bit past Hey! I went inside and its pretty nice. Something like 7 floors, and 2 floors of all fighting games, one is all 2d and one is all 3d. They only had 2 GG cabs so its probably not gonna be a good GG hot spot but they had TONS Of melty cabs so I think it might be a good place for melty players to go, and they had 2 cabs of the newest version being tested there in addition to like 4 regular actress again cabs. They also had like 4 BB cabs, 4 SFIV, and at least like 1 or 2 of most other older SF games and they had like 2 or 3 Arcana 3 cabs too. There was other stuff too. Nice arcade but I probably wont go there often unless I have a good reason. Everything was 100 yen for 1 credit just like the other club sega though which sorta sucks.
Before leaving Akihabara, we got some Turkish kebabs at a stand by the station, and it was delicious! Now whenever I eat kebabs it just reminds me of Hakan from SSFIV lol...
After that, we headed to Takadanobaba. We went to Mikado first and it was semi dead. I played a few matches and won vs some so-so players and eventually no one was playing me so Emmet and I went to Big Box. Today was another qualifier for the SFIV national tournament. Sam told me about it the previous day. I was supposed to meet him there but he didnt answer his mail so I didnt know what time it started. I would have entered for the hell of it if I had a team but since Sam never replied I figured just screw it. We would have gotten man handled anyway, lol.
When Emmet and I arrived at Big Box, I ran into Nick (Sam's friend who I met last weekend) and he said the tournament had just ended and the winning team was like TDK, Itabashi-Zangief, and someone else who I cant remember at the moment). The place was packed as fuck still with people playing casuals. I waited for a little bit to try and get a game in but the lines to play were ridiculously long and crowded, and it was set on 100 yen for 2 credits, so it was taking forever. I eventually lost patience and just decided to go back to Mikado in hopes that more GG comp would show up by now.
When Emmet and I headed back to Mikado, there were some more GG players so that was good. Hot Zappa was there with her boyfriend and Udei showed up later too. There were also some really good people who I dont know who they were but I got some fun matches in with them. Eventually Ryan and Sam showed up as well.
The highlight of my time at Mikado that day was fighting against Maruken's Baiken. At first, I didnt even realize it was Maruken when I sat down to play him. I lost the very first game. Then, I beat him on my 2nd try. He rematched me after that, and I lost... and then I lost again... and again... and again... I was determined to beat him though, espessially after I looked over and realized who it was. I was getting extremely close every time too, almost all the matches went down to the final round but I just couldnt seal the win. The other guys wanted to go get food, but I told them to wait until I beat Maruken because I didnt want to leave until I beat him again. Baiken is probably my hardest matchup now since I am starting to get better at fighting May, and Baiken just gives me a lot of trouble. In the end, I did finally beat him again... after 32 tries... Yes, losing to someone 32 times in a row is a bit embarrasing, but when its the best Baiken player in the world, and the character is my hardest matchup, I guess thats how it goes. However, I kept my cool the whole time and instead of getting pissed off, I just kept trying and made a real posative learning experience from my matches with him. Im almost glad I lost so many in a way because it gave me so much great Baiken practice that by the time we were finished with our session, I REALLY feel like I understand that much way better now. Maruken just plays that matchup in the most safe possable way and never wastes a single move. Doing mixups on him is pretty much impossable. If I go for a throw he always jumps away or hits me. If I try to do FDC okizeme he almost never gets hit by it by either jumping away or blocking and countering. If I poke him, he always knows exactly what counter to use and when, and if there is no good counter thats guarenteed he waits patiently. All the times I hit him, I pretty much got random pokes in from zoning. I got way better at blocking Baiken though and now I know much better how to safely poke her and the optimal distances to keep in each situation. After I finally beat him, I went over to the other side and apolagized to him for making him fight me so many times. I told him it was my hardest matchup and that fighting him was great practice and thanked him. He said he enjoyed the matches and said I wasnt even playing bad but he gave me some advice about the matchup. Apearently when you hit Baiken from max range with a crouching HS with Faust, if she goes for the flip jump counter, Faust can standing dust through it on reaction. I didnt know this, but its certainly good to know. He said I wasnt really doing anything overally wrong, and just said that I shouldnt take unecessary risks with rushing Baiken down when I can play a safer zoning game. He said my zoning in the matchup improved drastically over the course of our matches. Maruken is a really polite guy and super chill. I really appreciated the fact that he was playing serious and giving it his all every round and not just playing lazy. He really didnt want to lose and as a result I totally leveled up in the matchup. I asked him who his SBO team is and he said he hasnt decided yet this year. I thanked him for the advice and then told him I had to go cuz my friends were waiting to go eat.
After that we waited for Ryan to finish up his game of 3S and then we went to the local Kebab place. I dunno why everyone wanted kebabs since Emmet and I already ate kebabs earlier, but they are so good so I didnt mind getting them again, and the 2 places taste pretty different. We ended up eating outside the store in front by the counter they have there cuz it was completely full in there and we couldnt get a table. It was pretty tasty. After finishing, we headed back to Mikado.
We played there for a bit longer and I got some more good games in, Maruken wasnt there any more when I got back but I played a really good Millia and Robo-Ky for a while and some other random people who I got a small streak on. I also ended the good Millia's 17 win streak he got vs other people on my 2nd try. Liz mailed me and wanted to go with us to Current so I told her we would meet her at the station at 11. Upon her arriving, we headed out and met here there, and then headed to Current.
Tonight at Current was Bosch's birthday party. Most of all the old regulars showed up and I hadnt seen a lot of them in a while. They all say they havnt really been drinking much lately and have been pretty busy. Rina brought her little sister so I met her for the first time. I told all the old regulars how im engaged now and they were all really excited and want to come to my wedding. Terry was there too and he bought me like a zillion shots cuz hes cool like that.
In the past at previous Bosch birthday parties, everyone took their shirts off. Unfortunately this one didnt get that wild but a lot of the guys took their shirts off and people were drawing stuff all over their backs and chests with a black marker. Someone drew a big penis on someones back lol. You can see the stuff in the pictures so I wont go into detail about it too much.
Liz left before the last train and Ryan left early too cuz he was tired. Emmet hung out with this one girl he met before most of the night and left with her before closing. I had a great time talking a bunch of cool people I know so it was an awsome night. I did a good amount of dancing towards the end too.
At closing time, I said bye to everyone and then headed to PSY with Sam. It was really packed there for Michiru's birthday. Some people from Current came to PSY too. Once again after sitting at the bar for a bit I fell asleep cuz I didnt drink any redbull again. Something about the lighting in PSY just makes me sleepy. After I finished my beer, Sam and I left, though the bar was still open. I was tired so I was cool with just leaving to go sleep.
The next morning I woke up at the manga kissa and my alarm didnt go off and I overslept by 2 hours. It cost me an extra 600 yen but oh well, at least I felt refreshed.
Today I would be going to the ACDC concert at the Saitama Super Arena. The show would be starting at 5 pm so I had some time to kill (I woke up at 2). I went to Mikado for a bit and played some games of casuals. I beat a May player a few times and then a Slayer like maybe 4 times and then the Slayer eventually beat me so I figured I should go get some food. I got some quick McDonalds (though I am honestly starting to really sick of eating there but I just wanted something fast to save time), and I had a couple beers to pregame for the concert.
I arrived at the Super Arena at about 4:30. There were tons of fans out in front, many people cosplayed in the school uniform that Angus Young always wears.
I found my seat and there was about 15 minutes till the show started. The place was completely packed and sold out. They were selling these plastic glowing red devil horns and TONS of people were wearing them so the whole crowd just lit up with flickering red lights and it looked really cool. While waiting for the show to begin, some random Japanese dude sitting near me struck up a conversation. He said this was his first time seeing the band and stuff and we just made small talk. He works for some sorta printing and imaging company. I asked him if he likes his job and he said its ok. I asked him how is working hours are. He said he starts every morning at 8 am and works till 1 am! I dont understand how people even DO that! I really hope I dont end up with a job like that after finishing JET, cuz I dont think I would be able to handle it very long. Japanese working culture is often times just ridiculous.
Anyway, the show started like 10 mins after 5. The started the show with this cool animation ont he big screen of the Rock and Roll Train being boarded by these 2 hot chicks. Devil version of Angus is fueling the fire with coals and the speed goes like broken fast. Then the 2 hot chicks seduce him and tie him up and get off the train. The train crashes and theres a big explosion. Then on the stage you can see a model of the front of a wrecked train coming out of the wall. The band then comes out and opens with the song Rock and Roll train! Here is the entire setlist.
Rock N' Roll Train
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Shot Down in Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
War Machine
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
T.N.T.
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Angus Young guitar solo
----------------------------
Highway to Hell
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
So they played about 19 songs and they played about exactly for 2 hours. The entire band sounded great and nailed every song and were all in top form. They did all the signature running around on the stage and Angus did his funny leg-hop dancing then while playing lots of solos. The crowd was good and had lot of energy. Some highlights were...
The Jack had a pretty extended solo and was really awsome and bluesey. Angus did this thing at the end where he started stripping off his clothes and went down to his shorts. Then he bent over and pulled them down and mooned the audience with his ACDC logo underwear LOL! It was pretty funny.
After The Jack, Brian Johnson ran the whole length of the catwalk and leaped and did like this Tarzan swing on a huge bell that was hanging from the ceiling and then the band played Hells Bells which was fucking sweet.
When they played You Shook Me All Night Long, Brian Johnson replaced the lyrics "Knockin me out with those American thighs" to "Japanese thighs"
During TNT they had big flaming explosions in the back of the stage.
For Whole Lotta Rosie, they had a giant inflatable fat chick in lingerie and a big tatoo on one of her tits. It was dancing along with the music and looked pretty hilarious.
For Let There Be Rock they had this cool compilation video in the background showing all the CDs of the bands career. At the end of the song it led into Angus playing a huge extended guitar solo for several minutes. First he went on this huge platform at the end of the catwalk and it raised him up super high above the crowd and he played while rolling around on the ground and stuff. A huge machine exploded all this confetti everywhere and it filled the air of the stadium. Then it lowered and he ran all the way to the back of the stage to a big platform above the drum set and played some more.
After the solo was over the said goodnight, left the stage, and then this flaming trapdoor opened up from the floor in the middle of the stage and Angus came back from the floor like he was rising from hell or something lol. Then they played Highway to Hell which was awsome and finally finished up with For Those About To Rock, complete with a 21 gun salute of cannons firing huge blasts of power.
This was certainly one of the best shows I have ever been to and was totally worth the 10,000 yen I paid. The set was awsome and they played most of their big hits and I knew every song so I really enjoyed it. Im really glad I finally had the chance to see them live.
After it ended I headed to the station. I got a sandwich and a cheese dog while I waited for the next train and then played a little Suikoden on my PSP in Japanese and then passed out for most of the way home.
Pretty awsome weekend...
Next weekend my younger brother Tony is coming to Japan and will be staying with me for about 2 and a half weeks. Should be fun times.
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Back in Black
Big Jack
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Shot Down in Flames
Thunderstruck
Black Ice
The Jack
Hells Bells
Shoot to Thrill
War Machine
High Voltage
You Shook Me All Night Long
T.N.T.
Whole Lotta Rosie
Let There Be Rock
Angus Young guitar solo
----------------------------
Highway to Hell
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
So they played about 19 songs and they played about exactly for 2 hours. The entire band sounded great and nailed every song and were all in top form. They did all the signature running around on the stage and Angus did his funny leg-hop dancing then while playing lots of solos. The crowd was good and had lot of energy. Some highlights were...
The Jack had a pretty extended solo and was really awsome and bluesey. Angus did this thing at the end where he started stripping off his clothes and went down to his shorts. Then he bent over and pulled them down and mooned the audience with his ACDC logo underwear LOL! It was pretty funny.
After The Jack, Brian Johnson ran the whole length of the catwalk and leaped and did like this Tarzan swing on a huge bell that was hanging from the ceiling and then the band played Hells Bells which was fucking sweet.
When they played You Shook Me All Night Long, Brian Johnson replaced the lyrics "Knockin me out with those American thighs" to "Japanese thighs"
During TNT they had big flaming explosions in the back of the stage.
For Whole Lotta Rosie, they had a giant inflatable fat chick in lingerie and a big tatoo on one of her tits. It was dancing along with the music and looked pretty hilarious.
For Let There Be Rock they had this cool compilation video in the background showing all the CDs of the bands career. At the end of the song it led into Angus playing a huge extended guitar solo for several minutes. First he went on this huge platform at the end of the catwalk and it raised him up super high above the crowd and he played while rolling around on the ground and stuff. A huge machine exploded all this confetti everywhere and it filled the air of the stadium. Then it lowered and he ran all the way to the back of the stage to a big platform above the drum set and played some more.
After the solo was over the said goodnight, left the stage, and then this flaming trapdoor opened up from the floor in the middle of the stage and Angus came back from the floor like he was rising from hell or something lol. Then they played Highway to Hell which was awsome and finally finished up with For Those About To Rock, complete with a 21 gun salute of cannons firing huge blasts of power.
This was certainly one of the best shows I have ever been to and was totally worth the 10,000 yen I paid. The set was awsome and they played most of their big hits and I knew every song so I really enjoyed it. Im really glad I finally had the chance to see them live.
After it ended I headed to the station. I got a sandwich and a cheese dog while I waited for the next train and then played a little Suikoden on my PSP in Japanese and then passed out for most of the way home.
Pretty awsome weekend...
Next weekend my younger brother Tony is coming to Japan and will be staying with me for about 2 and a half weeks. Should be fun times.
No comments:
Post a Comment