My Brother Comes to Japan

This weekend, Monday was a national holiday so it was a 3 day weekend. I headed to Tokyo after work by myself. At Takasaki station I ran into Cynthia, another ALT, who was also going to Tokyo so we rode the rest of the way together and then we split up when we got to Takadanobaba.

I went to Mikado and eventually Ryan (letbloodrun) met me there too. There were lots of people playing GG and Kunihiro was there. He had a 14 win streak and I played him right away and beat him on my 2nd try ending his streak. We played several more games and went back and forth at first and then he broke away and got a streak on me so I went to play someone else. He told me he plans to enter SBO again this year so we may team up again. Eventually I looked over and Kunihiro had like a brand new 22 win streak. He was beasting really hard all day and was even owning some well known players like Udei and stuff. Glad to see he is in good form. He has always been great in casuals but often chokes in tournaments, but hopefully if we team up again this year he will beast in tournament matches too.

I also got some good games in vs Jam Ojisan. He beat me more than I beat him but I still got some wins in. Hes really solid, I havnt played against him in forever. I also got a few small win streaks myself. It was a good night of casuals.

At closing time, Ryan and I left to head back to Shinjuku. Ryan said he will be staying in Japan for about another 2 months. We grabbed some quick conbini food and some pre game beers and then headed to Current.

It was sorta dead there tonight but we sat at the bar and had a few beers. Also, Current now has a new female bartender, and shes pretty hot. Her name is Emma. She told me that she just started working there. Her previous job was a waitress at some Mexican restaurant. I dont remember the name but she said it was sorta famous and was on Iron Chef before. She seems really nice so its cool that she now works there too.

Sam showed up later too. He was playing Melty Blood casuals at Joybox which is basically the best spot for Melty. He said there were 3 cabs with like 30 people crowded around them. He also said he made friends with most of the top players which is cool. When he was leaving, he told them he was going to go drink with his friend Mike. They asked him "you mean the gaijin Faust player who always is wearing a hat?" LOL. I think its funny that even Melty Blood players somehow know who I am. Maybe because some of them play Guilty Gear, or maybe I just go to arcades too much. Pretty cool though.

After drinking a bit at Current, we decided to check out GODZ for a change of pace. It was pretty dead there too but we each got a beer and watched some cool live music videos on the giant screen.

After GODS, we headed back to Current for a bit. I dont really remember anything worth mentioning going on there. We left at closing and then went to PSY.

PSY was sorta packed. I ended up getting tired and drifting off a bit towards the end. I woke up to Masami showing up. I talked with him for a bit and asked him what the story with Emma was. He said they just put out an ad for a new bartender and she just simply called and answered it. She didnt know anyone there prior to getting hired and they hired her cuz they wanted a female staff member (all the current staff at Current are male) so I guess thats about all there is to it. After PSY we left and everyone went home. I went to the manga kissa.

On Saturday, my younger brother (age 20), Tony, was coming to Japan. He will be staying here for about 2 and a half weeks just for vacation. I needed to go meet him at Narita Airport. I printed out a schedule that had the train I was gonna try to catch to get there at a specific time. I woke up with time to spare so I got some Suikiya. Then I checked the time sheet again and I fucked up cuz I looked at the time for the 2nd train I was supposed to board thinking it was the first train (I checked it when I was drunk at PSY so thats probably why lol) so I ended up getting on the train late. In the end though, when I got to the airport, Tony hadnt even gone through customs yet so it actually worked out better this way.

Eventually I found Tony after a bit of waiting in the arrivals lobby and then we rode the train all the way back to my town, which took almost 5 hours after transfers and everything. The plan tonight was to go have dinner at Ryoko's parents house cuz they wanted to meet Tony. We stopped at my apartment quickly to take quick showers and change and then we headed to Ryoko's place.

We got there around 9:15 pm. Their parents had made a ton of awsome food like sukiyaki and sashimi. It was delicious. I got stuffed and drank plenty of good beers. Tony was a bit sleepy but stayed up pretty late and had a good time. Ryoko's dad also cracked open a bottle of this really good whiskey that my parents bought for him as a gift from the US, and it was good as hell. We probably drank till about 1:30 but Ryoko's parents had work the next day so they went to bed. Ryoko and I stayed up and had like one more beer and then we went to sleep. We stayed the night there cuz none of us could really drive to go home, but it was comfortable.

On Sunday, we woke up and Ryoko made us breakfast. We chilled for a bit and talked and then we went to catch the train to go back to Tokyo. Ryoko had work today at 5 pm so she couldnt go with us.

On the way to Tokyo, when we stopped in Takasaki, we met up with Andy and he rode the rest of the way with us.

We headed right for Mikado when we got to Tokyo. My brother is also pretty into video games. He doesnt play fighting games hardcore but he plays a little TvC and Blazblue casually so he was happy to spend most of the day at the arcade. There was a Melty Blood 3 on 3 going on when we arrived and some people were cosplaying as Melty characters. One dude was even cross dressing as Sion LOL! Sam also met up with us at Mikado later on too. He didnt know about the tournament and was sorta upset that he missed it.

We stayed there all day playing casuals. All 9 GG AC cabs at Mikado that they have now were packed with players later on, so its good to see that lots of people are getting ready for SBO. There were also a lot of top players there but I didnt get a chance to really play most of them. Isa was there (I hadnt seen him in a while) and he was playing a long set back and forth with Sadou (the Johnny who got 2nd place last year). At some point, I got like a 24 win streak which was pretty cool. No one even beat me, I just ended up beating arcade mode cuz no one played me for long enough unfortunately.

After I beat the game, we decided to get some food, so we went to the Turkish kebab place and got some fat, overstuffed kebabs. It was good as always. After that, we went back to Mikado.

After a while, Tony was getting tired due to the jet lag and passed out on a bench at the arcade. I got more good games in and several other smaller win streaks, I think I got one that was like 14 wins. At around 10, we decided to leave because he wanted a change of environment. It was fine though cuz I got plenty of games in, we played for almost 7 hours.

At the station, Sam split up with us cuz he didnt have much money for drinking. So then, Andy, Tony, and I headed for Shinjuku and ate a Sukiya. I had a few pre game beers and then we went to Current.

Tonight, Current was pretty packed. A guy named Allen had just gotten married and earlier in the day there was a wedding party since like 5 pm. Most of the Current regulars went to it and they were all dressed up. Espesially Mai, Hibiki, Mitchi, Ayami, and Ayano looked really hot. Lots of other regulars were there too. As soon as we walked in, Mogi like made me and Tony take our shirts off (cuz a bunch of the dudes in there already had theirs off) and a bunch of people drew shit on us with a black marker lol. They wrote "まいく” on my chest and they wrote "マイク？FUCK!" on my back lol! I have no idea why but it was kinda funny. They wrote "弟” on Tony's back which is the kanji for younger brother.

Everyone was pretty excited to meet Tony but most people commented that we dont really look alike which is true since I look more like my dad and he looks like my mom. I was talking with this one girl who I dont know who was at the wedding party and she was being kinda flirty. She was saying how she likes dancing and R&B and hip hop and stuff and just came here for the wedding party. Then she said she doesnt know how to dance well though and then starts like straddling my lap out of no where. Then shes like "see I told you I cant dance" I must admit it was pretty hot but I dont know what brought that on, other than alcohol. She even said she had a boyfriend so I guess she was just playing around.

Some of the regulars left before the last train but lots of people stayed all night. Everyone was already pretty drunk and there was tons of dancing going on which was fun. I talked with Ayano and Megu for a while too. At some point Sushi did a stage dive off the bar.

Also, Terry showed up and he sat and talked with me and Tony for a bit and I bought us all a round of shots and then he did the same. Tony wasnt really feeling so good at first for whatever reason but after the shots he started getting pretty drunk and felt great.

A bit after that, Andy was feeling tired so he went to go to the manga kissa early. I dunno if he wasnt feeling well or if he was bored but he looked a little out of it.

Later on, we were sitting with Maki, one of the regular girls who comes often, and she was talking with us for a while. Tony seemed to like her.

Eventually when it was time for the bar to close, I said bye to everyone and then Tony and I went to PSY. Maki decided to join us. PSY was pretty dead so the 3 of us pretty much just talked while we were there. Nastume closed up slightly early since it was so dead. After that Maki went home and Tony and I went to the manga kissa.

We spent Monday in Akihabara. Tony found it to be pretty amazing. We went to tons of stores and he ended up buying lots of things. He espessially liked Super Potato where he bought an original still sealed in box Super Famicom cartridge of Super Castlevania 4. He also got some stuffed Kirby plushies for souvineers for his friends. We went to the top floor and played some Street Fighter II rainbow edition in their retro arcade cuz he never saw it before and its hilarious. He also got his picture taken with the giant life size statue of Snake. He almost forgot his stuff at the arcade there but luckily an employee found it so he got it back.

At some other store, he also bought a Contra t-shirt, and he bought an R4 DS card and micro SD. It was only 900 yen for the R4 cuz they were having some sorta deal! What a lucky find that was.

We stopped in at the original Club Sega Akihabara as well cuz he wanted to just see it really quick. While there, I couldnt resist the urge to play a little GG so I beat like 3 people and then lost to some Anji 2 times. I beat him on my 3rd try and then he beat me with his Axl and then we left. Tony also played Deathsmiles while we were there and said he liked it.

We went to a few more stores and eventually Tony was feeling tired so we decided to go back home to Gunma. We left at around 5:30 and got home at like 8:30. I made some dinner and then we just chilled and went to sleep.

He will be chilling at my house for the whole week while I still have work and will probably be hanging out with Ryoko a bit the days she has off or works later in the evening.

Next Friday is the final enkai of the school year (Japan's school year ends in April, instead of in the US where it ends in the summer). The enkai is overnight but I will be heading to Tokyo on Saturday morning. Saturday and Sunday is G3 Johnny-o cup so I will go to that for sure, but im not sure what time I will be able to get there. Since after next weekend starts my spring vacation, we will all go to Kansai (Tony, Andy, Emmet, Sam, and myself) as well so basically once I leave for Tokyo next weekend I wont get back home until like April 5th or 6th, so there wont be a blog update for a while. However, the next one is probably going to be fucking massively huge. Im pretty hype about spring break. Should be good times!