(around 4:00am 7/9)

Today I find myself in the home of the renowned Japanese Garden designer, ?????, Tamazaki Hiroshi.

WTF am I doing here? I came to play Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike and the new Melty Blood: Final Tuned with said famous person’s son, my good friend Kousuke.

To add another tangent, Kousuke’s mom, Keme-chan, is one of my mom’s best friends; That’s the main reason behind me being here.

Anyway, here’s a Japanese lesson for you crazy people (all .2 of you).

?????????????

This phrase is a glimpse into the optimistitc side of Japanese culture. Literally, it means, “Something will happen”, and is used when one is taking upon something, be it a test, journey or even life itself. Perhaps “Something (good) will come of it” is a better way to put it.

This is my 2nd time staying over here since I came to Japan about 4 weeks ago. Coming here is one of my fondest memories of Japan, and has always meant a lot to me. Many many years ago, it was in this household where Kousuke taught me how to combo in the Super Famicon version of Super Street Fighter (before this, all I knew was the classic jump roundhouse, sweep 2-hitter), and where my path as a World Warrior began. After a week of training, I became estatic when I finally pulled off Ken’s staple 3 fierce combo (jump fierce, stand fierce, fierce shoryuken) for the first time. Nevertheless, beating my teacher proved to be quite difficult, seemingly an impossible task at the time. It was also here that I entered my first tournament (SFZ3), and got 2nd place, my A-Ken losing to Kousuke’s V-Akuma. At that time, my V-ism skills were still in their infancy, so I stuck with what I knew.

This time though, it seems the student has become the teacher. Even after being away from the scene for so long, my basics 101 are much more honed than my eternal rival’s. Zero 3 is a blow-out these days, and even in 3rd Strike, I’m able to come out with the win most of the time (This was true in Melty Blood for a while, but its become pretty even recently).

Well, this post is just a draft. But I decided to post it despite that, cuz I haven’t done anything on this site in a while. I’m currently in the middle of a total design overhaul for the site, and this time imma come out with something 90% my own. We’ll see how that goes. And tomorrow, I’m gonna go to an 8-bit concert in Shibuya (April’s Album Launch (with omgomg YMCK), so that’ll be fun. I’ll be sure to post up some pics and experiences when I get back.

To be continued…