Day 11 in Japan - Meeting up with Iino.

Saw this fucking beautiful piece of Berserk art this morning sell for 73500 yen. It is pure prefection. Not flaws at all and looks exactly like its from the manga. I can just imagine this in my bedroom.

Went to a sushi train place for lunch. Iino had earlier suggested a maid cafe but finally admitted that he wasn`t interested in maids. (How can any guy like not maids) When we finished I asked for separate bills and Iino offered to pay saying that we had treated him last year. Well Rei, Billy and Hellcar, you missed out on my payback now that Iino is a shaikaijin.

Wanted to find an arcade with few machines so that we could 1v1 without people disturbing us. Went to one where there were four cabinets but only the opposite machines were linked. He asked which character I wanted since he played Yang, Makoto and Chun in AE. I asked for his A rank Yang and managed to win 3 out of 5 games but he was dropping combos left and right.

Iino then brought out his A rank Makoto and fuck, I can see why Shiro decided to drop Abel. Makoto is like the scarier version of Abel. Query how good she is against dp characters. Don`t think Abel can punish her instant axe kick on wake up and it hits Abel if he tries to backdash and she can combo in ex hayate. Finally managed to beat his Makoto and then he brings out his Chun and it was over. Couldn`t even touch him. Outpoked to hell. Abel`s damage nerf makes taking risks even less rewarding.

More people came and I tried to beat his Yang but failed miserably as he found his groove. Stupid cheap ass ambiguous dive kicks and 3 frame normals. I think he finished with a 30 game win streak before we ran out of challengers.

Highlight of the arcade was beating a AA Ryu who was a former master in vanilla. I know this because he had a former master tag. He then came back for revenge and proceeded to show me why he was master. You can never feel bad about losing to Ryu cause he takes skill to play well. I then settled on the cabinet next to Iino and proceeded to take on an army of scrubs. Half the people that we fought at that place were Zangief players with is sad because they had no idea that all they had to do to beat abel was walk forward push random buttons randomly throw in piledrivers and lariats. Managed to beat a B level Gief a few times surprisingly and finished with an 18 win streak. Nothing to be proud of considering the competition but gained 2000 points in that sitting. Iino told me, `you`re the only one to beat me in the arcade`.

On the way to dinner we went to his arcade in Akiba called Hey and omfg, it had 12 AE machines and a lot of AAA and master players. This is the place for me to go if I want to lose all my hard earned points. They also had the beta testing of this Aquaplus fighting game there with a huge queue and a cute chick dressed as a schoolgirl from the game. I need in a remoted controlled camera in built into my glasses!

Had teppanyaki for dinner which was awesome. A bit expensive but what the heck. It tasted good. Was going to split the bill and Inno gave the I`ll pay cause he are tourist excuse. I was adamant I was going to pay and he provided the ultimate no defence excuse: he`s living with his parents and doesn`t have to pay rent. I only regret not ordering more food.

Went with Iino to Yodobashi and he bought Disidia before leaving home. It was still early so I hopped on the train to Ikebukuro hoping to catch Kana who I had bought the CD from. It started raining so no chance of that. Went to Ikebukuro Jumbo Safari and there was Daigo, Mago, Tokido and Fu*kYun. OMFG, it was my own personal godsgarden and Tokido remembered me from the tournament yesterday. Found out from him Nekojita plays in Shinjuku West arcade so I know where I`m going next.

Surprisingly, Mago was using his master Sagat and even managed to beat Daigo`s Yun. Put my coin in and luckily got Mago. Did step kick->late tech and then blocked a tiger uppercut. A couple of blocked uppercuts later and some correct okizeme guesses and I was in the lead in the final round. Mago was desperate and I remembered my lesson from the tourney yesterday: don`t throw tech cause he wants to uppercut my tech into ultra. I think I got thrown by Mago 6 times before pulling off probably what is going to be my only win against a master in my life. My rank shot up to B+ and its only how many bajillion points to reach A rank.

Found out from Iino that as a B, I get 50-100 points from beating cardless people and don`t lose points if they are cardless. So all I have to do is find an arcade where cardless people go and camp there until the end of my trip to reach A class. On the other hand, this game is now so much about fucking Yun and Yang that I hate it. Visually it is so boring to watch.

There was this awesome AAA+ Ryu at Jumbo Safari called Togawa (I think) who managed to beat the big three. It is so awesome watching Ryu because he really has to work for it. I need to go to an alternate reality where Ono actually realised that Yun and Yang will break SF4. I love this game but I hate what it has become.