April 9, 2023

Momochi with some thoughts on EVO Japan

I posted a twitter thread today about Momochi's review of EVO Japan, and thought it would make sense to capture that here on my blog for archival purposes. Here's the tweet:

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Japan · Street Fighter II • 2 Comments

April 5, 2023

2023 Q2 Fighting Game Events in Tokyo

[ 2023 Q1 Fighting Game Events in Tokyo | 2023 Q3 Fighting Game Events in Tokyo. ]

It has been a while since I've tracked offline fighting game events in Tokyo. With the pandemic starting in 2020, most offline gatherings shut down. At the end of 2022 things were starting to come back. Generally, you can find a Wednesday night fighting game event at eXeField Akiba, the NTT e-Sports facility in the UDX Building. Red Bull Gaming Sphere also hosts events, like Tatakai Tuesdays (GGST, Tekken) that Jiyuna organizes. There is often a Thursday night night SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere as well. Shot Bar Lucy (twitter) often has different events every night of the week, and special events on the weekend.

If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.

This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything.

Very generally:

  • eXeFIELD Akiba (Map) is a venue in the UDX Building in Akihabara. Wednesday nights are generally fighting game nights, and Thursday they do Soul Calibur now. Friday evenings you get a beer ticket with entry and can get beer with that.
  • On alternate Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map.
  • On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
  • Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, but haven't been doing anything during Corona, and I haven't seen anything about Studio Sky since 2021 basically. Hopefully they start doing stuff again sometime.
  • Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
  • The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
  • Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday. Or they did; I don't know if that is still accurate.
  • Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
  • Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.

The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out

  • Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
  • Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
  • Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
  • Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
  • Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
  • Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
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Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

April 4, 2023

Thoughts on EVO Japan 2023 from a Volunteer

This year, I once again volunteered for EVO Japan. I volunteered for it once previously, in 2018, and was happy to do so again this year. A few months back there was a call for volunteers, and I applied. Back before Corona I used to go to weekly locals, and really enjoyed meeting people, helping new people out (usually visitors who don't know Japanese), and helping with whatever tasks pop up.

EVO Japan is a chance for people to come visit the country, see what the local scene is like, and play against Japanese players they might not otherwise get a chance to see. I know I'm not going to do anything big as a player, but as someone behind the scenes helping out, I can help make this massive tournament happen, and maybe I can help out some people here and there. I know this can be exhausting, and I always want to make sure I can fully commit myself, so I took time off from work for Thursday (the first day for volunteers) and Friday, and blocked out the weekend.

I'll collect some pictures and thoughts about 2023 EVO Japan from the perspective of a volunteer in this blog post.

@YaNi_HiKa as Kakuge-chan at the Mutekijikan booth at EVO Japan 2023read more (5498 words)
Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

December 30, 2022

2022-12-29 Street Fighter League Pro-JP 2022 Playoffs

I wasn't planning about blogging about the playoffs; I was just going to watch them. To watch them, you need a ticket on Zaiko.io, about 5000 JPY for both the playoffs and Grand Finals (on 2023-01-21) or 3000 JPY separately (each).

I started watching and at some point started a thread on FGC.Network which I also mirrored on twitter. So for posterity purposes I'll make a blog entry - and while I'm at it I'll go through the archives to catch up on stuff that I missed live.

This is low effort - I'm not going to put a huge amount of time into this.

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Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 2 Comments

December 19, 2022

Shinobism Live Viewing event for the final SFL:Pro-JP regular season game

On Tuesday night, Shinobism held a live viewing event for the Shinobism vs. DetonatioN Gaming match (and the following Gyogun vs. Nagoya OJA Body Stars match). In order to attend there was a lottery, since space was limited. I tweeted about it when you could apply on Dec. 2nd, and applied myself. I luckily was selected (I don't know how many people applied, so maybe odds were high, maybe odds were low, I don't know).

The venue was a smallish event space / bar in Akihabara, with about 30 or so people comfortably seated around the room with a big screen in front and a bar in back. The Shinobism staff was there with some goods for sale - I have a nice Shinobism Polo shirt that works really well as a work shirt, I highly recommend it. The staff was all very friendly - and I was happy to say hi to Chocoblanka, she's always great and running things behind the scenes to support Shinobism. I sat down at my (randomly assigned seating table) and started with beer and edamame, a great combination to spectate the matches.

The players were not playing from the venue, but other Shinobism members were there. Haitani and Eita came out a bit before the Warmup segment, and started talking about how they thought the matches would go. Haitani was surprisingly (to me) funny, chastising Eita who pretty clear hadn't watched the JP SFL matches. Eita assures us that he watched "all of the Shinobism matches" (mostly), and Haitani kept poking fun at him throughout the night. They were a very entertaining pair, and occasionally talked a bit about training at Shinobism and a bit of behind the scenes stuff. I didn't record anything or write anything down at the time, so I don't have any details. They also continued commentary through the matches.

You could take pictures, but anything posted up couldn't include other people's faces for privacy reasons, so I didn't take many pictures at all. The table seating was randomly assigned, and I thought that was a good opportunity to chat to people who also have an interest in SFL:JP, so I had a few conversations with people. If you've spent much time in Japan though, you know that it can be hard to strike up conversations with strangers. By luck, I happened to know one of the people at my table, so we had some fun conversation through the night.

Watching the matches with other people invested in the outcome of the match was a lot of fun. Usually I watch SFL matches as VODs, on my own. They are fun, but there is a very different vibe when you are watching live with other people, and those people also have a vested interest in the outcome. Everyone there was supporting Shinobism, so we wanted to see them win. Myself, I'm a big fan of Itazan and by extension, DNG, but I also really got into supporting Shinobism. It's so easy when you get caught up in the crowd.

When Yamaguchi lost to Nauman, people were disappointed. When Fujimura lost to Itazan, people were nervous. The crowd was really, really behind Momochi and cheering for him. When he got the win the place went wild. The followup FT1 win by Yamaguchi seemed to come too fast (it's a FT1!) but everyone was relieved. I'm a real believer in trying to make a home / away concept for SFL, and this event really shows how a home game in some venue would be lots of fun for spectators and I'm sure the players would be inspired by the cheering as well. I'm hopeful that we can see more of that with the next season. SFL JP already has strong associations for each team with a locality. Capcom reinforced that with the "Fan Caravan" events where each team hosted a fan event in their home region, usually at a large Aeon owned mall, and I'd be surprised if Capcom didn't expand on that next year.

After the first match, Momochi apparently came to the venue to talk with people, but I'm an old man and it was already getting late, so I left before he got there. It would have been nice watching the full thing, but with the ending around 11pm or later, an hour for me to get home, and getting up a bit before 6am the next day I wasn't going to stick around.

Finally, I'm surprised that more teams haven't tried to do interesting experiments like this. I think it's great that Shinobism put this on - it was lots of fun, and I hope they came out positive with merchandise sales. It was free to attend if you were selected to go, and I know renting out a place like that isn't cheap.

The only other really out there thing I remember is that Team iXA sold t-shirts (which I still need to track down, not that I don't have more t-shirts than I need) with characters for each of their players based on their input.

So, many thanks to Shinobism for running a great event, and trying new things. I had a great time, and I hope that I get more chances to do similar things in the future.

Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

December 17, 2022

2023 Q1 Fighting Game Events in Tokyo

2023 Q2 Fighting Game Events in Tokyo.

It has been a while since I've tracked offline fighting game events in Tokyo. With the pandemic starting in 2020, most offline gatherings shut down. At the end of 2022 things were starting to come back. Generally, you can find a Wednesday night fighting game event at eXeField Akiba, the NTT e-Sports facility in the UDX Building. Red Bull Gaming Sphere also hosts events, like Tatakai Tuesdays (GGST, Tekken) that Jiyuna organizes. There is often a Thursday night night SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere as well. Shot Bar Lucy (twitter) often has different events every night of the week, and special events on the weekend.

If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.

This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything.

Very generally:

  • eXeFIELD Akiba (Map) is a venue in the UDX Building in Akihabara. Wednesday nights are generally fighting game nights, and Thursday they do Soul Calibur now. Friday evenings you get a beer ticket with entry and can get beer with that.
  • On alternate Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map.
  • On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
  • Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, but haven't been doing anything during Corona, and I haven't seen anything about Studio Sky since 2021 basically. Hopefully they start doing stuff again sometime.
  • Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
  • The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
  • Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday. Or they did; I don't know if that is still accurate.
  • Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
  • Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.

The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out

  • Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
  • Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
  • Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
  • Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
  • Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
  • Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
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Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

September 19, 2022

2022-09-17 Tokyo Game Show and Street Fighter 6 demo play

A month or so ago, I bought tickets for the Tokyo Game Show. I was super interested to go because there would be a playable demo for Street Fighter 6, which I really wanted to try out. I bought tickets for Saturday since work was super busy that week, and I don't have any connections to get business day tickets anyway. Definitely go on business days if you can; I was able to do that once or twice and it is much better.

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Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

September 6, 2022

2022 Summer / Fall SFL: Pro-JP

Table of Contents

2022 Summer / Fall Street Fighter League: Pro-JP

I'll keep some notes about the JP SFL as I watch it here. I don't intend to take in-depth notes, but focus mostly on the human interactions.

The Capcom Street Fighter League Results page has links to all of the YouTube videos, it is a super great site.

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Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 3 Comments

May 2, 2022

Alan plans a trip to Harajuku

I had some errands to run in Harajuku - there was a King of Fighters collab at a pop-up shop in La Foret - and since it is Golden Week I thought it would be fun to bring Alan with me. He really likes trains and buses, and in the past two or so years we just haven't taken them much at all. I also thought it would be interesting to let him plan the route to go there. At his school they try to teach independence and investigation, so he took the iPad and went to work.

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Blog · Japan • 0 Comments

December 7, 2021

Reading through Capcom's "The future of e-sports viewed through Street Fighter League"

Table of Contents

Published November 15th, "CAPCOM e-Sports: The future of e-sports viewed through Street Fighter League". I picked the book up a while ago and am slowly reading through it. It has lots of interesting information that really explains what Capcom's view of e-sports is, and what they want to do with it.

I'll drop a few notes here and there as I slowly read through each chapter. This definitely is not a translation, and is really just my notes about stuff that I find interesting. If I have any commentary of my own I'll put it in


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Blog · Books · Japan · Street Fighter II • 3 Comments

October 23, 2021

Trip to Angel Forest Shiobara in Nasu

We decided a few months back to take another trip domestically in Japan, since we were not going to do any international travel this year. We rented a house for three days and two nights in the Nasu Angel Forest that is dog friendly. They have dog runs, allow dogs to stay with you, there is a hot springs, pool, and some other stuff. It's up in the mountains, about a three hour drive from Tokyo.

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Blog · Japan · Travel • 0 Comments

October 18, 2021

2021-09 Japan FGC Roundup

This is a roundup of random stuff that I've been following over the past month or so. No real deep research or anything, but I like having a permanent record around, and a little more space to express my opinions that I get in twitter.

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Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

September 26, 2021

Street Fighter League: Pro-JP 2021 Pre-Season

Table of Contents

Capcom ran a pre-seaon for the 2021 Street Fighter League: Pro-JP. It was streamed on a paid site, about $20 for a ticket for both days. I watched it, and took some notes.

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August 24, 2021

Street Fighter League: Pro-JP 2021

Street Fighter League is happening again this year. Street Fighter League: Pro-JP 2021 will start in October, with a pre-season that has games 2021-09-25 and 2021-09-26.

This year's league is structured differently from previous years: the teams are professional eSports teams or corporate sponsors. Since there are existing players on eSports teams, there was a very interesting process to choose members for all the teams. Similar to previouus years, there is a draft with multiple entry points.

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July 8, 2021

2021-06-21 Hoshino Risonare Yatsugatake

We've been in the pandemic, working from home, since February 2020. We went once to a cabin in 2020 September, out in Nasu, which was nice. We haven't had a chance to get vaccinated yet, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held in 2021 during a pandemic when Japan has about 12.5% of the population vaccinated, which isn't going to be good for anyone. We decided a few months back to take a vacation, and Lisa reserved 3 nights and 4 days at Hoshino Risonare Yatsugatake Resort in Yamanashi.

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Blog · Japan · Travel • 0 Comments

January 13, 2021

Q1 Fighting game events in or around Tokyo

Previous: 2020 Q4 Tokyo FGC Events | Next

Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.

Very generally:

The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out

  • Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
  • Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
  • Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
  • Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
  • Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
  • Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.

If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.

Due to concerns around COVID-19, most large recurring events have been cancelled until further notice. Be careful out there.

Kakuge-checker.com has a list of online events, if you are interested in those.

read more (2899 words)
Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

September 16, 2020

Weekend trip to Nasu

We usually go to America in the summer for a month or three, but this year due to Corona Virus we didn't go. So we spent a bit of time thinking about safe vacations, and settled on renting a cabin in Nasu, a vacation spot about a three hours drive from Tokyo. A friend of mine is originally from Nasu, and ever since I've met him he's been talking about how nice Nasu is. There are really a lot of "vacation homes" (or maybe timeshares - hard for me to tell) out here, and there are a surprising (for me!) number of large and nice looking restaurants off of the main road. Many places are dog friendly, and have large parking lots, both rarities for people from Tokyo. I could definitely see coming back here on a regular basis, though the drive is a bit far from the part of Tokyo that we are in. We (my family and Lisa's parents, along with their two year old miniature Schnauzer Sakura) piled into our mini-van and drove out there on Saturday. Before checking in to the cabin, we went to a Soba place, "Seiryu no Sato", which has a stocked fishing pond, allows for dogs, has lots of outdoor seating, and is generally quite nice. I had an excellent Curry Soba. It was raining a bit, so we skipped on the fishing - that was the main thing that Alan wanted to do on the trip - and instead went shopping for some vegetables and bread for the morning breakfast.

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August 10, 2020

eXeField Akiba opening event

eXeField Akiba is a new e-sports facility in Akihabara, located in the Akihabara UDX building. It is part of NTT eSports, and they had an opening ceremony 2020-08-10. The video is above. I'll add some simple running commentary with just a basic overview of what is going on.

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Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

August 2, 2020

2020 August JP FGC News Round-up

1 2020 August JP FGC News Round-up

I haven't really been doing much translation lately - I've been super busy with work and family - but I have followed a few interesting threads on twitter. I thought I would gather things up in this blog post to preserve them, since Twitter is generally a blink-and-you-miss-it experience, unless you are talking about digging up old tweets about someone saying the wrong or right word of the day.

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Blog · Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments

July 2, 2020

2020 July and on Fighting Game Events in Tokyo

Previous: 2020 March through June Tokyo FGC Events | 2020 Q4 Tokyo FGC Events

Seems like I've gotten into the habit of tracking FGC offline events in the Tokyo area. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything. You also should try TopTier.gg which tracks fighting game locals around the world.

Very generally:

  • eXeFIELD Akiba (Map) is a venue in the UDX Building in Akihabara. Wednesday nights are generally fighting game nights. Friday evenings you get a beer ticket with entry and can get beer with that.
  • On Tuesdays there is a DBFZ, Tekken7, and Soul Calibur event run by Jiyuna and MajinObama at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map. It is actually officially sponsored as well!
  • On Wednesdays SFV (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA is the event name) at Akihabara ESports Square (the place, Map) starting from 7pm. There are usually around 20 setups, all with sticks. The place has a bar with food too.
  • On Thursdays there is usually a SFV event at Red Bull Gaming Sphere, Map or sometimes BeasTV's Jikoken TV with Fuudo.
  • Also on some Thursdays there is a DBFZ event orgaqnized by Kagecchi at Akihabara eSports Square.
  • Studio Sky (Map) announced on 2018-09-14 that they will be an open esports space, and as part of that I'm not yet sure of their schedule, but I add information about their events when I see it.
  • Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games (Map), Calendar.
  • The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.
  • Game Bar Cross-up in Umeda, Osaka (Map) usually does SFV on Tuesday, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue on Wednesday, and KOF14 on Thursday.
  • Game Bar Bridge, in Tachikawa, usually runs some fighting game stuff. Their schedule is pinned to the gbbtachikawa profile.
  • Check Gaijin Gaming Brothers for information about Smash related events in Japan. I add Tokyo based events to my list, but they track events all over Japan with English information.
  • Syogepi-events has a Google Calendar of his events. He often runs platinum and under begginer friendly events. They have an English based guide to participating in their events.

I don't really track free play events or tournaments at arcades - there are lots of them.

The arcade scene is vibrant, and you are likely to find competition at any arcade, but some are more well known than others. You might want to check out

  • Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba
  • Taito Station Shinjuku East Exit, Map
  • Various arcades in Akihabara, Club Sega, Hey!
  • Various shops in Akihabara like the retro game store Super Potato, Map
  • Play Spot Big One 2nd, Map. Out in Chiba, but good place for 3rd Strike or Melty Blood. (Thanks Arlieth!)
  • Game Newton, Map. Lots of ST setups.
  • Your Warehouse, Map Kawasaki (For the crazy design) Oh no, this iconic arcade has shut down as of Nov. 7th.

If you are comfortable with Japanese, Kakuge-checker.com has a comprehensive list of offline, online, and other events going around all over Japan. I don't know how he/they/she does it.

Due to concerns around COVID-19, most large recurring events have been cancelled until further notice. Be careful out there.

Kakuge-checker.com has a list of online events, if you are interested in those.

read more (4309 words)
Japan · Street Fighter II • 0 Comments
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