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P2G Gaming Event at Redbull Gaming Sphere Nakano

On Sunday, March 18th, Shinobism's Project Gaming Girls (P2G) held a multi-title gaming event at the RedBull Gaming Sphere in Nakano. This was a multi-title event, with Capcom's Street Fighter V, Nintendo's Splatoon2, Blizzard's Hearthstone, and Capcom's MVCI. The event was from 1pm to 5pm, with the various P2G members hosting activities for the games that they play.

First, what is P2G? P2G is a gaming team that Chocoblanka and Momochi started last year, and have expanded this year. They sponsor women specifically, but probably not in way that you would think typical of gaming teams. Here are some excerpts from the P2G page:

• The goal of Project Gaming Girls is to increase the number of women that enjoy playing games and to create a community of women who love games.
• It is difficult for women to entry existing gaming communities. There are not as many commonly accepted ways for women to start getting into games, and because there are few women they often stand out and can be subject to good or bad attention.
• Games are for fun, and we would like to increase the number of women that enjoy playing games. We'll try to do what we can to help support that goal.
• We want to support women who enjoy playing games.
• We have two requests for the women we support: please continue to keep playing games, and interact in a positive and fun manner with people at offline events.

Importantly:

• P2G supports all people who love games without regard to a person's particular skill at a game, aiming for all people who love games to continue to express the joy they feel gaming. [TL: Super loose translation!]

So P2G has as a goal expanding opportunities for women to get into gaming, and to continue doing it. I think that is a great goal, and I also think it is an obligation of every gamer to be friendly and welcoming to all people joining the community, and to treat everyone fairly and without bias.

This is the first event that I've been able to attend hosted by P2G – and it might be the first one they've held, since I've been following since the beginning and don't remember any other events.

The event was held at the new RedBull Gaming Sphere, which is a very nice space in Nakano. Admission was free, which is amazing if you think about it. Somehow P2G was able to organize support from a variety of sponsors. That explained the presence of Nissin, who also had a big hand in sponsoring EVO Japan 2018. There was pre-registation for the event, but there weren't so many people that it was overcrowded. The space was separated into stations by game.

• 7 SFV setups
• 8 Splatoon 2 setups with monitors
• 8 Splatoon 2 setups just on free standing Switches.
• A bunch of tablets for Hearthstone and Clash Royale, one or two of which were connected to larger monitors.
• 1 lonely MVCI setup, alone, feeling a bit sad.
• 1 "hidden" DBFZ setup in a room that nobody noticed except the cameraman who was in training mode for quite a while.

The staff was checking names to make sure you had registered, and they asked you whether you would be OK appearing on stream or not. If not, you got a red lanyard and a name tag to write your name on. If you didn't mind, you got a green lanyard. In Japan, people are very concerned with personal privacy. You often will have notices posted at events if there is streaming, and I like that hear that have a nice little solution with red/green colors to make it clear. None of my photos should show people with red badges, and I tried to choose pictures without many identifiable features for the non-P2G members (who I assume are ok with it, since they do media appearances - although thinking about it now, I should have asked).

Mostly during the event people played casual matches. I wandered around and looked at some of the other games. I've never played Splatoon, so that was interesting. I get lost in real life though, and 3-d games like that are tough for me. I would have to play that game with the map on all the time. It does look pretty fun though. I'm going to stick with 2-d games on single plane though.

Harumy is the SFV focused P2G member, and she was playing people on one of the setups. At some point, she called for people to take part in a 5-5 team battle, and we did that. The team battle mode in SFV is really pretty fun. We later did a tournament for a random 3-3 team battle, which was lots of fun too. The winner took home a case of Nissin spicy cup noodles.

The other sections had various tournaments and activities as well, but I spent most of my time in the SFV area, playing games and talking with people.

Near the end of the event, the P2G members held a group rock-paper-scissors competition to distribute various prizes. The event was lots of fun, and they announced that they plan to hold similar events in other locations across Japan. That is another interesting point - right now, Tokyo and to some degree Osaka (thanks to Cyclops esports basement) are the only two hotbeds of SFV activity. I'm not as aware of other scenes, but it is really nice to see things happen outside of the two major population areas.

Keep your eyes out for P2G members, and give them some support if you can!

Capcom eSPORTS CLUB in Plaza Capcom Kichijoji

Capcom recently opened the "eSPORTS CLUB" (their capitalization, not mine) in their Plaza Capcom arcade in Kichijoji. It is an interesting place, and surprising to me in that it is completely free. They have two head to head setups, and I think eight side by side setups. It isn't the largest space, but each station uses a PS4 Pro, there are a lot of nice Street Fighter character images, and they provide sticks (Hori RAP 4s) and headphones (don't remember) for your use. All for free. There are a variety of places in the Tokyo area that you can go to and play Streetfighter, but none of them are free.

In March, I noticed that Capcom started running tournaments ("Ranking Battles") on Saturday there. By chance my family is out travelling on Saturday, so I took the chance to go out to Kichijoji - a but outside of Tokyo proper, an hour away from where I live anyway, and check it out. I thought it might be useful to write a bit about how to make use of the Capcom eSPORTS CLUB for any English speakers that might be interested.

First, you need to get there. That probably means taking the Chuo line out of Shinjuku (about 17 minutes) but Google should be able to tell you how to get there. Leaving the station walk through the nice shopping district, which has some covered streets which would make going there in the rain pretty convenient. The Plaza Capcom arcade is located in the basement of the Loft building. You can't miss the eSPORTS CLUB, it is a closed off area with a bunch of life size Street Fighter character cutouts standing around, and some big monitors showing what is happening on the main setup.

Once you are there, you need to register for a member's card. If you are looking at the entrance to the area, to the right there is a counter that should have a capcom employee there. Tell them that you want to register, or maybe just say something like "Street Fighter" and point over there. They will bring out a sign-up sheet and ask for your gamertag. No government needed. Sign up with that, and if you want to borrow a stick, let them know (they are visible from the counter). They will have you sign up on another sheet for that. They should also give you a business card sized member's card with a number on it that you can use when you come back. When you are playing in the area you have to wear the lanyard they give you (so they know you registered or checked in with the desk I guess) but that is it. Head over to the setups and look for one that is open. The setups are all First to Two, winner stays on when it is busy, but if nobody is waiting feel free to keep on playing.

If there is a tournament that day - and they will also host player-run tournaments on weekday evenings I'm told - talk to the person running the tournament to register. In my case on Saturday at about 3:30pm there was a capcom employee near the entrance with a sign-up sheet for the tournament, I signed up, and they passed me a ticket with a number on it. Later on, once sign-ups were closed, they called out the numbers and we pulled a piece of paper to determine seeding order in the tournament. They wrote the seeding information down on two dry erase brackets (pretty cool actually) and then started calling out matches.

Competition was very good - I knew of Raya (Diago's student), and Trashbox (a good Birdie), and everyone else there was better than me at any rate.

If you have the time, check out the Capcom eSports Club. Personally, I prefer one of the various weeklies - particularly Fighter's Crossover Akihabara - where there is a bar and I can get something to drink while I lose, but this was a lot of fun too.

A short post-Kemonomichi interview with Tokido

The Chigesoku blog (Japanese) took some notes from an interview with Tokido from 3 days after the Kemonomicni FT10. The video is from the Living The Game people - Living the Game is a documentary (in Japanese) that primarily follows Momochi, Chocoblanka, Daigo, Luffy, and GamerBee with brief appearances by many others in the FGC. I actually watched it in the theater last night, and really enjoyed it. The majority of the interview is about Tokido's thoughts on the movie, but there is a bit about Daigo as well. Here is an English version of the notes from the Chigesoku blog.

Check out the Living the Game trailer if, for nothing else, the Mike Ross Capcom Cup intro.

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Behind-the-scenes discussion with Daigo about Kemonomichi 2

Translator's note: This is a translation of http://chigesoku3.doorblog.jp/archives/53114976.html which transcribed the audio from a twitch stream with Daigo.

On March 11th, Sunday, Daigo held an "at home" stream in which he talked about his recent match. It was a stream with the usual members of Daigo, Fuudo, and Orikasashi, and they talked about the recent events, including "Kemonomichi 2". This article excerpts the discussion about Kemonomichi 2.

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My brief appearance on AbemaTV's Agenai! Friday

Friday, March 9th, I was invited to appear on "Agenai! Friday" (Episode 7), a show on AbemaTV. What is AbemaTV? It is a live streaming service that adopts the model of TV, and streams content on various channels at a specific time. You can also access their backlog of shows for free. I like their "Ultra Games" channel, which has various video game content. If you haven't tried AbemaTV before, check it out - there are many channels, and they have a lot of original content. They also have lots of Anime. It is all in Japanese, so that might be problematic, but some of the gaming stuff is understandable.

One of the shows that I like is called "Agenai! Friday", which is a show about games generally, but often has people playing in a contenst using Street Fighter V. They will do different events for different games, but often will have amateur challengers play against their competitors. The times I've watched, they have had Itabashi Zangief and Tachikawa as their professional players, and also Kuramochi Yuka on the show. If you don't know who Kuramochi is, I first heard about her at EVO Japan. She was a reporter for the Japanese stream, and interviewed some of the players and attendees there. I didn't realize that she is a glamour model until I followed her on twitter, and the pictures she posts pretty quickly makes it clear that she works in the glamour industry in Japan. She does play video games, and has a good R. Mika, so I assume she is on the show because of that, and to give a bit of beauty appeal to the audience.

I started watching Agenai Friday when I heard that Itabashi Zangief is on it - he's a player that I really like and have followed for a long time. How does the show work? Usually it opens with some general introduction - the MC is another Japanese Talent, Kendo Kobayashi, who chats a bit with the others on the panel. They might talk about a new game for a bit, but in the second half they introduce the challengers who will play their stable of pro players. If the challenger wins, they get a cash prize - usually about $2000 USD (200,000 Japanese yen, I'll just use USD with 100yen/dollar). If the challenger does not win, that goes into the prize pot, up to a maximum of $10,000. So that is a pretty nice prize! The Street Fighter V set is best of 5 games, so the first person to win three games.

I've watched the show a few times, and some of the challengers have been people that I recognize or know from the weekly Street Fighter event called Fighter's Crossover Akihabara (FCA from here on). I usually go every week, if I can make it. Last week, I was approached by a Mr. U., who asked if I would like to be on the show. We talked for a bit, and I told him that I wasn't very good at the game - I'm ok, generally a Gold/Platinum level Zangief, but in Season 3 I'm trying to play other characters. He thought it would be interesting though, so I agreed. This is likely a case where I'll be playing the role of "hey look, a foreigner who can speak Japanese!" but that is fine. I really like the fighting game community, and one of the things I would like to do is make it easier for English speakers to learn about the Tokyo Fighting Game Community (FGC from here on) scene. So I'm happy to go on a show and talk about whatever, but maybe I can get a few words in about how great the FGC is, and also talk about how anyone - old, young, good at the game or not - can join in, have fun, and make friends.

So the next week on Friday I showed up to the Abema (actually Openrec) offices, and met with the other people on the show. Usually there are two challengers, but this time there were four. Hidemichi, who is also a regular at FCA, Kindevu, a well-known strong FGC player who isn't a pro (yet?), myself, and Utahiroba Jun, who is a rock star - the bassist for the group Golden Bomber. He is a big Street Fighter V fan (and very good) and apparently wanted to be on the show.

We heard about how things were set up, how the show would go, and then headed over to the studio. The place was smaller than I would have thought (never having ever seen a studio of any kind before) and got ready. We set up our controllers, played a game or two, and then stood on our marks and waited for the show to start. Us four challengers lined up, we had these white boards that we wrote our name/tag, age, and occupation on, and Kendo asked or commented on each of us. Then they transistioned the show into the competition segment.

Since Hidemichi was on the previous weeks' show, he was up first, and the rest of us drew lots for order. Utahiroba Jun was first (and he was super happy about it!) Kindevu was 3rd (and he was super sad about it!) and I was second, and didn't particularly mind either way. I really want to see Kindevu go back on the show because he could potentially win it. I didn't have a snowball's chance in hell, although I'm pretty confident that I could win a set against Kuramochi.

While Hidemichi got ready for his set - the competitors also draw lots, and he was to face off against Kuramochi first - the other three of us went back into the production room to watch. Hidemichi lost the first game, but came back to win the next three, and then face off against Tachikawa. It was lots of fun watching back in the production room, and the place went nuts when Kuramochi won the first game. After that, Tachikawa was randomly chosen as the next player. Hidemichi got one game on him, but in the end Tachikawa won.

Utahiroba Jun was up next. Usually the challengers just play individually, but Jun asked if he could bring Kindevu out as support. Kindevu is a well-known strong player, and Jun knows him. He was really happy to meet him, and the whole time we were waiting Jun and Kindevu were talking technical aspects of the game, points on different matchups, things Jun should look out for if he played Itabashi or Tachikawa. I've been playing SFV since it came out, and I follow the tech and frame advantage / disadvantage, but as an old (and old-school) player, I don't pay as much attention to that stuff as I should. I prefer to play a few matched online instead of spending time in training mode (I usually get about 2 or 3 hours a week to play games) so I'm not the right guy to talk to about those technical aspects of the game. Kindevu and Jun definitely are though. So Jun asked if he could get Kindevu to come out as support, and the production team thought that was a great idea. Mostly, I think, because Kindevu's name in Japanese means "Golden Fatty" and Jun is a member of the "Golden Bombers" rock group. That makes for a fun gag on a show like this.

For some reason, they then thought that I should go out too, so I did. First up was Kuramochi, again drawn by random lot. She was not happy to face Jun, because he's very good and in a previous event they had played each other and he totally demolished her. Jun didn't show any mercy this time either, and his Ken ran pretty roughshod over Kuramochi's Mika (who still is better than average). Normally, after the loss the MC would have the other competitors draw lots to see who Jun would play next, but since Itabashi Zangief hasn't played in a while (Tachikawa keeps getting randomly selected) Kendo sent out Itabashi. Jun was really getting hype, and I could really tell that he is used to the Japanese "Talent" style of playing along with the MC / other guests on panel shows. He was talking up his game, he called out Tachikawa for being a rude young kid earlier when he won his matches, and just generally brought a lot of energy to the studio. He played well, and got a few rounds, generally keeping things competitive against Itabashi's Abigail. In between rounds he would reach out and rub Kindevu's belly (because he looks a bit like a fat Buddha golden statue, and rubbing their bellies gives you good luck) and once or twice rubbed my bald head. For luck. He's a real showman.

The show is only an hour long, and the show ended before their set did. We played out the remainder of the set and that will probably show up somewhere eventually. Overall it was really a lot of fun, it was super exciting to cheer Jun on, and just seeing how these shows work was interesting. One of the taglines on this show is that people who are watching the show could come on the show and compete for the prize money. One of the things I enjoy most about the FGC is that it was born from the arcade culture, where all you need to play is a quarter and you can play anyone on the machine regardless of level. All sorts of people can be a part of the FGC, and while we might not all be great players, we can all have fun. In actuality, I think it is very rare for someone to actually beat the show's pros in a first to three set, but I love that they open that opportunity up to people - myself, or a fan from a rock band, or a regular at the weekly local (Hidemichi) or a well-known strong unsponsored player.

If you are interested in fighting games, I think they are a very accessible type of video game to watch. The big health bar at the top of the screen goes down, and the winner is the one who has some health left. That is pretty easy to understand, even if you don't know what is happening on screen. If you are watching shows like this, and think it looks fun, try to go to a local event near you. Most local scenes are happy to see new people and help them get better.

Daigo's Panel on Money and Games in Japan

Today, Daigo streamed a panel discussion about Money and Games. It was super interesting. I just wanted to watch for my own purposes, but I took a few notes, so I guess I'll put them out there. Some disclaimers: I'm just a guy living in Japan, and Japanese is my second language. So I might be wrong on stuff! These are really just my own notes which I took for fun, and I'm not a great writer or analyst so what you see is what you get. I skipped a bunch of stuff, but took some notes on comments I found interesting.

My TLDR version of the steam was:

• JeSU (the Japanese eSports Union) that licenses pro players didn't do great outreach to the community when they launched. They do seem to be moving in the right direction, listening, and are willing to work with the community to help improve things. I'm optimistic. My preference would be to change the morality laws to just get around the main issues (not collecting fees from participants for pot money) but even if that happened I can see how a body like JeSU still might be useful.
• I think that it is possible, under this new system, to have open tournaments that anyone can enter and still have a pot. It sounds like that would work by granting a pro license to the winner on the spot.
• I'm still concerned that because of this system, we will see many more invitationals in Japan instead of large open tournaments, but time will tell.

Who are the people at the round table? Players:

• Daigo
• Foo~do
• Nemo
• Daikoku
• Raya (a young player that Daigo is teaching). This is what the "info card" for him said: "A young SFV player. He didn't come up by his strength, but in an audition with one of Umehara's projects. He is the one that made Umehara stop wearing Crocs. He's here not to give his opinion as a competitor but as a member of the community." That said, I've seen him at the weeklies, and he's good.

Community members:

• Nyanshi, the director of Topanga. Very involved in large scale tournaments, he ran the SFV side of things at EVO Japan 2018.
• Kagecchi, he organizes the weekly SFV event "Fighter's Crossover Akihabara" at Akihabara Esports Square.
• Hameko, Chairman of EVO Japan, does lot of commentary, etc.
• Nishitani Akira (NIN) - designer of Street Fighter II
• Hamamura Hirokazu, former editor of weekly Famitsu, current President of Enterbrain. Represented the new JeSU esports organization that issues pro sports licenses in Japan.
• Akahoshi, a well-known Zangief player from SF4 who now works behind the scenes at Yubiken
• Gama no Abura, a well-known commentator. He was also wearing a Button Mashers shirt, so he might be involved in that. Button Mashers run the logistics for some of the larger and better-run events (IMHO). He also is involved in the orerevo series of events.
• Umezaki, wasn't listed on Daigo's tweet about the panel, but he runs Detonation Gaming, one of the top level gaming teams in Japan. He was the first to sign a foreign player on an "Athlete Visa".

Also, check out The Sentimental Typhoon's (a Japanese FGC member) translation of the What is the definition of eSports portion of the round table.

My complete notes follow.

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Fighting game events in Tokyo, 2018 February and March

2018 January Fighting Game events, 2018 April and May Tokyo Fighting Game Events

It seemed like it was useful to track the fighting game events going on around the 2018 EVO Japan tournament, so I'm going to also keep track of things that are going on in February in the Tokyo area, to the extent that I know about. This isn't a comprehensive list, but feel free to contact me if you want me to add anything.

Very generally:

• SFV event (Fighter's Crossover Akihabara – FCA) on Wednesdays at Akihabara ESports Square (the place) starting from 7pm.
• On Friday there is usually a SFV event at Studio Sky.
• On Sunday there is usually a SFV event at Studio Sky.
• Shot Bar Lucy has different events on different days, and usually on Friday night is an all-night event featuring various games.
• The Plaza Capcom at Kichijoji (Map) has the Capcom eSPORTS Club which has free SFV setups, and often runs events.

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Japan Pro Gaming License quick translation

Translated from http://chigesoku3.doorblog.jp/archives/52891378.html

It was announced 2018-02-01 that the "Japan ESports Union (herein-to JeSU)" was founded. This is the birth of a new union with cooperation of a variety of existing esports organizations and game maker organizations.

JeSU is involved in running the 2018 Japan Game Party that will be held on Feb. 10th and 11th at Makuhari Messe which will be the first of its kind to host tournaments where pro licenses will be issued.

The definitions and regulations for issuing a pro gamer license have also been announced. A pro license will last for two years, and one will need to attend a class to obtain or renew the license. For existing pro gamers they developed a system of "Issuing licenses to guaranteeing authorities", and it is believed that many fighting game pro players will be able to obtain a license in this manner.

• Pro Gamer Definition
  • Has the consciousness of a Professional (tl note: Japanese way of saying "takes it seriously")
  • Follows the values of sportsmanship in their play
  • Devoted to improving their technical skills on a daily basis (tl note: Only lab monsters allowed? What about players with HEART?)
  • Contribute to the growth of e-Sports domestically
• Persons Eligible for License

People fulfilling the qualifications below can be granted a license.

• Those who pledge to uphold the conditions mentioned in the pro gamer definition above
• Those who have obtained excellent results in tournaments that this association has officially recognized for game titles that this association officially recognizes (tl note: no clear definition of what placing is considered good enough)
• Those who have taken the lecture that this association indicates
• License categories (2 types)
  1. "Japan eSports Pro License"

  This license is applicable for those over 15 years old, who have completed their mandatory educational obligation. * People under 20 years old need their guardians' permission.

  1. "Japan eSports Junior License"

  This license is applicable to those between 13 and not yet 15 years of age to whom there would be value in having a license. * They are able to receive non-monetary prizes, but can not receive monetary prizes. * With the agreement of the licensee and their guardian upon reaching age 15 a Pro License can be issued.

• About issuing licenses in non-regular conditions "Issuance of licenses to guarantors of results". To take into account past performance since license issuance begins, we will issue pro licenses or junior licenses to people who have shown exemplary performance in past tournaments for officially recognized titles. * The IP holder will need to agree to the license issuance.
• Treatment of Teams
  • Team license issuance.

  If a team has an official legal entity, and the IP holder approves, a team license will be issued pending approval of this association. * However, additional rules and regulations along with paperwork will be required.

  • If a team has at least one person that holds a license, then that team will be able to participate in officially recognized tournaments. * However, the prize can only be rewarded to the license holder.
• License expiry
  • Licenses last for two years. * License renewal will require an e-learning course.
• Management of License Issuance
  • Licenses are issued on a per-title basis.
  • Based on the three items below, this association steering committee will play the games, and decide on what the eligible titles should be. (tl note: I'm not translating this wrong AFAIK, but man I hope I am wrong.)
    • The game itself must have competitive play
    • The game must have been on sale for and/or been operating for more than three months.
    • The title must be scheduled to appear in tournaments

https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2018/02/01/112492.html

As of Feb. 1st, 2018, there are the 6 titles for which pro licenses will be issued:

• Winning Eleven 2018 (PS4/PS3 Konami Digital Entertainment)
• Call of Duty World War II (PS4 Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Street Fighter V Arcade Edition (PS4/PC Capcom)
• Tekken 7 (PS4, Xbox One, PC Bandai Namco Entertainment)
• Puzzle and Dragons (ios/Android Gung Ho Online Entertainment)
• Monster Strike (ios/Android Mixi)

Thoughts on EVO Japan 2018 from a volunteer

I've been playing Street Fighter for a long time. I first encountered it in probably 1991, in the back of Aljon's Pizza in West Windsor, New Jersey. I didn't know what was going on, but I loved it. At one point, I figured out how to do Guile's flash kick: you had to block down for a bit, then wiggle the joystick from the back corner to the front corner, then back to the back corner, the up and a kick. In those early days, if you knew how to do a move, you didn't tell anybody and you kept that tech to yourself. Ever since then, I've been playing some version of Street Fighter, or Darkstalkers, or some fighting game.

Ten years ago when I moved to Japan, I was pretty busy with post-doc research, and then I joined a company, and threw a lot of my energy into that, then I got married, we had a kid, and while I was playing online matches (THawk in all the SF4 versions, Zangief in SFV) at some point I wanted to get back into the Street Fighter community. So I started to look around, and found out that Twitter is where all the information is now. So I set up an account and started looking around. I actually first found out about the Tokyo FGC from the Jump In Podcast when Kim 1234 mentioned that there is a weekly gathering at Akihabara Esports Square. I've been going ever since.

When I saw on Twitter that EVO Japan would be a thing, I knew that I couldn't miss it. So I signed up when that opened, and then I also volunteered to help out as volunteer staff. I was pretty sure I wouldn't get out of pools, and since I know Japanese well enough I thought I could contribute to making the event better in some way if I joined as staff. I was pretty excited when they accepted my application, and I was in.

I took two days off of work – there was an organizational meeting on Thursday the day before EVO that I had to attend, and of course I needed to be free all Friday. I had to work out childcare arrangements for my son, and did that. So what are my thoughts overall?

Fighting game events in Tokyo around the EVO Japan timeframe (that I know of)

2018 February and March Fighting Game Events in Tokyo

I'm super excited for EVO Japan. It will be my first EVO, but I'm not sure that counts. I've been living in Japan for the past ten years, and regularly go to the Fighter's Crossover (that's the name) Street Fighter V weekly event at E-sports Square (that's the place).

I want to gather information about events that will happen around the EVO JP timeframe. I'll ask people I know - I personally only know much about Street Fighter - and keep this post up to date.

I'm not going to list EVO Japan or side tournaments here, but if you are interested see the EVO Japan side tournament section. There is Anime Evo Japan, which includes MVCI, and I was surprised to see a SF3 Cooperation Cup special.

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)
• Game Bar A Button, Map
• This JP travel guide with a list of arcades and the scenes they are known for, compiled by 310.venom
• Maybe a maid cafe or something? They're everyhere in Akihabara.
• This Sagat themed store about Saga-ken in Ginza 3F commn ginza, inside Ramo Frutas Cafe. Operating from 2018-01-22 to 2018-01-28, 10am - 9pm.

Justin Wong wrote a guide to Japan so check that out too. Lots of good practical information about what you should do to prepare. Get a suica card, how to get a pocket wifi, etc.

Date	Game	Event	Location	Comments
2018-01-05 Fri.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy All Night Games	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy 11:30pm - 5:00am SFV / Tekken / others
2018-01-05 Fri.	SFV	Friday Sky	Studio Sky, Map	2pm - 8pm via @fridayskyjp
2018-01-06 Sat.	SF3	Cooperation Cup	Hulic Hall Tokyo, Asakusa-bashi
2018-01-07 Sun.	SF3	Cooperation Cup	Hulic Hall Tokyo, Asakusa-bashi
2018-01-07 Sun.	SFV	Sunday Sky	Studio Sky, Map
2018-01-09 Tue.	KOF	KOF Tuesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 19:00 to close
2018-01-10 Wed.	SFV	Fighter's Crossover (FCA)	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Regular weekly
2018-01-10 Wed.	MVCI	Marvel Wednesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Also board games
2018-01-12 Fri.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy All Night Games	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy 11:30pm - 5:00am SFV / Tekken / others
2018-01-12 Fri.	SFV	Friday Sky	Studio Sky, Map	7pm - 11pm
2018-01-14 Sun.	SFV	Sunday Sky	Studio Sky, Map
2018-01-14 Sun.	VSAV	Mikado Savior via @mikadosavior	Mikado Arcade, Map	Sign up 14:-15:00, single elim tourney
2018-01-14 Sun.	SFV	Shot Bar Lucy SFV Event	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 12:00pm to 8:00pm. 3000yen, 2000 after 3pm.
2018-01-16 Tue.	KOF	KOF Tuesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 19:00 to close
2018-01-17 Wed.	SFV	FCA Casuals day	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Update to S3 on PC
2018-01-17 Wed.	MVCI	Marvel Wednesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Also board games
2018-01-18 Thur.	SFV	FCA Casuals day	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Update to S3 on PS4
2018-01-19 Fri.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy All Night Games	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy 11:30pm - 5:00am SFV / Tekken / others
2018-01-19 Fri.	SFV	Friday Sky	Studio Sky, Map	7pm - 11pm
2018-01-19 Fri.	Tekken7	Bakushi's Tournament	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	Casuals run by staff named Bakushi, from 19:00
2018-01-20 Sat.	SFV	FCA Casuals / Open tournament	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Casuals from 12:00 to 21:00
2018-01-20 Sat.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy Practice Session	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy probably from 17:00
2018-01-20 Sat.	Tekken7	Female character tournament	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	Casuals run by @take6919, from 14:00
2018-01-20 Sat.	GGXrd	Mikado Tenkaichi Budokai3	Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba	Redeption bracket from 2pm, stream, @joniomikado27
2018-01-21 Sun.	Tekken7	Chloe only tournament	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	Casuals run by @hibiki961, from 14:00
2018-01-21 Sun.	SFV	FCA Casuals / Open tournament	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	Casuals from 12:00 to 21:00, random 3-3 tourney
2018-01-21 Sun.	SFV	Sunday Sky	Studio Sky, Map	From 2pm to 8pm
2018-01-21 Sun.	Multiple	Shot Bar Lucy Practice Session	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Shot Bar Lucy probably from 17:00
2018-01-23 Tue.	KOF	KOF Tuesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 19:00 to close
2018-01-24 Wed.	SFV	FCA Casuals	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	From 19:00 to 23:00
2018-01-24 Wed.	MVCI	Marvel Wednesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Also board games
2018-01-24 Wed.	Tekken7	Wednesday Tekken7 @ Namco Sugamo	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	From 20:00
2018-01-25 Thur.	SFV	FCA Casuals	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	From 19:00 to 23:00
2018-01-25 Thur.	Multiple	Fighting Games Festival	Studio Sky, Map	13:00 to 23:00, 2000yen for 2 hours, 3000yen all day
2018-01-25 Thur.	Tekken7	Tekken7 Ladies @ Namco Sugamo	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	From 17:00, run by @meee5otk ladies only?
2018-01-26 Fri.	SFV	Shot Bar SFV Event	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	1pm - midnight, 3000yen, 8pm - 2000yen, 2 drinks via LucyFightClub
2018-01-27 Sat.	Multiple	Fighting Games Festival	Studio Sky, Map	13:00 to 23:00, 2000yen for 2 hours, 3000yen all day
2018-01-27 Sat.	VSAV	Vampire Savior Monthly	Mikado Arcade, Map Takadanobaba	Via @Kengallon
2018-01-28 Sun.	Multiple	Fighting Games Festival	Studio Sky, Map	13:00 to 23:00, 2000yen for 2 hours, 3000yen all day
2018-01-28 Sun.	SFV	Special FCA	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	From 13:00 until later. Kotatsu + Takoyaki + casuals.
2018-01-28 Sun.	Multiple	Mikado Arcade viewing	Mikado Arcade, Map	Normal arcade. DO NOT use stools / cabs for viewing.
2018-01-28 Sun.	Multiple	Special event	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 13:00 to midnight, 3000yen, 2000yen from 18:00.
2018-01-28 Sun.	VSAV	Vampire Savior Free Play	Play Spot BIG-ONE 2nd, Map Saitama	500yen from 14:00 to 17:00, 200yen from 16:00.
2018-01-29 Mon.	Multiple	Fighting Games Festival	Studio Sky, Map	13:00 to 23:00, 2000yen for 2 hours, 3000yen all day
2018-01-30 Tue.	KOF	KOF Tuesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	From 19:00 to close
2018-01-31 Wed.	SFV	Normal FCA	Akihabara E-sports Square, Map	From 19:00 to 23:00
2018-01-31 Wed.	MVCI	Marvel Wednesday	Shot Bar Lucy, Map	Also board games. From 17:00.
2018-01-31 Wed.	Tekken7	Wednesday Tekken7 @ Namco Sugamo	Namco at Sugamo Stn., Map	From 20:00

Alan's 6th Birthday

Today, 2017-12-16, is Alan’s sixth birthday. This year, instead of getting lots of presents, Lisa’s planned a nice trip for him. Since Alan really loves trains (what six year old in Japan doesn’t?) this trip is a train-focused trip. His birthday conveniently fell on a Saturday, so we were able to take an overnight trip to a Onsen.

We had an 8:24 Max Toki Shinkansen on the Joetsu line. The Max Toki E4 series of trains is amazing - two floors of seating, carrying about 1634 people when two eight car trains are connected together. I have always wanted to ride in one of those trains up on the second floor. Lisa got us reserved seats in the upper floor - the upper floor are all reserved, and the lower floor is open seating - and we were off. The trains are actually on the way out, and will probably be withdrawn from service sometime in 2018. Right now these monster E4 trains are only in use on the Joetsu line, and all the previous lines that had used them are using newer trains that can go faster. These trains can only go 240 km/h (150 mph) which isn’t fast enough for Japan I guess. The fastest Shinkansen run at about 200 mph now, and around 175 mph is pretty common. I wonder if the newer trains will also be double decker; I somehow doubt it because so far I haven’t seen any plans for those, and they are likely to re-use existing designs I think. Who knows though? The Shinkansen are really popular in Japan, and a lot of effort is put into them, so maybe they will make another really high passenger capacity train.

We took the Shinkansen to Takasaki, which was about an hour out of Tokyo. From there we took a special weekend-only Steam Engine train. It ran from Takasaki (a reasonably large city I think - population of about 370,000 people) to the end of the line at Yokokawa. That place has a population of about 600 people unless I am reading the PDF that I found on the web somewhere wrong. At any rate, it was a small little town.

When we pulled into the station there was a local high school Taiko group playing Taiko as we came in. It was super cool. Even though it was cold outside, they were out there in short sleeves banging up a storm. We watched them for a while, and got lots of pictures of the train and the local mascots (Silky-chan and the Gunma-ken mascot) and then we went out to a local train attraction: The Usui Pass Railway Park. I couldn’t find any English information about it, but it was a large park (or maybe museum - you had to pay a fee to get in) that had lots of train related stuff. Lots of older trains, you could go inside some of them, and lots of small trains and other things for kids to ride. Which all cost money, but that is to be expected I guess. We walked around and saw some cool old trains, and even rode on their gear-toothed rail car. There is a local track that goes up into the mountains that uses a gear toothed rail apparently - there is a long hiking path that takes you to some scenic spots on it - and the place is a bit famous for that I think.

After our time in the train park, we went to get lunch at a place that has been doing Station lunch boxes for the longest amount of time in Japan - 150 years or so. They have a special lunch box called the "Kamomeshi" that was pretty good! The place was called Onogiya I think.

We took the steam engine back to Takasaki, but before the train left there was another performance by a local high school Taiko group. The steam train only runs on weekends, and each time it comes there are different groups doing things. The ones that were announced on the board were all Taiko groups, and sometimes there would be those local characters, or maybe not.

From Takasaki we took a local train back to Isobe. Apparently Isobe is the place where the Onsen mark was popularized. We had a nice dip in the Onsen before dinner, and played some card cames (Sushi Go and Uno) before having dinner and retiring for the night.

In the morning, we had a nice breakfast at the Onsen, and then took the train back to Tokyo. That means catching the once-an-hour local train from Isobe, and then transfering at Takasaki to the Shinkansen for Tokyo. We again rode on the E4 series, but this time it was a single eight car train instead of two of them connected together. We had non-reserved seating this time, which meant that we sat on the bottom floor of the train. You have very little view from the bottom floor - you mostly just see the wall of the Shinkansen track, and when you pull into the station you are literally at level with the platform. It is a bit surreal watching people’s shoes walk by.

We then took the usual train route home from Tokyo station, made it back in time for a leisurely afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and had a nice dinner with them. I got a cake at the local cake shop, and we did the Happy Birthday thing. All things considered, quite a success!

2017.11 Trip to Korea

When we were visiting New York over the summer, I met with lots of friends. While we were having dinner with Lena, a good friend of mine from grad school, she mentioned that she and her family would be going to Korea in November for a kind of Thanksgiving. Since Korea is so close to Japan - it is less than a three hour flight - and we haven't done much travel close to Japan, I made tentative plans to fly out to Korea so we could meet then.

We actually did make the plans, and spent about four days in Korea. We had lots of great food, although not many food pictures made the cut here. The first free day we had - a full Sunday - we headed out to Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was really nice. There were volunteer college students (I think? Maybe they were high school students?) giving tours in English, and our guide was very nice. She gave us some of the historical background on the palace, which of course I have promptly forgotten. The grounds of the palace are really nice.

After the tour and walking around, we went to a local place for lunch that has well-known dumplings of some kind. It was very nice. On the walk back to the subway we passed the Palace again, and were just in time for the changing of the guard, so we got some pictures and videos of that too. Very colorful, super neat.

We went to see a play called "Nanta" while we were there. It is a kind of action comedy play where the cast uses physicality to convey things to the audience, and they don't have many lines so you can enjoy the play without regards to language. The play was very funny. I enjoyed it a lot, and our five year old son thought it was hilarious. I definitely recommend checking this play out if you have kids.

We were able to meet my friends Lena, Ben, and their newborn for lunch, which was great. We had a really delicious Korean BBQ lunch at a relaxed pace. Afterwards, we headed to the North Seoul Tower. I think it probably has a more official name, but it is a tower overlooking the city, and has great views. They were doing a collaboration with Disney for Mickey Mouse's birthday apparently, which Lisa liked. We bought some postcards at the shop, and were able to mail them off from the tower itself, which was fun. We rode a cable car to and from the tower, which Alan enjoyed. There was also a strange elevator that traveled on a rail more like a train than an elevator which was also pretty cool. Otherwise we spent a lot of time eating lots of different Korean food. It was really good! I wasn't a big fan of the squid that was still moving around while you are it, but otherwise quite nice. For some reason there are coffee shops all over the place in Seoul. I couldn't believe how many Starbucks there were. It was really fun taking a short trip to a nearby country though, so I'll see if we can't try to do more of that kind of travel in the future.

2017.10 October (work) trip to Taiwan

In mid-October, 2017, I took a trip to Taiwan for work. We left on a Friday afternoon, I worked Saturday through Monday, and we left on a Tuesday. While I was doing work stuff, Lisa and Alan went around Taiwan and did some fun sightseeing stuff. I got to look at the pictures afterwards - I wanted to back them up on a machine locally, and then upload them to Amazon Drive Photos, which is where I back up all out pictures. So I'm seeing a lot of these things for the first time myself.

Basically, while we were there we ate some good food - I really enjoyed the dumplings and the fried rice, I'm not as sure what else Lisa and Alan were eating - and Lisa and Alan took some trains and went around to different places. They found a Zoo, and had a fun time putting together a paper lantern that they launched into the air. It was raining almost the entire time that we were there unfortunately, but Lisa and Alan made a go of it. I think they had a good time, and it was interesting visiting another country for a short period of time. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been working the whole time!

Tokyo's Fighter's Crossover -Akihabara- 100th Anniversary 2-2 Team Tournament

-Fighter's Crossover- Akihabara is a weekly gathering, usually on Wednesday, at Akihabara's E-sports Square for Street Fighter V players. It is organized by Kagechhi, and this weekend he ran two tournaments celebrating having held 100 of these locals.

While most people are watching Canada Cup, I thought it would be fun to write up a little about this more local street fighter action.

First, an overall summary of what happened. On Saturday, Kagecchi ran a 2-2 team tournament. There were 48 teams for a total of 96 people. It was a single elimination tournament, Waseda-style, 6 pools. Winner of each pool goes to the top 8, with two more teams coming from a playoff between the remaining 42 teams. The overall winner was the "Million God" team of Kin-devu's Zeku and Suiha's Chun-Li.

If you want to check out all the teams check Kagecchi's blog post.
This highlight from team Power Harrassment and the 3rd Generation E-sports brothers is pretty cool (<1 minute.) You can watch the entire 6 hour team tournament here.

I'll call our a few teams I thought were interesting.

UltimateJohn: Vanau (Boxer) and Takeuchi John (Rashid) lost in round 2 of pool 2.
The "Anti-Nauman team" had Fumity (Akuma) and Anman (Urien) come out of Pool 1.
Pool 5 had "Team Guilty" with Yossan (Juri) and Machbo (Necali) lose out in round 2 to pool winner "Power Harrassment" Noguchi (Guile) and Nanai (Dictator).
Pool 6 had team "All 1 Ed" with DNG Tachikawa (Ed) and tool (Ed).
It also had team "New Skills" with Kichi pa-mu (Zangief) and EmuEmu (Zangief).

RAGE Volume 4 grand finals

This weekend (July 10th, 2017) was the RAGE e-sports Street Fighter V grand finals. I didn't have a chance to go, but am watching it afterwards on openrec.tv. I thought I would keep some notes as I watch the archived video. You can sign up for a free openrec.tv account easily enough, and a free account is able to watch archived videos once (seems strange that they only let you watch once, but that is enough for me.)

When I checked out the live stream, they had an English and a Japanese version, but I'm watching the Japanese version just for fun. Check the videos portion of the rage-esports account if you want to watch too.

They said this tournament (which has spanned a few weekends already) has the highest payout of all domestic Japanese tournaments. If you assume 100yen to the dollar (close enough, but it is actually a bit more) then they are paying out over the top 8 finishers, $20,000 for 1st (plus a Tag Heuer watch), $5000 for 2nd, $1500 for 3rd and 4th, and $500 for 5th through 8th.

By the way, in Japan none of the local weeklies have any sort of payout, since it would be viewed as gambling here and runs afoul of some laws.

I really like the production values here - very nice produced interviews before the matchups where they talk about their character, what they are doing, and a bit about their opponent. I didn't know much about Ponzaman or Mishie so that was cool to see.

In Momochi's introduction I love how he explained that he wants to be the strongest in Japan, and since Daigo uses Ryu and he wants to beat him, he thought using Ryu's rival Ken would be a good idea. And he thinks Ken looks cool.

Overall results, for those who are curious:

1. GRPT|Fuudo (R. Mika)
2. AW|Nemo (Urien)
3. GRPT|Haitani (Necalli)
4. DNG|Itabashi Zangief (Zangief)
5. Kichipa-mu (Zangief)
5. Mishie (Laura)
7. FOX|Momochi (Ken)
7. Ponzaman (Rashid)

Tokyo Offline Party 5

A few months back I went to Tokyo Offline Party 4. Tokyo Offline Party 5 was this weekend, and I wanted to go, but was unable to due to family obligations.

What is Tokyo Offline Party? It is an event run by Buttonmashers and Shinobism, Momochi and Chocoblanka's company. Tokyo Offline Party 5 had a 3 on3 Street Fighter V tournament, and might have had some other stuff going on as well - there was a Hearthstone tournament at Tokyo Offline Party 4.

Chocoblanka posted up a few pics on twitter, this one talking about how they partnered with Red Bull and were able to use Red Bull hall in Shibuya for the event. She seems to be pretty happy about how there was room for casual setups, and nice sofas to relax in. She also talks about a casual setup for ladies only which is a cool idea, and I think they ran a ladies only side tournament that she was in. I didn't see results for it though.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to look through the results and talk a bit about who as there. The main stream was on momochoco's channel, and the sub stream was on the shinobism channel.

The overall winner was "Wonder Project J" from block P with duke (Urien), Majorboy (Kolin), and ty_ty (Dictator). I'll run down the winner of each block, and any other notable players I know.

Block A was won by the group "タイステ星" which I guess is short for Taito Station Stars, referencing an arcade. The group consists of Alienware's Nemo (Urien), inco (Birdie), and Nishikin (Necali.)

Block B was won by "Power of Darkside" with Initial Kyousou (Laura), Mizuha (Chun-Li), and MOV (Chun-Li).

Block C was won by "Trashbonbi Style" with trashbox (Birdie), bonbi (Kolin), and Shiki (Ibuki).

Block D was won by "Mimorin's Bodyguards" with Gafro (Boxer), Mishie (Laura), and Oremo (Ibuki).

Block E was won by "The Young'uns" with Nauman (Ken), John Takeuchi (Rasheed), and Haitani (Necali). Nauman was joking on Twitter that Haitani said he would totally join the young kids teams, and he did.

Block F was won by "GunMaruGuchi -Revenge-" with Gunfight (Alex), Marko (Karin), UGPs Mizuguchi (Urien).

Block G was won by "Ponpoime" with Ponzaman (Rasheed), oppoi (Ibuki), and Harumy (Ibuki).

Block H was won by "Melty Blood Army" with Menma (Akuma), Garu (Boxer), Surume (Necali).

Block I was won by "Detective N suppressors" (?) with DNG Tachikawa (Ibuki), Fumiya (Boxer), Kobatake (Claw).

Block J was won by "Super Big Brothers" with PSK (Cammy), Kichipa-mu (Zangief), and Macchi (Cammy). Kichipa-mu is a really fun Zangief - he was at the recent KVO x TSB SFV team battle and got second place, largely based on his Zangief play.

Block K was won by "This players had been deleted." with Syogepi- (Ibuki), Tyler (Zangief), Deletemonster (Karin). This pool also had Crusher (Birdie)'s team with Nanai (Dicator) who are both quite good, and apparently a team with Echo Fox CoolGrayAJ.

Block L was won by "LP Fraud" with rintaro (Chun-Li), Takaroom (Karin), and sasajima (Rasheed). This block also had Shinobism's team of Momochi's pupils, Yamaguchi (Ken), Haku (Guile), and Johnny (Karin) who lost out early on.

Block M was won by "Blue League PR Dept." (?) with Deo (Laura), Agomi (Birdie), Azmx (Urien).

Block N was won by "These characters were balanced by kindergartners" with Kindevu (Urien), Vanauo (Boxer), Ando (Urien). There was a team with Reiketsu playing Cammy, so maybe not the well-known Claw Reiketsu.

Block O was won by "Pon chichi's" with Ponchi's (Claw), Bower (Kolin), and rinta (Akuma).

Block P was won by "Wonder Project J" with duke (Urien), Majorboy (Kolin), and ty_ty (Dictator). This pool also had a team with GameWith's Eita (Ken) but they didn't make it.

Tokyo Offline Party 4, and a bit Itabashi Zangief commentary

Last weekend I went to the Tokyo Offline Party 4 event at Haruimi Passenger Terminal. I didn't have a team, so joined two others who needed someone to fill out the 3 vs 3 Street Fighter V team event. I was matched with Eleichi and Ryo, two nice young gentlemen. I had played with Ryo once or twice at the Akihabara e-square events, so that was nice.

I had a lot of fun at the event. Our team (満足) lost in our first match, but we had a good time, so no problem.

I really enjoyed watching some of the Zangief play. Kichi pa-mu in particular was lots of fun to watch. I've been going through the stream a bit, and thought it would be neat to see what Itabashi Zangief had to say while he was on commentary.

https://www.twitch.tv/momochoco/v/113487600?t=05h38m01s Itabashi Zangief hops on the mike to talk about Zangief. Tokido shares commentary with him. I'd like to give a loose translation of what they are saying. Someone asked Itazan to hop on the mike because "Kichi pa-mu", a Zangief player, is currently on. Kichi pa-mu was super fun to watch - his Zangief play was a bit crazy, and was super exciting. Where this clip starts, he just beat Oosu's Karin and Fuudo's Mika from Fuudo's team (World of Tanks.)

I didn't get permission from anyone, and this is just a loose translation. I'm no fubarduck and don't translate in any professional capacity, so any mistakes are my own.

Tokido: I'm commenting now, but our other commentator, Kazunoko, has changed.
Itazan: I was summoned.
Tokido: Yeah, there's a Zangief match now. Just how strong do you think Zangief is now?
Itazan: (Laughing.) You think so?
Tokido: Just how strong do you think he is now?
Itazan: I've been using Zangief for a long time now. So. I think we might have an argument about this.
Tokido: I think he's super strong now.
Itazan: I've heard a lot of people think that. But yeah. A big thing is that Ryu, Ken, and Chun-Li got weaker. It's important that he can beat them now.
Tokido: It wasn't all that bad before but, on the other hand, now I think Guile is a real problem.
Itazan: Yeah, there are some new problems.
[The match with Chun-Li starts here.]
Tokido: I think he can do ok against Chun-Li.
Itazan: If he gets close. Ah, he got close. Yeah, that's it.
[Zangief won the round. There isn't any substantive commentary. Kichi pa-mu wins, and Tokido is called out to his match. Another person comes to do commentary.]
Person: Zangief's really strong.
Itazan: [Itazan smiles] Well, you know, he's ok. Kichi pa-mu was strong so he won. You should praise him.

Itazan had a few other things to say, but mostly just joking around. It's really fun listening to all these players (Tokido, Itabashi Zangief, Kazunoko, just seems like whoever is around that Momochi and Choco can press into service for a bit) comment. I've got to watch the final four with commentary - it was lots of fun in person but I want to hear what Momochi and Choco have to say.

Anyway, lots of fun. If you are a street fighter fan in Tokyo, definitely check out the Tokyo Offline Party when they run the next one.

Amazon cloud drive, photos, rclone, and odrive

Maybe a year ago or so (I forget when it was announced) Amazon introduced a new program for their Cloud Drive service. It was $12 a year for unlimited photo storage. I thought that was ridiculously cheap, so I signed up.

I had some complaints about the service, but nothing major. Mainly, there wasn't a native way to save my iPhoto library to the cloud. The service is only unlimited storage for photos, so you can't backup metadata, just your pictures. The web client is the only way to do uploads, and that would sometimes drop a file here or there. That meant I couldn't upload my entire library in one shot - I wouldn't know which photos were dropped. Also, the files are stored based on file name, which doesn't work well for me. In my iPhoto library I have lots of files with the same name from different camera. That doesn't matter in iPhoto, since it uses a file hierarchy and the names don't conflict, but Amazon Cloud Drive puts all photos in the root of the drive, so you can overwrite older files with the same name with newer files.

I eventually exported my iPhoto library to files with album names or dates or something in the filename, and slowly, over a few weeks, uploaded all the files. For $12 I was very happy with that.

Then I got the iPhone app, and photos were uploaded automatically. That is great!

A few weeks ago though, I got an email from Amazon saying that they are discontinuing the service. I wasn't surprised. It was a great deal for the price. They offered a chance to change to unlimited storage for $60 a year. That is also a great deal. So I switched to that.

I didn't do much for a while though, because I didn't have a good way to get files into Amazon Cloud Drive.

But then I found RClone, which bills itself as Rsync for the cloud. And it basically works like an rsync. Since I switched to unlimited storage, that can support directories. rclone worked great for me, I was able to back up a lot of personal data that should be offsite, and also do a real back-up of my iPhoto library. Nice. So I highly recommend the combination of rclone and Amazon Cloud Drive.

One thing that I would really like is the convenience of Dropbox to be able to keep files in sync. Amazon Cloud Drive is really just a big place to put files, but it doesn't have a way to do sync across files. There is a solution that can help with that though: odrive. odrive is a service that lets you add cloud storage providers (Amazon, Google, Dropbox, and others) and then it will manage those files for you. It allows for sync on top of the services that it supports. So by installing the odrive client on my machines, I now have an easy way to sync files between those machines. Another great thing about odrive is that it doesn't download everything. I have 172GB in my Amazon Cloud Drive right now, and I don't have that much space on my machines. At any given time I only want to work with a small set of files. odrive will create placeholder files and only downloads things as you need them. So I can set up one folder that I am currently working with as actively synced, and the rest of the cloud drive doesn't take any space on my machine. It is very nice.

The free client doesn't automatically keep a folder in sync, so while placeholder files will show up, I might have to click on them to download the files, but that isn't a big problem with my workflow. The free client also might only support one or two accounts, but since I only need one account, that is fine by me.

I still have some complaints about Amazon Cloud Drive - mostly that the pictures are dumped into the root folder, so I have maybe a hundred thousand files in there, but otherwise I'm very happy with the combination of Amazon Cloud Drive, rclone, and odrive working together. Check it out!

Family trip to Kobe

Friday, 2016-09-09: Arrival in Japan

On September 9th, my father, sister, and her two children arrived in Tokyo for a two week visit. It is rare for family to come all the way to Tokyo, but my dad is going to the International Semiconductor Laser Conference and it is held in Kobe, Japan. Alana and her kids were able to come with him, so we're having a kind of family reunion in Japan!

Since dad is going to Kobe, the whole family will come with him for the first few days. They arrived on Friday night, and L. graciously went to pick them up in our mini van. By the time they arrived back at our place, I had picked up Alan and finished with the day care parent-teacher conference. We all sat down at about 18:30 and I re-heated some Costco pizza. I had also ordered two rental futons, and we were able to lay out half of the living room as a large sleeping area. Our visitors fell asleep almost immediately, which was great, because the following day would be a big travel day.

Saturday, 2016-09-10: From Tokyo to Kobe

We planned to take the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kobe. Alana and Dad both bought JR Rail Passes for a week, and our kids (Alan 4, Aurelia 2, and Scout 5) are young enough to not need a seat; they can ride on an adult's lap. There was a 9:10 train that we could ride. We did have one complication: the plan was to stop in Nagoya for lunch to meet family friends. I had arranged all of that, and purchased non-reserved tickets for my wife and I, so all we had to do was get to Shinagawa station sufficiently early to exchange our JR rail passes and catch the train.

There is a bus stop right near our house that takes us to Shinagawa station, so we caught that at about 8:10, and got to Shinagawa station at about 8:25 or so. Unfortunately, the JR Rail Pass voucher exchange doesn't open until 9am at Shinagawa station! So after all our planning to get there early, we did a lot of waiting. Also, I didn't remember, but the JR Rail Pass only allows you access to the Hikari and Kodama trains, not the fastest (and most frequent!) Nozomi trains. The Hikari train that would get us to Nagoya in time for our lunch was sold out of reserved seats, so we just had to take our luck on non-reserved seating.

We were able to make it to the platform in time for the 9:11 Hikari train, so that was fine. But the train was at capacity, and the seven of us had to stand! And it was literally standing room only! The kids were able to find a little cubby hole in between two sets of seats, so that was great, but the rest of us stood. Luckily, about and hour and a bit after departure at Shizuoka station many people got off, and we secured seats. The Shinkansen is a really great travel experience. I highly recommend it.

We arrived at Nagoya in time for lunch, and had a very nice lunch with the Maeda family, Mr., Ms., and their daughter Ryoko were able to make it. After a relaxed lunch, we caught another Shinkansen on to Kobe, where there was a complimentary shuttle bus to our hotel, the Kobe Meriken Park Oriental Hotel. Interestingly, my dad came to this hotel in 1983 for the same conference with mom just when the hotel had first opened - they were still apparently finishing a few things up at the time! Thirty years later it is still a nice hotel.

We were all pretty tired, so we took a walk to the nearby mall and got dinner there. The complex there has a ferris wheel, and from the hotel you get a very nice view of it. The ferris wheel has a neat lighting system which they use to put on little shows every once in a while.

I also snuck out after Alan fell asleep and got a drink with my Twin Sister at the View Bar which has, as expected, a nice view. (Keep going down to see more text. And pictures.)

Sunday, 2016-09-11: Himeji Castle

On Sunday, we took an organized trip to Himeji Castle. It is about an hour away from Kobe by bus. We stopped first for lunch at a hotel, and did the standard Japanese buffet lunch thing. They had an ice cream machine, and real ice cream too, so everyone left happy.

The castle itself was great. The grounds of the castle is quite large, and we had a long walk to get there from the parking lot, but it was a very pretty walk. The castle itself has six levels, and very steep stairs up each level. The interior itself doesn't have much in the way of exhibits or history to see, but it is all very old. The wood is worn completely smooth. Alan really enjoyed having us pull him along the floor, skiing style. There is a nice model of the grounds on the first floor, and a few other things scattered around, but as you ascend the floors get smaller and smaller. I'm actually really curious about how the castle was itself used on a day to day basis back three hundred years ago. Did the Shogun live at the top? It is fairly difficult to access!

The crowd was pretty heavily, and we actually got split up into a few groups as we went. Lisa, Alan, and I arrived at the top and there is a small temple there. We made a small donation and then headed down. Going down takes a while too - the stairs are no less steep.

On the bus ride home, Alan fell asleep on his cousin's shoulder. Lisa and I went to the Sogo department store and got some Onigiri for dinner. Not the super cute Hello Kitty inari-zushi! Alana and dad at the stuff we got them, and then Lisa, Alan, and I decided to try the super fancy restaurant at the top of the hotel that specializes in Steak. In particular, Kobe Beef. The three of us went up, and had a very nice dinner on the Teppan-yaki grill with a personal chef. The dinner was cooked in front of us, and our Chef was very nice. He was kind to Alan, and made a special large fire presentation for him. The vegetables were great, and the beef was delicious. It was very tender, and just melted in my mouth. It was great with the salts, and there were also some sauces (Ponzu, Soy Sauce, and Wasabi) if you preferred those. The view from the restaurant was very nice, with a nice view of the bay and boats. After cooking the meat, the chef cooked up some delicious garlic rice. I was super stuffed from the earlier lunch buffet, but I finished all the meat. And a good portion of the garlic rice, but not all of it. I was sad to leave it, but thought that was the smarter choice for the evening.