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My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 2:41 am
by ActiveAero
It has been a while since I've posted here, which is odd considering it is one of my favorite forums, but I figured I'd share a pretty amazing story.

This past year I finally got up the nerve to travel overseas after finding a cheap plane ticket to Tokyo. I had been wanting to go for a while but kept making excuses so one night I just told myself "well hell if I buy the ticket I'll have to go" so that is exactly what I did lol. To make it even more adventurous I hopped on the plane with only a single back pack, no hotel reservation and nearly zero Japanese language ability. If I was going to do Tokyo I wanted to make sure I got the full effect by being completely out of my comfort zone. It was definitely the right choice.

So I finally arrive in Narita, figure out how to get a train ticket into Tokyo, and made my way into Shinjuku station just as evening was approaching. After a few hours of stumbling around in amazement I found a tiny little business hotel near Kabukicho (I know, I know, haha) to set my stuff down in so that I could go wandering the streets for the rest of the night.

Thankfully right by my hotel was this amazing little bar district. I believe the area is known as the Golden Gai. All of the bars were EXTREMELY tiny, as in just a few seats each with most being no more than maybe 10-12ft wide. Well I could definitely tell that it wasn't exactly a Gaijin friendly area which is understandable. If your bar is that small you obviously cater to a very select clientèle of regulars and don't want some newbie hogging valuable seats.

Well after stumbling around a bit I finally find a place that will let me slip inside so I plop myself down beside a few Japanese gentlemen. A few beers later and the conversations begin. They were all pretty big video game nuts so we hit it off right from the start. After some round about talk they pinned me down and asked me what my favorite game was. Not thinking about it too much I blurted out "Snatcher for the Sega...er I mean Mega CD". To my amazement all three of them (the two gentlemen I was closest to and the bar tender) let out a gasp of delighted surprise and then it happened:

Bartender: "Ah, that is one of Suda sans favorite games" .

Me: "?"

Bartender (motioning to the guy I've been sitting beside the entire night: "Suda likes that game"

Guy I've been sitting beside: "Yes, good game"

Me: *Jaw hits the floor*

Yes ladies in gentlemen on my first night out, on my first overseas trip in my entire life, in the first bar I find myself in, with absolutely NO planning whatsoever in a metro area containing 35 million people I wind up, unknowingly, drinking the night away beside Suda51. The other man beside him was one of his directors, Masahiro Yuki.

It gets better though. After Suda called it a night Yuki took a liking to me and told me to come back in a few nights so that is exactly what I did. Suda didn't show up this time but Yuki, myself, and the bartender ended up chatting the night away. After quizzing me for a bit on old school video game material they crowned me a true Japanese Otaku (lol) and after discussing it amongst themselves for a bit Yuki decided to take me to meet a few more of the gang to finish out the night.

Well we show up at another tiny bar only to plop myself down right beside none other than Kenji Kaido. Yes as in creator of Ico, Shadow of the Collosus, etc. Oddly enough even though he spoke hardly any English and me hardly any Japanese we hit it off and ended up getting hammered together until 5am in the morning while listening to 8 bit video game soundtracks lol. Kenji and myself were both Honda lovers having owned the exact same cars (Integra Type-R's) so we spent a lot of time "talking" about that.

So to sum things up it was the best couple of nights of my entire life x 1000000. The improbability of the event is so incredible that I still can't believe it actually happened.

And finally I leave you with the pics:

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Suda leaning out wearing his trade mark red jacket. Director Yuki on the mini-bull horn lol.

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Beside Kenji in that pic is a Square developer who remained quite mysterious. If you know who he is I'd love to know. He was really cool but really modest so I had this feeling that he might have been someone really important.


I've got a ton of other pics from Tokyo, which BTW is more mind blowing than you can imagine, so I might post those up in a bit if anyone is interested.

Re: Took a trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:40 am
by Henry Spencer
Dude, that is absolutely unbelievable! You met Suda and Kenji Kaido in one night? I bet you almost passed out from the awesomeness. Did you get any autographs? And how the hell did you understand them if they spoke no English and you spoke no Japanese?

Re: Took a trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 4:23 pm
by Artemio
That was an incredible experience man, congrats and please feel free to post more pictures. We'll love watching those.

Re: Took a trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 6:42 pm
by ActiveAero
Henry Spencer wrote:Dude, that is absolutely unbelievable! You met Suda and Kenji Kaido in one night? I bet you almost passed out from the awesomeness. Did you get any autographs? And how the hell did you understand them if they spoke no English and you spoke no Japanese?
Well Yuki actually spoke passable English and everyone seemed to know at least a little bit so there was a lot of group translation going on lol. I had MAYBE a 200-300 word Japanese vocabulary of generic tourist words and naturally am aware of some of the Japanese terminology for certain game systems, etc so that helped ever so slightly.

Oh and Kenji had a small little note pad and would actually sketch out things we were talking about lol. It was definitely a unique communication experience. You'll be surprised how much stuff you'll just pick up from context/body language regardless if you really under stand the words or not.

Here are a few more pics:

We actually had a button pressing speed competition, which I won, so they made me wear this hat lol.
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Their business cards. Don't worry the black marking was done in photo editing. I've actually got a better shot of the Grasshopper Man. cards but I can't find it at the moment.



After I got home this arrived at my doorstep a few weeks later:

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I've got a bunch of other general Tokyo pics. I made a picture thread a while back on another site so I want to try and find that to copy and paste from so maybe I'll have them up later tonight.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 7:02 pm
by Marc
An amazing encounter indeed! Congraturations. :)

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 7:13 pm
by slowbeef
Wow, that is really cool man. Congrats.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 10:04 pm
by megaclank3
That's awesome! You're lucky that you'd met him in a small place. :D

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:44 pm
by ActiveAero
Oh and since someone asked me in a PM if I asked about "Project S" well yes I did lol. At first they told me that it was just the radio drama but after a few beers Yuki confided in me that there was something very special planned for the future that I would be excited about. He wouldn't budge an inch though and I wasn't going to be rude.

In a later email he stated that the completion of their work on Fatal Frame would be the point that they would then start devoting a significant effort toward this other project.

That's honestly all I've got for now but I do keep in contact with him via email and he has always been good about responding. I haven't sent him anything in a few months so maybe I'll ask for an update.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 7:45 am
by Henry Spencer
Ahhh, so you learnt the art of interrogation then. Intoxicating them, sort of worked like a truth serum there. :mrgreen:

Regardless though, that's a really neat story, thanks for sharing.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 8:36 pm
by Dick Motorman
wow! Fucking awesome man! I've literally dreamt about stuff like this, incredible trip. Wow, just all I can say. :mrgreen:

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:25 am
by Cyan Garamonde
Wow...just wow. That's so awesome.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:13 am
by ActiveAero
The rest of the pics.


First sight of Japan from above.
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I'm here.
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Figuring out my train ticket.
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Finding my way at last.
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Busiest train station in the world.
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Train.
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Random street shots of Shinjuku and Shibuya.
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Small temple in Shinjuku
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Wandering around Akihabara Electric Town.
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Small soccer fields built on top of a plateau near Akihabara.
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Club Womb in Shibuya. I went with an awesome Belgium couple I met the night before.
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Chilling out in Harajuku on Sunday. Park picnics, bands, random crazy people, Japanese greasers, the Rockabilly club and plenty of cosplay kids.

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Temple in Harajuku.
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Temple wedding.
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I don't know it's name but I just nicknamed it the water temple ala Zelda.

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Imperial Palace outer grounds.
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[QUOTE=ActiveAero]Part 2:

More random street shots.

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One armed Gambit action figure I bought from some homeless looking dude. Talk about a random oddity lol.
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Two cars.
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Looking for a super secluded bar.
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Back at the bar a few days later along with some girls I had met.

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Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:35 am
by Dick Motorman
ActiveAero wrote: Image

I know I've seen the guy standing next to kenji before, I just cannot remember his name sore some reason.

also, awesome pics of tokyo.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:23 pm
by Marc
Those are some great photos.

Did you ask the bikers where you could find some sailors?

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:01 am
by 87th
That's amazing. As a massive Goichi Suda fan, I can't begin to tell you how jealous I am. I would have loved to have been in your place. Thanks for telling us all about it.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:35 am
by Ghost
Man, that is so incredible exciting.

I envy you.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:54 pm
by GirianSeed573
Jesus Christ! You are so lucky to even be near Suda without even knowing it!
And it turns out Project S is a radio play.
Wow! Again, that's just amazing!

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 4:18 pm
by metalrex
seems like you had a nice trip !

will you travel there again?

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:10 am
by TechNoir
>Last post: 2011
Come on, man.

Re: My trip to Tokyo........unbelievable encounter.

Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2020 5:05 am
by Jyonasan Inguramu
This story is incredible. The pics links are dead though, and I didn't have the chance to see them before.

Could anyone upload them somewhere or something?