« THE GRIND IN JAPAN: MI-KA-DO FEAT. RIKIMARU »
haunts | Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 10:48PM | in Japan, SBO, arcade, interviews, street fighter, street fighter 4, street fighter IV 
Most of you who follow this site are probably aware of our never ending quest to travel and level up in Street Fighter 4. First it was LA for Super Battle Opera Qualifiers at Denjin Arcade, then it was EVO in Las Vegas. Now we are taking it to the next level: travelling to Japan to grind it out at arcades such as BIG BOX, attending GODS GARDEN (console SFIV event featuring many top Japanese players) and finishing it off with Super Battle Opera. Thanks to our ridiculously fast internet connection at the Sunroute Hotel, I'll be updating this site roughly on a daily basis giving everyone the scoop on what's going down at the arcades here.
MI-KA-DO
After 10 hour flight and three hours finding our way to our hotel in Shinjuku, Magus1234, ThyAllMighty and myself finally settle in before heading out to Mi Ka Do arcade to meet up with Denjin Arcade players Let Blood Run and Pherai. We spend entirely too much money and time figuring out how the train works but once at Mi-Ka-Do we see other players such as Kim1234, Misterbean and Yuuki. It's nice to run with a squad in a foreign county -- hard to imagine doing this solo!
Strolling in, the main attraction at Mi-Ka-Do seems to be Street Fighter 3: Third Strike with a ton of top players such as Rikimaru, Boss, Momochi, Tokura, Youhei, Pierrot, Ruu, Roah and Veaou. I'm well past my prime in Third Strike so I am obviously out of my league, but it's still dope seeing so many of these players I used to endlessly watch on YouTube back in the day.
Not wanting to embarrass myself on the 3s machines, I make my way over to the Street Fighter 4 cabs and soon realize this is not the place for SF4 competition as I rack up a 9 win streak in no time. I'm surprised to be winning at all, fully expecting to get roasted big time -- I am in Japan after all. Apparently the main arcade in the area for SF4 comp is BIG BOX which is right around the corner, but we decide to check it out another day when we have more time.
After a couple more games, Pherai swings by and asks me to help him interview Rikimaru, a top Chun-Li player.
The remaining events of the night aren't really appropriate to post about on this blog (!!), but I'll be back in the next day or two with more updates!
haunts
Pherai from Denjin Arcade is updating http://www.denjinarcade.com/ on a dialy basis as well. Check it out!!
Reader Comments (10)
i just wanna say the interview is just AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!
please do more of jap players like that if possible and good luck!
needs more big box and less 3s!
also needs more andry. i have such a man-crush..
That's gotta be fun, looking forward to following your exploits. Good interview, you should def record food expeditions and the arcades itself if you can. Too bad we don't get to hear about the rest of the night from where the interview was headed at the end...
HEY GUYS! HAVE FUN!
MOV didn't even qualify for SBO! what happened!
Woot, good shit guys
Good luck out there!
...how the heck do you guys afford all this travel? o_O
ten bux says haunts forgot all about sf4 once he saw hella hype emitting from the vf5r cabs!
Great interview! More 3s please :) And good luck in Japan dude!