nica you gotta qualify for sbo
or do you mean to just go and watch?
well go to SBO to watch mostly but ATTEMPT to enter the last chance quals if its held there like it was this year
Thanks for the kind words! We did have an amazing time! Yeah I would cut away from the footage because I probably shouldn’t have even been recording what I was recording. Plus I figured, you can see 3s footage anywhere, I wanted to show more of our experiences. I’m totally looking forward to the DVD too.
We stayed at the Hotel Sunroute Plaza in Shinjuku, which I felt was pretty nice. You can buy tix at the door. I believe they were $20 but I’m not sure.
As for a cell phone, you can rent them at the airport like we did for 300yen ($3) per day and 60 cents per minute. Or I think if your phone is unlocked you can just buy a prepaid sim and that will work.
Your questions have sparked a blog post idea about a first timer’s trip to Japan, so if anybody has more questions about going to Japan for the first time to SBO, please post them here!
how many people speak english in japan?
does the japanese poontang toss themselves and white dudes with large american penis?
Point out some of your favorite hot spots in japan. I would love to go next year.
lol ul some more podcasts 
i got flare for japan stories, and better youtubes!
so im assuming that Shinjuku is a good place to start for first timers?
now about traveling to arcades…i noticed you guys took the train from place to place…what would i need in order to do that…and what are some good places to go to (names of the areas would be friggin awesome :tup:)
There are a lot of nice/cheap places to stay in Asakusa too, and it’s in a nice location to take the subway to where ever you’d like to go in Tokyo (especially Shibuya).
ima start writing this stuff down lol :tup:
Stay in Shinjuku. Thats the main piece of advice I can offer to someone going first time.
The place gets very hot so be prepared for that.
Very hard to get around if you don’t have someone with you that speaks Japanese since I hardly found anyone there who spoke English.
Be somewhat discrete when recording footage in arcades. Some arcades don’t allow it, but you can play dumb until they tell you to stop…
i got another…where can i get a train pass…i saw somewhere saying that ima need a train pass in order to get from place to place
i hope these questions arent a bother :-\
Train pass? Not sure. What we did was buy tickets before every journey. Since we never really made more than 2 or 3 train journeys per day, the expense was absolutely minimal. The train system there is pretty easy to understand - its a lot like the London Underground system if you’ve ever used it. You basically look at the map and find your destination and its usually labelled with how much the fare will be, say for example 100 yen. You then use the ticket machine to buy a 100 yen ticket.
You may get confused the first or second time, but after that its REALLY easy. The only possible problem you will have is finding your destination station on the map (that map is HUGE).
EDIT - there MIGHT be rare occasions where you can’t get a direct ticket to wherever you are going. I highly doubt you’ll encounter this, but if you do, I’m sure the people will give you instructions on how to get there.
Getting to a station in Tokyo is pretty easy. Walking out and finding the place you are trying to get to - THATS the hard part.
i see…thanks a bunch yo…your rly helpin me out on this stuff
i thought i wouldve needed a train pass but i guess i was wrong…any good locations to look out for when taking the train…im tryin to head to vision, newton, mikado, and sakura
Those are the top arcades from what I hear. I haven’t been to vision unfortunately.
Only other arcades I can remember is Sega Park in Shibuya.
And one more is the arcade where I played Kuroda. I honestly don’t know what its called or where it is. All I know is that there was a massive freeplay night going on and there quite a few players there. I hope that isn’t game Sakura, cos I thought Sakura was the arcade where I played Nuki, Ino etc.
Best bet is to link up with locals or with players who are already in touch with locals. They always know which arcade to go to on which night.
haha thats exactly why i want to go…well im assuming where ever the kuroda DVDs are being sold ill be able to find some strong players being that kuroda has came and gone…i saw a video of him at Sakura and figure i might catch him there…its gonna be a new thing for me being that i can just sit down and play anyone…i just hope i wont lose TOO much money while over there
You wont lose money at the arcade no matter how much you lose. Its just some unexplained rule.
You lose money with all your shopping :mad:
Truth.
hey ryan could you maybe add some info on types of food to eat while there? i saw some food that looked really good on your vids and on the sbo feed. authentic jap food=gdlk :karate:
nica, you were planning to go around sbo time next year right? i’m trying to play a trip out there myself for around that time.
yeah me and 2 of my friends are plannin to go around SBO time…whether they have 3s or not at the tournament im still goin to japan in general…Chi-Rithy just told me yesterday that he and a friend are plannin to go as well
i guess all the kuroda hype and MOV’s broken hand FTW is bringin in the foreigners lol
i dont want to do anything dumb over there being its my first time…so thats why im asking so many questions…thanks to Naz and Ryan for givin some info
i dont know if anyone has touched on this yet, but what’s the best way to get airplane tickets? should i start looking now, or are the sbo airline deals the best way to go?