Tokyo 2010

(For the full photo album check out here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162793&id=545686096&page=7)

Was quite busy with other stuff after my return, and hence this post was delayed...

Still, I want to write something about my trip to Japan this time.

Some of you may know, but I have always considered Japan as "home".

In fact, to me Japan is more like my hometown than China, even though most of my relatives are in China.

Therefore, the moment I reached Japan, everything looked familiar to me.

The people, the buildings, the trains...

Everything was so nostalgic.

It almost made me forget my objectives of coming here...

However, since such a long time has passed since I've last been here, there were some things I was not familiar with. An example is the train system. In Tokyo itself has tens of different train lines, and there are so many different companies. Other than the trains there's also the subway called Tokyo Metro which operates the same but using different stations. It's kind of confusing unless you are very used to it... In fact on the first day when we reached Tokyo, it took us about 3 hours to get to Ginza from Narita...

The hotel was called Hotel Monterey Ginza. Didn't look especially good on the outside, but the rooms where nice. They also had LAN cables, which made my laptop useful. Too bad I forgot to bring the cable to transfer photos from my Canny...

The streets of Ginza were quite new to me, as I've never been there before. I heard that that this is the most expensive region in Tokyo, and from the price tags in shops I could see that. Still there were some shops that were affordable, like UNIQLO.

After the Opening Ceremony, every one of the 16 players were required to go up and do a self introduction and show "determination". I wasn't exactly sure what show "determination" meant, as I also didn't hear the Japanese part, but well, that wasn't very important. In fact this is the first overseas competition I've attended where everybody had to do self-intro. I think it's a good idea, but it's only achievable in this kind of small competitions.

Honestly, before seeing the participants list, I still thought that maybe I could achieve good results. But after the opening ceremony my confidence was totally gone... I could only hope for good luck.

Competition venue was at an Internet Forum nearby. Nice, comfortable environment. They even assigned people to record down each and every game. Maybe because there weren't enough laptops, some of them had to record down manually on paper. Quite a hard work for them...

My first opponent was Wang Zhuo from China. Apparently she was one of the girls who was aiming to be a professional but couldn't. She was once training in Wuhan for sometime, and claimed to know Jerry. Indeed she was very strong, but not the type that I would lose straight away. In fact I think this was the highest quality game among all the 4 games. I was even leading at one point. But after mid-game, I made a wrong move, and couldn't catch up no matter what.

They provided us Bento for lunch. I just like this kind of Bentos. They are for you to eat outside your home, and yet so many things are packed inside. And they taste good! I must say Bentos in Japan are the best.

Second opponent was Nuttakrit from Thailand. This game wasn't very good but I had many chances of winning. In the end because of the byo-yomi I couldn't see properly and made a serious mistake and lost. 2 straight losses... I didn't expect my results to be so bad.

Night time was free time, and we could dine at whatever place we wanted with 1500 yen. Sadly, it was very difficult to find a restaurant cheaper than 1500 yen per person... But it's ok. In the end we went to this Shabu Shabu restaurant where they have free flow of meat and vegetables for 90 minutes, and each person only has to pay 2000 yen. Not bad.

My 3rd game was the most meaningless game. It was against Mile, whom I could play against anytime in Singapore... 4th game was against Emil from Mexico. Although I won both of these games, the content wasn't very good... Seems like I could only give my 100% in my first game...

4 games and that's the end. In the last round, Meng Xiao Long from China beat Seo Yu Tae from Korea and claimed champion. Lai Yu-Cheng from Taiwan got 3rd. Even though I think it would be better if there were more games, but still it was a good experience.

After the closing ceremony, we had the "drinking party". The phrase made me think that it would be held in places like a bar or pub, but it was actually in a normal restaurant where there were several tables to sit around. Then I remember, it was the 飲み会, which the Japanese always have after the completion of big events to celebrate. Indeed it was very fun, with many people drinking until they lost control of themselves. Yuri joined as well. Of course I remained sober. Some of us even went to Karaoke after the party. It was such a great time. This is what I like about Japan. =)

Next day was sightseeing. Places we went include Tokyo Tower, Asakusa temple, and Akihabara. Didn't buy a lot of stuff, since I would be staying in Japan for a few more days. Akihabara was really the home of Otaku. They brought us to a maid cafe. They maids there really greeted us as if we were their masters. Too bad there were only 2 of them, photos were prohibited, and they also didn't do any special stuff...

After Akihabara some of us went to Karaoke again. Since it was the last time, everybody didn't seem to want to go back to hotel so early. Some even went to a pub! While some people just stayed at the hotel to play Go until very late. Either way we all didn't want to say Sayonara just like that.

Because I woke up quite late on the last day, I didn't get to see a lot of players before they left, and hence couldn't get their contacts. What a pity. Luckily I still get the contacts of the remaining players and the organisers. I have to give a big thanks to the organisers. If not for them, this even wouldn't have been possible. Hope to see them again next year.

And next year, I will do better.

That's the end for the competition part.

Now for the free-loader part.

Once again I took the wrong train when going to Yuri's house. Her house was in Itabashi, and it was quite far from the station. But both the house and my room was quite big. Almost comparable to a hotel room. Took a bit of rest, and went out to Harajuku and Shibuya that night. The Harajuku station looked very familiar. I remember going there every week with my parents for some gathering. Shibuya on the other hand wasn't really in my memories. Spent some time in a club called Gas Panic, before going back home.

That night, outside Itabashi station, I happened to see a singer called Aeka giving a street live performance. She was just playing the electric piano and singing, but her voice of really beautiful. And the songs were really nice too. Didn't know such a singer existed! I immediately bought her album on the spot, and was lucky to get a signature from her as well. I will definitely support her in the future! Those who are interested can check out this website: http://aeka-web.com/pc/index.html

Next day Yuri brought me to Keiou University. They were having some sort of invitational competition between Keiou and Ensei University in Korea. The Korean players flew all the way from Korea. Last year the Japanese players went to Korea. It was quite a big scale event. It would be nice if Singapore universities could organise this kind of event also, but I don't think it's possible...

Because I couldn't play I was just walking around taking pictures. The level of the games were also quite high. Yuri played the same person as when she played 2 years ago. All the other players were very serious in their games also.

At night went drinking with 2 of Yuri's friends. One of them is the famous Takao Natsuko, the wife of Takao Shinji. She was really a very nice person with good character. She also taught me a lot about...life. I really admire the couple and the trust between them.

The next day we had Shabu Shabu party at Yuri's house. Before that in the afternoon I went Shibuya again to shop around, but couldn't find anything much. Having Shabu Shabu at home was totally different from having it outside. With 3 other friends of Yuri we had a nice time eating, drinking and playing Go.

The rest of the days I was more or less on my own. Most of the time was spent shopping around at Akihabara or Shibuya. I also visited Nihon Kiin once. Bought quite a lot of books there. Saw a lot of people playing too, though most of them were uncles. Both the inside and outside reminded me of what I saw in the manga Hikaru No Go. It was exactly the same, even the station entrance outside.

Yuri left on the 9th while I left on the 10th. Time was too short, hence there were many places I wanted to go but couldn't go. Yuri told me about a Go Salon called Shuusaku in Shinjuku, but when I went there I forgot totally about it, so didn't go... But one good thing is that it snowed on my last night in Tokyo. Quite romantic, but too bad there wasn't anyone to share with me (saw this sentence in someone's status...). But still, it was nice to see snow after so many years. Maybe it's the best gift I got from Japan.

10th March. Time to leave. I really wanted to stay longer, but it's hard to change the air ticket. And because I woke up quite late, by the time I woke up all the snow were gone... Well, at least I've seen it. Took Narita Express and got to airport quite fast. Did some shopping before boarding the plane. Ah, time to leave this place and get back to life...

For these period of time, I really must thank Yuri and his parents for providing me such a good accommodation. Especially Yuri, who brought me around even though she was busy taking care of her child.

Japan.

Goodbye.

I will definitely come again.