The Story of My Picture with SUDA-51

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I met SUDA51?

It was quite an exciting day. I meant to make a post and tell you guys about it while I was still in Japan but it got lost in my last week there and the past few weeks after getting back. But I still remember it clear as yesterday. These are just the kind of things that happen to us at 4Player Podcast and the ways that somehow, things turn out alright.

During my 2 months in Japan, I had sent out a handful of e-mails to a few choice companies ask if they're be willing to let me stop by their offices and poke around, take a few pictures, or maybe take some video. One of the companies that gave me the green light turned out to be one of my favorite game developers, creating such games as Killer 7, Contact, and the No More Heroes franchise. So of course being a fan, I was thrilled just to be able to visit the offices. But on top of that, they offered me time to talk to the CEO and man behind the games himself, SUDA-51. This was a complete surprise and never did I think I would be able to have a chat with someone who's games I had played and admired so greatly. Little did I know, it wasn't that easy.

First off, I had problems with hotels. The last week I spent in Japan I was in Tokyo without a place to stay. I ended up jumping from hotel to friends place to hotel. Each day I would have to pack all my things assuming that I wasn't going to have a room that night. That is how I woke up the morning of my Grasshopper appointment.

I packed all my things that morning and was about to walk out the door when a member of the hotel staff informed me that a room had just opened up. My meeting was at 1 PM, check out was at 10 AM so I had planned to bring my luggage to a friend place. Now I had all this extra time. So I hung around the hotel lobby not having my room prepared yet. I surfed the web reading a few One Piece comics for inspiration. I noticed later that I was wearing a One Piece shirt that day as well. I left at around 11:30 thinking I had plenty of time on what would be only a thirty minute train ride.

Well, for some reason that day the JR from Asakusabashi to Shinjuku had a mechanical problem. The train stood still only two stations from where I started. I tried to get from the train station attendant, speaking in my poor Japanese, what had happened. "Accident," he said. I wasn't sure what that meant but I was able to tell him that I needed to get to Nishi-Shinjuku Station, which he told me the quickest route and which lines to take.

Off I went walking to the closest Tokyo Metro Station at a brisk pace but not running, still a little worried. I took the correct line and found the station I was looking for on the subway map. Twenty minutes later I arrive and got off the subway at Shinjuku-Nishi Station. I had a mental map of where the building was. I remember convenience stores that I was going use as landmarks to find this building. They were exactly as on the map except no building. I asked a few police officers and few business men in the area, none of them knew that building. In America, if I were to ask the name of a large twenty floor office building, you'd think they'd have an idea of where it was. Not in Japan. There it's all about having the address and possibly calling the office when you're in the area to have them direct you. Oh yeah, and a map too but seeing as how I had no printer, that wasn't a possibility.

I wandered around for another twenty minutes with my laptop out trying to find a wifi connection to look up a map but no luck. Just then I stumbled upon a small office with the words "Foreign Language Department" written on the sign. I intruded in order to borrow a computer. There was this one British guys who obliged. I looked up the address and scribbled it down on my paper. One of the secretaries politely asked if she could look at the address. She very nicely told me I was in the wrong area.

I was completely floored. I was explained to that I was at Shinjuku-nishi when I was supposed to be at Nishi-Shinjuku. Nishi in Japanese means West. How the fuck was I supposed to know there was a South Shinjuku and a Shinjuku South? And I swear the subway line I got on did not have both stations or I would have noticed. Here I was fifteen minutes left before my appointment about 5 blocks away and still no idea which direction I needed to go...

To Be Continued,
David