cap02

I moved to Yokohama, Japan in March of 2008 and it’s been great so far. I was teaching in public schools and had huge summer break in 2008 and it was a blissful 2 months spent in WoW, karaoke bars, and the semi-clean beaches of Fujisawa. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember that I’m in Japan and I should go out and explore, but I’d like to think that I have a pretty sizeable social life despite being a WoW player.

Anyway, while in a small bar in Shibuya, Tokyo about a month ago I was chatting up a group of new friends at the table next to me. It’s something that happens pretty often as a foreigner in Japan. It was pretty loud so I had to raise my voice a bit. When asked what sports I like or play, I responded that I’m not really a fan of sports but rather prefer music and video games, namely World Of Warcraft. At this point a very tall fellow foreigner at the next table stared at me and just said “What?”

I fully expect to hear the litany of the usual things people make fun of WoW for but instead it turns out that he was a Blizzard-enthusiast as well. Although he didn’t play World Of Warcraft exactly, he still was a avid player of Warcraft III. I never got a chance to play it and don’t know much about it but as I understand it it’s quite an old RTS-style game. Anyway, we had a good conversation since he still knew the basics of the various races and lore associated with WoW. As it turns out his hometown is quite close to mine in America and we have the same initials and last name. Pretty damn strange if you ask me. Only in Japan.

There was only one other instance that I have met a fellow WoW player in real life and surprisingly it was also in Japan. While walking around with some friends we were stopped by some fresh off the boat military guys looking for a good bar to go to so we all went together. As it turns out one of them was an avid WoW player, Warlock, and we spent the whole time nerding out about classes, imps, instances, etc. I’m not sure what he’s up to these days but it was great time to have some real life conversation about something that takes up so much of my time, yet all of my friends hate.

Have you had any odd or awesome WoW-related experiences? Let me know in the comment section.

Brad

For the faction my character is associated with!