TADC Spoiler talk
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the only thing I still don’t really get is what the Blue AI was - did it just disappear, was it bubble, was it the Moon?
Lucas Combined Matchup Chart!!
Responses were from 27 players, including top Lucas players like Bubbs, Regalo, Nitox, denKOTA, Celestia, Big Lando, and more!!
Individual responses are in the replies if anyone is curious about those :)
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Read more: https://t.co/mXQygXU3mE
Well, in reality, Japanese people don’t usually react negatively or become suspicious of someone just because they say hello.
But when I was younger, before I had really gotten used to Western culture, if a complete stranger from overseas suddenly greeted me or started talking to me, my first reflexive thoughts were things like, “Do they need something from me? What do they want?” or “Are they trying to ask me for directions?” And depending on the situation, I might even think, “Wait, are they trying to sell me something?”
What felt even more different than the greeting itself was the difference in how people perceive “making eye contact.”
In Japan, eye contact can feel almost like an invasion of personal boundaries. Staring directly into someone’s eyes is often interpreted as “strong self-assertion,” “intimidation,” or even “glaring.” Especially when I was a student, if your eyes happened to meet even briefly with some unknown yankii from another school or another prefecture --- by yankii, I mean that Japanese delinquent-student type --- they could suddenly get angry and it could turn into trouble. So, through experience, you learn to be careful about situations where you stare directly into someone’s eyes.
When your eyes meet with a stranger, quickly looking away can actually be a kind of Japanese manners. It can mean, “I have no hostility toward you,” or “I’m not going to intrude into your private space.” It is a sort of kindness through non-interference. The difficult part is that it does not necessarily mean, “I’m hiding something,” or “I feel guilty, so I’m avoiding eye contact.”
In that sense, when people from overseas naturally make eye contact, smile, and say “Hiii!” I remember being surprised at the time that the eye contact and the smile seemed to come as a set. I even wondered the opposite: if someone is wearing a mask like many Japanese people do, then that smile no longer works, so what kind of gesture does it transform into? We Japanese basically complete the greeting by giving off a very subtle atmosphere while still wearing a mask.
Ah, this has almost nothing to do with greeting culture, but this story reminded me of something.
After I had become more familiar with Western culture, there was one incident that made me feel incredibly embarrassed.
As many of you know, after EVO started being held in Las Vegas, a large number of FGC people began gathering in Las Vegas for those few days.
By that time, from the moment I arrived at the airport, people would call out to me: “Hi Harada-san!” “Yo! Harada-san!” “Hello Harada-san!” Around the hotel, and even while waiting at traffic lights in the city, many people would approach me.
One time, I was away from the center of Las Vegas, having a meeting at a restaurant on the outskirts of town about a secret announcement-related matter. Then a waitress from a bar across the street came over with a tequila shot and said, “Um, a customer at the bar across the street wants to buy this for you. By the way, who are you?” That was a pretty funny moment.
During those strange few days in Las Vegas, the most common way people approached me was with requests for photos: “Can I take a picture with you?” “Can I get a selfie?” “Picture...”
One time, I was taking a photo with two sexy police models who would take commemorative photos with people for five or ten dollars. Then a line started forming. Both I and the two sexy police models thought, “Wow, a lot of customers are lining up.” But actually, they were fans waiting to take photos with me. So the two sexy police models ended up watching this situation where people kept taking commemorative photos with some Japanese ossan, and they looked completely weirded out, like, “Uh... who the hell is this old guy?”
So, with that kind of situation happening all over the city, one day I was walking around when a couple, a man and a woman, came up to me and said something like, “Um... picture...” So I thought, “Yes, of course,” and stood between the couple. Then I struck that fighting pose with my fists up.
The boyfriend’s face immediately clouded over, and the girlfriend burst out laughing. And I was just standing there like, “?”
Yes. Exactly as everyone is probably imagining. In that instant, I also realized, objectively, just how painfully stupid and ridiculous my action and pose must have looked.
They had only wanted me to take a photo of the two of them.
But instead, what happened from their point of view was: “A Japanese middle-aged man who had been modified to be about twenty times more friendly than an American suddenly cut in between us and started doing some mysterious pose.” Of course they were confused.
I suddenly came back to my senses, bowed my head repeatedly in a very Japanese way while apologizing, carefully took about five photos of them, and then, to hide my embarrassment, I took one photo of myself before returning the phone to him.
That was an unforgettable, embarrassing moment.
Since then, I have listened extremely carefully whenever I hear the word “picture.” That was probably the exact moment when my listening skills improved threefold.
I guess being embarrassed is one way to learn.
......Anyway, what were we talking about again?