lupin

Thanks Harland, that makes total sense. I recently have little free time but have been talking to girls in the train on my way to work. I have felt on several occasions that me talking to them was the most interesting thing that happened to them all day. Still have a long way to go though. Cheers, Lupin

Finally got around to posting my FR for the bootcamp. Actually this is the first time I have posted to a board of this kind ever. I hope practice will allow me to cut the fat out and write more succinctly, but for now, a total brain dump: Friday 5/25 Friday was my first night out in Tokyo with RedpoleQ and Allusion of the Osaka Crew. RedpoleQ, Allusion, one other student (Cable, I think we decided?) and I met up at Hachiko in Shibuya and went to TGI Fridays to get started. RedpoleQ immediately took charge and told me to open my first sets waiting in line to get in to TGI Fridays - I surpised myself really as I moved immediately to answer Redpole's commands. Going out with jaykay before in Shibuya and Roppongi really helped here - without time to think about it, I didn't really feel anxious at all, I turned around and started talking. It was my first experience being coached, Redpole and Allusion were both standing there literally feeding me lines, and I was basically parroting them back to the girls - what was so unexpected was that this actually resulted in a positive reaction! RedpoleQ "Ask her 'Can you cook'?" Me "料理できる？" Her "ちょっとできるかな" RedpoleQ "Ask her if she can cook your favorite food" Me "どの料理が好き？その料理作れる?" RedpoleQ "Not her favorite food, your favorite food" Me "僕はまぐろの釜焼きが好き、作れる？" ... All the more surprising was that aside from opening instantly, I did so many things wrong: leaning in as I stood and talked over them, being hesitant about taking a seat and sitting stiffly and awkwardly beside them, waiting for the next things to say from Redpole - but it still went OK. I opened one more 2 set, this one Redpole told me to lean back, and talk from a distance, and plan out where I want to position myself - in this case next to the girls on a bench. This I did and things went a lot smoother - this interaction was also fairly positive, I qualified "can you cook?" again, the girl said "no" so I parrotted Redpole "well then how can you make me breakfast in the morning?" and she replied "適当に作る". To me this seemed lukewarm but actually Allusion explained later this is a pretty good sign, because it means she has to imagine herself with me getting up in the morning. Having someone there to help me notice the signs, and identify what I need to change was great. In TGI Fridays we talked a bit and then opened a 3 set sitting behind our table. RedpoleQ started talking to them, I don't even remember what he said it was like they were waiting to be opened, he AIed me as a salsa dancer and all of a sudden I was teaching a college student (fair looks, a 7?) in TGI Fridays. The girls thought this was fascinating and I switched girls and kept it up for a while - too long, as RedpoleQ encouraged me several times to stop, and Allusion also warned me later against becoming "the dancing monkey", something that hit right on. One of the whole themes of the night was "progressing the sarge forward", something I definitely need to work on - I think in my case I need field experience and a routine stack as training wheels to help me through the moments when I am trying to think of something to say or do. I attempted to bring one of the girls back to our table but she flaked off and went to the bathroom - this was a result of too much hestitation and lack of authority on my part. Allusion back at our table gamed the waitress, reading her palm as having 12 children, qualifying her cooking and role playing let's get married when she hooked. By now the whole corner was watching us, we were the center of attention. We were starting to think about going and then a set in the corner, 4 nurses 2 of which had birthdays, were staring at us like deer in headlights - I was like "this is so easy" walked up and explained how it was hard to sing happy birthday without knowing their names, and sang a few bars. As this got a good reaction I continued, Red told me to stop and I realized I was being the dancing monkey again, no need to do more than that and we were in, he told me to start qualifying again so I did an allright job, without direct coaching however soon fizzling out, sitting there with no words coming out of my mouth. The girls were sitting there smiling at me waiting patiently, but it was really a blank moment - not scary, but blank, like an empty canvas. "I need more material!" I thought. Having lost my momentum, the girls got ready to leave, I should have tried for a time bridge anyway but I was still kind of shocked that I had even had a conversation. As we left to head out to AgeHa for clubbing, RedpoleQ said "Look they're all looking at us, they love us" and it was true - it seemed like half the tables in TGI Friday's were checking us out. We walked to the bus in Shibuya, as we walked I received a deluge of new pickup knowledge, Allusion and RedpoleQ helping me work on qualification, talking about what kind of women I like, etc. In what seemed like no time we arrived at AgeHa, I deposited my stuff in a locker, and on the way into the club we talked about handle names. I said I didn't have one yet but a lot of people say I look like Lupin the 3rd, RedpoleQ said "let's ask them!" and opened a two-set asking them "does he look like Lupin?" They said yes and were immediately impressed, he set me up with a girl on each arm, we were set to go in but I forgot my ID! Damn, it would have been much better to go in with girls already with us, explained RedpoleQ, I went back to my locker, deposited another (soon to be wasted) 300 yen, and we all headed in again - this time we were stopped at the door where the door guy, possibly the retardedest club guy I have ever seen or heard ever, proceeded to give Allusion shit for his student ID, followed by the club manager also behaving with unnecessarily pole-up-his-ass-ish-ness behavior, and we were rejected entrance. Nothing for it but to get back on the train and head for Nishi Azabu, where we hit club Yellow. At Yellow we started off by scoping out the club logistics, and then I started opening numerous sets with "When does this place get busy?" because it really was pretty empty for around 1 AM. Some memorable moments: - I opened a mixed 5 set which turned out to be a compa, disarmed the guy and number closed the girl he was with, time bridging for the next week to have dinner made for me and discuss stock investments - RedpoleQ taught me to order drinks by giving a girl your drink ticket, telling her what you want, and ignoring her until she gives the drink to you. I tried this a couple time with mixed results - I met the DJ that night and his set, which was the highest value set in the place. The group included a half-Japanese half-French Shiseido model that was also at least an 8, an equally attractive blonde model and an HB9.5 jgirl who RedpoleQ described as the "best thing I've seen since coming to Tokyo" - I opened a gay guy and his hot HB8 photographer friend. Tall with a great body, she gave me kino and I qualified her for her photography while RedpoleQ and Allusion played interference. - Standing by the cigarette machine, a girl started buying cigarettes but wouldn't make up her mind, so I pushed the button for her! She got all pissed off, but I thought it was funny (so did Allusion) and she gave me the cigarettes. I don't smoke, but if they're free it's nice to have cigarettes to give away. - My last set of the night, I pulled an HB7 upstairs and sat close to her in comfort. I went for the k-close at the end but I vocalized it, and it came out like a question: not exactly, but it came out something like "can I kiss you?" - of course Allusion reacted to this afterwards saying, "You ASKED for a k-close? Hahaha" and I had a good chuckle over it too, I really should know better but knowing isn't the problem, it's practice and experience, which I really haven't had much of. As we debriefed in Zest, I reflected on my progress that evening - approaching I did pretty well, I needed to work on vocal projection, progressing the sarge, engaging the obstacles, escalating kino, isolating - really, everything except approaching - but I was happy with that progress. RedpoleQ and Allusion were amazing coaches, the density of pickup knowledge that was taught to me in that timespan was thicker than lead, I was happy to absorb 20 or 30 percent of it. -- Saturday Day Game 5/26 Saturday found us in Shibuya again, R&F joined up and after a brief lunch at Saizeria we were off to Tower Records, where we opened sets by asking people at listening stations for music recommendations. This was a totally alien environment for me and I felt more internal resistance to approaching here - I felt somehow I might be "bothering" or "interrupting" people who just wanted to shop for music, experience showed me that this frame really is just that, a frame, and a better one might be that "everyone's there for a diversion, a fun time, and so am I" - at any rate I found it hard to gain traction in the sets I did open - I couldn't think of what to say, didn't escalate kino, and felt pretty out of state for the greater part of our time there. Allusion told me several times that I needed to just be having fun, and I finally got the point: after a few flat attempts at opening an HB6 girl that didn't go anywhere, I finally decided, "I don't care, I'll just keep opening her", opened her 4 times with the same opener, until she finally said "うざい" - I was totally unaffected and actually thought it was funny, and that made me feel great. I had one good set and a number close the last set, another HB6 - I kept trying to bounce her to another location but wasn't effective - more kino, more qualification would probably have done the trick, but at least my morale was back up. Allusion demo-ed a set in front of Tower, developing a lot of connection and attraction from an HB7 with magic and phase-shifting and kino; we then moved on to Haagen-Daz, R&F opened a seated set and I went in to wing but quickly stalled out. We ejected and headed over to stand outside Marui and I opened a half-dozen more sets there. It was almost time to finish up, and so we headed over to McDonald's for debriefing. In line I mused that negging about "living at McDonald's" might be fun, and soon after I got to try it out. In McDonald's, a stunning HB8.5, tall, a little bit gyaru but not too much for me, came in, and we were all checking her out. Allusion asked, "You want to do one more set?", for the first time I paused and felt a little nervous - she was boxed in facing the window, it wasn't a very easy approach. After thinking about it for a minute, I finally put one foot in front of the other and wheeled around to stand next to where she was sitting, locked-in and asked, "What's in that giant bag, do you live here?" She answered back in English "no", but didn't care to elaborate. I made a few lame attempts at continuing the conversation but soon ejected. "Why'd you eject?" RedpoleQ asked, a phrase I had started to become very familiar with. "Um, she seemed like she wasn't interested in talking" "What do you mean, she seemed. She was interested, man" Maybe she was interested. Allusion and RedpoleQ encouraged me to reopen the set, a challenge that was even harder than before - I thought about it a lot, but once again felt myself getting out of my chair before I even knew it, walking over and telling her as RedpoleQ advised me, "Hey you lied to me man, you do live here!" This time it hooked a little better than before, we started talking about Hawaii, I said she looked like a Hawaii freak, she admitted that she kind of was, but started to prepare to leave, for a date. "OK, but you better make sure that he doesn't find out that you live at McDonald's" I quipped. She went to say good bye to her friends, sitting at another table, on the way out - I said "you have to meet my friends", brought her over and introduced her. She left to go back to her friends, but I felt a sense of accomplishment in having gotten that far - farther than I previously would have thought possible in just being able to open. -- Saturday Night Game 5/26 It was just me with RedpoleQ and Allusion the second night, at my friend's recommendation we started out at Flower in Roi building. At first I felt really ready, but as the first few sets didn't hook I began to feel out of my element - my voice was too small and didn't carry, I couldn't think of anything past the opener, it really seemed hard for some reason. I opened a set by the bar talking to an Irishman, borrowing his hat for a picture and working my way into his set - it turned out he knew about game also and is, I gather, on the bootcamp this weekend! Going over to the dance floor, I opened a few more sets, one hired gun that was trying to sell drinks, a mixed 3-set, nothing was sticking though. "Stack forward!" "More kino!" "Spin move!" "Don't be the dancing monkey!" I didn't feel that a lot was going right. RedpoleQ and Allusion decided we should change venues so we headed over to Departure Lounge. Bonjovi was there and introduced us to his friends, I ended up staying in the lounge the whole time talking to an HB6, practicing qualification and comfort routines. I tried Strawberry Fields for the first time and got a good reaction, but later as Allusion critiqued, "you didn't phase shift", and I didn't get a k-close as a result. I did set a time bridge and was pleased with getting in practice of other material. Over the course of the night I had come close to giving up, but had stuck it out and things turned out pretty good after all. Not a stellar performance by any means, but Allusion and RedpoleQ gave me great support and helped me see the importance of pushing through the hard times. I also got to see RedpoleQ playing speed game on the way out of Departure Lounge, he almost netted a go-go dancer but was foiled by phone problems. -- Sunday Day Game 5/27 Sunday, the last day of my Tokyo bootcamp with the Osaka Crew, RedpoleQ and Allusion took us to Shinjuku for street game. The first set of the day, in Starbucks, was the hardest one for me - maybe the first set is always a hard set. "Who wants a difficult set" says RedpoleQ and so of course like the approach robot that I am, "Me" I say. A pair of students, only one of whom was hot, sat at a two-person table against the wall, there was no place to lock-in or be comfortable. In front of the sweet counter, I asked what sweets I should get - my target answered, and like a dumbass I started talking to her instead of the obstacle. "Focus on the obstacle" I can hear RedpoleQ once again emphatically repeating in the back of my mind as I write this. The set turned off and I ran out of things to say, ejected... "Why'd you eject", the same thing again, I couldn't really answer. Allusion and RedpoleQ agreed that I had to go back in to the set, Allusion suggested I pick up a chair from way far away, bring it up to their table, say "yoisho" and sit down, wait for them to react. I did it and made some weak attempts to re-open, which were uniformly ignored. "Where's the kino?" asked RedpoleQ. "I can't, look they're ignoring me" I stated, blinded by my own limiting frame - finally, after a long while, RedpoleQ let me leave the set, but as we left he kinoed both the girls, said "have a nice day", and left - that was something that seemed impossible to me but he showed me it was possible. This really drilled the "pay attention to the obstacle" rule into my head, and I know I could do this better next time I have a chance. After that, we were out into the street. In and around Shinjuku station, in 4 hours I approached 30 plus sets, above ground and below ground in the shopping area underneath Shinjuku station. As I got used to it, I started having more and more fun a time - I tried gaming in the women's clothing stores, had a few sets that hooked, and got to try the routines in my still vestigial routine stack at least a dozen times each. I would never have imagined it before, but I can imagine going in and gaming 109 or Marui now - that seems normal to me. We talked about gaming in women's lingerie stores, 109, this would have been intimidating before, but it seems easy now. Some memorable sets: In the shopping area underneath the station, I opened a shop attendant in a women's clothing store, asking "What do you think would look good on me?" I got a lot of kino, tried qualifying, should have set a time bridge as RedpoleQ later pointed out: "Listen, I've got to go with my friends, but when do you get off? On your break later, we could grab some coffee, just chill" I later followed up R&F's HB9 to tell her to improve her posture, while I was waiting for her to finish up with customers I opened the rest of the staff of the shop, introducing myself to the manager as well. Out in the street, RedpoleQ taught me to walk more normally (looking around, like you own the place), and also gave me pointers to open moving sets. I tried it and incredibly, some of them hooked - it was the end of the day, but I was like "I've got to try this more", one of the most frustrating things for me is to see a stunning girl walking past in the opposite direction, not knowing how to talk to her - and now that seems possible. Overall, the bootcamp was a completely mind-altering experience, RedpoleQ and Allusion were awesome teachers and the real deal. I had no idea that real practice in the field could be like this. I did not get a SNL or numbers that I am really interested in yet, but the experience I got in doing cold approach, and knowledge about how to build a routine stack and think about other parts of my game, was incredibly valuable. I need some time to soak it up, and more time to practice the basics before moving on to the next level. One of the things I'm most excited about is being part of a fledgling community here in Tokyo and finally meeting other guys that are interested in improving their game. Anyone out there want a wing (and a fearless approach machine) call me up, I'm busy but I'll make time!