Bootcamp FR: Tokyo

[tokyostyle]

This is not necessarily a chronological account nor a complete account. I've tried to at least account for every set, so that people who have never taken abootcamp can understand the amount of people you will get to talk to. Also, the more important the sarge the more detail I've devoted to it.

 

I had an awesome time and RedPoleQ (RPQ) and Allusion (A) are excellent coaches. I learned so much so fast that I was totally blown away by my progress. There really is no substitution for practice with immediate feedback.

 

Unless I specifically mention otherwise you can assume I opened with the takoyaki opener and followed the routine stack that the guys helped me build. The purpose of this FR is not to solicit feedback, but to show the amount of sets you will open and the rapid progress that can be made from such a tight feedback loop.

 

Session 1 - Night Game - Friday night in Roppongi

 

The Meetup

 

The bootcamps start with some introductions. I had met RPQ/A before so the introductions were brief and we got down to business. Their main goal here is to get to know you so that they can customize thebootcamp to you. Be as honest as possible! There were several of the questions that I didn't even have an answer for until later in thebootcamp.

 

Bounce: TGI Friday's

 

An American food restaurant -chain in Roppongi. A person who comes to a place like this has at least a little interest in foreign culture and the mood is light and happy. Especially in the bar sets open easily.

Warmup: 2-set 30-something OLs:

 

I've studied pick-up for about 9 months now and I apparently a tiny amount of natural game. RPQ/A wanted to know how much work they had in store for them so they sent me in cold. I went in to this set three different times which was probably the biggest thing I got out of it. Until you are completely and fully blown out of the set it is always open. The only blow-out there is occurs when the girl completely removes herself from your presence or you actively disengage her.

 

The results weren't pretty. I needed a structure and a routine stack to go along with it. Also, I need to work on my body language a lot.

 

Conbini sets in Roppongi:

 

I got talk how to walk properly and we did an exercise that ended up bringing out a few stories that I had tucked away that actually display quite a bit of value. These are stories I had never bothered telling any girl and thus I was wasting perfectly good real-life experiences. Girls love stories. Find interesting stories about yourself and tell them over and over until they are perfect.

 

The next few sets were just opening random people in the conbini.

 

I opened a very cute young gyaru-style girl looking at a magazine. She kept shuffling away from me until she finally fled to the protection of her boyfriend. SoRPQ sent me over to talk to the guy for a bit. After asking me rather politely not to harass his girlfriend he finally chilled out enough to talk to me briefly. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think he was quite scared that I might steal his girl.

 

Next up was GreenShirtGirl. She came in to use the ATM with a bunch of friends. I talked with her a bit and got her to introduce me to her friends. She was with a bunch of people standing outside and I made one of her friends introduce me to those friends as well. It was right about then that her friend realized I just met everyone tonight and she switched to Japanese to exclude me from the conversation. I went back inside to reopenGreenShirtGirl, but she was busy at the ATM and the guys decided it was time to move on.

 

The next girl Allusion picked was good from afar, but far from good and as I got right up to her I decided she was too unattractive to proceed. That was the only time I flat out refused to open a girl. He then sent me after a three set that was sitting outside of theconbini.

Outside Conbini: The 3-set:

 

This would end up being my first full set of the bootcamp. They opened easily so I sat down by the target and started addressing all three of them across her. I found out two of them were from theinaka and qualified them for it. They were in town to part a bit and so we discussed some of the clubs in the area. The middle one kept asking me a lot of questions and kept breaking my routine. Finally the target warmed up and the other two girls left us get to know each other a bit. Right around thenRPQ starts telling me to phase shift. It was right around this time that I realized how hard it was to do! We continue on a bit with me unsuccessfully phase shifting and the target decides to get up to make a phone call and smoke. The other friend scoots over to keep me company and I never notice the target returning and standing right in front of me. She quickly gets bored of waiting on me and soon after the three take off. It was a pretty big blunder, but I'm getting better so we decide to move on.

 

Bounce: Muse

 

Muse is a two-floor bar and club in Nishi-Azabu about 10-12 minutes walk from Roppongi Station. The two dance floor areas are loud, but most everywhere else is quiet enough to have a decent conversation. The current system is 2,000/2d for men and free for women. There's a wide variety here, but its a slightly older crowd and very few 8s. I don't recall seeing a 9 there either time we went.

 

2-set at table:

 

After a tour of Muse, the layout had changed since I had been there, the boys sent me to open a two-set. As usual they opened fairly easy, but it never quite stuck. At one point the target got sick of me touching her and getting closer to her and started pushing me away. I pretty much ignored her until she finally decided she had enough of me and decided to leave. I reopened this two-set later and she insisted that I sit in the chair next to her, further away, instead of on the chair touching her. We were getting pretty sick of each other so eventually I left them alone. It seemed like they were there to get picked up, but their attitude and body language was completely negative. AFC-girls maybe? More importantly, during the original sargeTokyoPulse made an entrance!

 

6+ mixed-set:

 

This was a lesson in bad management. I open the target and ask her who she is here with. She kind of waves her hand around the general area and I ask her to introduce me to some of her friends. I meet one guy in particular, who I guess was bored, and decides to hit on me instead of the other girls present. At that point some other guy, who she actually knows, takes the target away and ultimately I never really reconnect with her. Had I kept a littlekino on her while talking to this guy she would have stayed put.

 

Bar 2-set:

 

I had been waiting all bootcamp to perform the amazing drink ticket trick. We found a nice target and I handed it to her and asked her for a water. She looked at it a bit, remember girls don't get them here, and asked how many I wanted! Then some hilarity ensued as she ordered two waters, but we had only given her one ticket and unfortunately she wasn't up for buying a stranger some water. (Sorry Allusion!) I talked to her and her friend for a while, but they weren't cute enough for any sort of closing so I cut them loose.

 

No-way 2-set:

 

I briefly opened a two-set and started up the routine. After a while RPQ pulls me out and asks me why I wasn't kino'ing. They were actually way too ugly to kino! Next time I get out on a bootcamp I'll do a better job of talking about standards. I found it really hard to perform when I didn't want to close the girl at all.

 

2-set on Swing:

 

This set was much better looks wise and one of the first that started to give me some trouble. The first girl was in a really bad mood and pretty unresponsive. Her friend let me sit down and was even pretty receptive tokino, but due to the noise I found it hard to engage the second girl and predictably the set stalled and they left.

 

2-set Hallway:

 

As we're walking through the hallway we pass a few tables and I get opened by a really cute girl. As we start to talk she suddenly gets very nervous and her friends leave. The whole thing happened so fast that it just kind of left me stunned. Even the guys were at a bit of a loss.

 

2-set:

 

Got in to set and had TokyoPulse come game the obstacle. We talked to them for a long time, but both failed to really get into comfort. In hindsight we probably weren't that in to the girls and thus they weren't that in to us.

 

2-set:

 

This was the last set of the night and another set where TokyoPulse came to game my obstacle. The target was really keen, but all four of us were tired and it never got much past heavy kino. There was a whole lot of me failing to phase-shift in this set too.

 

Bounce to Almond:

 

We went to Almond to de-brief and were sat next to two very made-up Kabakura girls. Shortly after we sat down one of them went to the bathroom and at the time that sounded like an awesome idea. I told the guys I would open them up on my way back and RPQ suggest I also find out where the bathroom was from the loner since I didn't even know. She was surprised, but polite and pointed it out. On the way back, they were a two-set again, I opened her friend and sit down right next to her. I kino her a little and the friend is really interested, but I don't lead it anywhere. Eventually I eject, because I had no plan at all, and Allusion starts grilling me with the "Why did you eject?" In the end I think I was just too tired to think straight. I probably could have bounced the friend out without too much effort.

Edited April 17, 2008 by Guest

[tokyostyle]

Session 2 - Day Game - Saturday afternoon in Shibuya

 

These all took place in a small Starbucks in Shibuya.

 

Quiet Girl:

 

I opened this girl and she had almost no reaction except to look up and smile. She was doing some work and seemed pretty surprised that someone would just sit down and start talking to her. The lack of response caught me off guard and the guys sent me back a few times so I could work on my ploughing. After a while she kind of got bored of me and things fizzled out.

Young girls and a yellow shirt:

 

Two young girls sat down next to us and once they were settled I opened them up. The obstacle was between me and the target and that situation never improved. Most of this set was spent withRPQ giving me tips and making sure I was following my routine. As they got up and left I tried for the number close, but got rejected. We then started talking about qualification and throwing more of that in sooner. I was having trouble coming up with qualifications for girls when they were really quiet andRPQ gave me plenty of tips of handling that. Then suddenly he asked me, "How do you feel about high school girls?"

The High School Model:

 

I turn around and open one of the cutest girls I would see my entire bootcamp. The way she looked I actually assume she was 18 and a 3rd year, but it turned out she was actually a 1st and 16 years old. RPQ and Allusion were coaching me the entire way. They even told me to ask if it was a wig which got us talking about modeling and a photo shoot that she had done. She showed me some pictures from it, we talked about the guys she likes, her hobbies, what's she's good at. Then I steered the topic towards karaoke. I will only say one thing about that topic. If a girl tells you that she doesn't really like karaoke, but she'll enjoys listening ... then you get your ass up out of the seat and take her to karaoke right that instant. Needless to say my window closed and she eventually excused herself and left. We were seated by the window though and as she was walking by she looked over at us. I wasn't paying attention, but Allusion yelled "Dude she's looking!" and I looked up just in time for her to turn again to look over. She smiled and waved and walked off. I promised myself I would never again let something that was being set into my lap go ever again.

 

Solo girl redeux:

 

I opened another girl who was alone, but she was waiting for a friend. Her friend showed up and they both left.

 

Red belt girl:

 

The next girl walked by and sat in the corner. She was dressed very nicely and after the model set I wasn't having much approach anxiety. Needless to say she did not want to have anything to do with me. I ejected pretty fast, got a pep talk from Allusion and went back in. She was just about to pick up her stuff and leave Starbucks when I finally ejected for good. Allusion congratulated me, I had never done anything even close to that before, andRPQ repeated the TOC bootcamp moto. "Get blown or get blown out!"

 

Cute girl outside:

 

RPQ and I both catch a girl in a white dress and as he starts telling me to do something I get up to go open her. I didn't need much incentive. She opened really well and was really smiling and having a good time. She was waiting for a friend, who called during the middle of our conversation. I asked to be introduced to this friend, but it turns out that it was a male friend and she wasn't too comfortable introducing us. She left and waved goodbye.

 

Coworker appears:

 

A girl from my work dropped by and so I got to watch RPQ go to work. It quickly became a three-set and Allusion joined in to game the obstacles and was doing a pretty good job at stealing this poor guy's girlfriend. The best part was that my coworker is from Kobe soRPQ go a chance to show off his Osaka-ben skills.

 

Two old ladies:

 

We were just about to wrap up and things were starting to get kind of goofy and RPQ sent me into one last set. It turns out that these two ladies were over 50 and even I didn't notice until I had already opened them and they turned around to fully face me. We were standing in front of arestaurant board and they didn't hear my opener, so I just asked them what a good place to eat was, thanked them, and then ejected. I relayed the story to Allusion, who was busy on the phone at the time, and he died laughing.

 

That was my first foray into day-game and opened up a whole new world for me. Starbucks is just crawling with talent and is one of the places that girls tend to hang out in just waiting to be opened. Good times!

Edited September 13, 2007 by Guest