dg NEX, Mcdonalds, marking out for our selves, Hiroshima.

You know what's fun? Wrestling in your living room. Well, that's actually what it kinda felt like today at least. We put our tights, tassles and boots on in our quiet bedrooms and walked down two flights of stairs, stepped through a curtain to be exposed to an over sized closet, packed with 90-100 screaming fans that stood surrounding a 14 x 14 wrestling ring. We were about to main event a Dragon Gate NEX show which is a showcase event for their students. "Wow, this is weird," I thought out loud. "These guys can run a random show in a tiny building, with a tiny ring and still out draw most SoCal shows," I said to Nicks agreement. (At least lately thats the way it seems). We had a fun little six man tag team match that seemed very easy compared to most matches we've had while out here which was a nice change of pace.

After the match, we took quick showers and headed out to grab some Mickey D's. We then finished signing some autographs outside of the building on these big cardboard frames, shook a couple dozen hands, and were soon on our way. I made sure to make a quick stop at the 7 and holdings (7/11 convenience store) to purchase a telephone card. Nick, myself and the rest of the Dragon Gate crew will be on the road for the next several days and I need to be certain I have a way of getting ahold of Dana if our hotels don't have wireless internet. After a horrible performance by me of my best 'Broken English' and small amount of Japanese that I have picked up, I could now rest a little easier knowing that I now possessed a 1,000 yen NTT Docomo telephone card. As I picked up my Pacari Sweat (Japans version of Gatorade) out of one of the 9 vending machines available in front of me, I heard someone come up to Nick with excitement in his voice. "Neek!" I turned toward the stranger and started twisting the cap off of my bottle of goodness. "Matto!" He along with a friend of his came up to us and began bowing repeatedly and speaking very fast. Turns out, they just saw us wrestle last week in Kyota on night 2 of the tag team tournament and were huge fans of the Young Bucks. We stood and talked to these nice fellows for several minutes and found out that they will be attending the May 5th PPV in Nagoya that we will be participating in. I don't know who was more excited. Them for seeing two wrestlers that they enjoy watching? Or Nick and I for marking out for our selves about getting spotted on the street? I'd go with the latter.

About seven minutes later I looked down at my McDonalds tray that had three bunched up hamburger wrappers and an empty apple pie cover that once held Americas favorite pastry. I glanced over to Nicks equally impressive display of slobness and realized that McDonalds is simply amazing. But hey, Nick and I have been doing better as of late. We found a Yoshinoya that totally rocks our socks. The beef bowl is to die for. I've even tried a little bit of fish at a couple of the sponsored dinners we've been on..... to no avail. I still can't handle it. The other day, Nick and I even force fed our selves a certain type of stew, which only close friends and family know of its contents. We're trying our hardest to be respectful of the culture and to be open minded, but when there is a MacDonald-do walking distance, it must be visited and conquered.

Man, I am reading through some of this blog... I'm totally rambling. Oh well, I look down at my counter and it reads "50"... So, I'm obviously only boring 7 of you. The other 43 hits are from me refreshing the page to see if I got any more hits.

Tomorrow, we will be wrestling in Hiroshima. Shingo promised us that he will take us to the ground zero sight where the atomic bomb was dropped so we can take photos. This is something that I've always wanted to do since I studied about it in high school. A funny note: recently during our matches, Cima accompanies us down ringside and has been starting U.S.A chants during our matches and it has gotten over quite well with the audience. For some reason, I don't think that particular chant is going to be as successful tomorrow night.

Alrighty. I'm going to start packing the bags. Tomorrows a heavy day of travel and the start of a sprint. We've got 8 shows in the next 11 days.

Good morning to American and good night to Japan!

Matt

p.s. Okay. Of the small amount of people that read this, one of them is my mom and the other is my beautiful wife.. my two favorite girls on the planet. I love you guys and miss you. Dana, I can't wait for England. =D