Well, I'm kinda Japanese old fart who have played DDR for several years now.
My DDR career started from 1st mix in 1998 when I was dragged by my gf into an arcade near my place to play a noisy dance simulation game. I remember how I felt after the very first play, "will never play this crap again....Grrr..". For some reasons, however, this crappy game didn't take long to get me (and my gf) deeply involved into the world of DDRers.
This game had entertained me until the time lil before the 5th mix came out. Those days were those days. I became deadly busy with my degree stuff and came to have few chances to show up at the arcade to play DDR. As of this time, I have to say that I was semi-retired from DDR for a while. On the top of that, my first position as a researcher took me far away from my 2nd home town (Nagoya, Japan) all the way to the other side of the Earth... Yes, it's a foreign country. I moved abroad !!! Acutually moved in Columbia, MD, U.S.A, ... which is my 3rd home town in my life.
After move, I didn't think there's a DDR machine around my place at first. But something happened to me and I decided to hunt a DDR machine there, and surprisingly easily, found a game arcade called Alladin's Castle in Eastpoint Mall, Baltimore, MD. I remember that happened to me early May in 2002. That's the daybreak of my 2nd DDR career.
Since then..., this arcade, as well as other arcades in the B-more-DC area, gave me lots of good, exciting times to hang out with good people and play DDR together. A variety of DDRers over there inspired me greatly, and, not sure from when, started becoming a tech-oriented player. It was great pain for me that I had to leave this great DDR heaven after three years, in 2004, to work in my home country again. Still missing good people I hung out with, and great exotic experiences with those people, and the heart-warming environment provided by Columbia, Baltimore, Laurel city, MD.
And well, currently I work as a researcher here in Japan, and still play DDR on a regular basis, hoping to visit again Baltimore in some day.
