Not-So-Sexy Misunderstandings
Lame week.
I guess the stuff of note started on tuesday. About every other tuesday my boss and I have dinner at one of the restaurants around the hospital and discuss how things are going. This time he decided to invite a friend of his, a nurse that he used to work with when he worked at my hospital (he does most of his work at a branch hospital out near the airport these days). Apparently she lived in Hawaii for 6 months and wanted to meet me in order to practice her English. The evening was nice enough. My boss was his usual odd, humorous self, and kept trying to start conversations between the nurse (Masuda) and I, which I suppose I appreciated. She was really nice, always refilling my glasses and ordering me more drinks, and showing interest in things I said. Never spoke any English though. I wasnt really sure what my bosses intentions with regards to all of this were, so every now and then Id say something like "Id really love to go see such and such" or "yeah Im really interested in meeting Japanese people my age" to which she kept enthusiastically replying "me! me!" and pointing to herself. Later in the evening, after I had had 3 beers, a mixed drink, and a small bottle of sake, the boss went to the bathroom, so I took the opportunity to oh-so-smoothly turn to the very attractive nurse sitting next to me and ask if she'd like to have dinner with me on friday to which she enthusiastically agreed. She told my boss about it as soon as he sat down, to which he replied that she'd have to wear something pretty. She agreed to this as well.
Of course I told my coworkers about this and they all thought it was hilarious. When friday rolled around I started bugging them for suggestions as to where to go. One suggestion that I really liked was this restaurant in Shibuya that's patterned off of a gothic european church. I thought it seemed like a pretty trendy place to go, so I placed a reservation for 700 (we were supposed to meet at the hospital at 6). As far as clothes, I ended up wearing my suit with a sweater and no tie. People in Tokyo seem to dress up a bit more than Americans, so I felt like I was in the right ballpark as far as sartorial considerations went. At 6 I went to the hospital lobby to wait. She ended up being about 40 minutes late. She gave me an explanation but I dont remember what it was. To get to Shibuya we had to take the train. I kept trying to start conversations in transit but she said hardly anything, so after awhile I stopped. It looked like it was going to be a shitty evening. We finally get to the restaurant (note to self: Shibuya is awesome; go back later), and I have to admit the place is damn cool. http://www.notquitenigella.com/2008/07/08/christon-cafe-at-shinjuku-tokyo/ if you want to see pics. Fortunately my reservation is still good though were 45 mins late. We sit down and in typical japanese female fashion she refuses to give any opinions or make any decisions when prodded, so I order us both beer (she did say she really likes beer) as well as a salad course, a fish course, and a beef course, and two desserts (I wanted to look generous so I went for higher-end items). Fortunately when all that business was done and we started talking she became more talkative. She was actually a lot of fun. Seemed like she had a good sense of humor. Really seemed engaged by all my ridiculous college and America stories. Talked a little bit more about herself (though I definitely directed the conversation at all times). And damn, now that I could sit down and look at her over dinner, she was even prettier than I remembered. At one point though I recalled something I had been told once: that Japanese girls will never under any circumstances tell you if they have a bf unless you ask directly, so I thought I'd get the question out of the way. Turns out, yes indeed she did have a boyfriend who lives near her and builds houses for a living. Lame. I asked her how long theyd been dating and after about a minute of thinking she said she guessed since the summer but that she hardly ever got to see him because of his job. Hmm. Im thinking maybe if things continue to go well I might push at that. Later on I mentioned again how I was really enthusiastic about hanging out with her because it was so hard for me to meet people my age, at which point she asked me how old I was. I told her 22. She busted out laughing and continued laughing for a solid minute or so. Even after she finished shed say "22" again off and on for the next few minutes and chuckle again. Apparently she thought I was 26 or 27 (I get this exact reaction followed by those exact guessed ages from almost every Japanese person I meet). She's 24. I told her she'd have to introduce me to her friends then asked her not to tell them my age because I didnt want them to think I was too young, but she told me that I wasnt too young at all and that it wouldnt be a problem. Super. She and I also kept doing this odd faces thing. Japanese people often tilt their heads to the side when they dont understand something. Ive started doing this myself, but I tend to exaggerate the motion a bit, so after awhile she started mirroring me when I did this. Not to be mocked, I started tilting one way, waiting for her to mirror, tilting the other way then waiting for her to mirror, then arching my eyebrow or opening my mouth really wide and waiting for her to mirror, followed by several long strings of other random stupid faces that she would always copy in playful fashion. This was one of the oddest exchanges Ive ever had with an adult. She also showed me an english book she bought so that she could "speak with me better," which I thought was nice. The evening was 98% in Japanese (no complete english sentences, just me asking words I didnt know now and then), so maybe next time Ill make her do some of the work. Dinner was ok. Not bad, not amazing. The bill was about 73 bucks, which made me internally blanch a bit, but I guess for as interesting an evening as that it was ok. We decided to go to a bar afterwards to have a few drinks and talk back by the hospital, but by the time we got there, she had to get going. She lives an hour north of tokyo and the last train leaves at 11. Lame. She was really enthusiastic about us meeting up again though, so hopefully there are still fun possibilities to be had there. Walking back home from the hospital I ran into the two New Zealand girls who were returning home from a work dinner that apparently went really well. They did tell me though that they couldnt get me a ticket for the martial arts exhibition in Yokohama that I has asked if I could go with them two, but after the dinner bill, I wasnt all that heartbroken.
The next day I slept in late and decided to go check out Ikebukuro (another big shopping district). More huge department stores carrying goods that I couldnt afford in half a lifetime at my current salary. One of them did however have a two-level basement packed with assorted bakeries, fresh fish and produce vendors, and various specialty food shops. The bakeries nearly killed me. There was one huge italian/japanese one and one huge french one. I eventually broke down and bought a box of anko (sweetened red bean paste that I love) desserts from one of the little shops. I found a Uniqlo store in the area as well. I was told by my coworkers that Uniqlo is a good place for people my age who are on a budget to look for clothes, so I decided to check it out. The prices were a little more reasonable than the dept stores (still a hair more than what I'd normally pay in the US), but in exchange the quality was pretty shitty. A lof of the formalwear was cotton/poly weave and the rest of the clothing was just ugly, so no good. I did find the Shakey's Pizza restaurant though, which has an american-style pizza buffet for 10 bucks that I will be returning to another time. When I got back there was a message on my door that my boss had called, so I called him back. He told me that my rich friend had to cancel our meeting tomorrow because his dog was sick. He also asked me how friday went. Without me telling him, he knew that we had gone to Shibuya for dinner, meaning that sometime between the date and that call (about 20 hours) he and Masuda had talked, meaning one had called the other. Id love to know who called and what was said. The NZ girls werent around so I just sat around and watched Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia that night and talked to people on IM. Also left a note on the NZ girls door asking them to come by tomorrow morning since they said they were gonna go sightseeing on Sunday and I wanted company.
NZ girls never came by so I decided to go check out Harajuku by myself again (only hung around for about 30 mins the other time I was there). Once again everything was too expensive to buy. I did find an FCUK store, which sometimes has decent prices, but I really didnt like anything they had on the racks so I left emptyhanded. There was this really cool mostly-underground shopping mall in one part that was like 4 stories tall and really narrow with a grand staircase up the middle. That was pretty cool. I also found a 5 story toystore thats apparently really famous (kiddieland) and decided to take a look. The little kid in me that sits pretty close to the surface thought it was awesome. I did not, however, find a Hamtaro for my Dad like I've been looking for. I think that might be a lost cause; I think its too old. After this I went and checked out Yoyogi Park (really large, heavily wooded park next to Harajuku) and the Meiji Shrine in the middle after gawking at the cosplayers loitering outside the entrance. It was a really really pretty area. Ill post pics in a little bit. By 400ish I was falling asleep on my feet though, so I decided to head home. Fell asleep on the subway and managed to open my eyes just as the doors to my station opened up. Awesome. Came back and slept for several hours. Was going to go for a run but couldnt drag myself out into the cold, so Im blowing time watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia again. So...kindve a lame weekend. But on Friday Chris Grant is coming!
Ive also got this stupid song stuck in my head. Wonder if they actually filmed the video on board the real Charles De Gaulle