Great-o date-o

Well, the date-o went well. I managed to meet the fabulous Takashi-san for coffee before heading to Saitama Shintoshin to meet Ryu and staved off most of my usual pre-date dread. There was a brief moment when I wondered if he was already waiting for me and I just didn`t spot him, but a very handsome, well-dressed young man waved in my direction and all my fears dissipated. Prematurely, it seemed, as the Brothers Grimm was sold out, so we went to see Dark Water instead. It was a later screening, so we had to kill time after we bought tickets (which, I was amused to spot, were placed quite near the back row) and then went off to navigate an introductory conversation via my pocket English-Japanese dictionary. The dictionary wasn`t up to much and the meal was more like a Lower Elementary lesson "what is your favourite sport?" "I like to swim" "Rearry? Me too..."

After the meal (a very garlicky, but good Italian with real forks and everything), he suggested a game of pachinko, which Takashi-san and I had previously discussed and both been proud to not have played. Ryu-san then took me to his office, which had a showroom area with pachinko and slotto for us to play on. Pachinko, if I understand it correctly, is a terrible form of gambling. It`s just rubbish: random pinball with masses of ball bearings flying around going in no direction in particular. Slotto is slightly better, just like a small fruit machine. I was rubbish at both, Ryu-san was surprisingly impressive (in the sense that it is surprising I was impressed) at Slotto. I got a brief tour of his desk, where we had a nice conversation via a translation website and when I was caught gazing at a happi coat (a man`s small summer jacket) I was made to put it on.

The film was OK, although the trailer had shown all the terrifying parts, so it was tense, but far from rewarding. It also meant my mind was reset to English default and it took me a few minutes to even think of thank you in Japanese. He suggested we drive somewhere, but we couldn`t discuss where very well. He did ask `if I knew love hotel` but my tone was pitched rightly between `I have heard of such establishments` and `that`s not going to happen` so we went to his flat. He did have to call ahead to warn his flatmate, although he talked in Japanese, `I`ve got the gaijin with me` is fairly easy to hear. In his flat, we had another conversation via a new phrasebook, which I defaced by crossing out phrases like `what`s hanging` and `what`s cooking` and tried to teach them more natural greetings. Everything here is produced in American English, so I have quite a task ahead of me.

We watched Pirates of the Caribbean and he fed me nori and rice while laughing with Nao-san, his flatmate, and he told me I was his first gaijin date in a poor attempt to get me to put out.

The novelty appeal of being a gaijin does yield good results. I did once have the opportunity to date a model in England, but he lived in a squat and didn`t have all his own teeth. Ryu-san is far better and provides an extra incentive for getting on with my Japanese homework.