Last night I got a text from the boy giving me three options for our date today.
1. The huge aquarium in Osaka, famous for having a whale shark.
2. A temple/the area where he lived when he was in college living in Kyoto City
3. Movie Village, a themed museum/park about Japanese period dramas (TV and movies)
Anyone who knows me well knows I can never make decisions that affect other people. So I freaked out about which one to choose and finally made a decision to go with number 3 because we had discussed it on our last date. I had already been to the aquarium in Osaka so I didn’t want to disappoint him and also felt that I could hold more conversation about television than about fish.
I met up with Phil at about 11 to discuss the book we are reading together (a novel about Japan 20 years in the future, after the tension between Osaka and Tokyo escalates until Japan is divided into two countries by a wall). Then at about 12:30 I left to go meet Atsushi to head in to Uzumasa.
He had not been to this place either and neither of us knew what we were getting ourselves into…thankfully we both have a sense of humor…
It turned out to be this kinda cheesy theme park deal…though without rides…but it was a bunch of people dressed up in historical garb…I guess you could almost describe it as a Renaissance Festival only for Japan. And there were FAR fewer people there AND it was way lamer. But we had a good time together. That part was a bit awkward but we laughed a lot about it so it wasn’t too bad. We would point out things we thought were ridiculous and he would explain about different parts of Japanese history and what changed when we went from the Edo to the Meiji to the Showa sections of the park.
We didn’t stick around there for too long since there wasn’t that much to see and it was a bit too cheesy for us. We headed in to Kyoto after that and he came up with a place he wanted to go to eat. It was a restaurant/gallery but when we got there it was not open yet. We actually ran into Greg and Ian, two JETs I know fairly well, as we walked passed the Starbucks they were hanging out at but we didn’t stop and talk to them. I just heard Greg call my name and I stopped and waved. After we found out the restaurant was closed we decided to walk around for a bit til it opened. We didn’t know where to go at first so I suggested we just sit on the stairs and wait (mostly joking since I knew Japanese people never do that…). Luckily he knew of a small, free entry art gallery in a remodeled elementary school nearby so we walked over there.
It was a photography exhibit…something about pinhole photography. Being someone who has always enjoyed art but is not…oh what’s the English word…詳しい…educated on the subject, it was definitely fun to visit a gallery with someone who appreciates art AND knows about it.
There was a really funny moment when the woman who was “guarding” the exhibit approached us and asked him about his electronic dictionary. She was saying something about trying to travel or speak with someone who didn’t speak Japanese and how useful a “little machine” like that would be. So we just told her that we use it whenever we hit a snag in conversation but that it can’t make up for ability to actually speak the language.
After that we went back to the restaurant. I got really excited at first because it looked like they had Guinness on tap but sadly it came out in a bottle. I had to explain to him why I was disappointed in this…saying that Guinness is just so much better when it is on tap. He ordered one as well (first time he got a non-girly drink…I was impressed). I was going to show off my mad pouring skills but of course ended up spilling some on the table cuz I’m a bit of a klutz (totally thought that was spelled with a “c” til spell check told me otherwise). But either way he was impressed that I could pour a Guinness without making have the glass head….something he could not.
Dinner was probably the best part of the date. I was more relaxed than I have been in the past and we weren’t at this awkward theme park place that neither of us really had much interest in to begin with. At one point he told me that he had heard that in America if two men go out to dinner together other people will think they are gay.
I told him that usually we can tell (and therefore had to explain gaydar) and also explained that it depends on the location. 2 guys alone at a sports bar and we won’t assume they are gay. 2 guys alone at a really fancy restaurant and they AREN’T doing business and we might assume they are gay.
He told me that he can usually tell when a Japanese guy is gay too. To which I had to tell him that foreigners can’t tell at all. I explained that if most young Japanese guys visited America the average American would think they were gay.
He thought that was hilarious. Ever since he has been pointing out guys and asking me “if he were in America…?” Usually the answer is “yes.”
I told him I was going back to Fushimi Inari Shrine tomorrow with my friend Lara and her boyfriend Ryan (friends of mine from college), making it my 5th time in 7 or 8 months…which led to a long discussion about how shrines and temples are great and all but you don’t really have to go to them THAT many times…and how I really only go because it is either for work or because I really want to spend time with the people who are going.
We took the train back after that since I had to get up early to meet up with Lara and Ryan (Lara is a JET in Hyogo and she is leaving to go back to the US for good next month so I really wanted to get the chance to hang out with her.)
He still can’t seem to get past the imaginary wall in front of my apartment…but I think he’s just a polite guy. At the beginning of the date I asked him why he waits down the street rather than coming to the door…he seemed surprised by the question and asked if he should come to the door. I said it didn’t really matter I was just interested in why. Something about there being a wall and therefore it was more convenient. I think he doesn’t want my neighbors to see? I have got to figure this out.
By the time I got home it was after 10:30, making this our longest date yet...10 hours.
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