My First Date

Last night a huge pack of ALTs went out to celebrate the birthdays of Andrew (a.k.a. Bear) and another ALT whose name I am blanking out on right now. As usual, it started with general drunkenness at Hirome Ichiba before progressing to karaoke at Big Echo. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun. After karaoke, most of the group split up and went home, but a few of us went on to the Boston Cafe, a rather nice Boston-themed bar. The female members of the Tuesday Night Social Club have made a habit of going there for drinks and corned beef potatoes (french fries with corned beef on them). We felt a little guilty bringing the drunk and loud male ALTs to our favorite place; we have a good relationship with Nobuko, one of the waitresses, and didn't like to inflict them on her. But Jeff, who is from Boston, really wanted to go there. So we went.

When we first arrived, there were about seven of us, so we took up a few tables. I ended up sitting at the far end of the table, and at the next table over there was a pair of young Japanese men. Since I was drunk and feeling friendly, I started a conversation with them. They were quite nice and we talked a good deal. One of them, Takuji, lives in Kochi, and the other, Takashi, came from Tokyo to visit. Takuji was pretty quiet but Takashi had a lot to say. He was rather flirtatious as well. At one point he said I was his girlfriend, and later he asked me to marry him. I agreed to both, and he laughed and called me a liar. Near the end of the evening, though, he asked what I was doing the next day. I said that I didn't have any plans, and he asked me on a date. We decided to meet at 10 am at Kochi Station.

I was kind of surprised (and a little dismayed) that he wanted to meet so early; we didn't leave the Boston Cafe until 3:00 or 3:30 in the morning. But I figured he must have to leave in the early afternoon, so meeting a bit early was necessary. It turns out that wasn't really the case, but more on that later. Anyhow, I was excited to have a date lined up, but a little concerned that I would be hungover and tired from staying out so late. Since Takashi had been fairly drunk when we arranged the date, I also half wondered if maybe he just wouldn't show up. But I had promised to go, so I got up at 8:40 and got myself ready. I had wanted to wear a cute pleated skirt that I bought recently, but when I saw that it would be zero degrees today I had a change of heart. I wore the nicest looking long sleeved shirt I have, but it didn't really matter because I ended up wearing a sweater and coat the whole time.

I arrived at Kochi Station a little early and stood around waiting. I wasn't entirely sure I would recognize Takashi's face, so I was pretty much banking on him finding me. Which he did. We ended up deciding to go to Kochijo Castle, and he drove us there. Despite the cold, it turned out to be a beautiful day, and I enjoyed being out in the sun. We hiked up the stairs to the castle and even went inside the castle itself. When Mom and Brett were here, it was closed, but today it was open to visitors. Before going in, we had to take off our shoes and put on a pair of slippers. The inside of the castle wasn't very large, but from the upper levels there was a great view of the city. The stairs inside the castle were very narrow and steep, with a ceiling overhang to watch out for, so climbing them in borrowed slippers was quite the experience. Takashi stayed right by my side or slightly ahead of me when going down the stairs, and he seemed to be keeping an eye on me in case I tripped. He offered me a hand a few times, but for the most part I felt I was better off using my hands to hang on to the railing. While we were walking around the castle, he asked if I had a nickname. I explained that people in my family sometimes called me "Andy", but that my friends usually called me "Andrea". From then on he called me Andy. I liked the way it sounded when he said it. Thinking back, he was probably being rather familiar with me in that he was calling me by a nickname and not using the honorific -san after it. But I just followed his lead and called him Takashi instead of Takashi-san. Had I insisted on adding -san, it probably would've sounded like I was trying to be distant.

I had figured that Takashi had to leave early, so I thought Kochijo Castle might be the only place we went that day. But after we finished looking around the castle, he asked if I wanted to go to the sea. I didn't have any plans for the day and was enjoying talking with him, so I agreed. We drove out to Katsurahama in his car. The previous night, his friend had said something about how you're not supposed to go to Katsurahama on a date. It was something about breaking up; maybe if you go there as a couple you will break up, or maybe that is a place people go to break up. I didn't quite understand. We went anyway, and the view was beautiful. The sun was bright and the water looked incredibly blue in the shallows. We wandered around for a while and then went into the little aquarium. It wasn't a great aquarium, but the fish were pretty interesting and they also had sea turtles, a few dolphins, penguins, seals and otters. The otters were adorable. They were in what looked more or less like a kennel and went running around all over the place. They came up to the fence at eye level with us and made little squeaking noises. Takashi touched one on the nose, to my great surprise. He also sort of teased one of the penguins by waving his finger around its head as it followed with its eyes. I was a little annoyed with him for that and was kind of hoping the penguin would manage to bite him, as it seemed to want to. But no harm was done, I guess, and he didn't get bitten. Upstairs in the aquarium there was a room with skeletons of small whales, and also what I'm quite certain was a preserved whale penis. I thought it was kind of funny standing next to a guy on the first date and looking at a whale penis together.

After the aquarium, we went for a drive along the coastline. It was really beautiful. In the car, we talked about pretty much everything we could think of, and sometimes didn't talk at all. At the beginning of the date, Takashi spoke some in English and made his Japanese very simple. As time went on, he slipped into a more natural manner of speaking and I got a little confused now and then. He was pretty good at explaining the things I didn't understand, though, so the conversation flowed fairly smoothly. I was surprised at how much I did understand. And Takashi seemed to understand me well despite my odd grammar and poor vocabulary. At one point I was explaining that I have one brother, and I used the wrong word for "one". Instead of "hitori", which refers to one person, I used "hitotsu", which refers to one object. We both had a good laugh about that.

I guess up to this point I've mostly talked about the things we did, and haven't said a lot about Takashi. He works in Tokyo for an agricultural company and will be moving to Kagoshima in the near future. He's a few inches taller than me and rather handsome. He is friendly and good-natured. I don't know that a lot of Japanese men would choose to go on a date with a foreign woman, especially one who doesn't speak Japanese fluently. But he spoke in a way I could understand and treated me like a normal person. Which is kind of remarkable. He said that he is a little shy, but he led most of the conversation and seemed fairly outgoing to me. I felt happy and comfortable around him. I didn't mind just riding along in the car without talking, but I was worried that maybe he did mind, and that I seemed boring or uninterested. But I think he must have felt the same way I did, because he could've gotten rid of me anytime he wanted by saying that he had to get on his way back to Tokyo. And our date ended up lasting about five and a half hours.

Around 2:00, we had lunch at a little ramen shop which I think was in Susaki. We had driven quite a ways. The ramen was tasty, but I couldn't eat all of it. Takashi noticed my hands shaking and asked if I was okay; I explained that my hands always shake, and that I really was fine. I seem to explain that a lot these days. Anyhow, after eating we started making our way back toward Kochi. We went back by a different way than we came, so there were new sights to see. We were both fairly quiet. I was a little tired, and was somewhat tempted to put my head on his shoulder and doze. I don't think he would've minded, but that would probably make driving a bit more difficult, so I didn't. Eventually we reached Kochi. Rather than drop me off at the station, Takashi offered to give me a ride to my apartment. I was fine with that, so I gave the directions as we went. We stopped in front of the apartment building, and had a hug and a kiss before finally saying goodbye.

All in all, today was a wonderful day. The sightseeing was nice and I really enjoyed spending time with Takashi. He made me feel like a normal human being, and someone interesting and attractive. It's not that I think any of that is not true, but it feels good to know that maybe another person sees me that way. Unfortunately, I probably won't see him again. He left for Tokyo and won't likely visit Kochi again. I'm still happy to have had this one nice day, though.