Godaisan With Masa

On Monday, I had another date with Masa. Monday is his day off, so he spent the day surfing and came into town to pick me up in the evening. Our plan was to go to Godaisan, a small mountain, to look at the city lights. After my Japanese lesson, we met up and drove to the mall to get smoothies. I insisted on paying for the smoothies, and he thanked me for it repeatedly throughout the evening, which I thought was a little unnecessary. In Japan it's typical for the guy to pay for everything. I explained that I preferred to take turns paying for things; it feels more fair. And I would feel uncomfortable if Masa paid for everything. Of course, we're still not actually even, since he bought me a nice dinner and all I got him was a smoothie. But at least he seems okay with the idea of taking turns.

After that we drove to Godaisan. I've been past it before to go to an elementary school, but I've never gone up it. It's not a very large mountain, but from the top you can get a nice view of the city. It was a little hazy that night but the view was still pretty good. There were a lot more people up there than I would've expected for a Monday night. Most of them were couples. After admiring the lights for a while, we sat down on a bench to talk. Most of it was pretty general stuff, but I did learn that Masa wants to study to be a chiropractor. He also told me that he's entering a surfing competition at the end of the month, which I think is pretty cool.

Masa's English is much better than my Japanese, but somehow our conversations in English feel more awkward than the ones I have in Japanese with Takashi. I don't know if it's because I've spent more time with Takashi, or if Takashi and I connect better, or if Takashi is just more of a talker. I think Takashi might be naturally chattier than Masa, which would make conversation go more smoothly given how quiet I usually am. I need to make an effort to participate more actively in conversations, because at the moment I think I'm forcing other people to do all the talking. I'm surprised Masa wants to go on more dates with me, because I think I've been pretty dull. I'm glad that he's interested in me, though. I've enjoyed spending time with him so far.

Anyhow, while we were sitting on a bench and talking, one of the many cats we saw that night came walking up. It hopped up onto the bench and climbed right onto my lap, curled up, and fell asleep. I was so surprised. It had let me scratch it earlier in the evening, but I never expected that it would sit on my lap. I was really happy. I sat there petting it for a really long time. The conversation flowed a lot better once we were talking about cats; I think it drew me out of my shell a little. I started to wonder if Masa was a little jealous of the attention I was giving the cat, though, because he kept commenting on what a lucky cat it was. I was a little tempted to offer to scratch him behind the ears, too, but I kept that to myself. I couldn't really guess whether it would sound flirtatious or just incredibly strange.

After a while, it started raining lightly. It was getting late, so we decided to call it a night. Masa gave me a ride back home. We thanked each other (he always thanks me, even though he's the one taking me places) and said goodbye. We're likely to have another date on Saturday. Kagawa Prefecture is famous for udon, and Masa used to live there when he was in high school. He wants to go back to eat udon at his favorite spot, and he invited me to come along. Maybe since it'll be a longer date I'll have time to relax and open up a bit more.