Softball nomikai #2

On Sunday evening, Tatsuya invited me at the last minute to another drinking party with his softball team. I was quite happy to go, because it was the first time I'd seen him since my birthday. Work has been pretty horribly busy for him lately. While we were talking at the party, he told me that for the past few weeks he has been working until about 11 pm and getting up at 3 am. He has also been missing meals to the point that he is losing weight. He's not scrawny, but he certainly doesn't have any spare weight to lose. I really don't think this type of lifestyle is sustainable. Hopefully things will change soon.

Anyhow, the party was quite fun. I met two new ladies, both wives of team members. One of them was 47 or 48 years old, and her husband was in his 30's. She advised me that younger men are better husbands because they will work hard and earn money so you can buy more things. That cracked me up. On the other hand, she also invited me and Tatsuya to eat dinner with her and her husband sometime, and to play with their dogs. She offered for her husband to make us okonomiyaki, which is one of my favorite foods. And judging by the pictures she had on her phone, her dogs looked pretty adorable. I'm not counting on it, but if she extends an invitation again for a specific date, I'd be happy to go.

For the nijikai, a smaller group of us ended up going to karaoke. It was kind of an odd situation in that I was the lone woman with a group of 7 Japanese guys. They wanted me to sing Lady Gaga for them. Hayato, a really nice guy, had some surprising song requests; he wanted me to sing Beyonce songs, but since I don't know many of them, he settled for Destiny's Child instead. Later he requested Madonna, and the song "One Night Only" from Dream Girls. I got to enjoy the guys singing a number of Japanese songs, as well, and made them sing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" with me. It was very fun.

There was going to be a sanjikai, but I gave Tatsuya the option of using me as an excuse to get out of it, so the two of us left at that point. The other guys went to get ramen, and Tatsuya escorted me home. The poor guy was quite tired, I think, but we hung out for a while before he left for home. I hadn't been sure when I would see him again, so being randomly called on Sunday was quite nice. I'm not entirely confident I'll see him again before I leave for my summer vacation, but I hope that we'll be able to meet up again before then. It would be pretty sad to have only seen him once in all of July, and then not to see him again until nearly the end of August. It's too bad that I won't be around during summer vacation, when he might actually have a little free time, but then again, AMERICA! I'm very happy to be coming home.