July 1, 2002
Been busy for most of June for reasons that I've expressed in the past. It's tsuyu (the rainy season) and I spend a lot of time with an umbrella in my hand and damp clothes hanging on hangars around my apartment. It'll be like this until mid-July at the very earliest.
During a forecasted one-day break in the rain Fumiyo took me for a most pleasant drive. She asked me for suggested destinations, and I proposed that we drive to some woods for a bit of hiking. This was the first time I'd ever seen her in sneakers.
It was a two-hour drive. We drove-up to a forest park in a neighboring prefecture and went walking over the trails for well-nigh over 5 hours. Along the way, she acted giddy with happiness. She was smiling, cheerful, possessed of a distinct bounce in her step. She says that I make her feel "at ease", "refreshed" and "innocent". And she also said several times that hiking the forest trails was something which she'd never experienced before and was grateful I'd introduced her to it. Is this at all plausible? It seems that most of her vacations are to beach-like places, so perhaps this was a new experience for her. Or maybe she was just being polite. It's hard to tell.
It was virgin forest in which we hiked, which is increasingly a rarity in Japan. Since the walking was sometimes steep and tangled with tree-roots, I often held-out my hand to prevent her from slipping... she readily grasped my hand and held it tightly. At one point, we got to the top of a hill and enjoyed a small view. The hill allowed us to look-out over a minor valley and we could see the shifting shadows of clouds illuminating the treetops across the way. We sat on a bench and talked. Except for our voices, the place was silent. In fact, I'd been so used to living in an urban area that the silence actually stuck-out. I immediately appreciated it.
While we were talking, I mentioned to her that sometimes I'm not really sure about the most appropriate way to express myself around her... I mean, I said that I often like to give female friends hugs, but I wasn't sure if it was appropriate in Japan to give hugs as thanks. I know that in public, it's not acceptable. She replied that I shouldn't restrain myself, and just do what comes naturally. Altogether, we spent about 9 or 10 hours together that day.
Since she'd subtly encouraged me to not restrain myself around her regarding physical shows of affection, I began thinking... this might be construed by some as an open invitation to hanky-panky, but it's so hard to be certain. I mean, she's been getting a bit more touchy-feely over the last few weeks- not unpleasantly touchy-feely, but you know what I mean. She sat very close to me on the bench in the woods. Sometimes, she would laugh and touch my arm. At one point when we were walking downhill, she slipped and grabbed my jello-firm upper-arm for support. She held my hand even during times when she was not in danger of slipping. Afterwards, she sent me an email thanking me for the little hike... and again encouraged me not to restrain myself around her.
Maybe I'm spectacularly dense, but I can only speculate how she feels- I mean, who the hell knows how a woman thinks? Not even women know how they think, so I can't pretend to.
But I've started to get a few impressions about her which might be totally incorrect. I think I give her the emotional highs that she doesn't get from her marriage. Since she's settled-in to the life of wife, desk-shackled office-worker and mother, I think that her life has less of the youthful exuberance that she once had. Maybe she wants to reclaim some of it? Perhaps I am an ingredient to making her feel the way she wants? I really have no way of knowing. All I know is, she goes to some effort to schedule me into her life... and she is not shy on spending time or money on me.
For next time, I've suggested that she and I go to a coffee shop or wine-bar and enjoy some reading together. Hands-down, that is always one of my favorite ways of spending an afternoon. Anyway, I'll just take it casually with her from now on.
Elsewhere on the love-front, the last two days have marked an extraordinary set of developments. I helped Kaori with a last-minute polishing-up of her résumé in preparation for her move to Australia. Long story short, we went to a bar afterwards, got a bit drunk, and spent about 5 hours in my apartment afterwards making-out. I admit, I was the one who initiated it. I'm the one who kissed her on the forehead. In response, she nuzzled-up close to me and started kissing my neck. We stripped-off most of our clothes and lay on my futon together, (I was naked, she left-on her panties) and we kissed every inch of each others' bodies in the most tawdry fit of passionate physical contact I've had since Single Mom Laurie. Kaori and I did not have sex, though. (Pooh.) But, it was all terribly nice nonetheless. Then, she left in the morning after to go to her job.
The day after the make-out session with Kaori, I went 40 minutes by train to a nearby town (Shitahara) to meet a very cute woman (Haruna) whom I met in a nightclub some weeks ago. Haruna was especially memorable because although she was very petite in stature, she had curves in all the right places. Haruna invited me to visit her in Shitahara for lunch. After my arrival, we went to an eatery to enjoy some grilled tofu. After lunch, we spent the afternoon at a local castle (it was a restoration of a modestly-sized fortification built back in the days of feudal Japan.) Although it was not the original castle, (the original having been burned down in the 1830s) it was quite enjoyable nonetheless. After enjoying the displays of samurai armor and calligraphy within the castle museum, we went to a coffee shop. Haruna is playful, intelligent, pleasant and her English is excellent. Her hair is soft, her smile is very damn cute and her demeanor is one of heart-warming, mellow smoothness. In short, so far she's an utter joy to be around. After coffee, we decided to go to a local bar to enjoy the final game of the World Cup, (Germany vs. Brazil). Indeed, we'd both been looking-forward to this. Germany had won the cup three times in the past, Brazil had won it four times... it was anybody's guess who would win.
Upon entry to the bar, we were asked by the waitress to select which teams we'd root for... since my family-tree is 25% German, I used this as a flimsy excuse to root for Germany, Haruna followed-suit. We were both given a yellow-red-black German-flag decal which I stuck on my left pectoral. Haruna was wearing a tight, white t-shirt; she pasted the German-flag decal strategically over one breast. It accented her body very nicely.
So, Haruna and I enjoyed what have to have been the most exciting World Cup game in quite a while. In my 7 years of bar-hopping, I have never come across a bar that was so utterly packed. It was so filled with spectators, like being crammed-in a sardine can; everyone jostled to get a glimpse at the wide-screen TV. Haruna and I were jammed-in with a small group of German guys in the back corner. Drinking beer, eating pretzels and nachos, we were suddenly treated to the spectacle of one of the Michinoshi TV stations' camera crews wading-in to film foreigners' reactions to the World Cup. One of the German guys got interviewed by the camera-crew as Haruna and I sat in the background smiling goofily and making inane 'V'-gestures at the camera.
Haruna and I spent the whole night with sudsy drinks in our hands, precariously perched with one foot on a window-ledge and the other foot on a wobbly tabletop, all the while chanting "Deutsch-land! (Clap clap clap!) Deutsch-land! (Clap clap clap!)" Yeah, I know, we're veritable party animals. It was a total dream-game, both teams were two incredible groups which had never before faced each other in the World Cup finals. It was a stunning display of skill; both the German and Brazilian goalies performed brilliantly. Around half-time, someone in the crowd jokingly started chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" and got a laugh.
Haruna clasped my hand for a large percentage of the game and sat on our window-ledge very close to me, leaning on me for increased balance. Whenever the German team got close to the goal-posts, she squeezed my hand tighter in anticipation. After two thrilling hours with plenty of close-calls, Brazil eventually emerged victorious in the second half, winning 2-0. The German guys in the bar were excellent sports. "Maybe in last two minutes, ve get two goals, ja?" One of them laughed. At the end, they applauded their second-place status and accepted the fighting-defeat like true gentlemen. The cameraman spotted the German-flag decal pasted on my t-shirt, turned to me and asked what I thought of the game. I shouted into the camera: "Great game, both teams were wonderful! Germany has nothing to be ashamed of tonight, there is no shame in being second to excellence!" And then, I mentioned I wasn't a German; the camera immediately switched-off...
After the game, Haruna and I parted with a hug. She was a real sweetie. So, I'd have to say my weekend was eventful. I sent Haruna an email today from my phone thanking her for the great time... she emailed back saying: "Thank you too! You are too good to be true!" Wow.
Is NiceGuy too good to be true, or is he... too true to be good? *Raises eyebrow in quizzical philisophical pose.*
I should add at the end of this... as I sit here during lunch at my work-desk on Monday surrounded by fifteen or so Japanese women, it only serves as a potent reminder of what I've left behind... Being in a room with Japanese women is often an extremely pleasant experience. I love it. But being in a room full of American women tends to be, by comparison, extremely unpleasant. Like being locked in a box full of poisonous snakes.
The fewer of their hissing, painted little faces that I see, the better.
(Teeny update: 11:30 PM, 07/03/02) Haruna sent me an email this past afternoon, asking if I was free to see her tonight... but I truthfully replied that I had a previous engagement, but I'd be overjoyed to see her again in the very near future. Indeed, I had previously arranged to see Kaori tonight... I went-over to her apartment for dinner, as she promised she'd cook for me before she left for Australia. Her parents were there too, and they were very polite about my tortured attempts to speak in their language. The food was quite nice... breaded pork cutlet over rice, with plenty of pickled and fresh vegetables. Kaori and I are going to be very busy over the next few weeks, it's well-nigh impossible for us to fit each other into our schedules... so we won't be able to do the whole kissy-naked thing again.
After dinner, I volunteered to help Kaori clear the table. As we did so, her parents were out of earshot. I quietly told her in English that I hoped she didn't have any misgivings about our intimacy a few nights before, all day I'd been quite concerned about whether or not I'd hurt her feelings. In response, she smiled widely and said that she had absolutely no bad feelings at all and that it was her pleasure. She added that she wanted to thank me for helping her practice English and helping her prepare her résumé- when I left for home, she gave me a box of frozen steaks as a present. (Her father, apparently, works as a meat wholesaler.)
Awww, what a sweetie! I'm gonna miss her...
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