A Date-Kind-Of-Thing In Kyoto

Today, I met Maya in Kyoto and spent the day hanging out and shopping with her. It was fun!

Amongst the finds was a store that sells only books about Japan or by Japanese authors but all in English. They had a ton of books there that I was interested in but thought better of buying due to my Tokyo trip on Friday. Maya and I ate lunch at a cafe that was named Tip The Giraffe or something like that with the word "giraffe" in the title. It was a good lunch; I had a dish called Hayashi rice which I can only describe as the Japanese version of chili and it was really good. Maya had a shrimp sandwich and French fries. After much debate, I paid for the lunch against her wishes but thought it only right seeing that she bought me lunch last time we went out. She was only happy when I told her she could pick up the bill next time we went out. And yes, there will be a next time.

Evidently, Japanese men are not known for their culinary expertise oustide of the select few that appeared on Iron Chef a few years ago. It looks as if I will end up making dinner for her and her friend when they come over for a movie night. I am not exactly sure how thats going to work seeing how I only have one good chair and one very uncomfortable chair and my bed as far as furniture goes. To top it off, my laptop doesn't have the biggest screen known to man so we are all going to have to sit kind of close to it in order to see. I suppose sacrifices will need to be made and we will all have to share the bed, darn. If Maya's friend looks anything like her, I will somehow find a way to cope with the cramped space I may find myself in despite the hardship. Or, reality sets in and I get the really uncomfortable chair while someone gets the nice chair and someone else gets the bed to sit on and we all scooch everything really close in so we can see the laptop screen. Either way, it will be fun.

Going into the day, I wasn't sure whether this was a "pity the lonely white guy" outing or a "I am helplessly enthralled in the white guy's manly charm and wit" actual date. Coming out of the day, I think it may have been a combination of the two but more heavily leaning toward the latter. While roaming through one of the shopping areas she told me I was cute in a very Japanese roundabout, kind of coy way. We were talking about babies and how she thought that Western babies were very cute because they have such big eyes and whatnot and then she told me she thought I was cute. I replied that she wasn't too bad herself and she just kind of giggled. As I said a post or two ago, this woman shows promise and now I know she at least has good taste in men. :P

The day didn't end in any glamorous fashion and I didn't really expect it to. We were both tired from walking around for almost five hours and I saw to it that she made it to her car witout any problems and that was pretty much that. We said goodbye, she left on four wheels, me on two. Overall, I am very satisfied how the day turned out and look forward to hanging out with her some more, she is fun to be around.

Looking forward, I have three teaching days this week and then its Tokyo for me. I bought my shinkansen tickets today for the excursion so I am all set as far as expenses go. The hotel is covered and now the trains are too. Its time to coast through the week and then crash into my favorite city this weekend for several days of video games at TGS, exploring in Akihabara, Double Bacon Cheeseburgers at Wendys, and relaxing evenings in a comfy bed at my hotel, reading newly purchased books and magazines in English from Tower Records in Shibuya. Life is pretty damn good right now from where I am sitting.

I leave you with a laid back sunset pic from a laid back street in Kyoto, have a good day, I know I did.