After I gave up trying to catch a glimpse of my friend's second installation through the building's windows, he asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to see or do. Again, since I was not really familiar with the area, I left it up to him, but it was my idea to take a stroll through the terraced garden at the office and shopping complex. It was a gloriously bright and sunny day, but a bit on the chilly side.
"Nice jacket," I complimented about his black leather jacket. "Thanks, but it does a lousy job keeping me warm," he replied. As we climbed up the stairs to get to the garden, I told him that I had spent half an hour the previous morning volunteering to sweep up fallen leaves around the hotel.
"I sweep up the leaves around my company every day," he replied. "So, what exactly is it that your company does?" I asked. "What do you think?" he challenged.
"Well, you wrote about doing night diving practice and having a diving exam," I answered. I had shown some of his e-mails to my girlfriends at work who thought that maybe he was a Japanese Coast Guard or a member of the Self Defense Force. "Do you work with a rescue boat or something?"
"Ooooh! Close!" he answered. After a few more wrong guesses, he said, "So, should I just tell you? I'm a fireman." I remarked that his use of the word "company" completely threw me off, but he said that it was kind of a pain to explain to people. He also told me that 2009 will mark his 30th year as a fire fighter, as he joined right after he graduated from high school. He was transferred to his current station in October, and due to its proximity to the sea, he has to learn how to do night dives and rescues.
I was also surprised that he chose to tell me that he's going to become a grandfather during our garden stroll, less than half an hour into our real life acquaintance. His 22-year-old daughter is pregnant, but all he said was that he didn't want to become a grandfather at 48. Still, he didn't criticize her because he was 22 when he became a father (his eldest is a 25-year-old son). From time to time, he pointed out the handprints of famous Japanese people who visited South Osaka, including a couple of sumo wrestlers. I put my hand against a few of the giant impressions. One of the handprints belonged to an old Japanese rock singer. I asked what kind of music he liked, and most of the artists he mentioned were Japanese soloists or groups I am not familiar with.
By this time it was almost 11. I asked him if he was hungry. Since I was late getting ready to meet him, I hadn't really eaten, so I was relieved when he said he wouldn't mind getting something to eat. I showed him the two advertisements for Thai food places that I'd brought. I thought Thai food would be nice because he visited Thailand in February. There was a reasonable Thai buffet, but there was also a Thai fast food place in the food court near the station, so we decided to go there.
He asked what my recommendations were, so I picked two or three things that looked good. We each got a bowl of Thai rice noodle soup and shared an order of spicy fish cakes and a seafood pancake. I was not quick enough fishing out my wallet and was a bit surprised that he picked up the tab for lunch. He also got two glasses of ice water for us while we waited for our order to be brought to the table. (It's clear that 34K and our disaster date in September was an anomaly!!!!!!)
However, I discovered during lunch that he has a lot of culinary dislikes (sweets, spicy food, sour things). *Sigh*, meaning that all the dissimilarities I discovered between the Demon Surfer and I only served to emphasize exactly how perfect Mr. World would be as my boyfriend.
Still, the Demon Surfer and I found enough to talk about over lunch. I was worried that he was tired after his overnight shift, but he told me that he gets a lot more sleep at his new station because it is in a relatively remote place. At his old station, he was lucky to get about two hours a night.
I was happy that he made no attempt to end our date after lunch. He just said, "Shall we go?" and helped me bus our dishes to the dish return area. He suggested we have a coffee break at another Starbucks. I told him that coffee was on me since he paid for lunch. He didn't argue but simply said, "Thanks," and ordered a short ice coffee. He made a comment about my American sized grande white mocha. "I usually order a venti!" I laughed. As we waited for my drink to be made, I gave him the English phrase book I picked up at the 100 yen shop as a small gift. He had e-mailed that he wants to visit L.A. but lacks the courage.
Over coffee, I learned that he travels very light and unlike most Japanese tourists in that he doesn't obsess about details, maps and guidebooks. He has been to Houston a number of times as his younger sister and her family live there. L.A. is different because he would be going there without any safety net in the form of friends or relatives.
Since he is a surfer, he is drawn to San Diego. I told him that it's not that difficult to get to San Diego from L.A., and that if he is really worried about getting lost, he could always transit at LAX and get a flight to San Diego. However, with the Flyaway airport shuttle service, I told him that he could catch the shuttle from the airport directly to Union Station, which is where Amtrak has frequent service to San Diego.
I also decided to give him the rest of his holiday gift as we were about finished with our coffees. "Someone sent a gift set of instant coffee to our department and I got this jar. Please enjoy it," I explained as I pulled out the Nescafe bottle with the small gift bow I had stuck to the lid. I also apologized as I showed him the mocha cake I had baked the previous night. "I usually use hotcake mix in my rice cooker and it never sticks to the pot, but this time I used an actual cake mix which is a lot more delicate," I explained. Not knowing it was stuck, I tried to forcibly shake it loose, which caused a huge chunk to be ripped out of the cake. I just placed it chunk side down on a doily and wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap and tied some curling ribbon to it. "For sure you will have something tasty, though. I also brought some hotel pastries for you, just in case the cake turned out bad." However, after learning that he doesn't like having to hold things, I somewhat regretted giving him a bag to carry, however small and light. He joked, "I hope I don't forget it on the train! I'll have to put the handle on my wrist!"
By this time it was almost 2 p.m., but he still made no move to excuse himself and instead asked if I'd ever been to Amerikamura. This is where I got a bit nervous because Amerikamura ("American Village") is a bit dodgy with love hotels strewn here and there. As we walked, I said, "This must be Osaka's version of Harajuku," Tokyo's hangout spot for teenagers and young adults. "Oh, really? I wouldn't know. I've never been to Harajuku," he commented. But our walking tour was on the up and up...he made no attempts to detour into one of the pleasure dens, instead telling me that about 30 years ago, Amerikamura was a small area of only 3 shops, and one of them had a huge box of damaged/distressed Levi's out front with a sign that said, "Please help yourself." He made a pair of cutoffs from the jeans he took from the pile. "Wow, that's cool! Free Levi's?!" I remarked in disbelief.
After Amerikamura, we made a brief stop in the Apple Store because I wanted to see what kind of external hard disk drives were available. "Wouldn't it be cheaper to go to an electronics shop?" he suggested. "Yes, you're right, but I just want to see what is available and check my e-mail!" I sheepishly admitted. "Actually, I just love the computers with the huge displays. It makes me want to buy one!" I said as I logged in to Facebook.
He had said that he didn't really understand Speed Date or Facebook.
I had asked him at lunch what kind of women he was communicating with at Speed Date and was curious to see some of their profiles. He told me that mine was the only one he responded to because I had actually taken the time to write him a message (I told him that his profile photo was interesting--he posed between some statues or mannequins at a shopping center in Bangkok). The other profiles in his inbox turned out to be suggestions of women he should contact that were sent by Speed Date.
As for me and Speed Date, I got tired of getting winked at with no messages, or with messages that were pre-scripted by Speed Date. It showed a lack of originality on the part of the guys who were flirting with me. However, being uncomfortable with ignoring people, I decided it would just be better if I completely uninstalled Speed Date and not have to deal with it anymore.
Anyway, getting back to the Demon Surfer, I gave him a quick tour of Facebook's photo application, showing him how easy it is to upload things. After a brief bathroom break in the beautiful art deco Daimaru department store in Shinsaibashi, he took me on another walking tour of the Dotomburi area. I was a bit embarassed to find myself constantly making comments about the delicious smells, such as the grilled king crab in front of Kani Douraku, a restaurant famous for its giant mechanical crab signboard. I was touched when he said, "Well, if there's anything you want to eat or try, let me know. I'll get it for you."
The end of our tour was a stop at Houzenji temple, a place with statues of ojizo, the guardian deity of children, and, as I found out from Wikipedia, also of firemen! I later shared that factoid with the Demon Surfer by e-mail, thinking that he had taken me there because ojizo is important to him, but to my surprise, he replied, "Really? I didn't know that!"
On our way back to Namba station, we passed Rikuro's, a famous baked cheesecake shop. "They're very reasonable and good tasting. Do you want one?" he asked. I declined, saying that it was really too big for me to finish on my own, but my protests fell on deaf ears. "You can always stick the leftovers in your fridge," he said as he handed me the bag.
With that, he walked me to the ticket gate of the subway. "Next time I can meet you in Umeda," he said. "Umeda?! How about Kobe?" "OK, Kobe then," he smiled. I thanked him and bowed one more time before going through the turnstile and waving one last time before he disappeared into the crowd.
Once on board, I quickly sent a message to thank him for lunch and the cake. "I enjoyed getting to know you." His reply in Kansai dialect: "Mee to. (Smiley) Tanoshikatta de. It was fun. Tsugi wa Kobe. Next time Kobe (Wink)" O.K., so he can't spell, either, but the important words were, "Next time Kobe."
"Next time" he said! Woo hoo!
Today I invited the Tigress over for dinner because it was her birthday yesterday, but at work she told me that it wasn't a good birthday because she got into a fight with her husband.
