Before
leaving for Japan, I shared an apartment with three Japanese roommates. When
they found out I was going to be studying in Japan, I got advice from everyone.
My friend, Junichi told me to never
tell Japanese girls that I like anime, manga, or video games and avoid
referring to myself as a otaku.
My
other roommate, Midori, a 19-year old female, said the same thing but she told
me that certain manga was acceptable like Case Closed (Detective
Conan.) I knew that I shouldn’t be taking the train, on a date, reading a
big oversized hentai manga so I never did that.
Midori gave me two volumes of Case Closed, in the original
Japanese, to read on the flight because it’s so long to get there and to help
me improve my Japanese reading ability.
I
wisely stored this information, somewhere deep inside my brain, because I
wanted to meet hot Japanese women and I wasn’t going to let some hobby get in
the way.
When
I first got to Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan (in Hirakata City)
there were girls everywhere because it’s a language college.
I
started getting numbers and going out right from day one at college. On one
date, I tried to appear very normal and thinking, “I’m not going to let my
otaku side come out at all. I really want this to work.”
So we strolled the streets of Umeda
with the Kanji signs blazing bright red and orange against the black night. We
had dinner at Meguro’s in Umeda near a shopping arcade. In all my time living
in Osaka, I have never found a better cheap restaurant than Meguro’s. At Meguro’s
women get a discount and men eat for around 1800 yen and it’s an all you eat
buffet. The first floor is Kaiten Sushi, which I always thought of as
Roto-Sushi. You sit at a small table next to a conveyor belt with different
types of sushi and sashimi rolling by. In addition to sushi, Meguro’s had
bananas with chocolate and various cakes. For the most part, Japanese women are
very thin, I believe my date was around 90 pounds so she didn’t eat much. I had
12 plates of various sashimi plus 2 plates of cake, then it was time for the
second floor which was pizza, fries, spaghetti, different pastas, and salad.
Again, I over did it. I wisely avoided the salad and consumed half a large
pizza (around 6 slices) myself. My date was still trying to keep up, eating
only one pizza slice. Next was the
third floor with soba and udon noodles and more sashimi. So of course I wolfed
down a big bowl of udon.
We
had a great time at dinner, as we walked around Umeda’s shopping district, then
tragedy hit. While walking around I noticed Mandrake, a big store packed
with retro anime and manga goods. I might have looked at it too long because my
date asked me what I was interested in. I could have lied at this point and
made up some story about helping humanity by joining the Peace Corps but I
didn’t. I believe in being honest and real with people so I let it out. I said,
“I like watching One Piece and reading Case Closed to help me
practice Japanese.” She didn’t response. So I passionately pursued how much I
love watching One Piece to which she replied her 8-year old brother
liked it too. She was just looking for a Western guy to hang out with and I
wasn’t normal enough so we didn’t really talk that much afterwards.
I
decided I was going to be myself around Japanese people and not take my
roommates advice and tell people exactly what I was all about.
A
month later, I met Ikumi (see photo at the top) and her friends at the
International Center. We hit it off
right at the start and I found out she was a big fan of Final Fantasy VII and
I told her that I liked Cased Closed and she didn’t mind at all. We took
the train out to Amerika-mura (American Village) to eat at a nice garlic
restaurant Ninnikuya, a Japan wide restaurant chain, and I ordered my usual
garlic pizza with white Alfredo sauce.
The
next time we went out, she invited her friends along for karaoke. I sang a few
Japanese songs like Morning Musume’s Love Machine and when I started
dancing, her friends joined it and we all sang the chorus together. That was
fun. She had some otaku friends that sang anime songs like Sobakasu from
Rurouni Kenshin by Judy and Mary.
The
best time was close to the end of the year for me. On my birthday, May 3rd,
she invited me to hang out at her dorm room. My friends advised me on the usual
pre-date talks. I was really excited about this. I was finally just being me
and it was working out just fine.
I
got to her dorm apartments for female students and quickly ducked into her tiny
room. You really should be discreet in Japan.
I have no idea what Ikumi wanted to do but I was about to find out.
Ikumi told me that she was a whiz at playing FF VII so we decided to do
that. Being polite I offered to go get
something to eat and I snuck back out like a ninja. Back in middle school I read several Stephen
K. Hayes books on Ninjutsu and stealth, never knowing when such knowledge would
be practical until that night.
I
returned with a bento for her and my usual snack consisting of 12 fried
takoyaki balls, 24 doughnut holes from Mister Donuts, and 2-quarts of Chocolate
ice cream from Lawsons. Watching Ikumi
play Final Fantasy VII was just breathtaking. She never once read a
strategy guide or looked up FAQs online. She was so into that game and made few
mistakes playing. We took turns playing
until 8am and then I decided to go. I
wanted to leave earlier before other students woke up but I got so immersed in
the game that I lost all sense of time.
It does help to play with a hot Japanese girl.
I dashed out of there and returned
back to the men’s dorm rooms a couple of blocks down the road. That was one of my best dates in Japan and I
wasn’t ashamed to bring out my otaku side at all. It actually helped me better
to be direct about it. Also, Ikumi and I are still good friends.
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