music: stop playing guitar- the promise ring
its about 7am and i cant sleep, so i decided to use this time to update, since it’s been ages. So what’s been happening, well, two weekends ago i went wine tasting with yui and her dad and their wine tasting group. it was at this tiny little french restaurant,and we took up the entire place. We had about 15 glasses of wine: champagne, red, white paired with a bunch of different delicious foods. it was great. There were a few people who could speak english and i really had such a great time, i cant wait until the next one. My dad would have loved it.
i somehow managed to peel myself from my bed the next morning, of course after tossing back a couple aleves and hopped on my bike to make the trek to the mall for some starbucks and mall wandering. I had sowme breakfast and coffee at starbucks then walked around for a bit. picked up an old owen and elliot smith cd, a couple scarves from the hippy store i love, one purple one for my coffee table and one funky mustard yellow one for my neck. i then picked up some movies and headed home to watch movies in bed for the rest of the night.
the next morning i woke up and threw on no direction home and then, realizing my bob dylan obsession, headed back to the mall to grab a dylan box set, came home, watched more movies, all in all, took it easy. very enjoyable.
the next week flew by. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, time flies here. it’s ridiculous. i think maybe it’s my 11-8 work day. i wake up, i make coffee, i eat breakfast, i go to work, i come home i have dinner watch a movie and go to bed. and the next thing you know its the weekend again. i dont mind it one bit.
Yui and i went out for a midweek dinner and wine break last week. we went to this great asian fusion restaurant close to where we live, the same place arden and dawn took mike and i on our first night in okazaki. great food at that place. best pad thai i’ve had in my life. anyways, we said only two glasses of wine but of course that turned into 5. her and i are bad/great news for each other. i know she’s reading this too, HI YUI!!! anyways, we had a fun night and the owner invited us to some lunch party there on february 10th, which i think i will go to. so that’s cool.
So last weekend, i decided that after work on saturday, i was going to go out on the town in nagoya, alone. I decided i need to make more friends. I love yui and ai to death, but now with kanika gone, i need to know more people close to me. i want to have people to call up to hang out with on weekends. so after work saturday, i went home, prettied myself up and hopped on a train to nagoya to hit the town. this was a big feat for me. i mean, going out by myself like that, to a bar. sure i would do that at absinthe, but that’s because i knew i would know everybody there. here i was, going out, knowing i would know NOBODY. but i knew i needed to do it, i wasnt going to meet new friends drinking wine alone in my apartment watching romantic comedies. i walked around sakae for a while looking for somewhere to go, i passed Hub, a sort of irish style pub that looked busy so i went inside, bought myself a vodka soda (jumbo size) and took position against the bar. and thats all i needed to do. the place was packed with foreigners and i ended up meeting so many interesting people. i think you are more approachable when you are alone. anyways, i met this older australian guy who was in japan on business, flying to thailand the next day. he had been to japan numerous times and had plenty of great stories. and listening to funny stories about japan while being told in a great australian accent was thoroughly enjoyable. while australian dude was grabbing me a drink, a good looking guy walks by me, stops, turns and asks me “what are you doing?”i just shrug and say “drinkin” and he says “alone?” to which i respond, “yea.” so he introduces himself, mark, and we talk a bit, then australian guy returns with my drink so mark laughs and says “you’re not alone!” i explain that i just met this guy and so mark introduces himself and the australian guy (i forget his name) introduces himself and they make small talk for a bit, then mark returns to his friends.
Australian guy and i talk for a bit more then mark walks back up to us and asks me if i come to nagoya often, i tell him yes, pretty much every weekend, so he hands me a card and tells me that he lives just a few blocks away from hub and he’s written down his phone number and email address on the card and that i should call him next time i’m around and we’ll meet up for a drink or whatever. the card is like a postcard but with a picture he sketched of a river in tokyo. i’m intrigued. so he goes back to his friends and australian guy and i talk a bit more then he has to go because he catches an early flight, i dont mind, he was interesting, but much too old for me and i wanted to talk to mark more, so he leaves and i go back to mark. He laughs as i approach and apologizes because he says he was just serenading his friend alan with allentown. “allentown, billy joel, do you know that song?”he asks me, i laugh “yes, i know that song”… we all know my billy joel thing. anyways, we chat for a bit, he’s hilarious and witty and interesting, after a while his friends are leaving so as does he, and he tells me to make sure i use that card.
I then meet these two really cool people from morocco, in fact the woman is the aunt of the guy who is my age. turns out she owns this moroccan restaurant in nagoya and he’s a chef there. she’s really dry humoured and eccentric and cool, and he’s got great long hair and good style, they just oozed cool. so i end up hanging out with them for the rest of the night, they take me to different bars around the city until i have to catch my train home. im stoked to go to their restaurant, they have hummus and that makes me so happy because i thought there was no way i would find hummus in japan.
anyways, i spend the rest of the weekend in bed watching movies with junkfood, unable to bring myself to do anything else. its like now i can party one night on the weekend and then i am finished for the rest of my life, and by life i mean the rest of the weekend. me, alyssa, can only party one night a week. i know. insanity.
SO i get up the guts to contact mark. i send him an email and ask him if he’d like to meet for a drink or something this weekend. he tells me he’s going to osaka saturday but asks if i’d like to meet friday after work, he finishes at 8:30 and knows a great restaurant/pub in sakae where we can eat and talk. unfortunately i work until 9 fridays and would have to catch the last train home as i work saturday so we’d be majorly pressed for time, so i ask him if thursday would be possible. he emails back saying he teaches a private lesson until10:30, so he wouldnt be able to make it out until close to 11, tells me to think about if friday would be possible…
he then emails me back like a minute later and says he’ll cancel that class and have dinner with me thursday. !!!!!!!!!
sooooo, i’m having dinner with him tonight, and i am beyond excited. it’s been a while since i’ve felt excited about a boy like this. so this makes me happy. this is probably why i cant sleep because i’m a huge loser and never get dates.
anyways, sorry about the gushing but i reaaaaaaaaaally needed to gush and this was the perfect place to do it at this moment. my apologies. 
i’m also starting to get anxiety about not doing enough travelling while i’m here. i need to get out and see more, it’s actually stressing me out. i feel like i have so much i still need/ want to do, and my time here keeps getting shorter and shorter. AH!
ok i need coffee, i will write more soon.
xs os.
alyssa
