Gokon
Daz reckoned that he had 2 ANA girls and friends lined up for dinner. I applied a healthy dose of skepticism, and arranged to meet Matt instead, just 1 minute from them. In japan, they call it gokon. It's a setup where boy knows a girl, and boy and girl arrange to meet with several friends at izakaya for chat and see what sparks. I didn't attend, largely due to lack of trust toward anyone Dazza picks up.

After meeting with Matt, and knocking back the Renon Sowas, we split, and I dropped in to see how the boys were doing. Albert remained nonchalant as ever, present merely to hang out. Derek was giving it the chat, and had a captive audience, all members of which he felt no empathy toward. Darren was loving being in the company of so many girls. Vince was the disgruntled customer. In the end, the boys were left to pick up the tab, ~10 each, and one girl even darted out the door before the cheque arrived. My take on it is - eyes open. Everyone knew that the girls were only there for the free dinner, and the boys should have been more wily to that motive. Well - better luck next time.

Quote Matt: I think the only people who stopped searching for the next thing is the married and the dead.

Vince is thinking of leaving for Brazil. "The weather, the surf, the honies". Albert says: "We're losing the boys one by one.."

Went to a ResFest show (Videos that Rock) today - thanks largely to a website I am reading: gridskipper "for those who have left their backpacking days behind".

And now to do my Japanese homework, maybe watch a movie, and throw in the towel for the weekend.
- posted by Daniel @ Sunday, November 26, 2006 1 comments

 
Quiet like a mouse...
for over a month. and now the best thing i have to report is that i spent lunchtime running around the imperial palace. fantastic day, not cold, super clear skies, and a view to kill for. I love this city. I love this city. I love this city. The weather is starting to turn - i had to wear more than just a T last week. In mid November. Rah.

work is coming together. still insanely busy, but i'm at last starting to not screw up with such disturbing frequency. yet, there remains no time for social life. perhaps this week will bode well, i am not oncall, there is public holiday on Thursday, and inebriation - a long delayed debauchery - should happen tomorrow.

An interesting note. The reason why teeth are so bad in Japan, is that, simply, it was never (until recently) considered part of beauty. OK, you drop your jaws in disbelief, but think about all the British girls with their beer guts hanging over their jeans below their croptop. Lovely.

Another interesting note. Western women *do* make strange noises. When expressing surprise or disbelief, they are reasonably vocal (albeit at a lower decibel threshold than their Japanese counterpart). These noises are strange to others. At last I understand.
- posted by Daniel @ Wednesday, November 22, 2006 0 comments