`dating` in japan and the shibuya party

call me a romantic if you want but in the back of my mind i was thinking my minibreak in tokyo tuesday had real hook-up potential; someone that would give me a reason to extend my currently very brief trips to the city; maybe even a hey-let`s-spend-christmas-in-kyushuu-together dream guy.

rewind a little: on sunday night i went out with one of my `boyfriends` from last summer. it was fun...stopping at one of the beaches just around sunset, driving thru the little towns up north (it`s really beautiful on the coast and the weather`s still nice too), dinner at this really great restaurant, and despite the occassional language difficulties a surprisingly good conversation. but i just saw it as a nice little reunion with a friend that lives not too far away, not a date. Yes he picked me up and paid for everything but to me it was just another guy friend to hang out with. maybe too many guy friends. afterwards i decided i seriously needed to expand my support network to include girls and if at all possible, foreigners.

and so i went to the mit intern/alum party thing in shibuya. there were about 40 of us at this really nice lounge spot in trendy, young, crowded, times-square-on speed, shibuya. just trying to cross the street is an adventure. getting to tokyo was another adventure that i wont go into except to say that on holidays my little train line doesnt run between 8 and 10am and i found myself walking for 35 minutes to get to the jr line and i ended up very, fashionably, late.

i knew a lot of the interns already from japanese classes and last summer, and had even made some tentative travel plans with some of them by email. one of the young black alums made a big deal about trying to impress me and just came off really weak and corny, for lack of a better word. even worse he came to the event with his girlfriend who understandably was not so thrilled by his interest in me. the crowd seemed to love him though, especially when he did a duet with another alum (she`s been pursuing a singing career in japan for the past 4 years and sings at these clubs regularly). i have to admit it was a very entertaining rendition of the jackson 5`s ill be there. i also realized why he`s been in japan 4 and a half years now and has no immediate plans of returning to the u.s.: here in japan he`s `cool`, `funny`, smart, well-off (really nice IT job w/ a really great apartment that the alums sometimes host events in), not hard on the eyes...he`s living it up in tokyo but maybe he wouldnt be such a star back home.

anyway i did catch up w/ old friends and did some networking w/ alum who were eager to help me get jobs at their companies, but then on the way home realized how much i really dont want to work in japan full-time. i need to live closer to my family, i dont want to be the newest city attraction anymore, the cost of living sucks, housing is ridiculously overpriced and undersized, i dont ever want to become a`work zombie salaryman,` and i obviously need a larger dating pool unless i can get my christmas in kyushuu guy imported.

other random thoughts/follow-ups: i promised to go bike riding along the coast saturday (wish me luck). there`s a really interesting cultural exchange club for foreigners i discovered at last weekend`s festival-plan to check it out next week. there havent been any major earthquakes in a while, and i havent been to the yamaya since itunes.