fast forward to one of my last nights in Tokyo.....

As Daniel, Jazmin, and I were out for the night (Jan 10), we got to discover first hand the craziness that is Tokyo. It was a pretty uneventful night for the first part of the evening. We had dinner at a burger place, which was tasty, but unfortunately not quite filling enough. We spent the better part of 10 minutes arguing over whether to get more food at a café before hookah or to get a little buzz because drinks at the hookah place would probably be pricey. We end up at a café and I got a soy latte accidentally instead of a chai latte and Jazmin was unsatisfied with her soup, so then we go to hit up the conbini (convenient store) get some snacks and double cans of beer (for Daniel and Jazmin). They proceed to sketchily drink their beers in less than 5 minutes in a hidden place in an alley while I eat my plum flavored gummies. We then walk down, take some pictures and eat pocky sticks without our hands, before entering the hookah place. We order a hookah, and drinks (a requirement for the place) and proceed to tell stories about our lives or others before one after the other going to the gambling place next door to use the restroom. Now for the fun part.

Right before Daniel leaves to go to the restroom, we decide that Jazmin and I will finish off our first hookah and order another one. As Daniel is out, Jazmin and I are happily finishing off our apple hookah when some guy who presumably, at first, didn’t feel like walking up a second flight of stairs yet, sits down next to me. He asks if he can sit, and Jazmin says yes. Then his friend from upstairs comes down and they say something and laugh (I of course will be oblivious to just about anything that gets said for the rest of the night). Daniel comes back at this point and introductions ensue, however I don’t catch their names, though maybe someone did. There’s lots of talking of where we are all from, how we know each other, etc. Turns out these two guys have known each for some time and are also friends with our waiter (Eddie!) who is half Japanese and moved to Japan from Britain. The rest of the night is somewhat of a blur, these two guys ordered ‘champagne’ which was actually sparkling wine (I know, I’m a snob) and we all drink (kampai)!

At this point, it’s become clear that the guy who originally sat down next to me is flirting with me. He keeps trying to speak with me, though is too intoxicated to remember that I don’t speak any Japanese, and so I continue to give him rather blank stares. They continue to talk and Daniel’s Japanese gets better as he drinks. Another bottle of sparkling wine appears (I check the bottle, it’s from Germany) and I end up with 3 glasses of wine in total plus the additional Tom Collins we had to start and I’m pretty decently tipsy. Somewhere in the course of the night, I remember someone saying that Daniel and I were a couple, attempts to get this one guy to stop flirting with me, and then later someone said the three of us (Daniel, Jazmin, and I) were a couple. Either way, it didn’t stop him. I went to put my hair up at one point, and Jazmin stopped me, but unfortunately too late. Apparently, this is considered a ‘sexy thing’ and I only made matters worse for myself with this guy playing with my hair soon afterward. Through all of this popcorn also appears on the table and beef jerky with Japanese mayo. It gets to the time when Daniel and I need to be heading home, so that we won’t miss the last train and so we say bye and head downstairs to pay. Eddie basically convinces us that these guys are rich and will pay for our bill, and after attempts at refusing, we give in and head out, leaving a 2600 yen bill.

We left the hookah place in complete shock. What had just happened? Of course we’re all a little tipsy and slightly loud about this and in efforts to continue talking, I take the longer route home to stay on the same train. The best part, Daniel and Jazmin think this guy is queer! It’s strange really, I already don’t do well with men obviously flirting with me in my own language, I apparently am even worse with men obviously flirting with me in a situation where we can’t communicate. It’s difficult trying to get across to someone that you’re not interested when you can’t just say it. And hey, at the end of the day, I saved myself like 9 dollars for putting up with it for like 45 minutes, and realistically, while the four of them all chatted away, I was perfectly content listening to the English radio station and dancing in my place.

Though I would have been perfectly content just spending the night with Daniel and Jazmin before I leave and Daniel leaves, the way the night turned out was totally ok, we had good times on our own, and really only would have smoked one more hookah in those last 45 minutes before paying and departing for the night. So all in all a good deal and a great story.