Foreign-Japanese dynamic

Yes, my updates are pretty intermittent. Not that a lot of people read it anyway, but I was inspired this weekend by my night out with some friends.

To start with, it was me and 3 other foreign girls (Another from America, one from Canada, one from England... we represented the typical West pretty well that night) and 2 Japanese guys. The only person in that group that I didn't know was the girl from England, but was still somewhat connected to her since she is going out with a guy in my program.

Anyway, the place we went to was a little izakaya (in that the floor plan was little, though it's apparently 6 floors) in Shinjuku that my Canadian friend had recommended. Not only are the beers 100 yen each, but the gyoza there is to die for. This essentially put me in the right mood for the night because I was free to drink as much as I wanted and it was a relatively small group so we could all converse pretty well together.

One thing I noticed was the conversational dynamic that is created when you get Western girls and Japanese guys together. As the boys confirmed, there is pretty much no way Japanese guys are going to be talking about topics like sex with Japanese girls, and yet much of the night we spent talking about that particular subject. In regards to America, though it may change with the relationship between the guy and girl, I can't imagine that a guy and girl who aren't particularly close friends could have a casual conversation about sex without the guy thinking this is a kind of hint that he might be able to hook up with her at some point. (I may be stereotyping a bit here and if you think differently, you're more than welcome to comment, but that's just what I have experienced.)

Though it doesn't inspire me to revitalize my search to attempt to understand Japanese guys, I found it quite interesting to observe.

(My attempt to figure them out went like this:

• Okay, I think I know what Japanese guys like. Kind of timid and cutesy, right?
• Fuck I don't know how to be cutesy, should I just be myself? Crap that scared them off.
• I have no fucking clue how to deal with them, shitshit what do I do?!
• Fuck it, this is too stressful, I don't give two craps anymore.
• Yay, American boy to play with! No more worrying about Japanese guys!)

And now... Pictures from that night!