Enjoy Evening

Friday evening. Male I hardly know. Dinner. Drinks.

I don't really have a strategy per se when it comes to this kind of situation. But given that the male in question was foreign, had been in Tokyo for some time, was the other side of 35, dated Japanese women on a regular basis but hadn't found the "right one", and was beginning to doubt he ever would, I reckoned that it was going to be my job to spend the evening telling him to get real, wise up, sort it out.

Apparently not. This guy had it all sussed out. From why most Japanese women did not satisfy him mentally (the conveyor belt theory) to what constitutes a perfect relationship (the electron/proton theory). Not only did he have himself, life, love and the universe sussed, he had also given some thought to his friends' various psychoses as well.

Quite unnerving to say the least, especially from someone who spends a lot of his spare time in a jock strap (I'm assuming re: the strap and over-generalizing re: the observation).

We ended up putting the world to rights in Enjoy House until 2.30 am.

I hold my liquor better than most Japanese women apparently.

Comments

[Frank Black]

When you have time, please share the "conveyor belt theory".

[an-fi]

Just wondering what "sussed out" means. I like your blog very much, by the way. I tune in regularly. And how is DAP? Haven't heard much about --um, it/he/she-- lately...

[tokyoredhed]

Frank - the most interesting thing about the conveyor belt theory, for me at least, was not the actual theory itself, the content of which could become pretty obvious to most people if they hung around here long enough, but rather the very diplomatic delivery of the obvious.

Basically, he suggests that when many (but by no means all, I hasten to add) Japanese women (or men for that matter) travel down the conveyor belt of life, they somehow miss out on a lot of the mental and emotional components and experiences, good and bad, that people like us i.e. foreigners, take for granted. And so while they might come off the assembly line looking fairly well in order and sometimes perfect. When you actually go to "use" them you find that they are a bit faulty or not up to the task. It is not their fault however, it's just that they are on a different conveyor belt, from say someone like me, who can handle her liquor.

Now before the complaints about mass over-generalization come rolling in, I'd like to say in his and my own defence, we were talking about his overall experience and my overall experience to date. Of course, it could be that there is something wrong with us (which I, at least, am happy to debate at length with anyone who wants to) or as he himself said, we just haven't met the "right" woman (or man for that matter). So if someone else out there reading has had a different experience - then I'm really happy for you and suggest you go write about it on your own blog and leave me a link :-)

an-fi - thanks for the comment and the compliment. It's really nice (and weird) to find out that people other than my dear Frank, and my known friends actually read regularly.

How was he sussed? I don't know really. I suppose he spoke with alarming clarity on his current life situation and wasn't particularly whinging about it either. I guess in my book that makes someone sussed but then I suspect my definition is pretty skewed by my own experiences...

Speaking of which - DAP - is fine. He no longer lives with me but does visit fairly regularly, particularly when I'm tidying up and doing housework for some reason. He also seems to like music. Part of me sometimes hopes that he will never go away because I don't want to lose the connnection with what caused him to appear in the first place. But I beginning to sense that it doesn't work that way. Thanks for asking!