Tokyo Graph's 電車男 (densha otoko)

[千秋 D.]

I was really debating on whether or not I should post this, but since I've been telling friends recently, might as well.

So here's the deal. I've been trying to hook up with this girl in Tokyo. I'm really interested in her. I believe we have a good connection and all and we've been consistently talking on the phone until late at night and mailing (texting) each other daily.

So I guess I'll start with when I first met her. It was around summer of last year and when I came back from America and my friend invited me out to a BBQ with his surfing friends. I was jet lagged but I was good enough to hang out. So I went to the beach BBQ and met her there.

Let's refer to this girl as Minami-chan from now on (in reference to Minami Akina and Asakura Minami from Touch:D). So Minami-chan was actually the hottest girl at the party. There was about forty people there and they're all surfers so you be the judge based on that information. Anyways she seemed like a really mellow chill girl when i talked to her. At the party, everyone started to drink and get drunk and we chatted more. Then the conversation came up about her being dumped recently by her boyfriend. Only about a month had passed at that point.

I was thinking that at the time she must be in a really delicate state. Knowing this, I had a feeling a lot of the surfer dudes there would try to take advantage of her state of mind and also the environment with all the drinking going along. So I made my rounds mingling with other people and when I came back to her she was really drunk. As we were talking, she kept getting closer and closer to me. You kinda know that there's a comfortable space between people when talking, well she was constantly trying to cross that boundary. I was thinking that she was drunk and she probably doesn't no any better so I kept trying to move back/away to keep a comfortable distance, but she kept closing in. Another guy tried to come in and talk to her but she just ended up hiding behind me.

So afterward, we decided to all take a picture of the group at the party and she ended up sitting in the spot next to me (on her own free will). After the picture all the guys asked for her contact info and gave it to her. Here's where things get fuzzy for me (I was also drinking too:D ). I don't know how I got her contact info, but here's what happened according to my questionable recollection.

We actually were heading back the same way home taking the same train so we said we'd go back together up until the point we needed to change different trains. On the train she asked me for my info and I was gladly willing to give it to her. So we exchanged info then on the train. Anyways, the point is that we exchanged each other's info. From then on, we mailed (texted) each other every so often and her messages were always full of thought and interesting. Different from all the other girls I've met.

Unfortunately, I don't live anywhere close to Tokyo. I'm a three and a half hour train ride away and she finally wrote a mail asking when I'd come down again so we can hang out. Sadly, I was extremely busy at the time with work/tests/grad school applications/etc. I told her that I wasn't sure when I'll be able to come down next time and we gradually stopped contacting each other shortly after that.

[千秋 D.]

Fast Forward a couple of months later to February of this year.

I was out singing karaoke with a friend and we were talking about our love life. My friend wondered if I ever really liked anyone since my time here and the only real answer I can give was the girl I met at the beach (Minami). For some reason she has always been on the back of my mind. Maybe the timing wasn't right.

So my friend suggested that I should just write a 'long time no see/how are you doing?' message to her. It wouldn't hurt. So from last messaging her on August 7th, 2008 to February 19th, 2009 I wrote her a message basically saying:


Long time no see.

How are you?

It's xxxxx, Do you remember me?


Next thing I know, a very LONG message comes back on my phone saying that she of course remembers me:D She also talked about what she's been doing since then and we finally got to messaging each other again.

Eventually, we started to mail each other so much that I asked her if I can call her via a text message. Next thing I know, I get a call from her on my phone. So we ended up talking the whole night before we both needed to sleep to get ready for work the next day.

We'd mail each other daily and talk on the phone at nights. Our conversations are always interesting. And I found myself enjoying the time I spend communicating with her. We'd talked about a lot of things from our families to work to interests to worries. I was really falling for this girl. <3

However, I've been dodging a very important question. Whether or not she had a boyfriend or not. At first I didn't want to know. I was questioning how can such a pretty and interesting girl be without one. When I finally asked her, she said that she didn't. But she hesitated. She then explained that she kinda did have one, but that it's over. Her older sisters kept telling her that she needed to stop and she said the she will.

So finally I had the chance to meet up with her again. The friend who took me to the beach BBQ that first time was having a live show. I invited her out to it and she agreed.

[migimaru]

Where's the rest of the story?? hahaha :D

[千秋 D.]

We decided to meet up on the day of the live show. The live show started at 6:00 p.m. while my friend's band was slated to perform at 6:30 p.m. Considering the situation, I suggested that we meet up at around 3:00 p.m. I thought this would be enough time to actually really get to know each others habits and stuff. Didn't want it to be too early either just in case things didn't work out well and that the somewhat limited time would be an easy way out.

Anyways, I suggested that we go shopping. I think shopping is like the ultimate first date. You find out about your partner's tendencies, habits, likes and dislikes. You'll have a better understanding of their pacing and attention span. And most importantly, there's plenty of opportunity to talk about various things. Coincidentally, I had to go shopping for my dad's birthday gift so it was a good chance to see what she how she'd react to the situation.

So after all that shopping, we both ultimately bought nothing:p Kind of refreshing in my mind. I was more concerned with whether or not we could communicate well with each other and have a nice connection. I believe we did. We still had a bit of time before the live show so we decided to have a cup of coffee at a nearby cafe chain. We chatted some more and the conversations began to get even more interesting and in depth.

So the time came to head out to the venue. We arrived, had a drink, and watched a few bands performed. Surprisingly, she told me that this was her first time at this kind of environment. A few of my other friends came by and I introduced her to them. Even more surprising (to her actually) was that one of my close friends had met her before. They took a surfing class together once and she was really happy to see another person she knew. I actually knew that my close friend surfed at the same area, but didn't think that they had already met before. I had this situation in mind and thought that it would make her that much more comfortable. Didn't think it'd work out this well:cool:

So yeah, it was a long live show and we only really wanted to see our friend's band. I was hoping to get her to come drink and hang out with my other friends afterward, but she said that she needed to head back already. So, I walked her back to the station. She, being a native of Tokyo, didn't know the way back to the station, but fortunately for her, I did:cool: It gave us a bit more time to talk and she told that she had a really great time. We said our goodbyes and promised to keep contacting each other.

[千秋 D.]

Ever since then, we've been contacting each other regularly. Even more so than before. We'd talk on the phone about every other day for about one to two hours just reflecting about our days and asking each other questions. She'd also talk about how much she'd like to come visit my area and I'd talk about all the places I'd take her to.

I really felt that everything was going well. I mean, a person wouldn't spend this much time talking to another person and saying all these types of things without having some sort of romantic interest, right? She talks about coming to my area to visit, she spends the time to talk to me on the phone, she even calls me...I feel confident that we can become romantically involved. And so I started thinking about how we can get to that next stage.

So about a month passed of staying in constant contact with each other. Fortunately, I needed to head back down to Tokyo for a special meeting with a research center's director. A good excuse to give my work, but I would've taken a couple of days off went down to hang out regardless:p After letting Minami know that I'd be in town, she agreed to spend some time with me while I was there.

[TsubasaDragon]

wow this is awsome would you mind if i post the thread link on other forums????

[千秋 D.]

Just link them here to the thread:cool:

I'd prefer you to not cut and paste onto other forums:(, but whose there to really stop you from doing that...

[TsubasaDragon]

Just link them here to the thread:cool:

I'd prefer you to not cut and paste onto other forums:(, but whose there to really stop you from doing that...

i said: wow this is awsome would you mind if i post the thread link on other forums????

which means that im just linking them any way.

[千秋 D.]

ooohhhhh

my bad (;^_^A

Since it's posted up here already, it's pretty much up for publice viewing:p

Will update soon. It'll get a bit long and in depth from here on out...

[TsubasaDragon]

okay man i'm lookinf forward to it :)

[KRAN]

Woah there is a tokyo graph densha otoko!!! awsome....

[千秋 D.]

All right, so let me give you some background on my current situation. For a very long time I have been preparing and applying for graduate school. This past winter, I finally finished my applications and was waiting for the results from schools in both Japan and America. Therefore, every so often I would come down to the Tokyo area for information and meetings with school administrators and professors. I'd also travel back to America for similar stuff but mainly for scholarship interviews.

I just recently got my results and got accepted to two schools. A Japanese language research center in Yokohama, and another graduate school in New York (^_^)v. This information will somewhat come into play later on ;)



So, after making a visit to the research center and talking to the director, Minami and I met up later that night. We decided to meet up in Shinjuku at 7:00 p.m. We knew that we wanted to go eat and get a drink. The problem was we didn't really know where to go. Since I had free time anyway, I ended up going to Shinjuku earlier than the agreed time and checked out the surrounding restaurants and bars. I had a few places in mind and decided to run it by Minami after we met up.

At about 6:30 p.m., she messaged me saying that she'll be late by about forty minutes. The last time we met, she ended up being late by thirty minutes, too. I'm actually ok with people being late, I'm more of an early person anyway:cool: Anyways, I thought waiting for thirty minutes wouldn't be bad so I arrived at the place where we were supposed to meet up at 7:00 p.m. I thought it would be a good time to start mailing (texting) friends about other plans once I get back as I waited for her. And waited. And still waited. She actually ended up being an hour late and said that she had to teach the new people the data entry system and ended up staying later than plan. Since I'm a pretty patient guy, I was cool with it. I actually thought up of something to say to her when she apologizes for being late. I told her that I'd wait until forever for her. Just trust me on this, sounds way better in Japanese than in English.

南ならいつまで待つよ。

She replied asking why I said such a cool thing to her. The answer I came up with (in my head) was that I had plenty of time to think waiting for her:p

So, we ended up walking and talking while looking at the places I thought were decent. Nothing really appealed to us at the time and it seems like she was indecisive herself. I had a feeling something like this might happened, so I said to just leave it to me and that I know some really nice places we can go to. So we took a taxi and went to the Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku where there was a very trendy lounge bar/cafe.

The hotel was very, very nice. She was amazed just walking into it and told me she'd never been in a place such as this. The reason I knew about it was because a friend of mine stayed at this hotel for a while due to some business (his partners developed some new type of server and were presenting it to Honda). So yeah, five star hotel meaning...five star prices. But hey, might as well go all out since you only live once is what I say. The lounge bar/cafe was very nice. They had live jazz music playing throughout and the food was excellent. The drinks were ok considering the expensive prices, but the atmosphere was well worth it.

So throughout our stay we talked a lot. We talked about various things. I really enjoy talking with her as opposed to other girls I've talked to. Anyways, we got into the topic of her ex-boyfriend. That came about when I asked her how her first date was. She said she didn't date until after she started working and that her first date ended up being her first boyfriend. That was pretty surprising I though. Didn’t think someone would finally begin dating that late in life. Also, this was the ex that she had just broken up with at the time I first met her. Sure a good amount of time has passed, but obviously she still had feelings for him. And the biggest problem of all (considering my position), the ex-bf is a co-worker of hers and works in the same office as she does.

[千秋 D.]

Apparently, she still contacts her ex from time to time. When they were dating, she had always thought that they'd end up marrying each other. Considering her situation, she seems to be in a very difficult position having to see the guy she thought she'd marry on a daily basis. Her sisters' advice to her was to simply quit her job (jokingly and seriously). Apparently though, he seems to have no more feelings for her and takes quite a long time before he contacts her back. Still, hearing about this made me sad. For her feelings as well as my own:(

After hearing about this, it seems that my chances with her were falling deeper and deeper. After talking about her past relationship, we changed the subject so that we can enjoy the moment more. We talked some more about various things; things that she wouldn't talk about with other people besides her own family and things that she wouldn’t consider even talking about with other guys. She told me that she doesn't really hang out with too many people or have a lot of friends. She even told me that she doesn't go out with guys or contacts them much at all.

Hearing all of this, I wondered what I meant to her? Am I just a friend for her to confide in? Or am I a replacement for her ex in times she feels lonely? I also don’t understand all the flirting and talks that we've had over messages and phone conversations. I guess I could be interpreting my relationship with her incorrectly, but what else could I do? I ended up liking her anywhere and I felt that there was no point in hiding my feelings for her. I would like to think that she got the feeling of me liking her, but there's only one way to make sure that she completely understands how I feel about her. And the way to do that is by confessing to her. Actually, I was planning on confessing to her sometime on this date, but upon hearing the situation she is in with her ex, it made me hesitant. I decided to put the confessing off for now and just enjoy my time with her.

So, we decided to finish up where we were at and head on to the next place. At first, Minami wanted to see if there was an area in the hotel to view Tokyo's skyline. I wasn't really sure at this hotel, but I knew of another bar that had a really nice view and suggested that we go there. She agreed and as we left, we actually got to see some cherry blossoms that were in full bloom. At nighttime, many places in Japan add some sort of spotlight from the ground lighting up the trees emphasizing the cherry blossoms. It was the first time this year that Minami saw the cherry blossoms and it was an unexpected positive addition to the overall atmosphere of our outing;)

We took a taxi to our next destination and ended up at another famous hotel's bar, this time with a view of the city skyline. We were lucky enough to get a special seating that included a sofa right next to the window giving us a direct view of Tokyo's skyline with Tokyo Tower:cool: Minami was very excited when she saw Tokyo Tower. I was really happy that she was having such a good time.

So we had one more drink and finished up because I had to take the last train back. I asked her if she was free the following day and if she was willing to go out with me again. She said she was free and she was willing to spend another day with me:D

[pixie464]

Look dude she digs you, all the signs are there by what I’ve read so far it seems like it’s the real deal, you should take out again and just tell her how you feel, trust me If I had half the dates you described and that chemistry I’d secretly start planning my wedding!
If you’re too shy or think that confessing might end what you have then isn’t just being with her enough for now. The only thing you have to have to be careful about that does she see you as the best friend and not boyfriend material. Good luck and keep us updated on the states.
Go get her tiger.

remember she wouldnt go out with you the next day if she didn't like you!!!

[TsubasaDragon]

you should give an opinion about her ex boy friend saying things such as "I can't believe he couldn't love a girl like you anymore, if i was in his position i wouldn't do that to a girl such as awsome as you"

Maybe a bit to obviouse to say but maybe this might be the only you chance can get.

As one of the 2channel member once said to Densha Otoko himself:
Look you're up against one women.
You've got all of us by your side!

and yes i am by your side I am 17 i havent got a girlfriend myself yet and reading your story wants me to support you as much those people supported Densha him self. i believe in you that you win her heart.

[千秋 D.]

Thanks for the support everyone :D All of you are awesome (^_^)b I'm really happy everyone is behind me, but there's still a lot more to be told and I still haven't reached the current condition I'm in right now with "Minami." I've been posting in installments since it's a pretty long story and reading it as a single post would probably kill your eyesight. I've been talking to some friends about this too and it usually takes me between two and three hours to get through everything. We're about two-thirds of the way through so far so hang in there. The story will become more interesting from here on out in my opinion. And if you want a reference to time, we're talking about what happened two weekends ago ;)

[TsubasaDragon]

I have an idea! take her to dance class that you both can do together, one that you can do for free the first time to see if it's fun. Wouldn't it be a nice thing to dance with her?

anyway do they have in japan that such kind of thing where the first lesson is free?

[pixie464]

Thanks for the support everyone :D All of you are awesome (^_^)b I'm really happy everyone is behind me, but there's still a lot more to be told and I still haven't reached the current condition I'm in right now with "Minami."

well hurry up then you've got me on my toes waiting...what's the update?

[千秋 D.]

Sorry for taking a bit of a break. A lot of work came up and I wasn’t able to do much outside of it last week (;^_^A

So continuing from where I left off. We had a really nice time the previous night and we decided to meet up again the following day. Instead of meeting at night, we decided to meet up at 3:00 p.m. And just like all the other times, Minami came late to our meeting place. This time she only came 30 minutes late and I guess you can say that it’s an improvement somewhat.

We then headed to our first destination. Actually, we missed our stop because we were so caught up in our conversation. We ended up taking another train back a couple of stops to our actual stop. Our first destination was an outlet store to do a little window-shopping. We decided to have a late lunch first and then spent the next hour browsing around.

After that, we went to my favorite place in the area. Next to the outlet, there is a unique pet store that sells very rare and exotic pets. The animals in this pet store are constantly on television shows and are even regulars on a variety show called Tensai! Shimura Doubutsuen. Anyway, the store has many pictures of famous Japanese people with the animals from the store. The two of us spent about 2 hours or so in the store and Minami was having a really good time interacting with the pets. She especially had fun with one monkey that kept holding onto her hand. Going to that shop made both of us want to get a pet of our own.

As we left the shop, Minami spotted a purikura machine and wanted to take some. If you don’t know what purikura are, they are just mini sticker-like photo booth pictures with lots of digital backgrounds and designs. Purikura are UBER popular in Japan and Minami, shockingly, hasn’t taken any purikura since her high school days (o_O). So she was really excited to take some and I was the one she took it with (@_@). After taking the purikura, she put the pictures in her purse and we left for our next destination.

The next place was the highlight of the night. Minami and I went to the Hakkejima Sea Paradise aquarium. It was about 6:30 p.m. when we left the pet store and we ended up at the aquarium at around 7:05 p.m. On the way to the aquarium, it started raining. I was prepared for this since I checked the weather this morning and it called for rain at night. So throughout the whole day, I had an umbrella in my right hand. Minami as well as everybody else I saw today didn’t bother to carry an umbrella today. As a result, we shared an umbrella on our way to the aquarium.

So we arrived at the aquarium at 7:05 p.m. and the last show of the day started at 7:00 p.m. We bought our tickets and ran to the theater and were lucky to see a good portion of the show. Right from the start, Minami had that genuine look of having fun. She told me she really loved the show and hopes to come back again.

After the show, we had about an hour left to check out the rest of the aquarium. I believe we were the last people to buy tickets to the aquarium and everyone else after the show went home. So Minami and I ended up being the only people left in the aquarium. There was literally no one else there besides the fish and other marine animals. We took our time looking at all the fish and some of the other marine animals seemed to have noticed us as well. The walrus that was just lying about came up to the glass after we tapped it and said hello to us with his flipper. It was pretty cool especially with nobody else around. And I mean nobody. They even stopped the escalator tube that was surrounded by a large aquarium. Seemed like it was straight out of one of those J-doramas in my opinion (^_^)v

So after hearing the final recorded announcement that the aquarium was closed on the overhead speakers, we headed toward the exits only to find out that they had had closed them down. Another worker found us and was surprised to see that there were still people there. She escorted us out using the employee exits. I told this to one of my friends and he decided to definitely take note and hopes to have this situation happen, too.

Minami was pretty tired by then and we decided to take a break at the food court. We both had a drink and ended up talking for another hour before going back. On our way back, we spotted a playground and spent time there talking and copying the animals we saw at the aquarium.

We both decided that we’d go to one more spot and have a drink before our last train home.

[TsubasaDragon]

It feels like it's getting closer to a confession!!

[千秋 D.]

After the aquarium, Minami and I got on the train going back. The line itself is a special line, kind of like a monorail. Since it was pretty late, there was hardly anyone on the train and we ended up in a train car alone together.

Minami was really tired and decided to lie down on the seats. Her head wasn’t on my lap but just next to it and we talked in that position. She seemed to be not thinking too much at the time and we were just enjoying the time passing by. We talked about a few things and she was telling me how much fun she’s been having with me.

She asked me who my favorite actress was and I listed off a couple. A lot of those actresses were in dramas and movies I liked and most of them were romance-themed. I told her how much I liked the romance genre and that how there isn’t much chivalry in Japan. I told her that maybe she should try dating a foreigner because foreigners are a lot more romantic and more passionate when it comes to love and relationships. She responded by saying うん un or in English “yes/yeah” (not in agreement, but to let me know that she was listening). I followed up my statement by asking her if she’d like to try going out with me.

And that’s how I made my confession to her. There was a bit of a silence for about two to three minutes before Minami got up from her position and looked at me in shock, and then lied back down. About five minutes passed and she got up again and asked me if I was serious and I told her that I was. When I date someone, I don’t date just to date lightly. I then told her that I was really serious and that because I like her, I want her to go out with me. So after that short conversation, she lied back down and was pretty much speechless.

This went on for another 5 minutes and seeing that it was a bit uncomfortable for her, I decided to change the subject and talk about the pet store we visited. We continued talking about other things and we finally arrived at the last spot of the night. It was a bar/café and Minami only had about forty minutes left before her last train. We sat down ordered drinks and pretty much drank in silence for about five minutes and whenever I glanced towards here she’d let out a small chuckle since she knew that I was expecting some sort of answer from her.

And then she finally gave her reply. She told me that at the moment (or right now), she can’t go out with me. She said 今 ima which means "right now." I even pointed out that she said "right now," implying that there may be a possibility in the future. She laughed and said that there are two reasons why she can’t go out with me. The first, and most obvious, is that she hasn’t forgotten about her ex-boyfriend. I can understand that reason and she’s also in the situation where she sees the dude constantly since they’re co-workers. But her feelings for him are still there and that’s something she needs to get over. The second one is where things got fuzzy and confusing for me. I interpreted her second reason as that she currently doesn’t like herself at the moment or has no confidence in herself. So before she can consider going out with somebody, she would like to first like herself more. At an important moment like this, this is where being even more fluent in Japanese would of helped me out indefinitely.

So my reply to her was that her boyfriend was her boyfriend and I am I (sounds weird in English but much better in Japanese). And if she had any feelings for me, I suggested that maybe she should try and go out with me. With all the stuff that's been happening lately, I wouldn't see why she wouldn't at least want to try. I also said that I understand the situation she is in with her ex-boyfriend and that she still had feelings for him. And because I understood that, I was debating whether or not I should of confessed to her. But because I like her and because of the fact that I live for the moment not knowing what will happen tomorrow, I felt like I had to confess my feelings to her. And since I don’t know what would happen tomorrow, I told her that the one thing I do know is that I like her and that I didn’t want to live my life without any regrets.

She listened and then also began to tell me the reason why she had trouble giving an answer to me. She said that if she rejected me, she’d be lonely/saddened by the possibility of not meeting or talking to me anymore. I was kind of surprised by that because it seems like she doesn’t fully yet understand the type of person I am. I told her that wouldn’t happen and that I wouldn’t just cut her off like simply because she rejected me. I told her that because I like her I’d still want to meet her and contact her.

So, we eventually ran out of time as she needed to take the last train back and I saw her off. I wrote her a mail (text) saying that I had a lot of fun today and even though the perfect ending didn’t happen, I was still happy to have spent time with her. I also said that she has lots of good points about herself that she hasn’t realized yet and from now on, she should start liking herself more. She replied saying that she also had a good time and that I’ll be in her care from now on, too.

I went back to where I was staying and thought about all that happened. I wasn’t as devastated as you would of probably thought. Instead, I was looking at the positives of her still wanting to meet and talk to me even after all that I said. At that time, I thought it would be best to just leave things be for a while and not contact her as much to give her some time to reflect about what just happened between the two of us.

[TsubasaDragon]

O_O ah man you almost got it....

but i think she kinda knows that you have feelings for her, and i think she wants to love you but she isn't really over her ex boyfriend.

dude do Something!!!!

[pixie464]

This is getting serious! as another girl i can say that she likes you but wants time to reflect on her past relationship, she might be scared to go into another one again at the present time, and then there's you she loves you as a friend, being with you is a time for her to let down her hair, but if you like her then she has to be on guard again (no matter what people say girls are very conscious about how they are in front of boys), but I must say god is on your side the outings you've had together were amazing something out of a manga or drama (so jealous), I'm surprised you haven't just kissed her yet, or don't you do that in Japan? Well keep us posted and good luck we're right behind you ^^

[TsubasaDragon]

i voted this thread 5 stars.

[pixie464]

Ok since this is a type of love problem\advice post, i'll post it up here.
how can you replay to this:

Maybe tomorrow I'll forget your face, I'm trying hard to hold on.
The only facet I can grasp is a glimpse of your smile.

I'm so gutted the sessions are over... It means I don't have an excuse to talk to you.
I'm so gutted your one of the Aristocrat's…


Someone sent it as an e-mail, the sender was a delegate on my team for the MUN, how can you replay with out hurting his feelings?
And since when did MUN's become matchmaking sessions!!!

[TsubasaDragon]

Hey D, Dude did she ever tried to call you, instead of you her?

[千秋 D.]

Hey everyone. Sorry for the long break. I’ve been getting everything ready for my move down near Tokyo. Come June, I’ll be a student again after all these years and instead of earning money through work, I’ll be spending money just to study. I hope things will work out for me.

"I have chosen to grasp opportunities that come my way and to make the most of them, no matter what the cost...I know that my rainbow is waiting for me on the other side, and I won't stop until I see its colors."

As for some of your comments

TsubasaDragon
We contact each other. It’s pretty mutual. Not just me contacting her all the time. It’s kind of like a stupid game (that I hate). If someone contacts you, it’s polite for you to contact that person back. And it goes like this back and forth FOREVER. What ever happened to contacting each other just because you feel like it, not because you’re obligated to?

Pixie
Wow. That’s an interesting approach. Through e-mail plus the guy is trying to be poetic. As for the question of how to let a guy down without hurting their feelings, there isn’t a way. Or else the guy ends up being in the position I’m in right now (;-_-A.


As for updates, a lot of stuff has been happening between Minami and I so I’ll try to get everything up to date.

So, from where I left off last, I was returning back to my area the following day. In my mind, I thought it would be best not to contact Minami as much. But, we ended up contacting each other just as much as before I gave my confession. Before I went back to my area, I decided to get souvenirs for all my co-workers and some friends. I mailed (texted) Minami saying that I’d be heading back today and that I’d be shopping for gifts. She mailed me back wanting to know what I planned on buying. On the next mail, I told her what I bought. I also remembered that I forgot to get my share of the pictures that we took on our previous outing and asked her what should we do about it. She replied saying that maybe she could send it to me and I replied back that it be better if she gave it to me in person ;p. She said she would and that ended our conversation for that day.

So early the next morning, I woke up to a mail/text before my alarm went off. It was Minami. Usually, she doesn’t wake up that early because she starts work later in the day and she mailed me last. So, another mail from her was totally unexpected. So here’s a summary of what the mail said:

“Morning. I woke up early today because I need to go to a site for work.

Sorry for the weird answer I gave you yesterday. I can’t go to where you are. I don’t want to give you the wrong idea. Maybe I’ll get to see all those things you talked about in your area someday.

Must be nice to have a day off today.”

And that’s how I started my day. I was half asleep at the time and awoke to this kind of text/mail. I really couldn’t comprehend it at the time, but I did get the most of it. And it sucked. (T_T) This was a bit more painful than the rejection I got the previous night because it feels like all the stuff we talked about previously, of her coming to visit me in my area, were lies. I wasn’t even sure what to do at that time, especially since it was so early in the morning. I replied saying that I understood and that it was probably was an impossible request. Minami replied back to me saying that today was the day that I decided on where I’d be going come fall. She still wanted me to contact her telling her whether I’d still be in Japan or going to New York.

After this series of exchanging mail, I was pretty depressed. I didn’t want to get up from bed and this was not a good way to wake up in the morning. Not sure of what I should do on my day off, I got up from my bed and got myself ready for work…on my day off. I arrived at the office with everyone shocked and told them I got back early and that I didn’t need the extra day off. Since I really didn’t have any work to do, I pretty much dozed off in my own little world throughout much of the day.

I got back from work, worked out to relieve some tension, took a shower, and then thought about what I should do. I decided to text her back. But before I contacted her, I made a series of three texts/mails. The titles’ of the three texts were 1) Question, 2) Answer, and 3) Condition. The first one contained the simple question of “Which school do you think I chose?” The second one contained the answer of hi mi tsu “secret.” And the final one contained the stipulation of “If you want to know my decision, you have to call me within thirty seconds.”

I sent the first mail and within about five minutes I get a reply back from her saying that she didn’t think she would ever hear from me again. She assumes that I choose the school in Japan. I immediately reply with my second prepared mail/text. After about ten minutes, I didn't receive a reply. Obviously, the humor didn’t get through to her. So I then mailed the last of my prepared mails/texts and begin my count.

28, 29, 30…still no call. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35…<ring> I answered my cell phone and told her she was slow. She gave the excuse that she didn’t have enough time between me sending the mail, her receiving it, and then having enough time to call back within the time limit. As you all might have noticed already, this was totally on purpose so that she’d have to make the decision right away to contact me or not. And obviously, it worked.

So we talked for a bit. We both described our days in detail and I told her everything about my day then. From the waking up in the morning and receiving that painful mail from her, to the point of deciding of texting her again that night. I also thought that she didn’t understand my character and personality enough yet having thought that I wouldn’t contact her again. I told her, it’s because I like her that I’d still contact her. I told her that my feelings couldn’t be helped. It was still a pretty uncomfortable phone call, but she seemed relieved to know that I was still willing to talk to her as was I with her still willing to talk to me.

From then on, we continued talking and contacting each other just like before with the fact that she knows my feelings for her. We also talked about going somewhere on vacation together since we both had a good amount of time off during the Golden Week holidays in Japan. I kept suggesting her that she should come up to my area again and this time, she said she’d consider it.

A couple of weeks later, I told her about my decision to stay in Japan for at least another year and she told me that she was “relieved” to hear that. I was a bit confused by her statement, and I repeated the word “relieved” to her. She backtracked a bit and said that she was relieved “for me” that I made my decision. Right (sarcastically)… So we made plans for her to come to my area for a few days. I didn’t want to be overly excited because I had a feeling that there’d be a possibility that she would change her mind and not come at all. But my trip down to Tokyo and unforeseen circumstances made her possibility of NOT coming to my area all the way down to zero.

[TsubasaDragon]

TsubasaDragon
We contact each other. It’s pretty mutual. Not just me contacting her all the time. It’s kind of like a stupid game (that I hate). If someone contacts you, it’s polite for you to contact that person back. And it goes like this back and forth FOREVER. What ever happened to contacting each other just because you feel like it, not because you’re obligated to?


ah okay was just being curious:)

[千秋 D.]

So I had come down to the Tokyo area to settle things with my school and my upcoming move. It was right before the time Minami and I would take our small vacation together. And then a very unfortunate thing happened to me. The day before we were to go back to my area, I lost my wallet. I lost everything in my wallet. I lost all my ID cards, atm cards, credit cards, insurance cards, and all my cash. That day, I had also just withdrew money in order to get ready for the holidays and pay for my shinkansen bullet train ticket back. I was depressed. (T_T)

I called Minami and explained the situation to her. She thought I was joking at first but then figured out I was serious. She right away said that she’d pay for my ticket back and felt really sad for me. I told her that I’d pay her back right away when I get back home and that I’d probably have to spend a day trying to get new cards. So besides not having money for the first day let alone my own ticket back home, I would also lose a day going to all the offices to get my replacement identification and cards.

The next day, Minami and I met up at Tokyo Station. In order to get to the station, I borrowed 1000 yen (~$10) from a friend and upon arriving at the station I only had 310 yen in my pocket. Notice how I said pocket and not wallet (T_T). At least Minami was there to help cheer me up because going back home broke and ALONE would have really sucked. The train ride was about three hours and we talked throughout the whole time.

We finally arrived to my area and the first thing we did was go to my friend’s café/bar. It’s a very trendy place close to the station and we chatted away while we waited for another friend of mine before heading out to the next spot. This first spot was a really good place because Minami has a real interest in beers and my friend running the place is a beer maniac. Minami was really impressed that I was friends with such a person of his stature let alone knowing about the place :cool:

Finally my friend came and we headed out to our next destination. We decided to go up to the mountain and take a bath in the onsens hot springs. My area is really famous for hot springs and Minami was more than excited to go. After the hot springs, we went to a famous kaiten sushi chain restaurant and I was able to get my first meal of the day :D After eating, I dropped my friend off back at his house and Minami and I headed back to my house where we decided to call it a day. I let her have one of the empty rooms upstairs while I settled in a different room. And so ends Day 1 of our trip together.

[千秋 D.]

On the second day, Minami woke up to some breakfast I made and I headed out to get all my errands done as quickly as possible. I was also fortunate to be able to have lunch with her since I had to get everything done through my work. I was able to finish everything by mid afternoon and I gave her a tour of my area and town. We went to see a famous geyser, hang out by the river, and go on a drive up my local mountain where there was still plenty of snow.

We came back really tired and undecided on what to have for dinner. I took a quick nap on my couch while Minami went to get some other things from the room she was in. I got up from my nap, went to my room to get a few things, came back and found Minami lying in the spot I was previously on the couch covered in my blanket. It was still pretty cold in my house and I, as well as her, was pretty tired. One thing Minami didn’t know, or maybe she did:rolleyes:, was that the couch was actually a futon. So I simply made the couch flat and lied down next to her. She let out a sheepish laugh, being somewhat surprised. In my opinion, it was her fault for putting herself in that position. I just took advantage of the opportunity that lay before me.

At first I just simply lied down next to her. After like a minute or two, I put my arm around her, I held her hand and she held mine, and we just held each other. After a few more minutes, it got pretty cold in my house and we ended up sharing the blanket and cuddling for about thirty minutes. She kept telling me how nervous she was and how her heart was beating so fast. I just told her to relax and rest a bit because I was still a bit tired and just wanted to rest.

We finally began to get really hungry and decided to go to the grocery store. We decided to make sukiyaki for dinner and watch a movie. After finishing dinner and the movie, we decided to call it a day and go to sleep.

The third and fourth days were pretty much spent touring around the surrounding areas. The only difference was that as we were sightseeing we were holding hands acting pretty much like a couple you’d normally see. We saw a lot of places, ate lots of different food, and took lots of pictures. We went to the arcade/game center and took purikura sticker booth pictures and I was even able to get her a stuffed animal via a crane game (^_^)v We both had a lot of fun. Her enjoyment spending time with me along with her smile seemed genuine. I felt as if we were really a couple. But, I knew I shouldn’t assume such things.

At the end of the fourth day, I asked Minami if she would go out with me. Just like the second day, we were in the same cuddling position. There was a long pause before she gave her answer. She said she couldn’t. I asked why. She gave me the same reason as last time that she had feelings for her ex-boyfriend. I claimed that she was lying. And I demanded that she give me the real reason. I asked her why did she come all the way up here with me. I asked her if she had any feelings at all for me. It was hard for me to recall most of the answers because I was definitely confused but not at all surprised by her answer. The only thing I remembered her saying was that she did have some feelings for me. She claimed to have only a little bit of feelings (romantically) for me. Having discussed all of this, we also discussed with each other whether or not we should contact each other at all after this. The way we were talking, it seemed as if tomorrow would be the last day we’d spend with each other even though our actions contradicted our words.

So we spent our last day of our vacation together at my house just talking, watching TV, and letting time pass. I made the both of us a really nice breakfast and we continued to chat and spend time together just like couples do. It seemed like our conversation the previous day didn’t even happen at all. But it did.

I took Minami back to the station and as we were driving back, just like the past couple of days, we held hands. We spent the rest of our time having lunch at the station together and I saw her off on the platform of her train back to Tokyo. She had a seat next to the window and I was able to see her off as the train left. She waved goodbye with the stuffed animal I got her from the crane game and I waved goodbye until I couldn’t see her on the train anymore.

[CipWew]

pat pat sorry to hear that dear...umm....4am isnt the best time for thinking I guess....;;; but it was interesting to hear that Densha-san inspired you..._;;;

Knightfall,

Share the music....=P