So, how'd it go?

For my lunch with Mami (and her friend, unfortunately) I went to an Italian place quite in the middle of nowhere. I was recommended it by one of my coworkers at elementary school; there's no way I would have discovered this place on my own! It's actually pretty close to the gym I always go to, but you wouldn't know unless you perused the small back roads.

In preparation for the day ahead, I went the day before to find where exactly the restaurant was, and sent a cellphone picture to Mami to help her find it as well:

Quite a cute-looking restaurant for a place surrounded by empty lots, a shady liquor store, and not much else, eh? Mami quickly responded to the photo, saying she had no idea where it was; she lives on the opposite side of town I think. In any case, when I received that message I was already at Starbucks studying, so she told me again in person. :) Luckily with the iPhone's Google Maps feature I was able to show her exactly how to get there. After that, I tried somewhat successfully to clear my head and study GRE vocab words alongside my cup of "drip coffee."

The next day we finally met up and had lunch. I felt bit underdressed compared to Mami and her friends, but girls here really know how to dress to impress! My jeans and polo are from Uniqlo, the Japanese equivalent of a Old Navy, so about that... hopefully my "foreignerness" helped make up for it.

Fashion gaffes aside, the food was pretty good, with several different courses served to us throughout an hour. I was able to talk to a decent extent in Japanese, with my electronic dictionary at the ready whenever Japanese explanations for words I didn't know weren't enough. The place filled up soon after we all arrived; good thing I had reservations... can you imagine if after spending months getting Mami to hang out, we arrive to a completely full restaurant?

You'd think I'd have taken a photo of us three, right? ちょっと恥ずかしかった。。。

As we were finishing up lunch, Mami got a text from another friend from work (the English-speaking one married to an Australian). Not wanting to end just yet, I suggest going to Baskin Robbins to meet up with her. After paying for all of us (I told her, "You can pay for next time if you'd like!" when she objected to my paying. Here's hoping there's a next time!) we headed to the icecream place and had some icecream/chatted some more. This time, however, I understood quite a bit less of the conversation. When it was just the three of us, I could often contribute to whatever we were talking about, but since the three of them all work together and have inside-jokes/similar experiences to talk about, most of what they said just went over my head. In my defense, I probably would have had trouble keeping up with three girlfriends chatting in Spanish or English too, hehe. Sitting across from an attractive and good-humored girl isn't torture by any means though :D

And thus ended my first experience hanging out/kinda not really "dating" here in Japan. Hopefully the next girl I try chatting up isn't just about to leave the country and/or wants to bring a friend when I ask her to go have something to drink with me!