Getting the attention of the opposite sex is so complex in the Big Mikan
as to redefine inscrutable. In the Mainichi News, I read an article
"When all else fails to impress that guy in the office, bend over and
flash the flesh". The mens weekly "Spa!" surveyed Japanese women about
getting attention from handsome workmates in the office, and found that
70% of women had made coffee for the guys they're crushed on in the
hopes that the gentlement would notice them. One woman had attempted to
lift heavy boxes in front of her crush in the hopes he'd be chivalrous
and help her, but he simply told her to break up the contents and lift
them a piece at a time, like a smart person. The last resort, flashing cleavage, was admitted to be very few.
If that's the way Japanese women try to get attention, well, guys in the
office are way too busy to notice. No wonder the
marriage and birthrates are so low - young folk don't know how to pick
each other up! And they don't get much practice, either. With work hours
so long, when do they have time outside of the work environment to meet
people?
Dating is tough in Tokyo, even when you do have a squeeze. Likely you
found each other through friends or some kind of social event, and may not live in
the same city. Meeting takes a lot of coordination and planning.
It goes like this. You plan a week in advance, asking your boss if you
can go a little earlier (which means doing one hour less of unpaid
overtime). You email your sweetie by webmail or mobile mail to ask when
and where s/he will be departing from, and what s/he would prefer to eat
(just about anything you can imagine is served in any kind of atmosphere
in restaurants in Tokyo). When you've figured out a location mid-way
between you, then you check the online train schedules to coordinate
your trip, and mail to make sure you've got it figured out. When you arrive at your designated spot, you have to pick him/her out of a vast sea of people doing exactly the same thing.
Say, after a nice meal and drinks you get all frisky, the
your-place-or-mine question is moot, since you are so far from your respective pads. So, you go to the third option, a
love hotel. The best place to go for a night out in Tokyo - frenetic
streetscapes, shopping, some really good and atmospheric dining and entertainment - has got to be Shibuya, past the 109 building heading into
the rolling hills of Maruyama-cho decorated with pink lights, weird
decor like some kind of porno back lot, frequented by starry-eyed
teenagers holding hands and grinning red-faced salarymen with their ties
askew.
And then Japan Rail East Train home. Everybody's on their way home from
working all day and then partying in the evening -some are tipsy and
loud, others asleep standing up and a few passed out on the deck of the
train. And you're grinning from ear to ear.
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