On dates, design and day dreams

Oh silent readers,  you really are sweet when you aren't silent. Time flies, and suddenly it's been like two weeks without posting and I have no idea how that happened. Things have been... I don't know, pretty happening I guess? No worries, I'm going to clue all you dolls in. I'm not dead anyway, nor are things all terrible over here. On the contrary - about a billion things have happened, a lot of them quite pleasant, and while I was feeling kinda low about stuff there for a while, the real turning point came when one of my friends and I were chilling on my balcony, watching the clouds in the night sky, and after telling him all about how I felt given everything going on, he paused for a bit before going: "You've left your home to go live far, far away. You're doing this all by yourself, and sure, it's hard, but you're doing it. I really respect that."

In a way, that felt like what I needed to hear at the time. A local, just acknowledging that this shit is hard. I wouldn't change it for the world, seeing as I love my life here, but hearing that you're admired for your efforts was like a turning point for me. A lot of the time I feel like people I meet view me as a strange but entertaining specimen, and they can't really understand why I came to Tokyo, but in that moment it was like at least one person here gets it, and can relate. It cheered me up more than I thought it would.
In my times of turmoil after things went south with the Philosopher, I threw myself into a bit of a confidence-booster-binge with everyone's favourite dating app - Tinder. Yeah, I turned into one of those people. Not that I was really looking for anything more than to validate my ego by feeling wanted, but I've gotta say it felt pretty kick-ass to be able to sit in silent judgement of any number of dudes at any given time. The feeling of being able to sit there, swiping, and going "Meh, no. No. No. No. No. ...maybe. No. No. Yes. No. No. No. Oh god yes!" and getting a whole lot of attention was something that I kinda needed at that point. Honestly, it's something I appreciate most days. What, I'm only human. It's super weird when you find coworkers on there though. Like, did you want me to swipe right? Or do you guys not know that Tinder just tried to match us? Because yeah, no. Eww.

Anywho, this has led to three pretty different dates with three pretty different dudes. Dude number uno, also known as Sandwich, hung out for an evening of take out sushi, beer and Parks and Recreations. He was quite cute, worked at Uber and had impressive English skills (not to speak of impeccible taste in TV) and a 4.0 GPA from a 4 year stint at UCLA, but ended up getting pneumonia and dropping off the face of the earth. I refuse to be upset over someone who wears sandals in October though. So much for Sandwich.

Dude number dos was this PR guy who helped out at Tokyo Designers Week and asked me if I wanted to check it out with him. Lemme just say hell yes. Art, fashion, interior design, technology and architecture in one? Count me way, way in.

Concrete wallpaper. Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the sheer brilliance of fucking concrete wallpaper?!

I think I might have freaked him out with enthusiasm though. I mean, no regular girl you'd take to a design fair would flip their shit within the first 15 seconds of entering the building. "Oh my god, is that wallpaper?! Sorry, but I just have to... I have to take a picture. I just... I just love raw concrete, I'm sorry."

That's literally how it went down. Not even joking.

*drool*

Other awesome things included this robot that would 'sing' at certain times during the day...

...although all I could see was the giant warriors from Nausicaa, which kinda terrified me.

Androids freak me out, but I've gotta say that I was pretty floored by this one. It looked extremely real, and the way it moved was just... man, I might not welcome our robot overlords, but I sure appreciate how well they're made. Damn.
 

Sticker room, because there should always be a room dedicated to covering everything in stickers.

They'd built a whole scale apartment covered in plants as well. Like I said, this was totally my kind of design fair.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go ahead and spam you to death with architecture models.

Making tiny flowers to put in your tiny model vases takes some fucking dedication.

All bow down to the glory that is Junya Ishigami.

And as if just to make me happy in particular, all the architects were posing in clothes covered in concrete, which were all just hanging there on the wall next to their stuff. I don't care if I was acting like a complete crazy person. You can't just mix two of my favourite things and expect me to not fangirl away. Granted, most girls don't go gaga for concrete, but that's just one of my little peculiarities that people should learn to appreciate. 

They should consider themselves fortunate for hanging them in well-lit, public places, or I would totally have swiped them and run.

These lamps were bread. Like, not just bread shaped - literally bread.

There were all kinds of neat things hidden in different parts of this fair - of course I'd want to look at all of them. We aslo ended up finding a really neat machine that would turn you into a your very own battle card. Can we just take a moment to appreciate how much fun this country is? Like really. When Japan wants to be playful, it's the best playground fathomable.

TDWBoy had some impressive stats, as well as an impressive floating ring.

Can we just stop for a moment and have someone please explain to me why the penguin is stronger than the samurai?

TDWBoy and I ended up going on Saturday two weeks ago, and had a pretty good day. It was raining and freezing, but we spent the day wandering around the whole fair. He said it'd take about 2 hours - we ended up there for at least 4. Seriously, don't let me loose at places like that and expect it to be a quick affair. We had some coffee, good conversation, checked out some cool stuff, and had a nice dinner during which time he told me that I should totally try to get a job in PR, because apparently you need like zero actual PR skills here, as long as you can speak Japanese and English. He told me he'd hook me up with some headhunter he knew, invited me to an architectural talk his friend was hosting, and then disappeared to never be heard from again. Cue total confusion, but yeah, can't say I felt totally crushed all things considered. So much for TDWBoy. Points for having an awesome first date idea though. I should look into that PR thing.

Third and finally most interesting is Potato. I hesitate a little to write about him as part of me really hopes it might become an ongoing project. And yeah, when I say 'part of me', I mean like a clear majority of me. Somewhere around 90% or so. Potato was amazing, in case you didn't gather that. We went out on Friday after he'd finished working. I'm not going to go into detail or anything, but let me just say that when a tall, very handsome man starts the evening off by giving you melon pan as a present, then turns out to like horror movies, shops at Muji, pays the restaurant bill while you've gone to the bathroom and holds your hand like that's what our hands were made for, it's hard not to be smitten. I'll give you the full story someday, provided there's some sort of continuation of this... whatever it is.

I'm sorry to keep leaving you guys in the cold. I want to share, I really do. Things just get in the way, you know? Life and all of that stuff. I'm touched that you read on though. I like having you guys around.