"Ee? Gaijin da!"

In other news, dangit I like my girlfriend. I spent more than a couple evenings with her last week, and being around her is just so dang much fun. I went shopping with her after she finished work the other day, to Moraju ironically, where I wasn't working that day because I had called in sick due to not having been paid. We went to the royal home center so she could find kind of like toolboxes so they could transport blood samples easily around the lab where she works. So we got like 7 or 8 of these things, but not before walking around the whole place playing with stuff like little kids and making musical instruments out of triangular pieces of metal and nails(早希Saki played the triangle in Jr.HS, a clear sign of musical accomplishment).

What really gets me about being with her is the way when with each other we can just relax and let our childlike selves out for a bit and have fun just exploring the world around us and making something enjoyable or interesting out of everything we come across. After playing around in the hardware store, we cruised out to her hospital, where we snuck around like ninjas breaking into the place, cause clearly a strange gaijin walking around the place didn't make us look suspicious enough. On the way out, we were playing carpet games, like you did as a kid walking around the mall only stepping on certain colored tiles, and getting not strange looks thank God but smiles and distracted laughter from those who we happened to pass by as we made our way to the exit. That we can do this shamelessly for me is like being able to breathe without hindrance.

While we were at the hospital though, we got a couple of other fun moments that mostly revolved around the blatant shock of my presence. Saki asked her boss if it was ok for me to come into the lab, and after saying yes of course I entered. As soon as he saw me he just straight said "え!外人だ！" (Huh?! He's an outsider! I say outsider and not foreigner because foreigner is 外国人gaikokujin and 外人gaijin is the, albeit culturally accepted and largely unaware, racial slur against all non-Japanese). Then of course is the, "日本語分かるの？” which of course I understand because the first thing other than 外人 that foreigners learn to recognize is the question of whether we understand Japanese.

Anyway, after that we stepped out of the lab and ran into another of Saki's coworkers, a young lady who was visibly shocked by my presence, and intimidated to the point of speechlessness, which, despite being frustrating to me in its indicativeness of utter lack of exposure to other cultures, is endlessly amusing. Lemme use -ness a couple more times here.

AND, as long as I'm on the topic, when I met Saki that afternoon at the station, she was talking to a friend she had ran into from her triangle playing school days, who as well was shocked to see me, but in a much more lively, conversational way. She, like hopefully an increasing number of young Japanese, though shy at first, really opened up as soon as she realized that I'm capable of holding a conversation in Japanese. The worst part though was that she works as part of the ground staff for Narita Airport, which means that not only does she use English every day of her life, but she's pretty good at it. Of course though, not a word of English came out of her mouth during the whole conversation. Funny how that works.
Anyway, she was amazed as well, and they talked about me as if I weren't even there, the whole time noticing my mannerisms and the way Saki and I act together and commenting that a Japanese guy would definitely never do that. A good thing, apparently. Oh, and apparently I stink of gaijin. I.e. I wear cologne. Funny how you can wear a cologne that 98% of western women will tell you smells amazing and then go to Japan and be told you reek. Not reek I guess really but more, have a really strong scent. Japanese men don't wear cologne. Or antiperspirant either, for that matter. I'd say it's cause they don't need it, but that's flat out not true. More true than it is for westerners, but, still. I mean come on.

I kind of don't really appreciate being talked about like a pet, which is basically how the conversation went, but at least all the while she was complimenting Saki and saying how jealous she was despite having recently gotten engaged. That was flattering.

Anyway anyway anyway what I'm getting at here, however long-windedly, is that Saki through all of these experiences, of which there have been many many outside of just this particular day, just goes along as if there's nothing strange about it at all. She just does not give a shit that I'm white, or more importantly, not Japanese. I suppose that shouldn't feel like a good thing, that should be normal, but let's face it, it's not. It's a rare and amazing thing for which I am deeply grateful. My girlfriend feels in no way ashamed or embarrassed by my presence, and is willing to introduce me to her friends, coworkers and supervisors.

That's incredible. This girl is incredible, and, as my friends have all pointed out on numerous occasions, I'm lucky as hell to be with her. Not just lucky, but happy. Really, really, genuinely happy. That in and of itself is a rare thing, for which I am deeply grateful.