Me Talk Pretty One Day

After ukulele practice a few weeks ago I was looking to go get something to eat and called up my friend Mayu chan. She's a girl who I am an alternate-universe away from happily dating; had we only met a day earlier, rather than the day after I started seeing Sayo chan. It's one of those things I guess. But Sayo chan's really sweet, really matter-of-fact-but-crazy in a very warm, likable way, and it's not like I wish I were dating this other girl instead. It's just one of those things you think about. You wonder if this other girl would somehow be a match for you in the ways you've already realized that the current girl isn't ever going to be (at least, you think you've realized this). Or else you think, 'boy, if I were just less busy, I could see them both in secret! If Mayu chan came over at six she could be gone by the time Sayo got here at eight, and maybe she'd clean the place up before she left...'

I don't actually think it through this way a lot, but you know, the possibilities are funny. Logistics would be on my side, since Sayo lives in Matsuyama over the mountains and Mayu lives next to the gym where I do aikido and works just down the road from my house. Anyway, it's not going to go anywhere with her, but the other week I called her out to go for a bite with me after uke practice and we end up going to this place called Marco, an upclass bar overlooking the harbor and the castle. I know the owner Kenichi through Judo-man, and though I haven't seen him in a while he's really happy to have me there and we all start talking together at the bar while he makes our drinks. We're getting on really well, excepting a moment where Kenichi says, "so Joshuu, do you have another girlfriend yet?" That jerk. But we are getting on really great, all three of us. Kenichi tells us about his next gig at a music studio over the river, Jamsounds, where it turns out is the same place I got my ukulele; so we all talk about music, playing it and listening to it, and the CD that Mayu gave me; and he and Mayu start talking about cooking; and they talk about teaching, which she and I both do, he asks some questions about martial arts stuff, we talk about the radio show. And then Kenichi says the damndest, damndest thing. He says, and the whole bar just kind of stops like you do waiting for the punchline of a joke, "Joshuu," he says, "you know why you've got so much going on, and so many people you know? I know why: it's cause you're so easy to talk to!"

Now, think about this. We all did, sitting there a bit dumb in the mouth while the harbor wind breezed in through the chinks in the windows, and coming up dry. I had a lot I wanted to say back actually, but I couldn't think of how to say any of it in a way Kenichi would understand. Not because we don't communicate well, but because he doesn't speak English. And I don't speak Japanese, or not enough to say any of this to him in it. He doesn't speak English. He doesn't speak English...and I don't speak Japanese. Think about this now, and then try to come up with, "easy to talk to" as a first-off description for me...this is a strange and awesome land. It delights me that someone would come up with "easy to talk to" as a way to describe me. I really must be doing something right; I guarantee it's not the speaking. But it's got to be something; with no tongue to speak with and no ears to hear, I can still be a friendly, easy-going conversationalist; how cool is that?