This may turn out to be a rambly post. But let’s just stick with it. It may lead to somewhere nice.
About a month ago, I got a Facebook invite to a speed dating event in Frankfurt. I signed up thinking it would be a laugh but nothing more serious than that. The day came up and I picked out an outfit that was a little sexier (… or so I hope…) than I’d normally wear and went off to the event, which was held in a cookie shop.
When I arrived, I noticed the people there were a lot older. And not really my type. But I thought it would be a good way to meet new people. I took the welcome drink, sat down and started talking.
In through the door came a couple. Hmm… that’s weird. Why would a couple come to speed dating? Then another couple came in. The hostess also commented on how weird it was that there were couples. Was this like a swingers’ party or something?
So time went on and there was very little speed dating happening. I settled down into a conversation with a lovely American girl and her somewhat grumpy German boyfriend and asked them “but.. don’t you think it’s weird you two coming to a speed dating thing together?” To which they freaked out, not thinking it was speed dating. I checked my Facebook event list and sure enough, the event said nothing about speed dating. But… I could have sworn it was… Am I going crazy?
After about 40 minutes more, I realised that even without being a speed dating thing, the people weren’t really the kind of people I’d click with, though they were all really lovely and interesting. I went off down the road for a pint with my friends who were sat waiting for me.
I’ve been to a (real) speed dating before, in Japan. Back in the days when I thought a boyfriend would cure my loneliness, I went to an event at a snack bar. Snack bars are Japanese inventions, where men pay way too much money to visit, in order to be flirted at by the supposedly beautiful bar staff there. The one in my town was frequented a lot by the Americans I was friends with, and so I went along with them a few times and got to know the staff a bit. They liked having us around because it made their bar look more stylish. I just liked speaking in Japanese and potentially making new friends.
The speed dating event they had there was pretty fun, actually. An hour before, we had a “girls party” where the mama would do our makeup and hair. Then the boys would arrive and we would go through the “speed dating” part of the night, then group off and play a few party games.
The two American lads were pretty popular, I think, and one may have even gotten lucky that night. I was not so popular. At the time, a new bar had opened up in the town and one of the barmen was a serious crush of mine. He remains to be quite possibly the most beautiful human being to walk the planet, in my eyes at least. To Japanese girls, he is pretty plain, but this is normal since Western ideas of beauty and Japanese ideas of the same are pretty much polar opposite. That’s why you can have a bi-racial couple where Western onlookers will comment on how ugly the Western person is and how the Asian person is out of their league, where Asian onlookers will be saying the exact same thing about the Asian of the couple.
But he was there at the event (not in any of the photos so stop looking!!) and so I was really excited.
By the end of the night, some of the people were pretty drunk. Mama tiptoed up to me and said “psst! That guy over there! He picked you as his favourite!” So I went over to said guy. He was drunk as a fart. Slowly melting into his drink. We spoke for a while, he was pretty cute, but red as a tomato (as Japanese people are when they’re drunk) and talking jibberish. We swapped numbers because I didn’t have the heart to tell him no when he asked.
A few months later, after him being super sweet to me non-stop, we started dating. Me having a boyfriend didn’t cure my loneliness. The end.
What happened to the barman? Well everyone under the sun knew I had a crush on him since I went all red whenever he was about… and also there was that one time I drunkenly serenaded him with a pretty sweet song at their bar. Oh youth.
Have you ever done speed dating? Let’s get some comments rolling!
