Such a great mix...

Event: O-chan's birthday dinner, organized by moi since I wasn't back from snowboarding in time to make it to her party on Sunday...

Participants: O, my beautiful, first real Korean girl friend! Hehe, sometimes I feel like she is (or should be) my sister.. I don't know, she just kind of "gets it." I often wonder what I would be like had I grown up in Korea, and I guess she kind of gives me some sort of idea of it. We are alike in a lot of ways, I think, but not even in very tangible ways. It's just a strange feeling I get.

T-Kennedy, O's boyfriend, an American lad who was my best friend and confidant here 2 summers ago when I was caught in my messy web of European lovers, yet was still, ironically, so alone. T was unemployed at the time, so we would get to spend lots of time with each other while our significant others were busy/living in Korea. Since then he has become an elite member of the banking bourgeousie, also known by initials GS. We're so proud of him!

A., my Hong Kongese-American long-time partner in crime, who, as I mentioned before just moved one station away from me. Also a member of the elite GS crowd, A. planned this weekend's snowboarding trip to Zao. We will fall together!

The four of us studied together in Nagoya, so we go waaaayyy back!

And finally, Han, a Korean colleague of O's, whom I met for the first time. Very sweet guy and everything I expected of a fine Korean young man.

Venue: Good Honest Grub, Harajuku -- O's choice as it was her birthday.. she wanted Western food... masshisoyo?

The mix: I just can't be more amused by the stares we were getting from people. We have 4 Asians in the group-- All speaking Japanese, though not quite natively. 1 obvious gaijin also speaking very good Japanese. Out of the same five, 3 were speaking native level English with American accents, 1 conversational English, and 1 not much at all. I don't think one person could figure out who the heck we were or where we were from. Even Han didn't figure it out after we had been sitting and talking for 2 hours. In the middle of the conversation, he looked at A and said, "Nihonjin? (Japanese?)"

Highlights: A. teaching us to say, "Are you full?" in Chinese (Cantonese), T trying Beijing style (he lived there a while), and O and Han noting that the same word (pronounced slightly differently) means F*ck off in Korean. Me? I couldn't contribute much to this conversation.
O. styling all of our lovely locks in a butterfly, diamond-studded comb and taking various pictures of us (boys and girls) in our best modeling poses.

All finished off with lost diamond from said diamond-studded comb.

I find comfort in the fact that I am not the only crazy one in this city.