Here I am from last weekend wearing a yukata. A yukata is basically a summer version of Japanese traditional clothes. I didn’t do it quite right. Like you’re not supposed to wear a T-shirt underneath. And I didn’t know how to tie the belt, so I just made something up. But of course everybody praises you because it’s Japan and that’s what they do. It turned out, at this yukata party, only four people wore yukatas. And only one male. And only one gaijin. Guess who that was. Me.

But I did win a prize, sort of. Here’s the story: three winning tickets for yukata-wearers, four people. The first two I didn’t win. The last one, a bottle of wine. He pulls out the ticket - I won! I was so proud. But later on, the guy drawing the tickets comes up to me - he’s a friend of mine - and confided in me that he actually pulled the other person’s name, but then switched it, so that I would win. I felt really bad, so I went up to the other yukata wearer and told her that she should really have the wine, since she really won it. But then she said, don’t give it to me now, but how about next weekend over dinner? OK, so what I really won is a date. OK, that’s cool. Here’s the kicker. Later that night, at the sanjikai (third party), I went into this really crowded bar. Too crowded for my tastes, but I had accidentally set the bottle of wine down just before I decided to leave. So today I had to go out and buy the exact same bottle of wine in order to give it to the woman.

We had a nice time. Will probably go out again.

This is my life here.