One reason to live in another country is to experience local customs, right? That's what I told myself when I agreed to take part in a "go-kon." Which is a Japanese variation on blind dating. But in groups of six. The basic premise is that three guys and three girls go to an izakaya (a place to get drinks, lots of little dishes and hand around socializing) to see if any of them have any interest in anyone else. There is a definite up side to doing this sort of thing in a group. The fear of being killed by a total stranger is definitely less at a crowded table. If you're a little bored with someone you can talk to someone else. And there's no doubt about whether the people there are looking for a date or not. All things considered, it's a better than a standard, one-on-one blind date.

Which ain't saying much on it's own, but is meant as a compliment.

So I went to a go-kon with a guy from California, his friend's brother from Canada, and three girls from Tokyo. Even allowing for the language barrier, things went pretty well. I think I was even making a connection with Tomoko.

At least, until the guy raised in Canada (who was, in fact, Japanese and spoke both English and Japanese fluently) casually mentioned that he couldn't find the keys to his new BMW 7 series, which would be a problem because he had to drive to a party he was DJ-ing at in a club in Shibuya (one of the expensive/trendy parts of town) later that night. Did I mention his day job at a trading company required him to travel frequently between Guam, Bali, Thailand, Hong Kong and Fiji? Well, he did not long after the bit about the car.

Funny, somehow after that, the evening seemed to wrap itself up pretty quickly.

Even though there were a whole other set of social rules to try and remember, like who sits first, or where you're supposed to put your elbows, or your chopsticks, or that piece of gristle that you couldn't chew up, some things were remarkably similar. If I've learned anything from this, it's that personality is nice, honesty is important, but money is a lot more efficient, no matter what language you speak.