How to seduce a Japanese woman

by now most people in this world know that i am an expert of seduction of far eastern women. i have spent a big portion of my life studying women from the most eastern part of the biggest continent and my impenetrable seductive powers are admired and feared in the occident as well as in the orient.

i traveled, i observed, i listened. there were innumerable moments in my life, where a lovely lady gave in to her tidal wave of emotions and longed and begged for a single touch of my lips with hers. oh, how many ladies fell into my arms willingly and completely entrusted themselves to me.

too many, my friends. too many.

now that i am famous and few ten thousand followers can't wait to learn the wisdom i acquired through my several years long pilgrimages to asia, i am willing to unlock and dust off my inner marco polo and share a story about how i seduced a lovely japanese office lady from kyoto a few years ago. her name was saki. saki seto. her blossoming youth and the charming ways were electrifying and i couldn't help but to surrender to her appeal that was beyond tantalizing.

i used to go to that office building near kyoto tower from time to time only to see, if there were women that had that certain expression, the one that says i'm yearning for something more than the daily routine. i want to be fulfilled. i took photos of the building from the outside. it was a terrible structure and i wasn't surprised to see quite few women with that look inside. but then i saw saki.

she was different than other women, because she really longed for change in her life. her eyes told me that every single moment they met with mine. i admit, i was drawn to her, so when i had some free time (and as a photographer i had plenty of it), i was most often found around that building, where she entered and exited every day at about the same time. she worked overtime of course, because that's very common in japan. i was a ghost. she couldn't see me, nor my big camera, because i knew how to hide when i had to. i couldn't reveal my weakness for her or my utmost powerlessness in her presence or my nervousness even if she was a hundred meters away. i wanted to be invisible to her, because i needed to study her. i pasted her photos on the wall of my apartment, i wrote a list of all the things she does, like smiling, when she sees a butterfly passing by her office window or how she holds chopsticks in her left hand so skillfully. it took me seven days to figure out how i could conquer her heart. i will never forget that reality altering moment, where i realized that i just deciphered the ultimate way to steal the heart of every japanese woman. of course she wasn't every japanese woman, she was saki. saki seto.

saki in her office. i had the privilege to see how dazzling she looked at work.

she was beyond japanese, beyond woman, she was pure magic in the shape of a japanese woman. it felt as if god carved perfection and embodied it in her. even though i unraveled one of the mysteries every man in this world would not only envy me, but torture me in order to extract the secrets from me, i wasn't completely sure, that saki would fall for the ultimate move i have set up for her.

i knew i had to focus real hard. the next day i first headed to the east temple, where i tried to dispel the torment of my heart by restoring my inner balance with meditation. it worked. in the afternoon i found myself near that office building again. soon after arriving i saw her sitting in her office on the second floor. she diligently took care of paper work while charmingly explaining serious matters to her office mate. then she stood up and left for the main lobby. that was the moment when i thought it's now or never. i was ready. i walked quickly just to pause in front of the main door of the building. i saw her, she was standing near the elevator, checking some papers. snap! i took a photo of her. snap! i took another one. i started to approach her, when she finally glanced over, still not expecting that i'm about to ask the most important question of her life.

let's freeze the moment here for a bit. you must be wondering, what did i do, what did he say? i'm dying of curiosity. and don't worry, i will reveal the biggest mystery of all times very soon to you, but i must say something very important first: forget about all the websites claiming to be experts on how to seduce a japanese woman, i've read them all. forget about all the cultural differences they try to instill into your head, it's a sham!

they only want page impressions, that's why they lie to you. everyone knows that love is stronger than any cultural barrier. you just need to follow my way and you'll be fine, trust me. but now back to the situation.

so what did i do, what did i say? well, she was about to fix her shoes, when she saw me taking another photo of her. she looked up to my lens and smiled gently with her eyes asking what is it you want, lovely stranger? that was the moment where i finally had the opportunity to make the move of my life. i took a deep breath and then i asked what i had been planning meticulously to ask: would you like to share a bowl of ramen with me? the moment froze for few seconds. i could hear my sweat pouring down my back. i feared my broken japanese wasn't understandable to her, when she lifted her left eye brow in awe. but a second later she gently replied in her perfect japanese: yes, of course, i'd love to. i was released, her warm words jump started my heart in that very moment. it was electrifying.

in that evening we met near kyoto tower and she brought me to her favorite ramen shop. we shared ramen, we smiled, we joked. she held my hand, fed me, giggled. we had some intense 3 months before i had to fly to taiwan, where i became the celebrity i am today. all that happened, because saki inspired me to master the art of seduction. and i realized that food transcends everything, even the harshest realities and the steepest slopes of insecurity. now you know how to seduce a japanese woman or any woman for that matter: it starts by simply talking to them!

[Photo: Source]

Taipei blues: Busy with life

You wake up. It's another day. What is it? Monday again? Thursday? Does it matter? You need few minutes to really wake up. Your eyes are puffy, full of crusties. You wanna sleep! You dig your head in the pillow and cry inside: Why? Why? Why again... but you can't do anything. Or you don't wanna do anything. You crawl out of bed and try walking. You're a combination of a drunkard and an infant. You nearly slam your head in the doorway, ding dong, right left... are you a bell? Moron. Next time don't drink sleep. Finally you're at that bathroom sink, your hands on the sink supporting your whole body [Should I brush teeth or go back to bed?]. You brush your teeth. Back to bedroom, where are the pants? Oh, the pants. Here. The socks? Where are the socks, stocks, stockings? I mean sockings. Here. Now fully awake, you take a look out of window: Damn, pissy weather again. Nice. Walking to the station, your brain is empty, your back hurts a little. Sleeping well... well, that must be someone else's victory today. You're pisstrated. At the station you don't notice anyone, although there are tons of people just like you. Some have slippers inserted in their bums like tokens. No, not literally. Waiting for the train, checking your watch nervously [You will be late to work, mate!]. Light starts blinking, bla bla bla, train's coming. You enter the intestines on wheels and sit down. You're awake, you think, but actually you're sleeping. Wake up, office, come home, sleep, wake up, office, come home, sleep, wake up, office, come home, sex, sleep, wake up, office, come home, sleep, wake up, office, come home, sleep... Don't you realize? You have the Taipei blues!

A Taipei tale over coffee

What would you do, if it happened to you?

Imagine you sit in a café somewhere in Taipei. You just bought your latte and you're sitting at a small table for two, sipping your coffee, waiting for your girlfriend. She's late and you're alone, so you take a good look around. The place is nice, has a certain small town charm. The smell of freshly made coffee makes you day dream..., but not for long. Your thoughts are interrupted by the two noisy Japanese girls behind you, who chat so loudly, that everyone seems to be a bit annoyed by them. But then the noise slowly fades away again, you lose yourself in your thoughts. And suddenly you notice something you haven't noticed before. A girl, most likely in her mid twenties, sits across, on other side of the café near the main window. Her hair is long, falling. She's totally immersed in a note book, where she's earnestly writing something. You realize that she's laid eyes on you. She's carefully ogling you, her looks are brief and hard to notice. Most of the time she seems to be lost in her notes. You think: What is she writing so eagerly? Is she a student? A writer? A poet? She glances over again, then corrects her hair and returns to her notes. Time seems to stand still for few moments, you think about what can she possibly be noting and why is she looking at you so often. Do I look weird? Is it, because I am not a local? All kinds of things run through your mind and you look at her again and think: She's not bad, but she's not the kind of woman I would notice in the pool of beautiful women of Taipei. But the way she corrects her long falling hair fascinates you... and then you notice, that she's getting ready to leave. She's standing up and grabbing her things, putting her notebook and pen in her bag. Then she stops for a while and you don't know what's on her mind. But the to your surprise, she starts approaching you. You take a sip of your nearly finished latte, your pulse increases and you think: OMG, is she coming to me? Was I that obvious? What is she... and then she's already there at your table, too shy too look into your eyes, but still brave enough to leave a small folded piece of paper on your table. She leaves without a glance and without a word. You unfold the paper and you see something like this:

給我打電話*
0921097634

What would you do?

[*the Chinese says "give me a call"]

The Kiss

You stood there, waiting. Finally I saw you. Wow. Is that really who you are? I could not believe it. The silhouette of your body in front of the city lights was just so breath-taking and surreal, I thought I was dreaming. Maybe I was. You waved. How could you? It wouldn't be necessary. I spotted you among them, I knew that nobody else would wear that amazing dress you put on just for me. Your long hair was swept by the warm breeze of that temperate night and it made the image of you unforgettably perfect. I lost sight of everything around myself, all the noisy people around me, the cab drivers driving at my pace, shouting something that just didn't make sense to me in that split second I was drawn to you.

And there it was: The moment.

I stopped two meters in front of you, the marvellous silhouette of an angel turned into a gorgeous woman with radiant eyes and a smile that was only meant for me. A smile so honest and pure, it made me feel that everything was right in that moment. I needed to look into your glowing eyes, before we touched. Your embrace felt safe, comfortable. Your lovely head on my chest and your arms wrapped around me felt like the world can stop any minute. My world did. Basking in each other's presence, our eyes met again and I knew it was the right moment to kiss you. My hand went from caressing your hair to gently touching your chin, lifting it slowly. The moment froze. We looked each other in the eyes again, deeply: Goose bumps. I leant toward you, our noses touched tenderly, our lips were almost there. I tilted my head and pulled you closer to me. Our lips brushed, then touched: Explosion. Adrenaline. My heart pounding so hard, I could feel it in my fingertips. It was a soft kiss, yet a long one. It felt like we want to make it last forever. As soon as we became more and more comfortable with each other, we closed our eyes and while the soft kissing sounds were inaudible to passers-by, we felt like we're invisible, too. We were hungry for more. Your lips were so tender, so inviting, I just could not imagine ever letting go or stop coming back. We became silly and our kiss turned into kisses which turned into smiles and relaxing laughs. That was when you said:"You're not a bad kisser". And you smiled almost cheekily. "You're not bad yourself either", I replied and winked. Then I took your sweet little hand, intertwined my fingers with yours and we walked off into the city lights.

It was the next morning when I realized that all our clothes, that were shattered around the room, and especially your panties, that were hanging on the door knob, looked suspiciously like we didn't...

A proverbial story

Her name was Ling Wai. We found ourselves in a park in Qingdao. She came very close to me and said: “Kissing is like drinking salted water: you drink and your thirst increases.” I was a bit surprised, I blushed and thought about how to respond. When she was about to kiss me, I replied: “I dreamed a thousand new paths. . . I woke and walked my old one.” She, not impressed, but willing to continue with her kiss, then said: “When the heart is at ease, the body is healthy.” I, a bit restless, backed off again and replied: “Pleasure for one hour, a bottle of wine. Pleasure for one year, a marriage; but pleasure for a lifetime, a garden.” She suddenly stopped, repeated “Garden?” - thought about it for a moment - and then said: “Do not anxiously hope for that which has not yet come; do not vainly regret what is already past.”
I thought whatever I'll say, she'll have a quick reply and I can't prevent her from kissing me. I thought “It is the beautiful bird which gets caged.” Why I can't escape? I thought, she's hot and everything, but I am married. I wanna get out of this situation. But I had to keep my calm, so I thought to myself: “If you're patient in one moment of anger, you will escape hundred days of sorrow.” I then tried hard to regain my senses. Come on... Open them up! It's enough already!

I'm back. The only thing I remember is that after “I dreamed a thousand new paths. . . I woke and walked my old one.” Again.

[Source: Chinese proverbs]

Emptiness

Empty. Lost in memories of the past. Anxious to look ahead. Trapped in the present. What should I do? I decide to stand up, open the front door and leave. It's dark. Forest all around me. I keep walking. The road is empty. And long. The more I walk, the better I get. The road is now my meaning of life. My goal is to keep going aimlessly. I don't want to reach anywhere. I don't want to go back or even look back. I can make a stop. In that moment the world stops for me. I realize we're all on the same track. I just hate myself for being able to understand this useless life. Some sleep, eat, work, eat, sleep and repeat that every day. But they're happy! I try to find sense in everything I'm doing, seeing, feeling. It's tiring. It's wearing me out. And you are far! I'm alone and lonely. The more you distant yourself from me, the more real I get. I'm realizing that everything we built up is just a cover for nothing. Our curtains are veiling a wall, not a window. And in the end, I'll end up alone again. As I always were. Memories are sweet, but they will get bittersweet later. I'll be still walking down the same road as always. Only this time I really won't turn back. I may appear sober, but I'm highly emotional. Crushed. But I have to keep walking. I'm walking. I can't stop, I have no control.

And then he stopped.

An interesting encounter

To be continued... maybe... :)

Too late and too early

Nü Ying (女英) was waiting for me at the hotel bar. It was 8pm on Orchard road. Hot as usual. She was much more earlier there, while I came a bit late. When we kissed, she pulled me closer and whispered in my ear: "I missed you. Where have you been?" I blushed a little and couldn't tell her I overslept. So I started mumbling and hesitating with the answer while trying to figure out an excuse that wouldn't make me look like I'm not taking her seriously enough. So I almost stuttered when I said: "I... I... I had a bad headache and I... I had to take a minute and a... I misplaced my keys..." She smiled, looked deeply into my eyes, put her index finger on my lips and said: "Shhh... don't speak." She pouted her lips, pressed them against mine and there we were, kissing for like half a minute. When she released it, she laughed out loud and said: "Will you promise me you won't come late anymore?" I replied "yes, yes" reassuringly. "But I have one more request", she added to my surprise. "We're going to go upstairs now, to the room and promise me one more thing - this time don't come early." I blushed again, but nodded silently, grabbed her by the hand and we left. I was always on time after that.

My night with Risa Kudo

PART I

Morioka. 盛岡. It's dawn. I called Risa from the Metropolitan hotel: ''Where are you, baby? Still in Tokyo?'' ''Yea, I can't escape, Kintaro is sticking to me. It makes me feel like crying. Please wait few more hours.'' So I had no choice, I had to wait. Her husband was a famous businessman from Shinjuku. But their marriage was a mess. Almost near to a full collapse. I wasn't the reason for that. Their bickering and fighting had a long history and was a result of his huge ego and vanity, while being insecure about himself and scared of his own mistakes. Kintaro was all about image. And Risa was a perfect match for that, beacuse she was drop dead gorgeous. But he only saw her surface, while I penetrated deeper. Risa knew immediately that I was for real. And in that evening in Morioka, I knew she will come.
Suddenly my cell phone rings, it's Risa: "Baby, I took his BMW and I'm on the way to Morioka. Did you miss me?" "Babe, you know I did. Please drive scarefully, call me when you reach here. I'm in room 408." She replied joyfully: "I couldn't be more happy to see you! I will divorce with Kintaro! I wanna be with you. I love you!" I almost molt away... ahh... I decided to lay in bed and dream about her. I tried to imagine how it will be later when we meet again. It's been 1 month of anticipating and the desire almost became unbearable. I took out the photo of her in her purple shirt and kept looking at her. So sexy, how she posed for me. Ahh, she's so seductive...

PART II

Somebody brutally knocked on my door. It's Kintaro! He screamed and slammed the door like crazy. What should I do now? Where is Risa? Suddenly I heard Risa screaming and a big bang followed. After a moment of silence, I heard her crying. I opened the door carefully and she jumped on me, hugged me, wrapped her legs around me and started kissing me. I say: "Stop, stop, what's going on, what happened?" "It's a long story, but I hit Kintaro on his head with a pan. He fainted." I told her, that we have to go away from Morioka. "Let's go to Sendai!" she quickly recommended.

PART III

Sendai. 仙台. Concrete city. We are lost. We're looking for a hotel. There's one: Kokusai hotel. We check in, we drop down on the bed and fall asleep. One hour later my cell phone rings. It's police. I realized that now we're on the run. I didn't want to bother Risa with this. I just let it be. I just wanted to forget. I wanted to be beside Risa, that's all that mattered. I closed my eyes. I closed them very hard. Then I opened them. I was alone in the hotel, the picture of the gravure model Risa Kudo was in the magazine I read last night. Now I realized - it was all just a dream.

[Photo: Source]

The story of Miako from Ginza

I. MIAKO

Her name was Miako. She was a Japanese girl from Ginza, Tokyo. We met through a friend, a Canadian photographer. I, a photographer myself, was immediately struck by her uniquely sensual look. Her face, reminiscent of Monica Belucci, only Japanese, made me question my own idea of beauty.


II. FIRST ENCOUNTER

Her English was very poor, but luckily after my year in Tokyo, I learned enough Japanese to start a simple conversation with her. She was very shy when I introduced myself and asked her about her name. "Mi-a-ko", she said with a very girly voice. She was 23, she added. Her body was amazing. I've never fallen for slim girls before. But her figure was something new to me. The face and the body matched perfectly. Her long and stretched figure was the perfect reflexion of her angelic face. I just couldn't stop staring at her. My friend noticed it and the situation became pretty awkward. He nudged me and I came back to my senses. Maiko is a Japanese girl and there are certain ways of looking at a Japanese girl that are utterly unappropriate. I was ashamed of myself. I saw she blushed and while my friend appologized for me, she said 'nevermind', but nodded with her head nervously. She left very fast after this. My Canadian friend said: "Man, please, don't make my friend so shy. She's been through a lot. You really look a bit like her ex-boyfriend, the one who betrayed and hurt her." I was shocked. I didn't know about this. On the other hand, how could I? I was just myself. I lost myself in her. Should I appologize for that? I did to him. But I didn't mean it. All I had on my mind was Miako's gorgeous face.

III. SUNDAY IN GINZA

Two weeks later. It was a normal sunday in Ginza in September. I had no assignments for the weekend, so I decided to walk around on my own. I strolled down the main street slowly. As a stranger, I saw Ginza with different eyes. Literarly. I saw girls, dressed up like lolitas, emos or gyaru... It's not like I saw something like that for the first time, but every girl reminded me of Miako. I missed Miako. Because I thought about her all the time. I stopped for a moment, took a big look into all directions and there I saw it: The Nagasaki center. I decided to go to the Paulista to try that famous coffee of their's. Before I entered I noticed there's not many people. Maybe because of sunday and morning. A bad combination. So I strolled down the main aisle wondering where to sit. I looked left and right, walked few steps further and there she was, sitting behind a giant palm tree: Miako! I froze. It caught me off-guard. What should I do now? Should I greet her, sit beside her? Will I appear rude again? Or should I sit elsewhere or walk off? Will I offend her again? Suddenly she lifted up her head and smiled, 'cause she saw me. She said: "Malukko-san, purizu sit beside me." That made all my nervousness vanish in an instant. She said she came here few minutes ago. I ordered my latte and switched to Japanese. I told her again I was sorry to stare at her the first time we met and hoped she would forgive my impoliteness. She told me she was alright and actually felt flattered by my staring. Suddenly she asked me in English: "Malukko-san, do you tink I am pletty?" I seemed clearly unprepared for a moment, but then again I quickly came to say: "Miako-san, I think you are very pretty. You are the most beautiful girl I ever saw." She blushed and smiled and replied with a sweet voice: "Ah, you just flattel me. I donno if I am pletty. My eksu-boyfliend say I no plety. He took off wit othel gal. My healt is bloken. I must cly evely day." Her face expression went from happy to sad when she looked at me with her watery eyes. "Miako, please, look at me." Her tearful eyes resembled a crying manga girl. "Never again let anyone tell you something like that. You are gorgeous!" I replied. She looked at me with a big question mark. I asked her: "Do you understand 'gorgeous'? She shook her head. I said in Japanese: Senrei. She smiled brightly, but still tearing up. It was like sunshine and rain at same time. I took her hand and said: "You are happy now. Keep it that way." She replied: "Arrigato, Malukko-san. Ar-ri-ga-to" We kept quiet for a moment, I took a sip of my coffee and thought about how to make her smile again. I had a wonderful idea. I said to her: "Miako-san, would you go out with me tonight?" She immediately said yes. We exchanged phone numbers and started a conversation about Ginza. Where to go, what to do... she smiled. She told me many stories about how much fun she had in this or that place. I kept looking at her dreamy eyes while she went on talking. I imagined how I can lose myself in them from close. I wondered how it would feel to intertwine my fingers with hers, pull her close and kiss her. Gently and lengthly. I...
I found myself back in my apartment. It was afternoon. I wasn't tired, but I tried to rest. I wanted to lay on bed and continue dreaming. I still remembered Miako's smile when we parted one hour ago. And how she walked away with her sexy long and perfectly built legs. It was in that moment when I noticed that she wore a mini skirt and high heels. She walked so gracefully. Out of this world? Definitely. My head was full of nonsense. This girl was all I had on my mind these days. Virtually all of the time. I just let my imagination thrive, I was definitely losing all my maturity in one day. I changed from man to boy. And never before I felt this way. I was a bit embarrassed. But I thought to myself: What the heck. Who cares. I'm in love.
It was 7 o'clock. My cell phone kept ringing. Miako! I, drunk from all the daydreaming, previously fell asleep like a baby. So I had to come back to my senses. I picked up: "Moshi moshi?" She sounded nervous yet excited. We said we'll meet at the Mitsukoshi, at the main entrance, at 8 o'clock. I was nervous picking the right shirt and pants. I didn't want to be overdressed, but too casual was also a bad choice. I found a middle way and luckily on time. I hurried up, almost ran downstairs all excited. My heart was pounding like crazy. I couldn't believe I was having a date with such a beautiful girl.
I arrived first. After few minutes of waiting, I became more and more tense. And suddenly it struck me. I saw her approaching me from the distance. Boy, did she look sexy! She wore dark brown boots with high heels, black semi-transparent stockings, a short brown skirt matching the boots and an incredible silky carmine coloured blouse with a glittery collar. Her hair was falling over her shoulders with the tips touching her breasts. Amazingly seductive. On top of all that, she wore a perfect make-up. Her cherry-red lips still lingering in my mind. When she said 'hi' with her cute girly voice, I felt those lips will kill me. I survived.
So we decided right away to go to the cinema. I wouldn't mind if we just stood there near Mitsukoshi or if we went back to the café. Nothing mattered as long as I was with her. The main street in Ginza was crowded. While we were walking, I fooled around, kept making silly jokes or gave her compliments. She clearly enjoyed my company. And she knew I was falling for her. She clearly enjoyed that, too.
The movie was ok. I didn't pay so much attention. I enjoyed to be so close to her, to smell her fragrant perfume, see her silky skin from so close. Many times I closed my eyes and just breathed in slowly... Breathed out slowly...

IV. WE BREATHE

We breathe fast, in my room, kissing and more. I have her. She's mine. Our fingers intertwined. I won't let go, she can't let go. The night of my life. My consciousness is almost lost and repeatedly recovered. Her skin delights me, gives me the shivers. How did I make it? Now I lost myself in her eyes constantly, vigorously, endlessly. It felt like the night should never stop, because everything post this night would seem irrelevant.

V. LOST IN GINZA, LOST IN MIAKO

Two months later. Our love won't decline. We are immersed in Ginza. Ginza is the part that connects us. While I have my photo shoots, Miako started her model career. First for some teen magazines, later for Scawaii! and Woofin' Girl and some others. She became big. But she says she does that because I gave her confidence. She's doing that for herself. Sometimes I worry about all that, because now some people in Ginza stop us, snap photos of her, ask for her autograph. Of course they're polite, but what if there's suddenly someone who's not? I just hope I can protect her. She loves to be shot with my camera. She loves to pose for me. She wants to be dreamy and show me those sad eyes she had two months ago. She does that to please me. Or to shock me. She succeeds in both ways. She loves to wear my shirts and gaze out of the window while asking me to keep the moment with my camera. She says I am the one who can capture the real Miako. Her English improved. I even taught her some Slovene. She's cute when she tries and fails. There's so much more to her than her apparent looks. Her sexiness is deeper than what meets the eye. She said I am the one who went the deepest. I can touch her soul, she says. She wants to be with me forever, she repeats many times with her cute girly voice. She loves to put one arm around my neck, and with the other one seizing my chin and kissing me. She always smiles. We enjoy the walks in Ginza, we love to stroll down the Hibiya park. She loves to kiss me near the clock. Ginza is ours. We own it.

VI. OUR FAIRYTALE

Two years later. Miako loves me more than ever. Can this be a fairytale? All my friends have relationship problems. My Canadian friend divorced with his Japanese dream girl. But I am happy. I keep reading books with no happy ends. I keep wondering why it doesn't happen to me? Why am I still so deeply in love with Miako? Why I have no fear of losing this happiness like others did? It's Miako. She's the key and I am the lock. We are a perfect match. It's how we connect. We always do. Wheather I go to Osaka and she goes to Seoul. We are connected. Nobody comes before 'us'. I still make photos of her. They are deeper. Now I'm capturing her for eternity. For the sake of both. Last sunday we came accross the first photo I snapped of her. It was in September 2004. A sunday. We reminisced about the old times, about the first sunday we went out. We decided to repeat that day. We went to the Paulista, sat at the same desk and sipped coffee. We had a good laugh remembering our first conversation and her broken English. After dark, we went to Mitsukoshi. We decided that I go first, while she stayed at home getting dressed. I waited for her at 8 o'clock. She came 10 minutes late, but her amazing clothes made up for the waiting. It was like that same sunday she first blew me away. I felt the same goose bumps she gave me in that very moment. We went to the same cinema as that time... and we had tons of fun. When we returned to my apartment, I asked her to sit on my couch. I went to the kitchen, opened a bottle of Slovenian white wine, the one I kept for a special occasion. This was one. I gave a toast to our future, told her I love her and reached in my pocket. I took out a small box, she had a feeling what will follow. She started to shiver. I opened it up: a ring. I went down on my knees and said: "Miako, you are..." And asked a question. What do you think was her answer?

VII. 'YES!'

"Miako, my dear, in that sunday something amazing happened. You made me happy forever." (Miako, I looked at your dreamy eyes and knew the answer. And Miako, we don't need love expressed in words. That moment was real, Miako.) I will never forget your dreamy eyes and the seductive smile you gave me. It felt like whole Ginza stopped for a moment. We stopped. And we made it move again. "Now, Miako... this is how I see you, how I see myself, how I see us and our love. How do you see it, Miako?" She just smiled, grabbed my chin carefully, kissed me softly and replied with her cute girly voice: "Yes."

Our love is eternal.

[Photos: Erika Sato]

Memories of Ashikawa 2001

It was in 2001. Kumiko and I were about to have the best 3 days of our life. When I look back, this is how I remember it: Kumiko was so kind to prearrange everything. She bought the train tickets, she called the onsen and asked wheather they had free rooms for two and if they were ok with a Westerner staying at their facility. The owner, later known as mr. Tomodo, was a very kind man and was very happy that we we're headed to his very far off village of Ashikawa (芦川). He didn't expect a guest from as far as Europe.

We met at the train station the next morning, waiting for the train from Tokyo via Maebashi to the beautiful mountain village of Ashikawa. It was quite cold, yet Kumiko was all perky and really behaved in a in way I haven't seen before. She hugged me right infront of all the people, even kissed me and couldn't hide her blush. She said she was so happy to go on this trip with me, her eyes were amazingly glowing. At that time it was very hard for us to be somewhere together and alone. Infront of her father, we always had to behave as if we were only friends. I couldn't offend the head of the family, so I had to restrict myself as much as I could. I knew he disapproved of me, because I wasn't Japanese. Why is it so hard to be with the person I love, I was wondering, while the beautiful Japanese mountains passed by. There was a time, when we argued because of this. Kumiko cried and I was angry, because she wouldn't even allow me to hold her hand infront of the father. The mother never said anything... She was very kind and pure-hearted like Kumiko, but she had no effect nor any will to change her husband's mind regarding me. I know she wanted us to be happy. Kumiko knew it, too.
That's how my mind kept slipping away while Kumiko was sleeping. Time passed by very fast. After few hours we've finally reached in Maebashi, the closest big city near Ashikawa. We knew our final stop was not far away. So I woke up Kumiko, who in the meanwhile rested her head on my shoulder. When she opened her cute eyes, she immediately smiled and kissed me. I felt so happy. With her Japanese kindness and dilligence, she always made me lose my heart again and again. It felt like I fall in love with her everytime she opens that radiant chestnut eyes of hers. It was electrifying.
She said with her sweet Japanese flavoured English: "Niko-kun, ale you happy?" I smiled, looked deep into her eyes and replied: "Yes, Kumiko, as happy as never before." Suddenly the train came to a halt: "Ashikawa station, please alight!" came out of the loudspeakers. I grabbed our luggage and we stepped out of the train. She took my hand, gave me that unforgetabbly joyful look and said: "Thele is de onsen, Niko-kun. Please hully, I want to enjoy wit you." So I sped up my pace and we reached there in less than ten minutes. The whole village was full of wooden Japanese-style houses. The nature was so beautiful. It was a mix of green and grey, including the sky. The gloomy and cold weather was a bit harsh, but that wouldn't stop us in any way. We were so determined to spend a beautiful weekend in this onsen, we forgot that everything else exists. Our world was only Ashikawa.
We scrolled back to reality when we reached the porch of mr. Tomodo's onsen. It was a small onsen, just big enough for the village, the few hundred people living there. Seldom tourists would come from as far as Tokyo, said Mr. Tomodo, who politely bowed and welcomed us. We bowed back and Kumiko spoke in very polite Japanese with him. After she signed the papers and payed the bill, mr. Tomodo brought us up to our room. He was a very reserved man of soft features, with a small moustache and a smile sometimes hard to notice. He walked very slow and kept asking about me, where I was from. He concluded he was very happy and honoured to have me as a guest and if we needed anything, he will be at our service day and night. I remembered Tokyo. People in Tokyo are polite, but mr. Tomodo was something else.
After he showed us the room, he quickly left and we threw down all the bags and hugged. We stayed that way for a minute at least, because Kumiko kept us stuck together with a big kiss. How can we make that kind of magic disappear? We had to! Beacuse we were eager to soak in the warm water of mr. Tomodo's onsen. So we changed clothes and walked off downstairs, turned left and there we saw it. A beautiful outside pool of water, literarly immersing itself into the valley below, into the purling river, the trees and rocks. It was magnificent. More so was Kumiko. Her white bikini was extremely sexy. It made her curvy body look voluptuous and made it even harder to restrain myself. When the water covered her body and messed up her hair, I (just for a moment) couldn't believe that there can be a woman as sexy and sensual as her. Luckily there was no other people around, so we had a lot of privacy. She wrapped her legs around my waist and kissed me, smiled and whispered in my ear: "I love you, Niko-kun. I want you to make me happy tonight."
Outside was night. All was dark. Inside the room was warm. Getting hotter and hotter. I remember clearly: Kumiko is all over me. We can't stop. She can't. I won't. What she was doing with me, no woman ever did to me before. All the prejudice of Japanese women... well, it was true! True and beyond that. Words cannot describe how she did it and what she did with me, but after a while we stopped counting and we were slowly losing our minds. We were like drugged. Literarly.
The next morning. Kumiko was sleeping with a smile on her face. Her hand touched me, her skin was so soft, it gave me goose bumps. It was 10 o'clock, the sun shone in very brightly and painted a pair of red cheeks on Kumiko's face. I spoke softly in her ear: "Wake up, baby. My Kumiko-chan, wake up..." She smiled again, my goose bumps increased. She whispered: "Arrigato!" I said:"Why?" "Fol yestelday, Niko-kun. You make me so happy. Arrigato!" I hugged her and told her, I will never forget yesterday's night. I went to put on some clothes, I turned around. There she was, so beautiful, sitting on bed. The bed which was our playground the night before. So I took my camera and snapped this memorable photo.
It is this photo I cherish the most, it is this moment that is forever engraved in my heart. The latter days in Ashikawa were also unforgettable, the latter months in Tokyo, as well. And even after her father managed to separate us, after all the tears, after all the broken and partly-mended hearts... We still love each other.
Everytime she calls me all in tears, broken and hopless, I tell her: "Kumiko, remember our weekend in Ashikawa few years ago. Remember how happy you were, sitting on that bed. Our bed. I will make you happy again. Be strong." That's the moment when her tears stop and she gets a grip of herself. But the only thing she manages to say is few softly spoken words with a shivering voice: "Niko-kun, I love you."

[Photos: Source]

Moment

She was just wandering around a snowy landside. There was a cottage surrounded by trees who were partly covered by snow and she thought about how to express her feelings as simply as the snow appeared on those branches. In her life everything was in contrast with her inner and outer world. As she saw the door half open, she thought wheather she should enter or turn away. She stopped for a while, glanced her eyes over the surroundings, took a deep breath and remembered last summer's incident in Liontown. She couldn't forget the past, she couldn't forget how she felt when she stood infront of him after 5 years. He was happily married to his charming wife, yet she felt the inner turmoil of her heart's confusion. She remembered how awkward it was to say hi, how she blushed and stuttered. She didn't expect to see him after she let go of him. In that moment, surrounded by snow, she started crying, she started missing him... The tears dropped on the ground, leaving little holes in the snow. Suddenly she ran towards the door, her tears reminded her of his tears when she left him. She slammed the door behind her as if she wanted to forget the past. She needed the security of walls. Suddenly someone knocks on the door. She gets confused. The noise gets louder and louder. She wakes up. Her sister calls her to wake up and drive her to town. In her daze and confusion, she starts rubbing her eyes, she wants to come back to her senses. Her eyes finally wake up, the image of him is slowly fading. Back on her feet, she opened the door and stepped into the reality.