Dear readers,
Yes I am continuing my live reporting from this far away island! Today’s hot topic, the Japanese romance! No, no need to get over excited! I am nowhere near dating a Japanese!
So Anyways on popular demand here are some insights about love, dating and romance!
Warning: What follows is just a fun personal report after talking to different people.
What the girls want… most Japanese girls have to (decide to) quite their job once they get married. So most Japanese girls would rather get married to a well off Japanese men. The girls will therefore pay much attention to the financial stability, ambition and family background of their potential husband. This might be seen as a “gold digging” attitude but to be fair, if they have to become a housewife, might as well have money! Yes for one might think the Japanese society is very macho but one must realize that in the couple, the wife takes care of the money (albeit half of the pay is actually given as a bonus in cash to the salary men so they don’t really have to give it all to their wives!!! and I’m not kidding!). Japanese girls usually feel that once they turn 25 they should really find someone. So it’s usually at that time that they will probably change their attitude towards men and start to be really serious about relationship and marriage.
Men have usually double the pressure, first familywise, they should get a good job because the son is so important, pride of the family…. but they should also have a good job if they actually want to get a lady and have sufficient revenue to have a family! Japanese men are usually extremely shy (that’s actually an understatement) they don’t really talk to girls flirt or say they like someone. If they’re not like that, they’ve either lived abroad, they’re really slithy (start running) or plain weird (keep on running).
Meeting someone is the tricky part! you see, japanese society doesn’t really allow you to talk to strangers unless you’ve actually been introduced. Anyways not such a long time ago most marriages were arranged by parents, so this dating issue is rather new. Most people will meet their spouse at uni or at their work place. Should you be still single and unable to find someone at you work place, then to meet potential single men and women Japanese organize GOKON. Basically it’s diner with equal number of boys and girls. So if one girl has a guy friend she might tell him she has a few single girl friends and then he can think of single guy friends he knows and so people have diner and can exchange numbers if they feel like it. Usually alcohol is involved… it takes a few beers to get people comfortable. Though it is quite popular it’s still not something you should openly talk about (as some people might think you’re desperate!) I am yet to experience one of these!
The date: A typical date in Tokyo will be probably close to a shopping mall! Yokohama and Odayba are quite popular dating spots, they are nice and clean cafes and restaurant, amusement parks (ah the big wheel!) movie theatres, places to walk around with your darling and take “kawaï” pictures and plenty of shops! (I’ve never considered going shopping with my boyfriend but here it’s actually quite popular!)
The confession: a very important thing! You actually start having a relationship only once the guy has “revealed” his feelings for you! Only then can you consider you’re going out… but it also means it’s serious!
Well I hope you enjoyed that post! 
