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From
Osaka to Tokyo
Adventures
of a French girl when she traveled to Japan
By Pierre
Coda
Continued from previous page: A
date with a Japanese man
We
are going to Roppongi tonight, Yumiko informed. I had read about
Roppongi in the Tokyo guidebooks but was not necessarily enthused to go
there. My only exposure to gaijin life in Japan was limited.
From day one, I had been living like a Japanese
girl.
Yumiko suggested that it would be a good idea for me to check out
the nightlife in Tokyo for gaijins before I decided to stay here.
Yumiko also announced that the dress code for tonight was also
different from yesterday. I had to look really funky tonight. I had definitely not packed to go to bars in Tokyo so
naturally I admitted that I had nothing to wear that would made me look
funky.
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Not
to worry, Yumiko coolly said. She
pulled out a suitcase from the
closet and opened it right in front of me.
I was completely shocked. I thought such clothes were
used only in fashion shows in Paris or Milan, and there was no way Yumiko
would have a boxful of them. Yumiko wasted no time in trying to
determine what she was going to wear.
Before I was done rummaging through the box, Yumiko had already
stripped down to her underwear
and was trying different combinations.
Standing in front of a full-length mirror, she looked like a model,
who was checking her body from various angles.
I simply sat fascinated as Yumiko chose an embroidered bra top with
a see-through red chiffon
blouse and black leather skirt.
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 Yumiko
suggested that I should use one of her dresses. While I was
fascinated by Yumiko’s outfit and would have loved to try it, I was not
sure that I was ready to go out wearing something like this.
I reluctantly chose a black mesh slip dress even though I was a
little bit conscious of wearing such a revealing outfit.
While I had been horrified to see Yumiko the other day wearing a
dress without a bra, I was not sure
that I wanted to do the same, but I could not imagine wearing a bra either
with this dress. As I tried
the dress on, I realized that either I would have to wear it without a bra
or everyone would get a good peek at it.
In Yumiko’s opinion, either way was fine.
Not wearing a bra was a symbol of confidence in one’s body while wearing a bra showed boldness – “I like my underwear
and you should too,” Yumiko laughingly commented.
I was in a bind and finally opted to wear a bra even if it meant
that my underwear would not be known just to
her. However, once I was dressed completely and stood in front of the
mirror, I realized that my black and red bra was too much of a distraction
– the dress was too low
cut like that of
Ali Larter.
I would be better off
without it, I told Yumiko, who gladly went behind me and unhooked it.
I pulled my bra out by slightly pushing down the dress and then
threw it in the air as if I were in another theme party – we both laughed
loudly and cheered as it fell on the floor.
Maybe I was a wild girl after all – the world just did not know
it yet, and neither did I - I told myself.
The
restaurant in Roppongi was packed. I was surprised not only by the
number of foreigners but also by the number of Japanese who seemed to come
from a different world. The Japanese there looked so cosmopolitan.
They did not look or behave like the Japanese I had known so far in
the Osaka suburbs. I was definitely being exposed to a Japan that I had
not seen yet. While I heard a
lot of Japanese being spoken, it seemed that there were too many languages
being spoken. At the end of
the evening, I was starting to think that life might actually be quite
exciting in Tokyo – only if I could get this job.
~
Next part: Job
interview in Tokyo
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