I was glad to have both Ryosuke and Debbie with me for the flight over, but they were both strangely quiet. I guess Debbie was thinking about her own Japanese boyfriend in Tokyo, while Ryosuke was trying to be better behaved after teasing me the last time the two of them met. Maybe I’d told Debbie a little too much about the mischief Ryosuke and I get up to, so court was in session, with Debbie the judge. Ryosuke was going to have to get used to that, because he was supposed to meet my parents in a few days, but he doesn’t really worry much about that kind of thing.
Ryosuke was dressed in breezey fashion, tanned, wearing his Top Gun sunglasses, a loose fitting steely grey sweatshirt, khaki jeans. He’s a handsome guy, funny, confident, fashionable with his frosted tips, but I don’t know if that will help him with my parents. My mom wants me to marry someone who went to a good school, someone boring basically. ‘Boring’ is one thing that Ryosuke is not.
After we landed, we got on the train together, but Ryosuke headed off to his parents’ place in Tokyo, while I brought Debbie home to Kamakura to stay with us. Dad seemed pretty pumped to meet her, relishing the chance to practice his English. Mom tried to make her feel at home.
When Dad was off at work, I took Debbie to Tokyo, so she could see her boyfriend, while I snuck off to see Ryosuke, and meet his parents and friends. I’ll tell you more about that some other time.
Debbie flew back to Oceanview early, so after that, things settled down at my house. My dad suggested that I invite Ryosuke down, and he would take the two of us and my mom out sightseeing. The Shonan area around Kamakura has tons of beaches, parks and temples, so almost every weekend, my parents head out on these little day trips to explore.
That morning, I got up, and tried to decide what to wear. It was September by then, but it was still pretty warm. I found a sleeveless yellow sundress, fairly mini, but still decent, and decided to go with that. I brought it downstairs to the bath. I checked myself in the mirror. My hair was black and long, my skin fairly pale even though I’d been to the beach a fair bit. I wore lots of sunblock. I’d let my bangs grow in, giving myself a mysterious look(?). Seeing Debbie with her eye shadow made me wonder if I should tweeze my eyebrows, put on some raspberry lip gloss or something. I like to keep my look natural. Ryosuke seems to like me this way, so I guess it doesn’t matter.
I had a shower, and then pulled on some undies and this yellow dress. Before we left, I pulled on some socks and black leather lace-up boots for hiking. Didn’t really match my dress, but they look cute too, on me at least.
Ryosuke gave me a call when he arrived at Kamakura station, and we headed out to pick him up. My dad drove us down to Zushi, a neighboring town to the south. Zushi is kind of famous for its marina, but we headed through town to Mount Hirou Park on the far side. Hirou means something like ‘show off’ or ‘open your heart.’ I guess I must have been there before, but I didn’t remember it.
We drove up to the top of the mountain (more like a hill but it’s called Mount Hirou), and parked the car. There was a drink machine, so we bought some drinks, and went over, and took a look at the zoo. My mom came over, and chatted with me, but my dad was pretty quiet. Ryosuke was trying to act friendly, but you could tell he didn’t really know what to say to my dad. It was going well though I thought. No big problems yet.
Next, my dad wanted to show us the observation platform. On clear days, you are supposed to be able to see Mount Fuji, but it was a bit cloudy that day. We came back, and found the path that leads down to the platform that overlooks the sea. My dad said it was a long walk. Ryosuke wanted to walk down, but my dad wanted to drive, so we split up. My parents promised to meet us at the bottom of the hill.
The path down is quite nice, gently sloping with a soft lawn of grass and woods on both sides. The park is right in the town of Zushi, but you can’t really see the town from inside the park. I really enjoy all the greenery in Shonan. It’s so peaceful and soothing.
Ryosuke looked pretty happy too. He had a big smile on his face, and held my hand, swinging it cheerfully as we walked down.
“What are you so happy about?” I asked.
“No, it’s just you look so cute today.”
I laughed, a bit surprised he was so sweet all of a sudden. He really doesn’t say things like that so often. We walked down a little ways further, and then he pulled me off to the side to the edge of the trees. He looked deep into my eyes, and then gave me the softest kiss. I was a bit surprised.
“Someone’s feeling frisky,” I blushed as he tried to kiss me again. I was feeling a bit self-conscious about smooching in this public park with my parents nearby.
“Do you want to…?” he asked leaving the question unfinished.
“What?”
“You know. Fool around a little.” He tried to pull me down onto the grass, but I resisted. I guess I was worried about keeping my parents waiting.
“No, no. Let’s just walk, OK?”
He looked kind of disappointed, but he settled down to humor me. We continued down the hillside. The further down we went, the narrower the path became. The woods were kind of closing in on either side of us. I stopped on the stairs, and looked at him, wondering perhaps if this might be a private enough place to make out a little. We hadn’t seen anyone at all, since we left my parents. I guess most people don’t hike down this far.
“What?” he asked.
“If you have to ask, I’m not going to answer,” I giggled. I started running on ahead, teasing him, and he came chasing.
“What are you up to? You little rapscallion,” he called after me. The ground was a bit wet. I almost slipped, and fell in the mud. Ryosuke raced down, and caught me. I looked up at him with wide eyes, impressed that he’d come to my rescue.
“I almost fell in the mud there, and ruined my dress,” I giggled. I wondered if he might kiss me, but instead he helped me stand back up.
“Yeah, you’d better be careful. It would be a shame to ruin it,” he said more seriously.
“It is kind of slippery,” I said running the toe of my boot through the mud. I stood with my back to him, looking down shyly at the ground. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, but I was starting to feel a bit frisky myself. He must have sensed this because he came closer hovering behind me.
“It is a nice dress,” he purred into my ear. I glanced back at him. He was looking at me with this big grin on his face. “Is this how you undo it?” he asked grasping the zipper at the back of my neck.