I usually don't attend Japanese class on Wednesday nights anymore because I started going to Korean class during that time but yesterday's Korean class was on a holiday and plans to meet and study with a friend fell through. Given I was already in the area due to inquiring on airplane prices to Seoul and Taipei for a trip I'd like to take this weekend at the nearby travel agency I decided to attend my old Japanese class. After class I saw a girl from China that I had met once before and her friend from China who I was meeting for the first time. While I was talking to one of them the other was talking to a guy from Dubai who she had just met.
He was new to Okayama (6 months which is actually longer than I've been here) and apparently didn't know where one of the cities biggest claims to fame was. Korakuen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Draku-en
The park was closed due to it being late but apparently he wanted someone to show him where it was located so he could go later. Apparently he asked one of the girls if she could show him where it was so she asked if we all could go. Frankly I didn't wanna stay out late and had to catch a train to go home, but I figured it would be a good time to get to know the girls better and possibly become friends since they seem like cool people. I also began to sense slightly that there was another reason why she wanted us all to go so I gave in and decided to join. The guy had a car so we all got in and began our short little trip.
The first thing I noticed about him is that he seemed to like to join in the conversations a lot while driving which for him meant frequently looking at the people sitting in the back and kind of driving a bit reckless. I've seen worse so it didn't really bother me but the girls seem to be really stressed out by his driving. They would constantly stop a conversation short and tell him "never mind" in hopes he would just focus on driving. The park isn't all that far or difficult to get to so we arrived soon. He pulled in along side the parking lot which was dimly lit due to the park being closed and stopped the car. One of the girls immediately asked if we were gonna return back now and he asked her to wait and wanted to smoke a cigarette and get a drink from the vending machine. At this point I wasn't so much scared as I was just a little creep ed out and I could see that both of the girls were scared. I wanted to comfort them with words but didn't want to seem like I thought he was creepy as well in front of him. He asked if we all wanted drinks and we declined and then to my surprise on of the girls just came out and said that she wanted to know why they weren't able to return now. In my opinion a Japanese girl and possibly a Korean would have kept a little more silent in showing how scared they were as to "appear" more polite. The Chinese on the other hand I have always felt are a bit more like Americans (which can be both good and bad) in that they usually will just straight up tell you what they think or feel. It can be refreshing at times. I was actually proud of her that she said what she said. So the guy was just telling them not to worry and not to think any weird things about the situation which I can understand his wanting to calm them but it really just made it more creepy. I personally wasn't really afraid as physically I was sure I could take him so he would need a gun or something which isn't the easiest to get a hold of in Japan, but nonetheless I was ready to go back too yet at the same time trying to spare his feelings.
So the girl's words got to him and he agreed to return us back to where we began. After getting back we said goodbye to him and the girls walked with me back to the station. Turns out they were indeed scared of him and the situation and had even called friends to let them know where they were at.There were a lot of talk in Chinese during the situation that I am sure were calls letting people know where they were in case they came up missing or something.So I gave them a little advice in handling those situations and we parted for the night. It was creepy indeed but I never personally felt like any real danger and I made two friends out of the situation that I will probably hang out with during my time here so thank you creepy guy, but if you wanna make friends here you might wanna turn down the creepy factor.
I don't know anything for sure but if I was to guess I would say he knew where the park was to begin with (6 months living here, I just feel you would at least know general area as its in the populated area downtown.) and was pretending to not know so he could get the girl to take him just the two of them and spend sometime with her. (She IS pretty) I'm not saying he wanted to do anything strange with her but probably was interested in her and wasn't expecting her to invite the rest of us.
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