Lissette Lorenz

While I don’t usually like to make a fuss over my birthday, I’ve also never spent a birthday overseas, away from all of my lovey-lovey loved ones. So I had a choice this year. I could tell no one here in Japan that I was turning 22, and have a quiet celebration inside my head only, or I could invite my new friends and acquaintances to spend their Friday night with me, the birthday girl.

In the end I decided that if people asked me what I was going to do over the weekend, I would casually mention that it was my birthday on Friday, and see what resulted from that conversation. Before any of my classmates could ask me this question, however, I met a nice Japanese girl in the washroom of my dorm, and she called dibs.

Occasionally people just randomly start talking to me, regardless of what I’m doing at the moment. Twice someone has started a conversation while I was brushing my teeth, and several times while I’ve been soaping up in the bath. (And hey, frankly, I like the attention. After spending many hours in the solitude of my dorm room, it feels good to talk to people, even in broken Japanese.) So anyway, I’m brushing my teeth one morning, a week before my birthday, when a girl comes into the washroom to wash her face. While she squeezes cleanser into her palms, she asks me my name, where I’m from, what I like to do, and among other things, how old I am. I mentioned that I was about to turn 22.

女の子：いつですか？(When?)

Me: [Brush, brush, brush. Spit.]えっと。。。金曜日です。(Ummm…[brain: Ok, ok, ok, make sure you say “Friday”, and not “goldfish” like last time]..FRRIII…DAY..?)

女の子：いいね！私の誕生日は月曜日！２２歳もなりますよ。一緒に何かしようか。(Oh hey! My 22nd birthday is on Monday! KYA! Shall we celebrate it together somehow?)

Me: いいですよ！ [Brush, brush, spit, rinse.] [Brain: Wow, totally random, but] (YEAH!)

And that’s how I ended up spending my birthday at Tokyo Tower with a girl I met 5 days previous. It was really sweet of her to take me–a basically total stranger who likes to attend to her oral hygiene–out and about in order to make a fuss over the day I was born. I was touched, really.

I’m generally really grateful to all the new people who I’ve met who are more than willing to hang out with me, invite me to places, and make me feel cared about. My classmates, my language conversation partners that I’ve met via the Internet (it’s like using a dating website, except that contact info is exchanged in order to share language skills, rather than sexy-time skills), and my fellow dorm occupants have all agreed to play the role of Friend in my new Japanese life. And while I know that most of these relationships are quite ephemeral, I appreciate the company. I never thought I’d crave social interaction this much.