tl;dr: don't be afraid to disqualify and walk away.

TokyoSedditors: feel free to complement my post in the comments. As usual some details might have been changed to protect the innocent.

Friday night in Shibuya. Weather has been warming into an early spring.

I meet my friend Toshi (fake name, he's not Japanese) in Shibuya and we head out to one of our regular pubs. When we get there thesacred just happens to be there, and TofuTofu texts me that he's coming. Another sedditor came along (oken? we didn't talk much this time, but I'm sure we'll meet again) . TokyoSeddit is working really well, we don't even have to plan things much. :-)

thesacred is talking to 2 girls by himself so I go there. The girls are already about to leave so I have no time to do much, except to occupy the friend while thesacred number-closes his target.

Later thesacred is talking to another 2-set and Toshi goes there. He comes back as he's not interested in the other girl, I explain to him that we often act as wingmen and occupy the target's friend, etc. I go there myself and talk to them for a while. The place is crowded and I'm behind the girls in a not so comfortable position. I don't what to do in these kind of situation, maybe I should have made the girl turn sideways. thesacred is doing a lot of banter and teasing. "Can I have some of these nuts?" The girl: "no". He took it anyway. The girls were confused as hell. Japanese guys would never do that. Eventually one of the girls left to the bathroom so I left too. thesacred, did you #-close?

A bit later I realize that 3 girls (let's call them A, B, C) had sat by "our" long table, with C taking my seat. I ask Toshi but he says he didn't talk to them. I open C and "complain" that she took my seat. Eventually I and Toshi are talking to the 3 girls. B and C are chubby but friendly. A is tiny and cute and also friendly.

I don't remember all of our conversation. The important thing is I was relaxed and ready to possibly befriend the girl (see Tofu's entourage game posts). I asked how did they know each other, etc, but I sensed we were dangerously nearing interview-style conversation so I turned it into this:

Me: "So where do you live?"

"[some place near Shibuya]"

"Oh, so you must come to Shibuya often, uh? You must be a party girl."

"No, I'm not party girl"

"How often you come to Shibuya?"

"Hmm... once a week"

"Liar. I bet you come every night".

"No! I'm a good girl!"

"I'm gonna ask your friend... Girl B, how often does Girl A come to Shibuya?"

Girl B: "Hmm, 5 times a week"

Me: "I knew it! You're a party girl... I don't like party girls... bye"

Then I went to the counter to get a drink. :-) When I was ordering 2 of the girls were looking at me. I took my time and talked to other guys. In this place Japanese dudes often open you if you're gaijin. I was friendly to them. This time the Japanese dudes weren't cockblocking or annoying.

Later I went back to the girl and played a bit more. She asked my age and I said something like 20 (I'm 30 and don't look anything like 20). She took some time to get it was a joke, but then she got into it and said I really looked younger, more like 16. I said "yeah, I can't even order drinks, please buy me a drink". Eventually she got to this old standard Japanese question:

Girl A: "How old do I look?"

[She's really short, like 150cm, if you aren't used to Japanese girls you would think she was a high school girl... since I've been here for some time I guess she must be like 20-22]

Me: "Hmm, 30?"

Girl A: "What!?"

Me: "Hmm, maybe 31?"

Girl A: "I'm 23!!!!"

Me: "Really? You don't look like 23... maybe 29"

There are at least several ways you can play the age guess thing, I could even write a separate post at tokyoseddit. She knows I'm kidding but at the same time she's "mad" at me. I continue with "it's ok if you're 30, I'm only 16 but... we can be friends".

Later I tell her about Toshi's parties. She proceeds to invite herself. Nice. At this point the number close is a given. I don't have to "beg" her for her number, it's more like "well, if you wanna come give me your number/mail address". I even told her we'd have a party on Sunday but she couldn't come this time because it was already full (which is true), but I could invite her for the next. I could never say such a thing if I was giving a damn.

She asked what was my mobile carrier, and said she didn't like Softbank because she doesn't like dogs (I could try to explain to you guys who aren't in Japan but it would still be extremely silly). I say that I love dogs so we would never work out, we could never get married, etc.

There was also some impromptu "gay game" when Toshi implied that we were gay. This is also a sort of disqualification and can be a lot of fun but can also backfire. ;-)

Something really funny happened with girl B and TofuTofu. We were sitting by a long table and the place was really crowded. Tofu and oken were sitting across from us. The girl wanted to sit near Tofu (I don't know if Tofu invited her or if she made up an excuse), but instead of going around the table she went under the table. LOL. Of course Tofu took a picture. Knowing his standards I doubt he was interested in the girl, but I hope he tells the whole story.

I eventually left to catch the last train to Yokohama so I don't know what happened to the rest of the crew.