Tales from the Road

This is a true story -- names have been changed to protect the pathetic.

e and i were in hiroshima peace park, which is a really touching and sad place, checking out chicks. there was a group of three japanese girls (mid-twenties) in particular that caught our attention, so we watch as this loser australian guy tries to hit on them for a good 15 mins. it was pathetic; he was taking pictures of/with them and trying to get them to kiss him on the cheek. i'm not one to be superficial, but this dude was ugly. anyways, we leave them to check out the other exhibits. after walking around for half an hour, we see the same group of girls sitting down on a park bench. we casually approach and the weirdest thing happens: out of nowhere, they say hi to us. being the ladies-men that we are, we did the only logical thing: we kind of say hi back and walk sheepishly past them. after about ten steps -- with the girls watching us the whole time -- we stop and look at each other.

"oh my god, what the hell just happened," i said.

"i have no idea, what do we do now?" was the response.

we stand there for a while trying to find some semblance of game. after much debate and confusion, we decide to go ask them where they're from. as soon as we turn around to walk back, we get stopped by this group of ten elementary school kids. they were doing a school project and needed to ask foreigners some questions. now this brought up a tough moral dilemma: should we help out the little kids with their peace project or blow them off to chase after girls? in the end, we did the only thing we knew we could do successfully, the kids got their peace message, and we got a cool picture with them. by this time, the girls had completely lost interest in us and start walking away. we had finished with the kids and were damn sure we weren't going to waste this opportunity, so we started walking in the same direction -- this is not stalking by the way since the direction was towards the museum, where we intended to go anyways. but alas, it wasn't meant to be because as soon as we got moving again, we were stopped by these two junior high girls who were also doing a school thing. after cursing a school system that would allow so many of its students to wander around a park on a tuesday afternoon, i filled out their questionnaire, which was ridiculously complicated and required essays to properly answer the questions. it was a bit of a workout answering "what can japan do to promote peace?" turning an answer that would involve the changing geo-political climate, socio-economic factors, and accountability for atrocities such as the rape of nanking to "just keep doing what you've been doing." i guess i can sleep better at night knowing that i made a difference in some children's lives by helping them quickly complete a mundane assignment so that they can enjoy their time away from class, even though i'd be sleeping alone -- no more than 5 feet from a guy who likes to "backspoon."