I had another average day in the shop. I counted money and paid bills and stuff. H's day didn't start off very good though, what with a small car accident (he's fine), a broken TV and our local Hitachi rep coming to bug us to sell more. The rainy weather didn't help any at all either. Luckily he also got an unexpected call from a friend who recently found his way out of a long depression (and will hopfully be coming to visit soon) and we had dinner with one of the most un-Japanese Japanese people I have ever met. She got H's e-mail from one of his friends from his English conversation days, and actually had been to one of his band's shows quite a few years ago. She's in the process of starting her own band and came to pick H's brain about how to go about it. Needless to say, H was flattered and pleased to have someone coming to him for band advice. I was there in the shop when she came, so I got an "Oh, you're married! I had no idea... uhh, do you want to come with us to dinner?" style invitation. Like I was going to say "no" and let H go off with a pretty girl to dinner while I stayed home and microwaved something!?! Yeah, right. So she called and changed their reservations (!) from two to three.

We went to a nearby hotel resturant... this may sound all fancy, and it was a little, but Suwa has tons of resort hotels around the lake. They don't get a lot of customers on the weekdays, so they have good deals. H ordered the all-you-can-eat steak plate... of which he ate four. Four! The steaks weren't anywhere near as big as Texas-sized steak, but they were pretty big for Japan. After we ordered, the questions began... where do you practice, where did you record your CD, do you know any drummers... the list went on, and she really did have a list. It was an interesting dinner, to say the least, and she was an interesting person. Apparently, she studied abroad in England for about six months and her English is really good. When she got back from England, she went to the conversation school I used to work at to keep up her fluency. That's how she knew about H and his band in the first place. I don't think we've seen the last of her yet. She seemed really interested when H said that he'd introduce her to the owner of the club that his band usually plays at. I'm looking forward to her band's debut; it should be fun.