J-Ladies: "Table for one"

[Taro Toporific]

Isn't this an FG opportunity??
Tokyo women warming up to 'a table for one'
Tokyo -Your friend has cancelled a dinner date at a restaurant you have been wanting to try for a long time, do you keep the reservation and dine solo or go home hungry?
More and more single Japanese women are not afraid of dining alone and are asking for a table for one. An increasing number of them even prefer having a meal at a restaurant solo.----January 24 2003 at 08:43PM

[cstaylor]

Hmmm.... am I the only one who automatically stereotypes solo eaters as strange people? Students studying through a meal are exempted of course.

[cliffy]

C.S. No you are not alone but it is a mistake to assume anything. I am a frequent solo diner for a number of reasons (travel, work in remote locations,etc). I don't grab the nearest 'willing' person so won't look like I have no social skills when I eat in a Bistro or what ever. I know who I am and what I am and I am happy with that. Also as the article says it is a peaceful thing to do at times.

[Taro Toporific]

http://www.links.net/vita/trip/japan/tokyo/uguisudani/pix/ramen-interior-lg.jpg

Hmmm.... am I the only one who automatically stereotypes solo eaters as strange people?

It's normative male Japanese behavior to snort noodles, hoover up donburi, or paw through sushi all alone .... since nobody likes oyaji, especially their families.

[Jack]

To be honest I see solo women eat only in places like Cafe de Crie or Doutor or some other cafes. Never in a full-service restaurant.

Let's just say that outside of lunch hours and if it is not a "bar-style" setting like in noodle shops, you will probably not see solo women eating at La Boheme. If they did, I agree that they would be ripe for the picking.

[Marvin Feltcher]

Forget about eating, I know countless numbers of Japanese women who have sex alone. Why else do you think this is the land of the Hello Kitty vibrator?

[GomiGirl]

C.S. No you are not alone but it is a mistake to assume anything. I am a frequent solo diner for a number of reasons (travel, work in remote locations,etc). I don't grab the nearest 'willing' person so won't look like I have no social skills when I eat in a Bistro or what ever. I know who I am and what I am and I am happy with that. Also as the article says it is a peaceful thing to do at times.

Cliffy,
I agree with you. I often eat alone as I am always travelling for work so fit the demographic of 20-30 something career chick. Sure I sometimes eat in my room but that is really boring except if a good movie is on. So I tend to go out and eat in a restaurant, soak up the local flavour - especially if I am in a foreign country. A girl has to eat and it may as well be interesting.

I often take a book with me so that I don't notice people staring - cos people do stare.

So there could be any number of reasons that women dine alone - I guess only a small percentage a social pariahs.

[Darkwing]

You ain't the only one GomiGirl. I have just moved to Japan and end up eating alone every second night...
You cant win anyways... It seems that if you are a FG expect to be stared at. When I eat alone I aint sure if they are staring because I am alone, or because I am a FG. If I go out with a chick, people stare too. Can't freakin win... Just gotta get used to life as a celeb I guess...

BTW... Anyone noticed that when you are at a business hotel that some people will just wait for the next lift rather than bless you with their company? Are they being polite or what?

[GomiGirl]

Just gotta get used to life as a celeb I guess...

Absolutely!!

BTW... Anyone noticed that when you are at a business hotel that some people will just wait for the next lift rather than bless you with their company? Are they being polite or what?

I've never noticed - is it time to re-think the deodorant/cologne?

I am only half joking here - I was once asked to stop using perfume (I don't wear much at all and it is very subtle) as Japanese women don't wear any at all and the male staff were finding it distracting..

[Ketou]

Gomi Girl, just get used to it! You're a magnet.

When I first came to Japan (91 I think?) I was in Kumamoto. I used to get people crossing the street to avoid walking past me, obasans would stop dead in their tracks and just stare in astonishment, I would sit on the train with both seats either side of me vacant while heaps of people stood.
It was quite funny. Still is.

Don't worry about people staring at you Darkwing. Blow them a kiss or something. Comfirm their programming that Gaijin are weird.

[Taro Toporific]

Don't worry about people staring at you Darkwing. Blow them a kiss or something. Comfirm their programming that Gaijin are weird.

Damn, don't give away my secret!
There's hardly a day goes by in my faux-salaryman life that I don't blow a kiss at a gawker, male or female.
I loooove to watch their J-brains smoke and overload at the thought of getting an airkiss from an alien like me who looks like a semi-metal Sunday-school teacher on steriods.