this story took place on golden week but I’ve been too busy to make a proper write up.
this was my first real in-field nampa experience (i’ve done it in bars but never on the streets) and i wanted to share my experience
Background:
on friday i went to an izakaya with friends. After we parted ways i was wondering around aimlessly drinking and smoking, thinking of where to go / what to do. I went to hub for a brief drink but the meat market atmosphere was quite off-putting even though i had several women approach me (mainly older OL type). As i was leaving i got a message from a girl who had been ghosting me. She asked me if i was free. I said “yeah, where are you?”. She had also been ditched by her friends and was now in shinjuku alone. We met up, drank together, missed the last train, and ended up taking a cab back to my place around ~4am. Overall a pretty normal night turned out fun.
Now this is where the funny part really starts… After she left my apartment in the morning, i decided to watch one of my favourite movies in bed whilst trying to recuperate from the night before. This may seem irrelevant now, but it'll play a role later in this story.
That evening, high off the confidence from my last night’s success, I decided to hit up shinjuku again. This time much later (around 22:00). I made a promise to myself to not go to any bar and solely attempt meeting people off the streets. I started by observing some japanese nampa guys near the station, because it’s quite entertaining tbh. Once i had mustered the courage to “finally do it”, i started walking around. There were a lot of nampa guys about that night as was to be expected so initially i had a hard time finding a spot to post up at. Eventually i thought fuck it and decided to just approach anyone walking around/standing. I approached 3 girls with not much success. I did get one’s line ID, but she has ghosted my messages since.
Then near the intersection.. I saw her. A tall artsy looking girl with those thinly framed glasses, my kryptonite. She was on her phone leaning against a wall so I initially felt hesitant to approach. Then when I saw her taking off her headphones, I knew this was my opportunity. While approaching I had already thought of the different witty openers to use. As I got close, she looked up and my mind completely blanked...
Without hesitation or any real conscious awareness I simply said “パイナップル 好き？” / “do you like pineapples” (+1 point to anyone who gets this movie reference). She gave me an odd but amused look and said “nani??” so I repeated the question. She chuckled and said that’s the weirdest thing she’s heard all day, but yes.. they’re delicious. Seeing as she clearly wasn’t creeped out by my approach and seemed to be curious i started asking about her plans for the night / what she did that day. Our conversation actually flowed surprisingly well and she would ask me questions back (other than the run of the mill “where from??”). I suggested we continue talking at a nearby izakaya I like. She agreed and we go to the said izakaya. I’m already rambling and writing too much so to keep it short, we clicked, missed the last train, and end up spending the night together at a hotel.
I used to put a lot of emphasis on having an arsenal of "good" openers so the fact that something so plain and dumb worked absolutely cracks me up. Maybe it is the way and/or confidence with which you say things that's more important than the content itself?
TL;DR
I went out to solo nampa for the first time and was able to have a SNL after opening with a dumb quote from a movie.
this was my first real in-field nampa experience (i’ve done it in bars but never on the streets) and i wanted to share my experience
Background:
on friday i went to an izakaya with friends. After we parted ways i was wondering around aimlessly drinking and smoking, thinking of where to go / what to do. I went to hub for a brief drink but the meat market atmosphere was quite off-putting even though i had several women approach me (mainly older OL type). As i was leaving i got a message from a girl who had been ghosting me. She asked me if i was free. I said “yeah, where are you?”. She had also been ditched by her friends and was now in shinjuku alone. We met up, drank together, missed the last train, and ended up taking a cab back to my place around ~4am. Overall a pretty normal night turned out fun.
Now this is where the funny part really starts… After she left my apartment in the morning, i decided to watch one of my favourite movies in bed whilst trying to recuperate from the night before. This may seem irrelevant now, but it'll play a role later in this story.
That evening, high off the confidence from my last night’s success, I decided to hit up shinjuku again. This time much later (around 22:00). I made a promise to myself to not go to any bar and solely attempt meeting people off the streets. I started by observing some japanese nampa guys near the station, because it’s quite entertaining tbh. Once i had mustered the courage to “finally do it”, i started walking around. There were a lot of nampa guys about that night as was to be expected so initially i had a hard time finding a spot to post up at. Eventually i thought fuck it and decided to just approach anyone walking around/standing. I approached 3 girls with not much success. I did get one’s line ID, but she has ghosted my messages since.
Then near the intersection.. I saw her. A tall artsy looking girl with those thinly framed glasses, my kryptonite. She was on her phone leaning against a wall so I initially felt hesitant to approach. Then when I saw her taking off her headphones, I knew this was my opportunity. While approaching I had already thought of the different witty openers to use. As I got close, she looked up and my mind completely blanked...
Without hesitation or any real conscious awareness I simply said “パイナップル 好き？” / “do you like pineapples” (+1 point to anyone who gets this movie reference). She gave me an odd but amused look and said “nani??” so I repeated the question. She chuckled and said that’s the weirdest thing she’s heard all day, but yes.. they’re delicious. Seeing as she clearly wasn’t creeped out by my approach and seemed to be curious i started asking about her plans for the night / what she did that day. Our conversation actually flowed surprisingly well and she would ask me questions back (other than the run of the mill “where from??”). I suggested we continue talking at a nearby izakaya I like. She agreed and we go to the said izakaya. I’m already rambling and writing too much so to keep it short, we clicked, missed the last train, and end up spending the night together at a hotel.
I used to put a lot of emphasis on having an arsenal of "good" openers so the fact that something so plain and dumb worked absolutely cracks me up. Maybe it is the way and/or confidence with which you say things that's more important than the content itself?
TL;DR
I went out to solo nampa for the first time and was able to have a SNL after opening with a dumb quote from a movie.
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