The first date that wasn't a first date (warning: long!)

I'll be writing this in English because I want to remember 08/23/18 as an extremely important and special day of my life!

Quick TL;DR summary of what happened before: two years ago I became friends with someone special on a trip to Japan, but I was slow at reading her signals and I was clearly not ready for a relationship yet (haha). After receiving a phone call asking for a date and giving a shitty answer (I literally said "uhh, it's too far, so it won't work out, uhh yeah"), I thought about a date for five months before asking her in July.

Her university move-in was the day after (8/24), so 8/23, the day I flew in to NYC, was the only time that fit us. I had considered booking at various restaurants (e.g. Gaonnuri, which I canceled the day before, and Grand Seoul, which I canceled the day of) but in the end these weren't necessary. I woke up at 2:30 AM to shower, groom, and get ready for a 6:05 AM flight to Newark Liberty International. After taking the AirTrain to use NJ Transit and arriving at New York Penn Station, we met each other after some confusion (my GPS thought I was in Union City, NJ!) at 7th Ave and W 32nd St.

We started out a little awkward - we were in "touring NYC" mode, so trying to talk to each other was difficult. I complimented her on the hair she had dyed red, the shoes she had chosen (one of 16 pairs), and later on after we arrived at Grand Central to look around, her eyeliner (which her friend had apparently helped her put on earlier that morning). We looked around Grand Central and tried to start some friendly talk to get more comfortable, but my bag and suitcase in addition to my shawl cardigan plus t-shirt and jeans outfit was getting pretty toasty (ouch, wrong outfit), so we headed to the hotel I booked at Westin Grand Central to put my things down. After a quick break we headed to our next stop, Kinokuniya near Bryant Park.

Kinokuniya is where we started to loosen up just a little because we got to talk about anime/manga, Japanese stationery, and our trip to Japan on the Kakehashi Project, although we didn't stay inside for too long before getting hungry and wanting to find a place to eat. I suggested Xi'an Famous Foods but the line was quite long at W 45 St, so we went to the neighboring "Pizza Cafe" just to find something to eat.

At this point our conversations were winding down and I was starting to run out of topics, so we ate our pepperoni pizza lunches with intermittent conversation. I had thought I was doing a poor job of keeping the date interesting and had almost asked her if she wanted to go home...

...luckily (!) we decided on heading to the oculus and Winter Garden Atrium next. Where the date really picked up though, and I owe her a big one for this, is when she started to in a way show her path growing up in NYC. She showed me her middle school at West St and Chambers St, how she chose her high school and why she despised Stuyvesant High (much more interesting how she told it in person), and her experiences in high school. We got a lot more comfortable with each other as we walked along the Battery Park City Esplanade in Rockefeller Park, and we found a nice bench to relax in the shade, enjoy the weather and scenery of the Jersey City shore, and chat.

She suggested we move over to the waterfront benches after a while in the shade, so we did so. I tried making my first move to see whether she was comfortable holding hands - asking her about hand size and comparing, which we had talked about previously. I quickly clasped her hands for a moment and was surprised when she didn't reel back from it, and kept that in mind as we strolled toward the Irish Hunger Memorial for a nice view.

Next we decided to try buy tickets for Crazy Rich Asians at the Regal Cinemas at Battery Park 11, but the 7:30 time slot we wanted was sold out (and other places were too far). Instead she lead me to Chinatown and we toured the area, grabbed bubble drinks at Gong Cha, and saw her grandpa's clinic, her elementary, and daycare before walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

At this point I think we were getting comfortable enough to hold hands, so it took me until the downhill slope near Brooklyn to ask - I'm sure I was influenced by the other couples who were holding hands. (Apparently she was shocked!)

We then decided to do so, but along the High Line, so we rode the subway from Brooklyn to Chelsea. I entered super flirt mode or something at the High Line, but I don't care - holding hands along the High Line (although we had to dry our hands every so often) and dropping smooth lines has to be one of the most memorable experiences of my life. This is what youth feels like!

We settled down to discuss where to go next at 11th Ave and W 30th St before deciding to get something to eat at Otoya. At this point we were really comfortable and began to talk about continuing the relationship - how an LDR would work, what we would each need to do to make it work, and so on. Eating at Otoya was a pleasant experience, as we took bar seats and (according to her) side-by-side eating was more casual than face-to-face as we had done at the Pizza Cafe earlier. I ordered a mini-oyakodon set which proved to be a lot of food, while she took a salad that unexpectedly came with karaage.

At this point it was getting late so we returned to my room to give my gifts for her family after holding hands one more time from Grand Central. We cuddled (!). What!? I still can't believe it either, and it was her who initiated it.

For whatever reason this feels like a military report of the events that happened that day, but I just wanted to remember everything!