Special edition

I've been blessed with great company at the hostel.  Sometimes it only takes one person to make a place that much better (or worse).  Junya, a Japanese law student studying in Tokyo, has kept us all entertained with his humor and stories.  He has traveled to Europe and other parts of Asia, and is relatively fluent in English.  The great part is, he is not really the stereotypical Japanese men (reserved and polite), and there was definitely no hesitation on his part on telling us about what him and his 20-something friends do during their free time.  Or what he appreciates.

"You know, I think Taiwanese women are more attractive than Japanese women."  Junya said. 
"Why?  Because we have better teeth than them?"  I asked, since it is relatively typical for Japanese women to have somewhat crooked teeth.
"Haha, not just that.  I think they have bigger breasts"  He said to me as he forms two cups with his hands in front of his own chest. 

We all broke out in laughter. 

I was starting to think that he would fit right in with Michael and Sarah. 

The other Japanese traveler, who is clearly older and more reserved than Junya, shakes his head and tells us "it's not like this with all Japanese."

There were two other exchange students from Germany and Poland studying in South Korea also in their early 20s, joining in on Junya's conversation.  Somewhere along the line, the conversation of breasts turned into prositution.

This is what happened:

I asked him whether it was true that old men would mail order used teenager underwear in Japan.  I was aware of this from Taiwnese news many years ago, but I wasn't sure if it was true.  Unfortunately, they confirmed that this was true. 

Junya started talking about how one of his teachers turned out to be "buying" teenage services, and had to go to jail. The German guy started talking about Berlusconi, noting that he was no different than the dirty Japanese old men.

Junya told us more stories about his trip to Paris, where he wanted to "buy" some services from prostitutes but did not end up doing so for whatever the reason.  We were cracking up so much that we didn't really listen to his reason.  He just looked
awfully young, and it sounded so innocent you didn't think that he was serious.

Then from the topic of prostitutes, we moved on to the topic of love.  Junya's French teacher told him that for any language, he should just remember three phrases:
Hi, how are you?
Thank you.
and I love you.

Except that he said that I love you doesn't work in Japan, since Japanese men are typically not this direct and would say something along the lines of, "Look at how full and beautiful the moon is... and so on"

I cannot imagine what is like to date a Japanese man that would say such thing.

I'm about to board the plane to go back to the US!  See you guys soon!