Today, I ordered delivery for lunch and attended a meeting.

After the MTG, I worked on revision projects and converted my diary to WordPress.

As 3:30 p.m. approached, I was supposed to meet with HIROMI today; HIROMI is Japanese language, but she is actually Vietnamese. She loves art and wants to be an artist in the future. We met at Bumble and she said that she teaches art to her students and she is an interior designer, so that was very interesting and I was very curious about how she does her designs and stuff like that, so I decided to meet her! .

First raining cates and dogs while in Vietnam

I heard that HIROMI had arrived, so I headed downstairs. The moment I stepped outside, the downpour was fierce. She sent me her location, so I went down there to pick her up. The squalls made us not nervous because we had never met each other before but we had to think about “what should we do?” firstly. So after saying hi with her, we decided to go to a nearby cafe for shelter.

But there were no desks or chairs there, so we had no choice but to go inside a convenience store. But there was no place to sit there either, so we decided to take a short break in the lobby of the residence where I live. There we had a little chat. We talked about how long I was planning to stay in Ho Chi Minh City, and how long I had been in Da Nang and Hanoi.

The rain didn’t let up, so I decided to go to Starbucks.

I ran in the pouring rain and headed to Starbucks.

At Starbucks I was a little cold, so I decided to order a cup of tea. I ordered Earl Grey. Our clothes were already soaking wet. But then we started talking about art.

She is an art teacher who teaches students part time and has been a college student in the arts for a whopping 6 years. And now she is working at TOTO as an internship student. I thought to myself, “That’s crazy busy. But I think it’s amazing.

I heard that TOTO has not only toilets but also interior design business, and she is working as a marketer there. I thought that was amazing. I have never done anything proper as an intern, so I was thinking that I must really be a social misfit lol. So I was really impressed.

Then she shared with me her favorite artist. Like the Swedish artist who makes chairs out of only paper, or “Bùi Chát,” the abstract painting artist whose work is on display at the solo exhibition we are going to visit today. His use of color is amazing.

Apparently, HIROMI likes cool blue colors. He is an abstract painter, and HIROMI would like to reproduce the colors he often uses, but she just can’t seem to create them. We talked about his ability to create colors is amazing. I also shared that I love Mondrian and Chagall, whom I saw in Paris. I really enjoy talking about art.

The rain stopped, so we decided to have dinner.

I chose a French cafe for dinner. The name of the restaurant is TARTINE. She said she would take me there by motorcycle. Her bike was a Honda, and its structure was different from previous bikes. So I thought it was very cute. She is 147 centimeters tall, which is really small. So I was worried about whether she would be able to carry a heavy person like me on the back. In fact, driving a motorcycle was a little scary.

The tallest building in Southeast Asia. It’s still beautiful.

I saw her being a bit conservative like the Japanese, waiting until all the cars were going, or not like being pushy like the average Vietnamese. So we often had to stop. But that was also interesting. On the way there, there was a traffic jam of motorcycles on the main road, which was chaotic. I was a little scared because she had to brake suddenly many times. When we arrived at the destination and got off the bike, my foot got burned by the muffler of the bike. I had no idea that the muffler was so hot.

We arrived at the cafe! The interior is truly French and very stylish!

It was a small place, very stylish. They sell baguettes at the front desk. It was the first time in a while that I felt a French atmosphere. She had never been here before, so we were wondering where to sit. So we decided to sit on the terrace on the second floor. Surprisingly, there was really no one there. I wondered why. But it was a bit expensive.

Stylish French-style cafe

We talked a lot there. She complimented me goofily, said she loved my voice, that I am very cute, that I spoke the language, and that is amazing. Then she told me that I swiped right. I was really grateful. But I didn’t see her as a romantic interest, I was really interested in her artistic sense and the fact that she does interior design.

We talk a lot about it. Like how difficult interior design is, what kind of software she uses and what kind of portfolio she uses.

With Hiromi

I also asked her personality type and she was an INFP. This was a surprise to me. I wondered if INFPs were the only people who would be a good match for me.

I had a lot of diarrhea during the trip. I can’t remember how many times I’ve had diarrhea since coming to Vietnam in Southeast Asia. I was almost always hit by food, and almost always had diarrhea. But at the same time, I think Vietnamese people have strong stomachs.

People say I look gay.

I was shocked. Apparently, the people she had met in the past had made me look like a gay. I am a straight boy, and my love interest is a girl. Of course I don’t like boy as a romance, and I can’t have a gay as a love interest. If we were friends, I would enjoy it very much. But I can only fall in love with girl. But apparently, I am seen as gay. Maybe that’s why I’ve received a few “likes” from gay guys on matching apps. This is really hard to believe, but I guess that’s how they see me. So I told her that I wouldn’t want to go to Thailand and get involved with a gay. I heard that there are many gay in Thailand and that because there is a TV program about them. She said she heard that there are TV programs about gay in Thailand, so maybe they were influenced by them.

Apparently there are LGBTQ people in Vietnam.

She seems to be bisexual and can like both women and men. There are many LGBTQ people in Vietnam. It’s not legal in Vietnam, but the government doesn’t seem to care, and people are usually open about it. In Japan, however, I think there are many LGBTQ people, but many of them don’t make it public because they are not accepted by the society. I wonder how long LGBTQ people have existed in Japan, and it’s interesting to know the history of LGBTQ people in Japan.

Toilets in Vietnam are flushed, not paper.

The toilet I went to had no toilet paper in the first place, and there was a pipe-like flushing device on the right side of the toilet, and water came out when the button was pushed. I was surprised to see that flushing toilets are the norm in Vietnam. It seems to be a common practice to have a toilet and a shower as a set. This is unthinkable in Japan. It is not like in Japan, where you just push a button and it comes out and washes you, but you have to put it on yourself by hand. You have to put your hand on it and wash it. And I’m a little worried about the cleanliness. So I feel that I have to be immune.

Stay at a cafe for about 2 hours.

I had been drinking a ginger drink, which made my stomach hurt really bad, and I felt hot. I felt like I was burning up.

So I was having a great conversation with Hiromi, but I couldn’t concentrate. I am really sorry.

Genovese. The taste, not so much lol.

So I paid my bill and we left the restaurant. I couldn’t even eat all the pasta genovese I ordered. It was quite expensive, 2,400 yen for two people. It was not exactly Vietnam.

Go to Bùi Chát’s solo exhibition

It was a very small place. Even though it was 9:00 p.m., there were many people there. Some were enjoying looking at paintings, others were taking pictures. Most of them were young people in their teens and twenties. We are going to a private exhibition there. I was surprised that it was free.

He is an abstract painter

Hiromi also enters his worldview.

Work with wrinkles on canvas. Rare.

I was most fascinated by the colorful paintings with various colors. It looked like people in various dresses were dancing.

My favorite painting

Hiromi seems to like cool paintings. It was so hot in the room that I soon got tired instead of concentrating. I was still amazed at how Vietnamese people take pictures. Instead of enjoying art, 90% of them came here to take nice pictures with their friends and post them on social networking sites. This was shocking. That’s understandable that they want to be seen in a good way, but this scene was a bit sad.

A very large number of books

Lots of books on the stairs at the entrance.

I wondered how modern it was that everyone was taking pictures next to the painting to see if they looked good in it, rather than analyzing what was in it or wondering how it was made. That’s how I felt.

Hiromi writing something in the visitor’s notebook

I took pictures of HIROMI’s back with my camera, and I also took pictures of paintings I liked. However, it is not enough to be satisfied with just taking pictures; it is really important to think about what you can get from the paintings. What you get from it and your sensitivity will surely be utilized in a different way in the future. In art, you see and feel. By feeling, you can change yourself just a little bit. If you can refine something by being influenced by art, even if it is just a little bit, I think that is a very positive thing.

I need to study the camera lol.

It was getting hot, so we decided to go outside. On the terrace outside, I give Hiromi my business card. I told her to keep it in a safe place because it would be her space ticket in the future.

I forgot to put my stamp on it, so we agreed to meet again next time.