JL
JL found me through JoaFruit and Consumating, a tag-crazed dating site for geeks answering odd little Questions of the Week. He lived in Austin, 10 years older than me and therefore terribly grown-up and exciting. We flirted through messages and comments, swapped photos and graduated to long, long-distance calls. JL complimented the fake-honeymoon photos of Robin and me, and things snowballed from there. In an excessively romantic gesture that went down well, he sent me his Ice Bats hockey cap all the way from Austin to Airport New Town. See the fake-honeymoon flirtation → Receive the Ice Bats cap →
When I moved back to Japan, JL called almost every day. I was plainly delighted. Talking to him joined teacher training, homework, Harry Potter audiobooks, eating and sleeping as the essentials filling my days. Then he flew from Austin to Japan. We travelled through Hiroshima and Osaka, recording the visit in a handful of happy keitai snaps. The cyber lover had become wonderfully, briefly IRL. But I wasn’t moving to Austin and JL wasn’t moving to Japan. Geography won. Pass the almost-daily call test → Spend Saturday in Hiroshima → Take the Osaka day trip →