July 2nd was the anniversary of my first date with my wife, so I bought a small cake to celebrate.
For our first date, we were assigned a place called Tamiya in Mactan Island and we were to meet there.
Tamiya, named after the Japanese plastic model manufacturer Tamiya's factory, is a commercial facility with an outlet mall, Robinson supermarket, and a jeepney transfer station.
The Tamiya commercial facility was quite large, and after going through it, I decided to wait in the restaurant area.
That was Fork in the Road.
At the time, I was impressed by the fancy name of the restaurant district, but I heard that Fork in the Road also means crossroads.
In hindsight, it was a first date at a place that was a fork in the road for both my wife and me.
We had decided to meet after my wife's work was finished, so I think we were supposed to meet at 7:00 PM.
However, she said she would come after returning to her room.
Although not as bad as Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City is also heavily congested in the evening, and my wife did not show up until almost nine o'clock.
<div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">I don't know how I waited for two hours. Normally, 30 minutes is the limit, but strangely enough, I decided to wait anyway.</div>
Finally, my wife arrived at Tamiya, but she had no idea where I was.
I texted her that I was at the place in this photo in the restaurant district, which is the photo above.
We had seen pictures of each other on the Internet, but this was the first time we had seen each other in person.
So, it was hard to find a partner.
My wife texted me that she was wearing black, and I finally got to meet her.
I don't remember what we talked about after we entered the restaurant, ordered our food, and briefly introduced ourselves, but I remember thinking that it was a typical first date gone wrong because there was no way I could get anything going with my poor English.
The cucumber juice I ordered wasn't very good either.
I left the restaurant in probably less than an hour, grabbed a cab in a light rain, picked up my wife, and left.
I received a thank you email from my wife in the car on the way to Cebu City in another cab.
After reading that email, I decided to meet again.
We met a few times after that, got married, and celebrated the third anniversary of our first date.
In the Philippines, couples who are getting married are required to attend a seminar at the city hall, where the men are especially warned to never forget their anniversary.
For me, the anniversaries that I will never forget are my wedding anniversary, my wife's birthday, and our first date.
I would like to continue celebrating these anniversaries with my wife, even if it is in a small way.
