Nick Gray is brilliant. If you haven’t heard of him or haven’t been following along with his story, then I suggest you start now because something tells me this saga is going to continue for a while and if you ask me, it’s the best thing happening on the Internet right now.
First things first: Who is Nick Gray? I have no idea. His bio on X says: “Follow me to be more interesting and meet inspiring people. I built and sold 2 multi-million dollar companies, Museum Hack and FDS Avionics.” That all sounds interesting but, respectfully, may be the least interesting thing about him.
Because when, on April 16, he posted that he was looking for a blind date to go to Tokyo with, he (perhaps unwittingly) became one of the most interesting people to follow on X.
Here’s how it all started:
I want to do a blind date and go to Tokyo next weekend
If you’re a woman with a passport who likes sushi and Japanese food and can ride a bike in a big city… let’s go
I’ll pay for everything but in return you have to film stupid videos of me for my socials
More info here or…
— Nick Gray / How to Make Friends (@nickgraynews) April 17, 2024
So, as you can see, Nick posted a fun tweet, looking for a blind date to join him in Tokyo. He offered to pay for everything and included his email address to contact him as well as a Google doc with ‘application’ questions.
It looks like this is part of the response that sealed the deal:
I want go to onsens aka hot springs but tattoos make that difficult in Japan
so I was asking some of the Tokyo blind dates if they have tattoos
One woman said she had a large tattoo and I asked her to send me a picture of it
This is what she sent
I picked her pic.twitter.com/Lx0yJKuYwd
— Nick Gray / How to Make Friends (@nickgraynews) April 24, 2024
On April 20, confirmed his selection and on April 23, he made his way to Tokyo, ahead of his date:
I am flying to Tokyo on the new low cost Japan Airlines spinoff called Zipair
The ticket from Honolulu to Japan was only $276 which is crazy cheap so I had to try it
They don’t have online check in ??
There are also no seatback monitors for inflight entertainment
I upgraded… pic.twitter.com/GTXxxh9RYt
— Nick Gray / How to Make Friends (@nickgraynews) April 23, 2024
The next day, Nick was clearly excited, even before his date landed, and kept all of us, who were now following along like it was our favorite new Netflix series, updated along the way:
Tokyo blind date update- she lands at the airport in 9 hours
I’ll pick her up at Narita airport which is the equivalent of someone from NYC going to Philadelphia basically
True love knows no bounds!!
Now I’m awake early and I’m going out to explore and find some green tea
— Nick Gray / How to Make Friends (@nickgraynews) April 24, 2024
There are plenty of posts that you’ll have to comb through yourself here if you want to follow along with each and every step (and don’t forget to read the comments as well because they’re a fun part of the story!) but here are some of the highlights:
Should he greet her with flowers at the airport? The internet voted yes!
I got the flowers for my Tokyo blind date, thanks everyone for voting pic.twitter.com/f4KMCzzwHS
— Nick Gray / How to Make Friends (@nickgraynews) April 25, 2024
They went out on a ramen food tour:
I picked her up at the airport and we have officially met in person now
This is my Tokyo Blind Date update
Waiting for someone at the airport is humbling
You are scanning hundreds of people to find 1 person that you’ve never met before
Each passing person is a No, not her,… pic.twitter.com/wbRP0HVBtv
— Nick Gray / How to Make Friends (@nickgraynews) April 25, 2024
And they’ve been doing all the things you’d want to enjoy in Tokyo like eating good food, biking and walking and exploring. Again, you’ll have to follow along on Nick’s account for the nitty gritty but trust me when I say, it’s compelling stuff. If you love love, that is.
And then the best part of the whole saga showed up when I opened X this morning. This was the first tweet in my feed:
I would like to introduce you now to my Tokyo Blind Date
She works as a mechanical engineer in the medical device industry
I am not going to give her name for her privacy but maybe she will post here on my account soon
She saw my post for the trip and sent me an email
Her… pic.twitter.com/PlLgTN15vJ
— Nick Gray / How to Make Friends (@nickgraynews) April 27, 2024
Yep, he finally “introduced” us to his date (no name of course, for privacy reasons) and I’m not going to lie: I gave a whoop of delight. They look so cute, happy and … dare I say it … meant to be?
I’m a sucker for a good love story and especially one that involves travel. When my husband and I met on a press trip in 2006, he lived in Los Angeles and I lived in Toronto. I’ll never forget the first time I flew out to Los Angeles to spend time with him after having only met him once before. It wasn’t a blind date like Nick’s story but it did involve flying across the continent to spend a long weekend with someone I barely knew. Luckily for us, our passion for travel took us all over the world (70+ countries as a couple) and we’re now married with two beautiful children, still traveling the world every chance we get.
And as my husband Johnny Jet advises, always travel together before you get married. Travel takes both of you out of your normal, day-to-day routines and you really get to know the other person (and yourself!) as you navigate new countries and cultures and all the stresses and challenges that can sometimes arise when you travel.
Nick’s sweet love story has certainly got me and thousands of others captivated and while of course, it’s early days yet, I wish them the best and look forward to following along. Nick, you’ve got us all invested now so please keep those updates coming!
KEEP READING
–Did you know your electronic devices should always be charged when going through security?
–The travel gadget flight attendants never leave home without
–Going on a cruise? Be sure to bring this
–The genius phone hack to try when your plane doesn’t have an in-flight entertainment system
–Travel hack: How to use your wireless headphones to watch in-flight movies
Want more travel news, tips and deals? Sign up to Johnny Jet’s free newsletter and check out these popular posts: The Travel Gadget Flight Attendants Never Leave Home Without and 12 Ways to Save Money on Baggage Fees. Follow Johnny Jet on MSN, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube for all of my travel posts.