Did I upset the Japanese boy who I like?

Allison writes, “I know a Japanese boy when I met him during karate tournament. I never started the conversation with him but he did. In that tournament I was an organizer. When we were on the way to hotel where the teams stayed, he said to me ‘otsukaresamadeshita’ (a greeting often used after a hard day of work to appreciate it). After that all the people who were involved in that tournament had a sayonara party. I danced with him first and after that he came to me and danced with me again. Before he went back to Japan he asked me to join him for dinner.  We became friends on Facebook and exchanged messages.  He commented that I could call him by his pet name and that he would love to hang out with me if we meet; even mentioned karaoke.  When I recently emailed him to wish him a New Year and put a hug icon in the message he never replied. I like him so much. I will fly to Japan this February. My question is can I hope to be with him? Did I do something wrong to upset him that he has not responded? If I did, can I fix it? How?”

I think he does not take the friendship with you as seriously as you are taking it.  To him you are just one of the many friends that he has.  On the other hand it appears that you are already in love with him.

I hope that he replies back to your email about the new year greeting but maybe he was just busy or forgot about it.  We all forget to do some things; isn’t it?  I suggest that you write to him another email giving him news about your Japan trip and ask him to meet with you.  I hope that he agrees to meet you and that would be a good way to strengthen your friendship but relationship between two people in different countries are very complicated unless both partners are very committed to it, which does not seem to be the case here.  If he does not reply then, go have a good time and forget about him, because all this time, he was just being nice to you and did not mean to take things so seriously.