Sorry this is about to be long, but I feel like the context is necessary.
For the context, I'm currently a graduate student in Japan, but I lived here last year on exchange for a year and would regularly go to a very small bar near my apartment. I got into grad school at the same school that I did my exchange at but was away for about 6 months. Since I'm living in the same place I was living before I've been going back to the same local bar once a week roughly since I got back in March.
It's a really tiny bar. Usually it only has about the same five or six people that regularly frequent it and occasionally people who know the owner will drop by. For the longest time it didn't even have a Google Maps address active because it's so infrequently/irregularly open that it was marked as closed. I am the only foreigner I have ever seen in this bar (unless I brought a friend but I didn't often do this because I don't want to invade the small local space) and the only reason I found it is because it's really close to my apartment. They've never been anything but friendly to me and when I left for a while last year (thinking it might be forever) they gave me and my other friend (who would occasionally go with me) huge bottles of 日本酒 as going away presents.
When I came back, knowing that I was going to go back there I brought お土産 from America to give to everyone at the bar. It's important to understand that my Japanese is barely passable and while I can follow conversations I'm certainly not fluent, and a lot of the patrons are difficult for me to understand because they talk quickly and softly. I have kind of a friendship (I think?) with the owner because we both really like the same type of anime which is how I initially started talking to them at all and part of why I continue to go back. I have never felt like I was invading their space or that I was unwelcome there as a foreigner (with limited Japanese). They all have always been very friendly and exceptionally patient with me all things considered and excited to see me, or I would not have gone back.
One visit they asked me if I liked or have done 一番くじ here and I said I knew of it but had not done it. The owner said something to the primary regular who ran out and came back saying it wasn't available. I didn't think much of it.
Last week when I went they gave me a present of a lot of 一番くじ pulls from the most recent Haikyuu 一番くじ. Over $100 (USD) worth of stuff. It seemed from following conversations that it was primarily the regular (not the owner) who did this (altho the owner also contributed) and then they later mentioned trying to give me anime figures from UFO catchers. I know that gift giving is a big thing in Japan and they are obviously a very generous group seeing as they gave me and my friend the sake before after not really knowing us and expecting to never see us again, but I'm also slightly concerned that this is an attempt at flirting by the other regular who is always there and I sit next to. He is old enough to be my father, so I obviously don't want to give the wrong idea.
Even if it is not flirting I'm also quite anxious about how I should reciprocate this as I know that oftentimes in Japan you are meant to return something of equal value when reciprocating gifts and I don't even know what I would purchase for that much to give in return. I'm also a student and do not have large amounts of expendable income. My mom also mentioned they might be yakuza? But I can't imagine they would want me around if that was the case seeing as I'm not fluent in Japanese and I'm very obviously foreign.
If anyone has any advice for this please let me know.
by snailwthnomotivation