When a man's been single for too long, he can start to exhibit strange symptoms.
Take the case of my brother, 34 and with a kanojoinaireki (girlfriendless period) of four long years. Just as people can survive in the desert for days without water, for the first two years my brother seemed perfectly happy. "I'm a dokushinkizoku (aristocratic single)," he would say, grinning, and go off to do such aristocratic things as play a 36-hour mahjongg marathon at some janso (mahjongg joint, usually equipped with no more than flimsy tables, plastic chairs and heavy-duty ashtrays). Or he might go on golfing trips with his clients followed by 12-hour drinking sessions and webu buraujingu (web browsing) until his brain turned to mush. Then he would broadcast his newfound glorious freedom to his married buddies and sum it up with: "Yappari hitori-ga ichiban! (Being single is the best)."
Then one day, he stopped saying it.