_valerian

GUZEN deshita.

For the second time in my first five weeks in Tokyo, I ran into a friend by chance.
I had not seen Nozomi since I left Senshu University in 2002. Last night on my way home from Shinjuku, a girl whom I thought looked a lot like her entered the same Yamanote line car that I was riding in. As she de-trained at Ikebukuro station we made eye contact and I did my best to express a "Hey-is-that-you-Nozomi" kind of look. She grabbed my arm and then next thing I knew we were on the platform exchanging keitai numbers and talking about what we have been doing over the past two years. We planned to get together again- with her and the rest of her crew, the Senshu University cheerleading team.
The Senshu Blasts, as the squad is called, came to Nebraska in 2001. I spent a week as their driver, translator and general helper. Once I arrived at Senshu in 2001 they invited me to watch their performance at the Japan National College Cheerleading Competition.

My previous record for meeting people I know in Tokyo was set in August of 2002 by meeting no fewer than 3 friends by accident in about 2 hours. One of those meetings was simply me standing out in a crowd and being noticed by a fellow Senshu camera club friend. The other two encounters were due to fate- simply standing next to a photographer I knew on the platform in Shibuya, and after her train left, standing in front of the train door that another camera club member was to walk out of. There are a lot of trains, and even more train doors in Tokyo. And out of a population of 12 million, How and Why does it work out that I sometimes end up next to one of the few people I know?

Posted by john at October 3, 2004 09:35 PM