All kinds of people
Maybe there is a universal cosmic system of checks and balances, anyway. Yesterday I was supposed to meet one person, but did not. In exchange, I met this array of interesting people.
First, I met this guy in the train. He was holding some sort of musical instrument, it looked like a Chelo, but it was not, I found out later. He was going to some sort of christian concert, and was quite cheerful to talk to me about all sort of things. However, I couldn’t help but notice that even in him the “gaijin grief” had taken a little hold. That night, I was wondering if foreigners in, say, Brazil would also develop GG over time.
Then there was the Jikishin training, when I met the waseda folks. The weather was great, but we didn’t run much since one of the members had a hurt foot. Well, I won’t complain, that is perfectly fine for me :-). In the end, I got another book from Ogawa-senpai - “tsurezuregusa” or “Essays on Idleness”, a compilation of short texts from a buddhist monk who lived in the 12 century.
After that, I met Dionisio, a friend who I have not seen in person since 2003. He’s working now, and we talked about people we don’t meet for ages, his moving to tokyo and stuff. After leaving him, I took the train with two of his friends, who were chinese and korean, and we did some small talk while I was going to roppongi.
At roppongi, I had a meeting with the ICPC trio from Tokyo university. I met these guys in the programming contest in los angeles in 2003, and they helped me finding my current advisor. I promised I would take them out for brazilian food someday as a thank you, but we could get our schedules together just yesterday. It was kinda of surreal, these 4 very nerdy guys together in a place like roppongi - we talked about computers, slashdot, maid and manga cafes, and how akihabara was much more fun than roppongi. Kinda reminds me of my time in campinas.
I didn’t met anyone on my way back home, but got some messages in mixi from new people.
It is the “chips bag” theory, indeed.