There I sat on the hostel chair checking my facebook updates an relaxing before my next adventure. I had just descended Mt Fuji an my body was on the mend. “Is that a cat making that noise”? the girl across from me asked, Lol I don’t know but its highly ignoring I replied, still zoned out on my mobile.
I soon became bored an decided to engage the stranger across from me. I started by checking her out a bit, she was ruffled from the hostel life. Her hair was down an a little on the unkept side, but more stylish than just plain unkept. It fell over her face doen past her shoulders. She had pretty eyes an petite features, so I judged her as average.
“So why are you in Japan?” I asked. “I’m going to climb Mount Fuji tomorrow” she replied. After that moment we chatted an laughed about our adventures in Japan so far. So we both decided to go grab dinner at the local Japanese restaurant. Neither one of us spoke Japanese, but we were travelers an had overcome language barriers long ago . We laugh an discussed the different foods we had tasted while there, our experiences with the native people.
Soon the conversation shifted to our past, future an just other thoughts we were having. As she spoke I sense a certain familiarity with her, as a girl from boston she had been to all the same states an places I had been to. It was like hearing myself speaking from across the table. How could someone so like myself have crossed my path? How cruel yet beautiful is life to cross our paths together. I didn’t know it at the time as our eye contact increased an our smiles became wider that I was forming something, something that is beautiful an a curse in itself.
We moved on from the restaurant, to the supermarket where we did some shopping for her mountain hike the next day. We continued to chat about ourselves an how she was moving on to business school in another state. “I know what you need, some peanut butter” I stated. “Oh my God I always take peanut butter on hikes” she exclaimed. Long story short, we found the peanut butter, I tasted octopus for the first time with her an we walked home together in the rain.
Back at the hostel we went our separate ways as she had to hike in the morning. The next morning she was nowhere to be seen, so I spent the day with a french guy I had met that night. She eventually came home where she said she had made it to the top an soon after went to bed. I didn’t see her again that day or the next.
I sat at the bus stop on my way back to Tokyo, I had just traded my tickets in for a earlier bus hoping to get a chance to spend time in Akiba before I got on the plane home. When I heard a familiar voice, “Hey I didn’t know you was heading back today” she stated. Here she was again randomly taking the same path as me. Once again we chatted an spoke about backers life. The bus came she got on an I made my way to the back. As the bus rode along I sat in my seat thinking maybe I should give her my number. Maybe this is meant to be, as I thought these thoughts she turned around smiled an waved at me. I made up my mind that I would indeed give her my number also I would give her my handy travel book with Tokyo maps an Japanese language helpers. I wrote the number in the back of the book an went to sleep.
We arrived in Shibuya Tokyo an got off the bus, we talked for a bit an then it hit me. For some reason I wouldn’t give her my number. For some reason this would be it, we would go our separate ways in the world. She would head to the Philippines an me back to Arizona. This was the way it was meant to be. This would be the magic in my life, that knowing that someone out there was like me. “So this is the goodbye then?” she asked “yes,”I said sadly. We hugged….
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