That Japanese, and three anime fanatic friends

When I had contact with three of my anime fanatic friends in the space of 24 hours, I thought surely this must be more than a coincidence!

The thing is, the three of them live on three separate islands (and hardly talk to one another). They lead parallel lives as far as I can tell.

Yet they all seem to know about the new movie Weathering With You. All of them are single (but not desperate, so some say), lead pretty average lives, and hope to go to Japan 'some day' soon. Heck, I bet they all appreciate Snippets.

Reminds me of a similar episode back in Special snowflake you, kind of deja vu-ie, but not quite. All of them occasionally like to chat about the human condition though.

While previously my two friends in Europe opened up quite a bit (all in one go), with these three, I sometimes have to decipher what is actually going on in their lives (yes, I do care). They talk less (relatively speaking), but over time, I do wonder occasionally about their wellbeing, and get a sigh of relief every once in a while when they reach out to me, or I call them and they pick up.

The following 24 hours was surely one of those moments.

So, Saturday night, I went out for dinner with one of those friends in NZ.

The backstory of how this dinner came to be was quite interesting. I actually visited a Japanese friend of mine in Canada last month (more on him later), and we randomly video called this friend and asked him to guess where we were, bearing in mind all of us haven't contacted each other for a while. Naturally my NZ friend thought our Japanese friend had secretly returned to NZ, but actually I was the one who was in Canada!

Anyways, we agreed to meet up when I got back to NZ. It's actually been more than month since I got back, but I decided on a fancy place that served pasta, and he got a burger because restaurants in our city have this event going on where you make a burger... "For $15 dollars, you'd expect they give some chips right?!" my friend joked. As for me, I thought $17 was a tad expensive for the small plate of pasta. But hey, it was homemade tortellini, with macadamia nuts and a generous soaking of olive oil.

He finished his small burger pretty quick, and talked about some of our university friends, him actually being more connected with them that I was (coughs me too busy with my girlfriend). Most of it I already found out from my Japanese friend in Canada though, who was a major stalker, coughs, I mean, err, great pal.

A pair of our friends that unbelievably broke up, another couple partnering to buy a place... Another friend in another city for work, how my friend actually just got his drivers' license and is looking to buy a car, so on and so forth.

The meal didn't seem to be enough, so he suggested a bubble tea place I hadn't notice before. Again, he finished his before I'm halfway through mine, and rambled on some more about stuff I don't remember anymore. Later on, we wandered aimlessly around the nightlife area, entered an arcade but didn't spend anything, got to the supermarket and I bought some bread and peanut butter.

Twas hard to find a place to sit down and chat, but we went to the cinema and checked out what was on. That's where I found out about "Weathering With You", and I was like YOLO now! But he wouldn't have a bus to go home late into the night, so we called it off.

Went back to the bubble tea place, he wanted to bring one back for his sister, and I blabbed on about the series of unfortunate events that almost prevented me from getting back to NZ from Europe.

Like hey, travelling isn't always as smooth sailing as it looks.

~

The next day, while buying vegetables at the market, I received a call. "G'day mate".

Ok, it most likely didn't start like that, but you probably get the reference. It was basically to do with the date being September 1st, a running inside joke based on this song.

"How's life?"

His coaching versus my tutoring. Us slowly seeing the next generation surpassing us.

Over the wind at a slightly busy market, it was hard to figure out what my friend was rambling on about.

He apologized for not being able to make the ten year reunion in two months time, and well, I wasn't planning to go either with my carbon footprint this year. "You know how it is", he said.

We recalled back to our last meetup last year, where I can still dig up a few scattered memories. On going to the same pancake place we ate more than five years ago, sneakily paying for the bill as he went to the toilet, and later visiting the place he was house sitting. I think we paid a visit to a museum too, and ate out at a Japanese place before I got back to the airport, making sure he got the bill this time.

What to say, about relationships now and past, even if we did fall for the same girl once, when I've met someone else since. Time really cures so much, if only we are patient.

Someone asked me before, on whether childhood dreams are a good topic to use to connect with old friends. Well, dreams are about the future, while you're trying to reconnect with the past.

Try and make that work.

~

That same someone, the last of the three anime amigos, also reached out soon after.

Deja vu is literally like a reverse dream, and it felt as though I was in this vivid dream spinning tangents, while my usually tangential friend was the one chatting sane. Between all the tangents and anti-tangents though, a Snippet of some sort slipped through.

About something playful, weightless, yet meaningful, tinged with a myriad of non-attempts now deeply buried in the past. Those fateful, serendipitous episodes that once clicked, when one meets another, a fleeting gaze holding itself, wishing it could be forever.

If only it were, if only it were.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine"

I don't know why, but my mind can't help but wander off sometimes, imagining that three of my friends actually live strangely parallel lives. And like a puzzle, I wonder if every piece of their separate lives is part of the same Multiverse. Does deciphering one part of one friend's life mean I know more or less what's going on with the other two?

Is it right for me to assume that they are secretly dissatisfied, desperate, and err, dream a lot?

How much of what I think is just a reflection of me though? The things I don't want to say but hope to find in someone else as some form of validation.

They've all been awesome 'best' friends of mine at some stage of my life (and still are), respectively over primary/secondary, upper secondary/high school, and university. Even though I've never got into the anime groove, somehow I've clicked with these three, for one reason or another. Is it just a statistical fluke, or is there a geographical disposition, maybe some psychological reason that I have befriended people who probably get shown the same ads in their internet browser?

Ok, maybe I am taking this too far.

I really don't need to give them that much advice, they should know what to do.

But what if enough is enough? What if they've stared at the greener grass on the other side long enough, wanting to jump fence. "Like I've had enough sensei, tell me what's the next step, what glory lies beyond the horizon!"

There are times when young single males tire of the incremental.

Yet no matter how much they think they've mastered the art of patience, there's always another month, another year, another two years to go until 'x' happens.

When 'x' happens.

"That's when I'll make my move" they think.

Or do they?

Really, there is no other side. You will still be challenged, still suffer, and the only benefit is that you get to realize that sooner rather than later.

Let's see what my Japanese friend does. Well for one, he's not in Japan, he's in Canada as I mentioned.

If Tokyo is the dream, why would someone want out? If Venice is a charm, why are the locals closing it down? If Auckland is so great, why does the rest of NZ not like it?

You think you know what you want, but that's just from past experience. Or maybe someone glorified it for you, some book/movie told you how awesome 'x' is.

Why is it that people still get married if the reason people get divorced is because they got married in the first place. How on Earth can you know whether you like someone/something if you haven't even tried it?!!

You're not selfish, or desperate. You're just you. Whatever you fall into or fall out of, ends up on you.

Listen to people, take on their advice. They know better. Whatever they suggest or recommend, bear it in mind.

It's a cycle, no it's not. I want to try, maybe I should give up. They're judging me right now, or are they really?

Decide.