Degrees of Separation

Much has been said of the Six degrees of separation, and here is another story that makes the world seem very small.

Short story: i met two people in different states of the USA (about 900 miles apart) that DON'T know each other, and their FATHERS are good friends and live about a five minutes walk from each other.

Long story:

Springfield, Missouri: 1997
while standing in line at the school cafeteria of what is now called Missouri State University (when i went there it was called Southwest Missouri State University), i heard two pretty Japanese girls speaking to each other in Japanese. i stated talking to them, trying out the japanese i had studied in high school. one of them, Emiko Aoyagi, became a good friend, Japanese teacher and roommate. We had a lot of fun and helped each other a lot until she went back to japan in 1999. I visited her family for the first time in December of 2001, staying for about three weeks at her parents house in Kanazawa-Bunko (bout 30 minutes outside of Tokyo). She had a beautiful baby about three years ago with a nice guy from India named Sureeni and spends most of her time raising him now.

Emiko and her Family:

The Aoyagi's, Emiko's parents:


Denver, Colorado 2002 (ish)
i was looking for a roommate at the same time as my friend Ruben, and he randomly met a Frenchman named Antwan. Antwan randomly made some other french friends at a grocery store or something, and one of the beautiful French gals had a Japanese boyfriend named Nao Ishibashi. Nao lived in the USA a total of about 15 years until he moved back to Japan last year. He is now in Tokyo, living with his parents in Kanazawa-Bunko.
Nao and his dad:


Tokyo, Japan 2007
When I went to the Iron Penis Festival earlier this month (sorry no penis blog yet) I stayed at Nao's house and met his parents. While Nao's father was giving us a tour of the area, I offhandedly asked him if he had any friends named Aoyagi. He said that he did know one person named Aoyagi, and this Aoyagi's daughter had young half-Indian child. My other friends in the car were shocked because I had told them about my friend Emiko on the way to Tokyo. Later, Ishibashi senior drove us over to the Aoyagi's house and surprised them. Turns out that Mr. Aoyagi has been teaching Ishibashi how to make ramen for years.

Circles of connection can be really mind blowing and reinforce the "six degrees of separation" theories that abound in many cultures. It is a small world after all....
Strange huh? Just thought I would share...

Ta ta
Erich von meatleg