The Venus Endowed Amazing Encounter in Manhattan

This is a short essay, but the real story that happened...

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In 2013, I was in Manhattan. The purpose  was just sightseeing after a tough and long commitment to organizing a big event. I was lucky to stay there for free as my friend has been living there! Though according to some of the mass media, Japan was said to be the most expensive city to live in the world, New York City was much more expensive. I was overwhelmed by the prices. My life at Manhattan was not really rich.

One day, I was standing along a harbor near Wall Street wondering if I caught a ferry to see just around the Statue of Liberty. The Hurricane Sandy hit New York last year, and then the recovery from the disaster has not been completed yet. What all the visitors could do was to hop the board and just see the statue from it. Even getting on Ellis Island on which the statue stands was not allowed. I admired the business due to the ticket price: just $25.

At the moment, one Asian lady came and spoke to me. Her Japanese was with a Tohoku accent. She looked as the same age as me. I was surprised with her knowing that I was Japanese since two Japanese flight attendants had spoken to me in English on the flight to Kennedy…

“Are you going to go on board?” She asked and I answered “I’m not sure because we couldn’t visit the Venus.” The Japanese lady said, “Oh, really? I didn’t know that, but I’m going to get into the board.” She left me and went to buy    the ticket. And then, I finally decided to go on the board as well  and spoke to her “Hey, shall we take it together?” With a sweet smile on her face she answered, “Sure.”

Instead of visiting the statue, the Venus gave me a great time. The cruising started and we talked     about ourselves. “Are you studying in this country?” I asked, “Or is it sightseeing?” She said, “No, I am an university student from Japan to study English in California. And because the course finished I wanted to visit here in New York before I go    back to Waseda University!” “Waseda? I am a student at Keio University.” We were surprised at our biography...  And I continuously asked questions “Where do you live in Japan?” She said, “I live near   ◯◯ station.” Actually, her station was next to my station! “Oh my gosh, my station is ××!” You can imagine our distance was coming much closer.

     

When the cruise was coming to the end, we checked our schedule of the day. My plan was to watch a musical at night. On the other hand, she had no plan. “I would like to watch it. Would you mind going together?” You know what my answer was. We had lunch, took a rest at the public library, had early dinner and watched The Phantom of the Opera.

     

Time had passed and our date was about to finish. Since the musical finished around 10pm and her hotel was near Kennedy Airport, she needed to catch the last train there in a hurry. So we ran to the station and it was time to say goodbye. We hugged tightly and said, “It is not Goodbye but See You Again in Japan”.

After I came back to Japan from the amazing city, however, we haven’t contacted each other. I don’t know the reason why we haven’t seen each other again... But, if there should be a reason, it is because we left the Statue of Liberty; the Venus broke the magical spell.