Today’s interesting word of Japanese is guuzen (goo-zen), which means “coincidence.” I don’t know why, but there seems to be something about Japan that brings out the most unlikely coincidences, at least for me. On several occasions I’ve bumped into people I studied Japanese with at SDSU in Tokyo and Yokohama — quite a feat, considering that I live far from these places myself. Before coming to Japan, I taught myself the language using the classic baseball manga Touch, and by an incredible coincidence the city I came to live in (Isesaki, Gunma) just happens to be the birthplace of the artist, Adachi Mitsuru…who also shares a birthday with my wife. Yulia Nova is a beautiful Russian model, and the photographer who publishes her works just happens to be in the same city as J-List, about 3 km away, again totally by chance. Yesterday I learned that the company that makes those incredibly cute cat “phone jack mascot” iPhone figures our customers love just happens to be based in our city…and actually within walking distance from J-List. So instead of being made in China, they’re made in our little corner of Japan, something we thought was pretty cool.
The company that makes these is very near J-List, despite us living in a small rural city.
