A little while later, I got addicted to the recently released Duel Links app which got me to start watching the final arc of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! anime that I had never seen as a kid. I went to some of the local recycle shops and found the Egyptian God Cards (legendary cards from the anime that I ALWAYS wanted as a kid -- back then I had to settle for Chinese fakes from eBay). Coincidentally, there was also a current Gachapon (the Japanese capsule toy machines that are EVERYWHERE over there) run of the Millennium items, the ancient cursed relics from the anime, in keychain form. Unfortunately, Gachapon machines are all random and are totally about sucking your wallet dry. Luckily, I managed to get all seven without breaking the bank (almost like it was designated by fate). I only ended up with a few duplicates that I made use of by giving them to friends back in America.
While watching those final episodes, I brought up the series in conversations with one of the teachers at Shimizugaoka, Ogawa-sensei. Ogawa-sensei was the very first person I met in Hokkaido since he was the one who had to pick me up from the airport. We had an hour and a half car ride from Sapporo to Muroran and from the very beginning, Ogawa-sensei and I bonded over our love of anime. When I told him I was watching the end of the show, he mentioned that he had collected a lot of the cards when the original series was airing in the late-90s -- he also told me that he saw the major theme of the series as "learning to become your own person" and "what it means to become a man." We had a lot of good conversations and, during my farewell dinner a few nights before we came back to America, he gave me three of his "treasures:" limited edition, mail order, promo Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. I received a lot of memorable, powerful gifts that night but those in particular really moved me.
After getting back to America, I started hanging out with one of my old high school cross country friends, Dusty. We started running together almost every day and we'd spend a lot of time talking about video games and other nerdy stuff. He used to be a big Magic the Gathering player back in the day but he mentioned Yu-Gi-Oh! during a run so I dug through my crap and found my box of cards, built one of my old decks, and we started playing together. One day after a run, he asked if I wanted to go check out the card shop in Middlesboro. I'd never really looked around down there so we went to see what they had. Considering that Dusty never seriously played and that my knowledge of the game only went up to 2004, I was a little nervous about bringing the game up in person. I've always been deeply self-conscious about even the prospect looking stupid or unknowledgeable about something. I wonder where that comes from? It explains a lot about my time in grad school, at least. I've been getting better at facing that fear (mostly by realizing that acknowledging your limits is the only way to truly break through them) but I still get uneasy about it.
Fortunately, Dusty was there! He started talking to the guys working and told them that we were just getting back into the game. Another customer perked up and mentioned that he's been playing for a long time. This guy introduced himself as Jeff. I didn't necessarily recognize it at the time, but meeting him was "θΏε½ηγͺεΊδΌγ" -- a fateful encounter.
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