I was walking down a crowded street in Shinjuku (think Midtown Manhattan at Christmas time, that’s how crowded it is) today when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

It was the Ghost From College Past. A guy I hadn’t seen since freshmen year. Seven years ago. In upstate New York.

Apparently, he’d moved to Japan three years ago and lives in Chiba (a city that neighbors Tokyo). And apparently the World is so small that I’m now not only running into gaijins I’ve met randomly around Japan, but gaijins that I knew once upon a time when I was 19 and living in a dorm in a tiny mountainous hippie town near Woodstock.

Unbelievable.

Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a movie script, because really, where else but the movies (and I suppose Japanland) do such crazy coincidences occur? If I were watching the film “The Exciting Life and Times of Reannon in Japanland Two” and I got to that part, I’d probably throw popcorn at the screen and declare the script to be unrealistic and entirely implausible.

And yet, it totally happened.

Reannon Muth

Reannon Muth is a full-time writer, social media consultant and owner and manager of the Taken by the Wind travel blog. Born in Hawaii, Reannon has lived in five countries, at Disney World and on a cruise ship. She currently lives in fabulous Las Vegas.