“I don’t believe in luck…” said a then-little kid in the youth camp of our church many many years ago. It struck me, and i remember it ever since (the sentence continued “… i believe in Jesus Christ”, but that’s not the point of this post, however beautiful a creed (is this the correct word? i know it in hungarian and japanese, but not english…) it is). I agree. There’s hardly an objective thing called luck. It’s just us, no other thing. As displayed in for example the sixth Harry Potter book, the Half-Blood Prince, one doesn’t need external boost of luck, the placebo effect will do just the same (though rather have a bottle of Felix Felicis on you if you’re going to duel to death). Further proof of that is that when you’re down, the world’s against you as well, and vice versa.

There are times when i think what it’d be like if i stayed at home. I’d be studying programming on second year, i’d probably be researching artificial intelligence, neural networks and cloud computing, work on getting an advanced language exam in german and an intermediate in spanish, and that’s kind of all of what i could think of. I absolutely have no idea. Sometimes i think that coming to Japan with this national scholarship was a mistake—but as for now, i’m happy. In april, a great thing happened to me.

First, i came to Japan. Minor detail, isn’t it? But labelling this as a great or bad thing is the role of the me about four more years in the future, when i’ll be about to graduate from a university. I don’t know which yet, and to be honest, i don’t really care anymore. There are good points in a lot of places. Let’s see a few. In Hokkaido, the weather’s great, in my sense at least (i’m not complaining about cold if i’m expecting it), and there are Ainu people there, but on the other hand it has entrance exam. Osaka is a great city with fantastic people, i love Kansai, and the university is one of the best, but therefore getting in is a question of chance. (Luck?) Kyushu is a nice “quiet” place, close to mainland Asia, so a nice point to travel from. And they have the 21th century program, which looks as if it was just designed for me. The point is, students can build their own curriculum and learn what really interests them—kind of my idea of university. On the other hand, the degree from such a program would be extremely difficult to accredit. Last, the university i was suggested, Tokyo’s Tsukuba. The good point is Tokyo. And the bad point as well. But i could study diplomacy, my original major.

But my greatest luck in spring was when i met Hiro. I really owe him great deal, a very nice friend. Then, when i could hardly speak any japanese at all, he helped me with all the english he had, and introduced me to a lot of people. Huge boost of confidence. Then, when i wanted to get the dreads done, he was the one who could finally help me and that very evening as a birthday present he gave me the new album of Sex Machineguns. Then, now when there’s a Machineguns gig in Shibuya where i’m going tomorrow, but i haven’t bought the ticket yet, he tells me that the vocalist is his senpai so we’re guests. Top.