Kanako Abe noticed a cute guy with “mysterious, deep-set eyes” on an Amtrak train headed from New York City to Montreal in March 2012. John Christopher Seemer took note of Ms. Abe, too. But neither spoke a word to the other — that is, until their return trip six days later, on March 17, 2012.
Ms. Abe, a junior at Rutgers University who had been on spring break, was doing homework in the cafe car. Too shy to say hello the first time, Mr. Seemer, a sophomore at N.Y.U., didn’t want to miss this lucky St. Patrick’s Day second chance.
“I was an enthusiast of stationery,” Mr. Seemer said. “So, I commented on her pen.” He instantly recognized it to be a Japanese Sakura Pigma Micron, a fineliner pen for precise sketching or writing.
Ms. Abe, who goes by Kana, was intrigued, confirming she had gotten it in Japan. (Ms. Abe’s parents immigrated from Japan to the United States in the 1980s.)
The two talked until the cafe car closed as the 10-hour trip drew to an end. “It was an abrupt ending,” Mr. Seemer, who goes by Jack, said. “But I thought we had hit it off.”
When he returned to his seat, his friend asked where he had been. “He said, ‘You have to give her your number,’” Mr. Seemer said. So he waited around Penn Station after disembarking.
