Rubiks
July 8th, 2009
Haik and I were on the subway in Tokyo yesterday heading from our couchsurfers apartment into Shibuya. We had only three stops left to go until we reached ours. We were standing, holding on the the hanging handles when Haik says, “What the hell…” I asked him what and he told me this kid on the train just solved the Rubiks Cube. He motioned in the kids direction and by the time I glanced over the cube was such a jumble of colors I hardly believed Haik and thought maybe the kid had just gotten one side all one color. We had just stopped once and had two more to go. I kept watching the kid and in a few minutes the puzzle was solved again, incredibly impressive but I had a feeling maybe he didnt mix it up too much from the last time (when Haik had seen it) since it was so quickly after. I actually laughed out loud. This kid was about eleven I would guess. Well, while stopped the second time the kid mixed up the cube quite a bit and I kept my eye on him. The train started moving. This would be impossible for myself or anyone I know (sorry to anyone I know!). The kid starts turning and twisting, sometimes I swear he was not even looking at the Cube at all. At times he would stop and appeared to be thinking and calculating in his head and then he would make some quick turns and twists with the cube again. He got one side solid but the rest were still a jumble of colors. I knew we had to be getting close to our stop and I even said to Haik, “We cant get off, I have to see this kid solve it…” The kid kept contemplating and moving his hands quickly about the Cube, hardly watching what he was doing. The train started to slow and the kids hands moved faster at the same time. It was as if he had been teasing us and had us doubting he would be able to solve the whole thing between two stops. The train stopped at our stop and what would you guess, the Cube was completed and solved. I laughed out loud again. I looked at the kid and he looked at me and I just gave him a nod and he smiled and nodded back. When we shuffled out of the train and passed the kid sitting near the doors I just smiled at him again and gave him a slight look of disbelief that he probably knows too well if he solves the Rubiks Cube on the subway trains on a regular basis! I couldnt stop cracking up walking out of the subway station…
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