The natural ability to make intersting or valuable discoveries by accident is called SERENDIPITY.
The institute I work hosted a conference last week, and I was assigned to escourt a guest from Canada. In the morning he leaves Japan, we had a morning coffee at a lovely bakery at the train station. The topic went on about how long does it take from the city centre to the airport in Tokyo. It takes one and half hours and it's is unusually long comparing to most of the cities in other countries.
Then the guest from Canada rememberd his experience several years ago. He was also in Japan and was about to return to Canada. He was trvelling from Nagano to Narita airport by bullet train. It was in a rainyseason and was poring rain. All of a sudden, the train stoped due to the rain. The passengers were asked to evacuate from the train. He didn't undestand Japanese, and all he could do was just follow the others. He wasn't sure where he was and asked whoever he met how he could go to the airport. Finally he could catch a train to the airport but it was a local train. Stopping at many stations on the way, it took hours to take him to the airport. The flight he was to take to Vancouver was alrady gone by then, but anyway he went to the check-in and asked if there was a flight. Then the clark replied , " Actually, there is a flight to Cargary in two hours, sir." Cargary was the city he lived. So eventually he could retuen his home earlier than he originally planned.
A lesson we could learn his story, if you never give up and look for an opportunity, sometimes a good solution appiers from nowhere. I think these kind of attitude is applied to any situation in life.
Jun
