It has been a long hectic summer at the library. Finally, the tunnel is almost bridged and the laundry list of administrative duties pushed to the side beacon. But, for tonight, on the eve of my last teen program for the summer, I am finding a respite in Amazon Prime. As I trolled through the list, X Files Season 1 Episode 1 unleashed a torrent of memories. It was the early Fall, my favorite time of the year, no matter where I am, the first time I watched X Files. It had to have been a Sunday night that Chris Marsden and maybe Heather Horne and I found ourselves at Chris' local video shop in central Hiroshima. The video store was our connection to American culture and a vital part of our lives. I'm not quite sure how we settled upon a cassette of 3 or 4 episodes of X Files, but I remember us batting around having heard rumors from across the Pacific about this new series and discussing that it was supposed to be based on actual accounts so it was that we returned to Chris' apartment with X Files in hand. We viewed what every American that tuned in on the season premiere saw: THE FOLLOWING STORY IS INSPIRED BY ACTUAL DOCUMENTED ACCOUNT but with our inaccurate knowledge of what was happening real time with pop culture we were viewing X Files basically the same way listeners of Orson Well's War of the World had heard that infamous radio broadcast for the first time. I remember becoming increasingly freaked. Eventually one of us voiced our discomfort and questioned if it really was true. I laugh now, but at the time I felt that world had suddenly shifted underneath me.

Since that first night, I have watched my fair share of X Files, but I was never that into the series. I did look forward to new episodes as we passed video taped TV shows from the US among our expat group. I wouldn't say I looked forward to them with any more excitement than I did episodes of Friends, ER, the David Letterman Show or even commercials. Ah, commercials, I loved seeing what new products were coming out in the US that I had practically 0% access to. And late night comedy kept me abreast of news that didn't warrant inches of Daily Yomuri newsprint--these were the real jewels that I anticipated.

It wasn't until I moved the Hawaii, that I felt an unusual connection with X Files. During this time, people frequently told me how much I looked like Gillian Anderson. I personally didn't see the resemblance but I could agree that we both had grey eyes, high cheekbones, full lips and red hair. One day, I called my mom. She said, she was so glad I had called because she was just thinking about me. I asked her what made her think if me. She responded: I'm watching X Files. She added that she always liked to watch X Files because it reminded her so much of me. Now, I

​​choose to believe that it is her perceived resemblance between me and Gillian Anderson and not the content that lights up her heart with thoughts of me.

While I was in Hawaii, I worked with Steve Dryer. I might have resembled Jillian Anderson but Steve could have David Ducovney's younger brother. His mannerism, voice, looks, the whole package, I can't to this day watch David Ducovney without having to remind myself that it isn't Steve I am watching. Eventually students noticed that their Director and Head Teacher looked liked the leads in the X Files and soon, I heard from some of the students that they were telling their family and friends that they attended the X File school. In retrospect, I don't think that we had enough fun it. Had You Tube and other social media been around at the time, I'm sure we would have concocted some sort of ESL X File channel and monetized the living daylights out it. Be the judge do Steve and Marta look like Scully and Moulder? Below is a photo of me being a bit more glammed up for a Hare Ball. Maybe I can see now what everyone else saw at the time.