I always enjoy meeting someone who knows more than I do. It's an opportunity to learn something and it takes me down a peg.

I pride myself on an extensive knowledge of anime. There's not many who know more about more anime in greater detail than I. The Professor does. The Professor has been involved with anime longer than I, has studied it in more detail, is more involved in the community, and has even taken classes on tours to Japan.

The Professor teaches Mechanical Engineering at a college in Arizona. One way or another he also ended up teaching 2 courses in Japanese culture. This basically means anime, or at least anime is the perfect vehicle for bridging the culture gap because it is engaging and deals with many aspects of Japanese life.

The Professor and I discussed many things. He knew all my little obscure pieces of anime trivia and added more of his own.

He knew the true origin of Haibane Renmei as a private notebook of Yoshitoshi Abe never meant for production.

He described the scenes that reveal .hack//SIGN as an allegory of child abuse.

He discussed the evolution of the works of Hiyao Miyazaki over his lifetime.

He explained the elements of Last Exile that make it one of the best allround works of recent anime.

He told me the only 3 animes he won't show his classes: Graveyard of the Fireflies, Now and Then, Here and There, and Wyndaria (I had never heard of Wyndaria).

I tried to impress him by talking about Youko Kanno's appearance at OtaKon 99. Then he told me that at AnimeExpo 99 she improvised on the piano while Cowboy Bebop was shown and that he had asked her the only 2 questions that she felt moved to address without using a translator. At this point I literally fell to my knees in the presence of the master.

If I hadn't been dying for a smoke, I could have enjoyably passed many hours with the Professor.