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.
“Everyone was wearing green,” Ms. Abe said, describing a fairly surreal scene (though she was wearing black). “It was a mess.”
When he finally spotted her, he said, “I know you come to New York occasionally. Here’s my number so we can meet up.”
A week later, Ms. Abe sent Mr. Seemer a text, and the two made plans to see the Rapture at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on April 7. They had a great time. But it wasn’t great timing.
“We went over a month texting each other but not seeing one another,” Mr. Seemer said. “We were both focused on finals at school.”
They finally went on a second date to see the movie “Moonrise Kingdom” at the end of May. And they took a day trip to Long Branch Beach in New Jersey shortly after as a third. “For me, New Jersey was fairly exotic,” said Mr. Seemer, who grew up in Rockledge, Fla.
There was an expiration date on their dating, however, as Mr. Seemer was slated to depart for a year abroad.
After one more date, he left to study in Berlin on June 2, 2012, stopping first in France, to begin a 42-day walk with his father of Camino de Santiago, the famed pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
While he was away, the two communicated only via email. “It felt old school in that way,” Ms. Abe said. “It was exciting to get an email from Jack.”
“We kind of became pen pals,” Mr. Seemer said.
The year passed, and Mr. Seemer said, “I didn’t have any expectations coming back.”
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But the two went on their “second first date,” Mr. Seemer said, at the end of summer 2013: takeout Chinese food and a movie at the friend’s apartment in New York where he was staying.
When they said good night in the lobby, it was Ms. Abe who moved in for a kiss. “I definitely felt like we were back where we left off,” Mr. Seemer said.
Still, he said, “I remember Kana wanting to take things slowly.” They began texting regularly and going on casual dates. At the end of November 2013, they officially became a couple.
In the summer of 2014, after Mr. Seemer graduated from N.Y.U. with a bachelor’s degree in global liberal studies, he moved in with Ms. Abe in Bushwick “for the summer,” she said. But he never moved out.
After several more moves together, the two bought a home in the summer of 2021, a “rundown,” as Ms. Abe said, 1954 midcentury ranch house in West Orange, N.J., where they now live.
Mr. Seemer proposed on June 9, 2023, during a weekend getaway he planned in upstate New York, which included a visit to Manitoga, home of the industrial designer Russel Wright.
He asked her to join him for a hike at Piaule Catskill, the resort where they were staying, despite the intermittent rain. She said yes, though she was less than thrilled.
“I remember Jack was walking super slow, and he was extremely quiet,” Ms. Abe said. “He asked me to sit on a log nearby so he could take my photo.” After taking the photo, Mr. Seemer proposed.
Ms. Abe, 33, who grew up in Wayne, N.J., is a senior software engineer at Spotify. She has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and visual art from Rutgers.
Mr. Seemer, 32, is the executive editor at Gear Patrol, a digital publication for product enthusiasts.
The couple were wed before 97 guests on June 1 by Jaime Manheimer, a friend of the couple who had obtained a one-day New York license, at the Woodhouse Lodge in Greenville, N.Y.
“Kana and I signed the marriage license with a $3 Micron pen — the same one she was using on the train all those years ago,” Mr. Seemer said. “It felt as if we were coming full circle to close one loop and open a new one.”
