Cube otaku? Conversation killer/starter

(tags rubik's cube, practice, Japanese)

My Japanese teacher introduced me to the Nakaji-kun article. However she rolls her eyes whenever we discuss the Rubik's Cube. I try to at least make it palatable by not discussing the technicalities, but about how I feel when I do the cube. You know, share my human experience, don't be a bore. It isn't working though. Last time, I asked her to give me a copy of the article and I decided to quickly change the topic. Still she explained a relevant phrase: 「たかがキューブ、されどキューブ」 == It's just a cube, but it's deep.

Sometimes when I'm cube-commuting, elderly people try to spring up a conversation with me. Its funny to hear in a roundabout way how Nakaji-kun gained the spotlight. The conversation quickly degrades to "which country did you come from", oh yeah.