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We got out of the eventful Italy and arrived in Switzerland. We had plentiful free time and my sister and I strolled along the street by Lake Leman. I found a Baskin-Robbins shop and suggested to my sister that we should get some ice cream. Of course we had Baskin-Robbins shops back in Japan, but there was something we could do only in foreign countries. Back then in Japan, it was bad manners to eat while walking. In my hometown, eating and walking was considered so indecent especially for women that it was a taboo. We weren’t allowed walking outside with anything in the mouth. Even chewing gum was out of the question. I had had Baskin-Robbins ice cream only when I sat inside the shop, and had always wanted to walk licking an ice-cream cone in public as in foreign movies. A golden opportunity arose there since it wasn’t Japan any more. I sprang at the chance and got a double-scoop cone. I licked it while walking along Lake Leman. Its size seemed bigger somehow, and it tasted freedom. At night, I went to a club with the attendant and my friends in the tour group as usual, without adult tour members this time. I danced cheek-to-cheek with the attendant on whom I had a crush. It was late when we returned to our hotel and everybody seemed to have gone to sleep. I was putting the key in the door of my room that was two doors down from the attendant’s. I noticed the beam of light on the dim hallway. It came from the attendant’s room, as he was standing at the doorway with the door open, watching something on the hallway. I looked around but there were only two of us. He was watching me. I wondered if something was wrong and walked to his room. I asked what was wrong. He said he was wondering whether we should go back in to our each room already. After we repeated the same lines for several times, I finally got it. I was a kid who had just finished high school and had been taught strictly not to have a physical relationship before marriage. I told him we should and walked back to my room. While closing the door, I glanced at his room. He was closing his door but still watching me. I shut the door. After all, I was a conservative person who wouldn’t defy traditional teachings entirely…
