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A few days after the orientation day, I officially started junior high at the privileged private Catholic school. The first day at school was an entrance ceremony. I put on the school uniform and the uniform leather shoes for the first time. My mother complained repeatedly about the leather shoes. Because she thought it was crazy to make kids wear such a heavy, stiff pair like leather shoes everyday, she said “What a weird school!” over and over. It would have become her regular remark about everything at school until I graduated. The school uniform bag was also heavy, made of leather, looking like a business briefcase. As a supplementary bag, a light vinyl uniform bag was provided too. I didn’t have much to bring to school on the first day since it was an entrance ceremony. But my parents and I figured that I should go with the primary leather bag, as it was a formal occasion. After my father frantically took pictures of me in uniform, I left for school by the local bus. When I arrived at school, I found that I was the only student that carried the primary bag. All other students were carrying the vinyl side bag. They kept staring at me as if I was a weirdo. One girl dared ask me why I had brought the primary bag not the side bag. “Because it’s a ceremony,” I replied, but she seemed more confused. For the next few months, I had been called ‘The girl with the primary bag’ by other students. Soon, we needed to get an English-Japanese dictionary. The school recommended a particular dictionary and I went to a bookstore with my father. There were two kinds of dictionary: one with a vinyl binding and one with a leather binding. The latter was ridiculously expensive. Since the contents were exactly the same, my choice was straightforwardly the vinyl one. I wondered what kind of stupid person would get the leather one. And at school, I found most students had gotten the leather dictionary. Some girls spotted mine and laughed at me, saying, “Yours is vinyl!” Finding the correct answer between leather and vinyl was too difficult for me at the new school…
