Friday, January 30, 2015
Hidemi’s Rambling No.535
Since I booked a low-cost carrier flight to LAX from Japan, now I’ve
looking for a hotel to stay in California. The best scenario is to find a
high-class hotel at a bargain price, but it’s not easy to come across
such a good deal. I have to decide between a cheap hotel and a moderate
one. My partner and I happened to stay at a low-class hotel in Japan the
other day to shop at the outlet mall that is far from home. The stay
cost $45 per room including breakfast for two. The room was very small
and there was hardly any space to put our bags and stuff. It had two
beds and the smaller one was set above the bigger one like a bunk bed. I
was going to sleep in the upper bed, but couldn’t climb the ladder
which too-slim, round pole rungs hurt the back of my feet unbearably.
Although my partner managed to reach the narrow bunk bed, he was afraid
of falling all night long and woke up exhausted with a shallow sleep.
That hotel boasted a huge bathtub. In their website and on their
signboard out front, they clamorously touted the size of a bathtub and
the comfort of the bath time. Because I saw the description of their
bathtubs that they said are so huge and we could stretch our legs in
relaxingly so many times, the tub had grown gigantic in my imagination.
Then I found just a normal-sized tub in the room. The restaurant to have
a free breakfast was a small space, looking like an old cheap food
court. TV was on instead of the background music like a cheap bar. But
there I showed my real ability as a cheap person to enjoy a free food.
It was an all-you-can-eat breakfast with a wide variety that was
delicious. I literally ate all I could eat and felt full and almost
sick. But we were the only ones who appreciated it so much. It was a
weekday and almost all the guests were businessmen on a business trip.
There was no female guest except for me. It seemed they didn’t have
enough time for breakfast in any case. Some of them just gulped orange
juice and dashed out. Some sat on the tip of their chairs and swallowed
down food on their small plates hurriedly. Aside from the breakfast, the
cheap hotel deprived us of sleep and exhausted us for this stay. When I
stayed at a hotel like that in Florida a long time ago, I had the
biggest fleabite in my life. These experiences may tell me not to choose
a cheap hotel for a trip to US. On the other hand, the cost of staying
at a moderate hotel gives me a headache…
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Hidemi’s Rambling No.534
The news told the other day that it snowed unusually heavily in Kyoto
where I was born and grew up, and ten inches of snow covered the city.
Only ten inches made the news since it snows in Kyoto merely once or
twice a year. For that reason, snowing was an exciting lucky event for
me when I lived there. White snow covered the old, brownish somber city
and made it look a little better. I vividly remember the fun I had as a
child when it snowed and covered the ground rarely thick one morning.
The front yard of our house turned into a vast white mattress, which was
a view I had never seen before. I had a snowball fight with my father
who hadn’t been hostile to me yet like he is today. He deliberately took
my snowball attacks in his face and yelled repeatedly, “You got me! I
surrender!” My younger sister was still a baby and I was able to
monopolize the fun and my father for once. My mother usually didn’t
allow me to make a racket but snow softened her and she took photographs
of our snowball fight. It surely was one of the happiest moments of my
childhood. Heavy snow came again when I was a high school student. I was
riding the local bus to school with my friend and other students,
feeling gloomy as I felt every time I was on my way to school. When the
bus arrived at the bus stop near the school, we saw a teacher stand
there. As soon as the door of the bus opened, he told us that school was
canceled due to snow. The bus I took ran a loop route around Kyoto,
which meant it eventually returned to where I got on. My friend and I
didn’t even have to get off the bus and went straight back to home. It
became a magical ride by snow, with us feeling over the moon and
giggling and laughing all the way. I was walking with my partner when
the next heavy snow hit Kyoto. Only a few months had passed since we
first met and we were just friends then. I was uplifted by snow and
caught him a surprise with a snowball. It directly hit his face and I
burst into laughter. What I didn’t understand was his look. He was
stunned, rather shocked, with his eyes bulged. According to his theory,
adults don’t have a snowball fight and I was the first and only one who
broke his theory. I just loved snow so much. Now, I live in a town where
it snows all day every day during winter and snow mounts up on the
ground higher than my height. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the
night by a sense of claustrophobia. If I had seen my future living like
this when I was a child in Kyoto, I would have thought I would move to
Alaska or the North Pole, or the earth simply would have the glacial
period. Life turns in an unexpected way. People who live in this town
greet each other saying unpleasantly “Here it comes again!” when the
first snow falls. I still feel joyful for snow, and I guess I haven’t
become a local yet while living here for four years now…
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Hidemi’s Rambling No.533
New Year’s Day is the biggest holiday in Japan. It’s as big as
Thanksgiving and Christmas put together. It’s a day when millions of
people visit shrines and temples wearing kimono or their best clothes
and pray for good luck by offering money into the boxes. Before
midnight, shrines and temples begin to seethe with people. I used to be
one of them when I lived in my hometown, but now I just watch the tumult
on TV at home every year. I recall New Year’s Day of 2011 as my
merriest one. Back then, I still lived in the apartment in a suburb of
Tokyo. The plan to move into this rural town had been already arranged,
but I hadn’t moved out yet. From the last minutes of New Year’s Eve to
the first minutes of New Year’s Day, shrines and temples all over Japan
ring the bell 108 times. 108 represents the number of worldly desires of
each person. The bell ring is supposed to take them away one by one for
the new year. I was listening to the faint sound of the bell that a
temple near my apartment was ringing when 2011 arrived. I opened a
bottle of champagne, which is too expensive for me to drink except on
this day every year, prepared the New Year’s meal that’s not traditional
but of my own style, and had it with my partner who looked somewhat to
be in bad shape, while watching a comedy live show on TV. After I
watched the first sunrise of the year over Mt. Fuji on TV, I turned on
my PC and found that my new song that I had spent several years to
complete was put up on i-Tunes and Amazon for the first time. I felt
like a new life for me had started with the new year and it would get
better from now on, with my new apartment in a new place in the wings
and my new song made public. I guess the reason why New Year’s Day of
2011 was the merriest for me isn’t just an expensive champagne or the
New Year’s meal or the comedy show. It’s because I felt so much hope. I
continued watching comedy TV shows until noon that day feeling so good,
and when I was about to go to bed, my partner confessed that he had
caught a cold and was undoubtedly sick…
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