Saturday, January 30, 2016
A Shopping Mall in Laval hr561
Near the hotel I stayed in, there was an indoor shopping mall called
Carrefour. I walked on the bridge that crossed a 10-lane highway and
caught a glimpse of the glass ceiling of the mall up ahead. As I came
closer, the mall got bigger and more splendid. It was my first visit to
this mall which beauty made my jaw dropped. Although it was a one-story
complex, its ceiling was about three-story high. The passageways are
wide, and in the middle of them, there were cafes, kiosks, shop wagons,
trees, and life-sized decorations that looked like a park. A classic
car-shaped cart was running around to help shoppers who had difficulty
in walking. I felt as if I was strolling around an elegant European town
rather than a mall. It was undoubtedly the most gorgeous, fashionable
mall I’d ever seen. I passed high-class brand shops and bought
accessories on sale at Old Navy. To have lunch, I was headed for the
food court that was the fanciest one I’d ever been. Sunlight came in
through the glass ceiling high above. Glittering chandeliers were
everywhere. The restaurants weren’t just for fast food but for steaks
and seafood as well. I had a Chinese dish at a cozy, clean table with a
gleeful grin all over my face. After lunch, I strolled about the
department store Simons that was on one of the wings of the mall. I
couldn’t tell whether it had to do with a French-spoken region or not,
shoppers there were all fashionable and somehow good-looking. I was
embarrassed that I wasn’t pretty enough for the place and felt the need
of more serious dieting. The merchandise the store carried was colorful
and stylish, which was the kind I rarely found in Japan. By the reason
that I couldn’t get any of those in Japan, I talked myself into impulse
buying of a bag, scarves and gloves. And I took a rest on a bench in the
mall having ice cream. I had never been in such a pleasant mall like
this. Of course Japan has big modern malls in suburbs too, but those are
crammed with idle housewives and noisy kids. Restaurants are
chronically too full with them to get in. Remembering how uncomfortable
life in Japan was, I was impressed by this town Laval afresh. People
were nice and kind. The town was safe and relaxing. And it had this
beautiful and gorgeous mall. I couldn’t believe a place like this
existed on earth. I craved to live here and wished I had money to do so.
I had liked to live in my apartment back in Japan since I moved in five
years ago, but that life seemed miserable now that I knew Laval. Time
is limited. With each passing day, the remaining days of my life
decrease. That thought pressured and threatened me. I was assailed by a
strong urge to move to Laval as soon as possible…
Saturday, January 16, 2016
It Is Laval hr560
On the sixth day of my trip to Montreal, I moved to a different hotel in
a Montreal suburb Laval from downtown. The hotel rates there were a
little cheaper, and I also wanted to visit Laval that I had never been
to even when I lived in Montreal a long time ago. I looked out the
window at the lounge in the hotel. A vast 10-lane highway ran straight
through a wide stretch of plane land covered with greenery as far as the
eye can see, which reminded me of Orlando, Florida. Across the highway
from the hotel was a new building of the space camp attraction beside
which a tall replica of a rocket stood. Right next to them, there was a
movie complex which building had a futuristic, UFO-like shape. Looking
at all of them against the background of twilight, I felt as if I had
traveled through time to the future or I had actually arrived at
Tomorrowland. I thought I should have known and come to Laval sooner. It
was kind of an exquisite mix of openness in Anaheim, California and
chic in Montreal, which added up to an ideal place for me. I wished I
could live here someday. Just before leaving Japan for this trip, I saw
the biggest, clearest rainbow I’d ever seen from my apartment window.
Since I watched a movie ‘The Muppets’, I’ve always felt like there is a
dreamer’s place on the other side of a rainbow as the song in the film
says whenever I come across one. And one morning in Laval, a rainbow
appeared. I was in the bathroom when my partner shouted, “Here’s a huge,
beautiful rainbow!” Although I quickly came out, it had vanished
already, and only my partner’s ecstatic face was there. He had taken a
photo of it and proudly showed it to me, as if he was the chosen one to
have seen it. For some reason, I extremely resented and kept wondering
why I was in the bathroom at that moment. I was grumpy all day long,
thinking that meant I wasn’t good enough to live in Laval, Laval
rejected me, I was disqualified, all of which was merely because of one
missed rainbow. I returned to the hotel room exhausted and still sullen
early in that evening. I casually stood by the window, and saw what was
in front of me. It was a gigantic perfect arch of a rainbow against an
orange sky. I felt awed and relieved at the same time. As the way and
the look of the rainbow that appeared for the second time in one day
were quite mystical, I even thought the rainbow was trying to tell me
something. I may have passed through the big rainbow that I had seen in
Japan and have reached to the opposite side of it. This place could be
that one on the other side of the rainbow. Or, more possibly, three
biggest rainbows ever in a few days simply occurred by sheer chance…
Labels:
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Monday, January 4, 2016
Casino de Montreal hr559
I visited the casino in Montreal for the first time in seven years. It
had been remodeled into an even more gorgeous, glorious place than
before. I arrived there before noon and had an all-you-can-eat buffet
lunch at a fancy restaurant. I enjoyed the splendid buffet at an
incredibly low price. Compare to the amount of money I was about to
spend for gambling, everything seemed cheap. Every time I lose, I always
try to calm my anger by thinking the money I spend here somehow serves
to make the city better since it’s a public-managed casino. The city is
so beautiful that I regard what I lose in the casino as an entrance fee
to a theme park called Montreal. I used to live in Montreal but had to
leave as I became short of money for life abroad. When the time to go
back to Japan drew near, I seriously thought of gaining money to stay in
Montreal, by gambling. I determinedly sat at the slot machine of a high
progressive prize for a couple of days. On the last day, it happened.
As the slot I had played kept gobbling up my money, I moved over to
another slot machine and a middle-aged woman came to the one I just
left. She turned it for only five or six times and hit the jackpot
unbelievably quickly and easily. If I had continued for five more
quarters on that slot, I would have won. She snatched $100,000 away from
me right before my eyes. While she screamed for joy, the lights
flashed, the sound blared and the casino workers scurried toward her
with papers, I was running into the bathroom. I couldn’t help crying in
there. I was trembling with chagrin. I cursed my bad luck and my coming
life in Japan. A long time ago, my mother asked a fortuneteller about my
future. She told me that according to the fortuneteller, I would often
come close to big money, but it would slip away each time. “So, you will
never be rich,” my mother said to me. I remembered that and I thought I
saw proof that she was right. After I returned to my apartment, I
wailed out loud like a baby. My former self was that stupid. Now, I play
the slot machine just for fun. I sat at the minimum bet slot with a low
prize. If I was lucky and won a little, it meant that I could play
longer with that money. The band started playing at the stage on the
casino floor and I enjoyed soft drinks that I took from the free drink
bar listening to it. I won a little, which let me stay and play there
longer than I had planned. As fatigue from the long flight began to kick
in earnestly, I got back to my hotel room and fell into bed. It was an
excitingly fun day at the casino that cleaned me out yet again, as
usual…
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