About the people I’ve met
Can a cool kid and an uncool kid be friends? I met Laurie on my way to Thailand. We were sitting next to each other on the bus from Siem Reap to Bangkok. She was 25 years old from Australia. She had a nose piercing and lots of beaded and braided bracelets. I had a …
I remember a girl I met in Melbourne, Australia back in October 2014. I was coming out of the State Library. There was a small gathering at the forecourt. A few girls in their 20s, apparently students, were giving something away to people. "Hello, please take a candy." She handed me a small bag of …
When I was a kid, I always struggled to answer this question: "What is your dream?" As I grew up, the question changed slightly: “What do you want to do in your life?” And later, the question became more frequent and daunting: “So, what do you do?” I’ve never been able to answer those questions. …
I remember a subtle smile I exchanged with a stranger a few years ago. I was waiting for an elevator at the hospital. I had been diagnosed with herpetic blepharitis a few moments earlier. It caused a severe outbreak of cold sores on all over my face, especially around my eyes. A lot of ugly …
Finding another lift was tough. I talked to 15 people or more, but all of them refused to give me a ride. Most of them showed compassion on me excusing they are heading to other places, but some of them looked at me as if I were a beggar. (Technically, I was a beggar asking …
As we arrived at Numazu Interchange, he got off the car and told me to remain in the car. I started to regret what I have initiated. Now it seemed not at all a good idea for a woman to hitch. I thought I knew the risks of hitchhiking, but being picked up by a …
On a summer night in 2004, I was standing on the roadside in Tokyo to hitch. In hindsight, I think I was too naïve to believe a woman in her early 20s can hitch to travel more than 500 kilometres (300 miles). But back then I really wanted to try something out of ordinary, to …
My life was once saved by a stranger. It was a cold night in late winter in the late 2000s. I went out with my friend to Lower Manhattan. Just the two of us emptied two bottles of wine. It was unusual for me to drink that much. I’m not a heavy drinker. But that night …
When I was 22 years old, I was working in a jazz bar. The bar was located in Akasaka, an entertainment area in CBD Tokyo. The owner of the bar was a 60-year-old guy from a wealthy family. He would play piano and drums and sang old jazz classics while I was tending a bar. …
A few weeks after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, mom and I went to a local shopping center. Only a few shops have reopened. We managed to get some groceries from a supermarket where most shelves were empty. Freight transportation and distribution systems still have been mostly suspended. As we walked towards the exit, I …
A Thousand Years 