☆My Memoir☆
* * * * *It was the end of summer in 2000, but winter never seems to start because it is always warm throughout a year. Everyday was the same to me. I woke up at 7 o’clock in the morning and go to school at 8 o’clock. School was pretty boring. Only the reason I go to my school is to play sports every after school. So, I never paid any attention to classes. Even though my life in Japan was the same everyday, I had no complaints about it because everyone around me had a life like that.
* * * * *However, there was one thing different from all my friends, which was that I had my sisters in N.Y, America. Even though my sisters and I were sisters and a brother, it seemed like we lived in the different world. My sisters had a big interest in English, so they studied English by themselves since they were little. By the time they become high school students, they made their own way to America where they had no one they knew. It must have been scary to go to the new world. Unlike me, they were smart and knew what they always wanted to do in the future. I never thought about what I was going to do in the future, and I just believed it was going to be all right, although there was no guarantee. That was the society I lived in. Everyone lived without any worries and just let the time pass by.
* * * * *Sometimes, my sisters called me from N.Y. It was a little awkward to talk to them even though they were my own sisters, because I had not seen them for a few years. I was proud of them trying to make their dreams come true, but I really didn’t care what and how they were doing as long as they were fine. Even though my life in Japan was the same everyday, I still had a life. I was pretty comfortable living in the society where no one had any worries and any desires.
* * * * *I still had the same style of living when I entered 6th grade. Everyday, it was still the same. One morning, my sister called me. She suggested for me to come to visit my sisters in New York because she thought it would be interesting for me to know what my sisters were doing in the foreign world. She also thought this visit could open my mind wider. As I went there, I would be supposed to know a little English. But, I really didn’t care what I was going to do there. The only reason I wanted to go there was that I could tell my friends that I went to New York. That was all what I was thinking. At first, I was not really interested in what was in New York.
* * * * *I never felt colder than this. I never felt and saw snow falling down from the sky. I never saw buildings this high. I felt alone and lost in the middle of nowhere. People seemed rushing for their lives. Everything I experienced was new. It was the winter of 2000. I visited my sisters in the city that never sleeps. My sisters took very good care of me, since I was staying only for 10 days. They did everything for me from the beginning. I didn’t prepare anything to come here. They even made my airplane reservation. Even though I could not speak one word of English, I was not worried. Since I was the youngest one in the family, I just took advantage of my sisters.
* * * * *On the first day of my stay, I was very tired from my flight, so I stayed home and just kept eating boxes of ice cream all day long. It was amazing that foods were unbelievably huge and cheap. On the second day, I went to see everything that tourists would see. My sisters and I went to see the musical, Lion King, the Statue of Liberty, the Twin Towers, Brooklyn Bridge, and Times Square.
* * * * *Days in NYC were really cold, but I didn’t feel cold at all because I was paying more attention to what I saw than what I felt. Everything I saw in NYC was something different and inspired me. I couldn’t help keeping my mouth open. Even a little thing such as a manhole with white smoke coming out made me say “wow.” The most shocking thing was that there were many homeless people and beggars in the subways and on the street, although there were also many people who wore suits that would cost about 3 thousand dollars. There were also people from many other countries, such as Korea, China, India, and countries in Europe. The funny thing was that I felt so weird when I saw Chinese people in Chinatown. They looked the same as me but they spoke so weirdly and annoyingly. Before I visited here, I didn’t even know that Korean and Chinese people are different. I thought Korean people speak what Chinese people speak, and it was then when I realized how ignorant I have been.
* * * * *In the middle of my stay, everyone was counting down to the New Year, 2001. I always saw the countdown at Times Square on TV in Japan, thinking about how my sisters were doing there. As I finally was visiting them, I thought I should go to see the famous countdown. One night before the last day of 2000, I went snowboarding at Hunter Mountain with my sisters and their friends. Snowboarding was awesome and was my first experience. First, I was scared of its speed and height, and I couldn’t even control my board. But, I got used to it in an hour. I felt so great that I tried to do many things, such as the half pipe. The next moment, while trying a half pipe, I realized I went too far, and hit my head hard on the ground. After a while, I was trying to remember what just had happened, but I couldn’t. I just found myself lying on the ground with my face up to the sky, and then guys came up to me and said, “Hey kid, are you all right?” I really didn’t listen to what they said or I actually couldn’t understand what they said, and since I knew what they would say, I spoke to them with an awkward English accent, “Okei, me is okei.” I thought that I was stopping people in the middle of the half pipe, thus I stepped aside slowly and sat down for a few minutes. I had a hard time breathing. So, I again lied at full length, looking up the sky, thinking how I was going to get down to where my sisters were. I closed my eyes, I could hear my breathing hard and people screaming loud with joy, and my cheeks were cold. After a few minutes, I stood up slowly, grabbed my board, and started walking down. I still felt dizzy and weird.
* * * * *As I was going down, I was watching people snowboarding and thinking what I was going to tell my sisters had happened to me. It took me really long to get down, and it was already dark. I was supposed to meet them at 6 o’clock, but I came a little late. I could tell from her face that she was pissed about my responsibility that made her friends wait for a long time only for me. Before she began speaking, I said loudly in Japanese,”I think I hurt my neck….” Her angry face abated, and it changed to a worried face. I told them how it happened, so they didn’t say anything about my coming late. We all got into my sister’s car, and left Hunter Mountain. No one was speaking. Everyone was tired, I guess. I was sitting in the passenger’s seat and kept moving my head around to see how bad it was. I had thought it was broken, but it seemed all right when I left there. For 3 hours driving, I was sleeping like a bear that snored loud. When I felt my sister shaking my body, I woke up in front of our house. My eyes were only half way open. I left my bags and stuff in the car, got into my house, and went to bed right away because I was way too tired. It was already 1 o’clock.
* * * * *Next morning, I was awoken by a shiny sun coming through the window. I shouted and jumped up from my bed. I was supposed to wake up early and go to Times Square for the countdown. I turned on the TV, and it said it was 2 o’clock, which meant I had been sleeping for more than 12 hours. I was speechless and astonished in front of the TV, holding a remote control. There were already many people waiting at Times Square. I still wanted to go so badly. But then, even If I left now, I would be the last one and wouldn’t be able to see anything. Also, because my sisters convinced me not to go, I gave up, finally. I was feeling really blue since it was kind of a big thing to me. I just sat on my couch watching it live on TV. That was really boring, just to watch what was going on at Times Square, because I was not actually there.
* * * * *So, my sisters and I decided to go out. First, we went to IKEA in Long Island. I never saw a furniture shop as big as IKEA. It was so big that I almost got lost. Anyway, we just looked around for something good. My sister was testing a red sofa, which she seemed to love. I knew I couldn’t convince her not to buy it, because she just didn’t listen to anyone if she found something that she was desperate for. So, we bought the red big sofa, which was not really a problem. The problem was how we were going to carry it home. It was so huge that it was even stupid to try fitting it into our car. We were thinking about what to do with it, and then we saw people tying a bed or sofa on their own car with a rope. So, we followed their example. It was not as easy as it looked, and it took us almost an hour to get it done. Even though we tied it so hard, we were worried that it would come off the top of the car because the sofa was almost as big as our car. Moreover, we had to drive on a highway. We stopped our car and fixed the sofa every time it moved. It usually took only 2 hours, but it took 3 hours to get home from IKEA. It was a little bit embarrassing as we got closer to NY because, the more I got closer to NY, the more cars there were. So many people were looking at us in the car with a red big sofa on the top.
* * * * *As soon as we got home, we bought a pair of scissors and cut the ropes. It was 10 o’clock at night. There were people in an Italian café next to our house, and they were looking at us carrying the sofa into the house. After we took it to our room, we were so exhausted that we sat on it without saying anything. I turned the TV on, and there were a lot more people waiting at Times Square and counting 2 hours to the New Year. I again regretted that I had awoken late. I didn’t want to just stay home and celebrate the New Year but celebrate with many people. So, we left home again and went to a pretty decent Korean restaurant where many Asian people were, since we were very hungry. It was already 11 o’clock. At the restaurant, we ordered a lot of Korean meats and spicy foods. I really couldn’t handle those spicy foods because it was so spicy that I actually felt fire almost coming out from my mouth, but those Korean meats were so delicious that I couldn’t stop eating.
* * * * *By the time we finished our food, people were counting down 10 minutes to the New Year. I was so excited with so many people around that I actually could hear my heartbeat. The closer the time got to it, the louder people became. We all stood riveted to the big screen TV in the restaurant. As we screamed out loud, I felt somehow connected to people on the TV at Times Square. We all counted down a minute to the New Year. As we were looking at the big shiny ball on the top of the big cup noodle, we shouted, “50, 49, 48, 47, 46…..5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.” I could feel people as one. We shouted, “Happy New Year!!” Many people were smiling and hugging each at the moment, and people who I didn’t even know hugged me and said “Happy New Year!” I felt a little bit awkward about that, but I thought it was alright because I thought people in NY were so open-minded. I even forgot that my neck was hurting a few hours ago, and I was so happy that I jumped around just like other people did.
* * * * *We stayed in the restaurant about an hour more. Even though it was what I wanted to do, things just got boring easily. Especially, celebrating the New Year was really great before and after the New Year, but it was so boring right after that because there weren’t so many things to do for celebrating it. So, we left there about 1 o’clock, and we talked about what our goals were this New Year. As soon as we got home, my sisters made me call my parents in Japan. I told them what we had been doing in NYC and how exciting my first experience snowboarding and the New Year’s were. My parents were glad to hear that I had a great time in NY, and they wanted me to talk more about it, but I was so tired from the early day of shopping in IKEA. Thus, I told them to tell them about it later, and I went to sleep.
* * * * *My staying in NY was nearly about to end, and then I realized that I had to buy souvenirs for my friends and teachers in Japan. However, my sisters’ school just started, so I had to go alone. I was a little worried how I was going to buy things by myself, since I couldn’t speak English, but it didn’t really matter. Even when I went shopping alone in the city, I could buy clothes and souvenirs without speaking a word. Although employees might have thought I was kind of idiot because every time they said, “Can I help you?”, which sounded just like Chinese to me, I just smiled at them. Then I figured out that NY was a nice place to visit, but not to live, because there was no way I could keep doing well without speaking English everyday. Eventually, I could buy what I wanted all by myself. I felt like I was walking all day long, and my legs hurt.
* * * * *The last day of my staying in NY was as cold as usual, and I was getting used to this weather by then. Even though it was only 10 days that I stayed, I felt really sad and downcast when I was going to leave in a couple hours. On the other hand, everything in NY seemed the same as the first day I came. Everyone looked rushed, and it was full of energy in the city. My flight was 8 o’clock in the evening. I packed my stuff in my suitcase a little after noon. My sisters took me wherever I wanted to go as they thought it would be the last time of visiting NYC for a while since I was going to be really busy the next couple of years because I was going to high school the next year. I asked my sisters to take me to the Statue of Liberty and Times Square for the last time. I went there and just stood for a long time, looking at buildings and the statue as if I tried to burn the images into my head. After I finished visiting the places, it was already 5 o’clock and a little dark. As I knew that I was going to leave soon, I felt really down and felt my body really heavy in the car.
* * * * *Since we had a few hours, we decided to have a last dinner all together. This time, we went to eat Chinese food in Flushing. I, myself felt really weird because I started to miss NY already, but I also was happy to go back to Japan and to tell my friends what I had experienced at the same time. I tried acting as happy as I could be in order to make my sisters not worried. Even at the Chinese restaurant, I was the one who kept talking, and I kept saying how great it was and how thankful I was. The Chinese food tasted the best I had eaten in NYC, too. In the end, everything seemed ending up perfectly, or I made myself think everything was going to be perfect. On the way to the airport in the car, I was sitting in the back and looking at the dark reddish sky through a window. Again, I realized how busy and lively NYC was as I saw 8 airplanes in the sky of Manhattan. It was like a dream. It was only 10 days but seemed like only 2 days, and I never been to a big city like NYC before. In the car, I alone was trying to remember what I had done in this last 10 days while waiting to get to the airport, and I felt gloomy in the end. When I heard my sisters calling my name, I found myself in front of the airport, which told me that there was only a little time left for me. I got out of the car, and I could feel a cold air going into my body. It was already after 6 o’clock.
* * * * *My sister yelled at me, “Hey, go inside and check in first..” I grabbed my suitcase and ran into the airport. I was on the line waiting to check in, and then my sisters found me and came to me. They saw my sad face and smiled. I said, “What’s wrong!? Why you guys smiling for?” They asked me, “Are you gonna miss us and NYC?” “Hell no, I’d rather be in Japan for god’s sake!!” We smiled. After I checked in, we sat on a bench. We just sat there and did nothing. We kept a silent for a while. My sister began talking, and then we talked about what I was going to do when I went back to Japan. I knew what I was going to do in Japan. It was just back to normal. Just doing all that shit everyday, which I loved, though. I never felt more comfortable than when my friends were around. My feelings were mixed up. I didn’t even know how I really felt. I was very happy that I could go back to my hometown and to chill with my people, but I also felt that I was going to miss my sisters at the same time because I wasn’t going to be seeing them for a couple years, because we were family.
* * * * *We all were still sitting on the bench. Many people were passing by in front of us. The voice announced that people could get into their airplane now. I stood up and opened my mouth, “Okay, I am going now. Why don’t we just take a picture of all of us together so that I can show it to our parents?” I asked a lady to take a picture of us. Time really seemed to go slow at the time, and it was like we all stopped and smiled at the camera for a few minutes.
* * * * *The next moment, I was on the airplane, looking down at the lights of NYC. After we took a picture, I had to rush into the airplane as I was waving my hand back to where my sisters were watching me go. After I got into my seat, I was very exhausted. It had been a really long day. But, I couldn’t go to sleep. Because I thought I was going to miss something, I kept looking outside of the small window, even after the sight of NYC was gone from my sight. The stewardess came up to me and asked to close the blind, so I did. Right after that, somehow I felt much better and I breathed deeply once.
* * * * *When I woke up, I found myself in Okinawa airport. I felt like I came back home. When I opened the blind, it was so shiny that I could barely open my eyes. While I was waiting in the plane to get off, I was once more thinking about what I had done in New York. It seemed like a long dream, and I wished I could go back to the dream some day again.
* * * * *In the airport, my parents and my best friend were waiting for me. I smiled. The last time I came to Okinawa airport to leave for New York, my parents looked worried and nervous, if I was going to be all right. But, now my parents looked happy to welcome me back. So did my best friend. But, there was not enough time to spend on welcoming me back forever in the airport because we had to get out of there as soon as possible since there were a lot of people who just got off the airplane.
* * * * *After we left the airport, we went to a restaurant because I was sleeping in the airplane the whole time so that I hadn’t eaten anything since I left New York. In the restaurant, there were many teenagers drinking and eating as if they were having a party, but it was normal in Okinawa. I felt this was the place I would be most comfortable at. Food was great, and people were nice. After we ordered food, my parents and my best friend started asking me about New York. “How was the weather? How were my sisters doing? What did you guys eat? How was Manhattan? What did you do…?” I answered every single question they asked me. I knew they were going to ask me a lot of questions, but it seemed endless. They even were asking me while I was eating my food if I missed New York. I was very tired of answering their questions, and I wanted to respond to them with short sentences. However, I felt so sorry to do that to my parents because they paid for everything for me and they also wanted to know about my sisters. So, I took time to explain every detail so that they could picture what the New York I experienced was. They even forgot eating their food to hear the story I told them. They seemed very excited and interested when I was talking about my great time I had there. We spent about 3 hours in the restaurant. Since my friend and I had school starting tomorrow and I was already really exhausted, we had to go home. I was much happier about this trip than I thought I would be. Before I went to New York, I thought that the only reason I would want to go there was that I just could tell all my friends that I went to the city that never sleeps. However, I actually had learned many things from this visit in the end. I also felt like I had grown up a little bit. All things after this were not what I expected.
* * * * *On the way home, I was looking outside the car window, and then I saw people working on their farms. It was calm and peaceful. Kids were chasing a soccer ball on the street where there were not many cars passing. I felt pretty heavy because of the gap between New York and Okinawa. Time in New York seemed really quick, but time seemed to go very slowly in Okinawa. It was dark when I got home. As soon as I got home, I went to see my dog, Jojo. Because I missed him so much, I couldn’t help smiling at him when I saw his tail waving from side to side. He jumped around me and leaned his body on me. I was glad that he had been doing all right in these 10 days without me because I was the one in charge of taking care of him. I had been with him since he was 2 months old. I carried him to my room, and I took out everything from my suitcase and organized. The whole time, I took out New York souvenirs, and I could picture the stores where I bought them and everything in New York.
* * * * *It was already 10 o’clock by the time I finished with everything. I also organized souvenirs to bring to school. I was thinking how busy I would be in school tomorrow. My friends would ask me the same typical questions every single minute. I already felt dizzy thinking about it. I decided to go to sleep early since it had been a long day. But, I couldn’t easily go to sleep even though I closed my eyes because I could not help thinking about what was going to happen in school tomorrow. It was funny that the more I tried not to think of anything, the more things popped into my head.
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