Footprints of The Third Man
There was one place I longed to see in Vienna. When films were the only distraction that sustained me through high school years, I watched many film noir. Among them, […]
Memories of Vienna
I had no plan for the winter break. I should have had, as the campus was going to be closed. So I was incredibly fortunate that Meili, the Taiwanese girl, […]
Photogenic student life
Maya and I were sitting at the outside table of a campus cafe one afternoon with Shuji, who had studied at Waseda the previous year. I was facing Maya when […]
Cost of a free trip
On the plane to Kona, I started to feel anxious. I could play the role of a fun girl for the duration of a dinner or a 30 minutes chat […]
Extra ticket
A few weeks after the San Francisco trip, Martin came to my room and asked me, “will you come to Hawaii with me for Thanksgiving?” He explained that there was […]
New friend
I was studying in my room when Martin came in. He was one of the international students from Germany and lived in the same dorm. I was a little surprised […]
Whitewashed dolls
Like the sisters in The Bluest Eye, I once destroyed a doll. It had chestnut hair and soft, large eyes. Her racial ambiguity with a Japanese name confused me, and […]
Maya
Among Waseda students, I got to know Maya the most. Her fearlessness was the quality I envied. She’d speak her mind but sometimes a bit more than an appropriate amount, […]
Presenting kogal
In the Gender Studies class, two senior students spoke up the most. I was initially intimidated by them, but when we split into groups, and I was included in a […]
Gender studies class
For the first semester, I could choose two classes other than the mandatory English class for international students. I took the Chinese class for one because I hadn’t given up […]