毕业那些事 | 毕业旅行

My Graduation Trip

At the end of that year, it snowed even in Sakai: a small town in Osaka where snow has seldom lain, most likely, because of global warming. I looked out of the window, when fine snow was falling silently under a bleak overcaast sky. Before long, the snow turned to large snowflakes and began fluttering down ceaselessly. Everything in my temple-yard became white with snow in an instant, and silence settled over the surroundings. 

The snow landscape reminds me of my school days. I will never forget the simplicity and the sentiment I had on my solitary trip to the northern region of Japan before graduating from university. It was snowing lightly on a February night when I finished writing my graduation thesis. I packed up my few belongings and left my rooming house for Ueno Station to take a night train bound for Sendai, holding a one-week discount excursion ticket tightly in my hand. In those days, it was popular for poor students to go youth-hostelling with a student discount. I coule get on and off over and over again at any station for a five-thousand-yen per night. The price included two meals as well. Hunger is the best sauce; that was no time to be picky about the food. I thought that trip might be the last chance for me to use the student discount. Some friends from the snowy district said that is was a ridiculous idea to make a trip on such cold days simply because I wanted to see snow, not to ski. But no matter what anybody said, I just wanted to see a snow landscape as the last memory of my school days; I had had a strong yearning for the life in a region with heavy snowfalls. Actually, I had no interest in skiing, or rather I could not afford to, I should say. I was living on a tight budget and I had no money to spare. Such an expensive sport was simply beyong my means. I lived on a monthly allowance and a parttime job, but the most part of it usually ended up being spent on drinking. I used to go on a spree with my friends, then finally I got fed up with it. I wanted to ourgrow my playful but frivolous mood in those college days. So I got the idea of going on a trip in an attempt to make a clean break from my flippant days.

Despite the fact that it was almost eleven, Ueno Station, one of the terminal stations for the Tohoku region, was congested with passengers carrying large packages in their hands or on their shoulders. The bell rang loudly each time trains arrived and departed, and just hearing the repeated announcements over the station PA system got on my nerves. Crusted snow was stuck to the window frames of the train which had just arrived from Anomori, giving a shudder and grinding to a halt. The paint was off in places and rust had eaten deeply into the metal parts of the old car. Many people poured out of the cars with exhausted looks on their faces. I sat on a bench and savoured a can of beer. That was what I had wanted, I would soon be a man in a carefree solitary trip. I was alone in the buzz of conversation watching those who came and went. Though it was around midnight, I could not even see their shades in the brightly lit station yard. A constant noise, brilliant fluorescent lights and the smell of diesel fumes in the air.

"Unless I leave this hustle and bustle of the city, there is no way to get rid of my fatigue," I mumbled, bidding farewell in my mind to the carefree days of my youth, drinking a toast to myself with the rest of the beer.