CHANNEL-B
 A DAY IN THE LIFE
MC: Taguchi Tatsuzo
Vancouver局/Esquimalt Ave studio
vol.2111 [Apr 20]
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Taguchi Tatzuzoの
A DAY IN THE LIFE
Another Christmas Story
One more story about Christmas; I think this will be the last. When I
was a university student, I lived in the campus residences, but it shut
down completely during Christmas break. The shutdown was quite
literal, and while one could go into the building using keys, all the heat
and electricity were turned off. So, I was forced to look for a place to
stay every Christmas. Ideally, it would have been nice if I could go back
to Japan, but the break was only for two weeks, so it didn’t make much
financial sense for me to go home.
During the first Christmas break, my friend invited me to stay with his
family, but this turned out to be harder than I had anticipated. I never
liked the idea of staying with another person’s family to begin with, and
I was even more uncomfortable because Christmas is a time when family
members expect to spend their time primarily with their other family
members. My options, however, were very limited. I had thought about
staying at a cheap hotel, but if I had that kind of money, I would have
probably been able to add a little bit more and go home to Japan.
After much consideration, during the second Christmas break, I decided
to visit a friend in Iowa. Needless to say, I didn’t have money to fly there,
so I took a train across the continent. I took a ferry from Victoria to Seattle,
and I hopped on the train. The estimated travelling time was roughly three
days. Why “roughly”? First, the departure was delayed for three hours in
Seattle (I was a little upset about this because they made us check in at four
in the morning for the scheduled five-o’clock-departure). Second, the train
had trouble going over the Rockies, so in the end, it took us four days to
get to Iowa.
I had a few reasons for deciding on Iowa. I figured that I would only
have to stay with my friend and his family for a week given I had to
spend a week travelling. I also thought that I would somehow be less of
an imposition on them because I was visiting from so far away. Further-
more, I was very thankful that I was able to secure a place to sleep - even
on a train coach seat - for over a week for a few hundred dollars. And I
had some romantic ideas about crossing America, too.
- # Omission -
I got back to the residence a day before it opened. Because of the cheap
train ticket, that was the only day I could come back. When I got to the
front door of the building, I saw my friend smoking a cigarette. I thought
that, like me, he must have come back a little early. “You came back a little
early, hey?” I asked. A little embarrassed, he responded, “No, I was here
all along. I couldn’t come up with the money to go back to Toronto.”
I thought it might not be too bad to be there without heat and electricity
– after all it was only for a night - but it was very cold and dark. Under
a candle light, my friend and I spend the night drinking Jack Daniels
that I bought at a duty free shop. I told him how I couldn’t even think
about spending two weeks here like that. He said bitterly, “If we didn’t
have Christmas, things like this wouldn’t have to happen.”
media 3.91MB [9:18]
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