Exactly ten years later, Ayumi and I went and revisited the school where we haven't been for ten year. Here is where we first met, became friends and share so many memories. Let's take a look.
I was always late. We had to be in school by 8:25AM and they took your ID, if you were late. Every day I watched a few minutes of Asa Dorama (Morning Series) with my host mom, which ended at exactly 8AM, brushed my teeth and rushed the 5km to school over the steep hills of Nagoya. Until now I still remember the bright Japanese winter mornings, whenever I listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers, because that was my morning soundtrack on the way to school. In my last month, I was late the first three times and had to write an apology paper, why I was late and that it will not happen again. Oh, that month was hard!
The first thing we remembered: the cold. Public schools don't have money, so each class got a week's worth of oil (or whatever it is called you put into a heater) and had to divide it up for each day. We brought blanket, scarfs and heat cushions to keep us warm. We used the heater until lunch and always closed the door, so the heat won't leave. In summer, it was unbearably hot and only a few rooms had air conditioning. You learn to appreciate German summer ;)
We sneaked into the building and found pupils having club activities and orchester practise. Oh the sound of screeching shoes on the gymnasium floor, the yelling of Kendou practise mixed with classical music from the music rooms sent me back ten years... Suddenly I was a girl again, asking Ayumi to go down to the kiosk with me to buy some dessert. Every floor had nine class rooms for one grade and you had mostly classes in that room, except for cooking, PE or English (and a few others I don't remember). The first time I was in school, I had to wait outside and peeked through this window where I saw lots of curious faces looking at me waiting for the new girl.
On the left side of the black board you can see the little heater that is supposed to heat the whole class. If I remember correctly, one class lasted 65 minutes, but as always it felt like eternity. During lunch break they made announcements over the speakers and occasionally even played some music. I hated sitting in the front. Most of the classes were uninteresting for me, because my Japanese level was way too low to follow, and I spent a huge amount of time on self study and writing letters. Obviously, teachers were always curious to see what I was doing. I loved sitting in the window row. I was in second year, so our class rooms were on the second floor and I loved gazing out of the window seeing someone in the other building sneak out of the class room or sports practice.
Time flies. We started with a conversation about Detective Conan and Ayumi invited me to watch the latest movie and here we are, ten years later talking about jobs, love, what bothers us and the future. I'm waiting for the moment when there will be wedding invitations, babies and children playing together and I love the thought that despite the distance, we will still know each other in ten years...
P.S.: So many details I start to remember when I look at the pictures... the blue dot on the chair indicates the size, the funny electric sponge cleaner on the heater. our teacher, who loved his poodle Sakura, the school festival, English classes without speaking English, the Uchiwa (Fan) we made for the school festival, which is still in my room, that I wore very bright socks once and got scolded for that, the school song I could never remember, music class, where they made us play guitar and I am just bad at playing it, and and and...
