Hannahの旅行記

ごく普通の女子大生。海外旅行は好きだが度胸はない。今まで訪れた国は、グアム、シアトル(ホームステイ)、シンガポール(弾丸)、ウズベキスタン(スタディツアー)、イギリス(短期留学)、台湾

A Sheltered Naive Girl

※needs to be polished

   Today, I'm going to share one of the most shocking experiences in my life.

   At that time, I had no room in my mind to write down what had happened to me. I couldn't do anything but try to forget it.

   Last summer, the professor and the students including me did fieldwork in Tokyo. First of all, we went to Sanya, which is famous as "the town of day-labourers". When we went across a park, I saw a homeless man was naked to bathe. Another man yelled at us when we visited a community centre.
   We also walked around Yosiwara, which was famous as red-light district in the Edo period. I was shocked to know we couldn't eat prawns at the shop named “prawn” and putting the sign of a big prawn. It’s actually a brothel. I did wonder why the owner named such a confusing name.
   After that, the professor suggested we go drink. I was mentally exhausted after today’s shocking experience, but it seemed I had no choice but to go there. The bar was in the core of Kabukicho. I had passed over Kabukicho, but I had never been there. We walked through a narrow path and reached the bar. It didn't looked like a bar but a private house.
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   A Chinese auntie welcomed us. She first provided us with the bottles of expired coke. She then served Chinese dishes, but I had no appetite. I was seated next to a graduate student, who talked a lot about his research and asked about my interests, but I couldn't keep up with him at all.
   When the professor and an unidentified left-winged woman got excited about the government's criticism, I didn't know which facial expression I chose. I was dying to go home. I didn't know how many times I looked up the clock on the wall.
   Around 10pm, the nightmarish time was finally over. Only my friend and I decided to go home whereas the other students went to drink more. I felt like I was finally back in reality when we walked to the station. I had never felt so comfortable and relieved when I reached the nearest station of my house, even though it was not my hometown. 

   As soon as I arrived home, I called my mom and told her everything I went through on that day. I couldn't help bursting into tears. At the age of 20, I realised I was a  sheltered naive girl who knows nothing about the "real" society.