The shelf where my CDs are located at is rather small. As a result, the CDs
have to be split on several levels, on several rows. Of course, the CDs which
I listen the most to are most of the time in the front, while some of them
barely get to get out from the hidden spaces of the shelf.
Once in a while, I dig those in forgotten spaces to find CDs I hadn't listened
to for a long time and try to shuffle them around to renew the musical wave in
my apartment.
This time, I had the funniest experience when I found the CD of Utada Hikaru and started to
play it.
From the first sounds of drums of "Automatic", the huge hit when I came to
Japan, I was sent 4 years back and all the memories and the feelings came back
as if I was still there...
I remembered about the parties at the bar "Isn't it" in Shibuya (entrance fee 1,000 yens, one drink included, the place has closed since then though) with Fred and Seb, dancing or just trying to fight sleepiness until dawn. Then we would slowly head to the train station, altogether with other young people, all tired and with that whistling sound in your ears after a night spent in a club...
I remembered about the Sunday afternoons spent in my apartment, not knowing what to do, watching some TV program I wouldn't understand, listening to this CD of Utada Hikaru in loop and trying to call Fred to know what he'd like to do for the rest of the day. Most of the time, Fred would wake up around 5pm on Sundays, so that wouldn't leave a lot of choices for things to do then (Fred has kept a very bad memory of this 5pm music played in the streets of Tokyo since then, which reminds him too much of those weekends when there just wouldn't be any Sunday...).
All that would remind me of my second apartment, the one in Roppongi where
several generations of students had stayed before me: an aging apartment, on
the street level, noisy at night because of the taxies which were taking a
shortcut through Roppongi.
Nothing would work properly: the window wouldn't slide properly, the air
conditionning system was a huge and quite alarming block which looked like
it'd die any time you used it, buttons were coming off the different doors,
the huge and ugly wooden table borrowed from the stock of my company was
simply occupying half of the room but still, it was my apartment and I
remember how much I enjoyed the first time I stepped in it four years
ago.
The excitement was short after I realized how old everything was, and how
small the apartment actually was, but it was really a pleasant surprise,
compared to the first place Fred and I had to stay at (Fred actually managed
to stay there for 6 months, I don't know how he could survive!): the room was
about 25m2, the walls were revealing any noise from the next room, and when
the nuisance didn't come from the next room, you could be sure that someone or
something would keep you awake, like people shouting in the corridor, fire
alarms triggered by some guy who wanting to have some fun or just the sound of
crows in the morning in front of your windows.
The bathroom was also quite depressing: a room made of pink plastic walls (or
at least, that's what I remember of it), separated from the rest of the room
by a 20cm wall to prevent water from spreading into the apartment, with a
light so dim that it made you feel like in the uncomfortable capsules you can
see in science fiction movies.
Yet, I think it was maybe the most interesting time of my life, lost with the
excitement of being in Japan with new friends in the same situation as
me!
I cherish those great moments when your memories catch you up, refill your mind with all those feelings to finally bring you back to the present time and to make you realize that a lot of things were accomplished within just a few years, the most important one of all probably being to be just a few days away from getting married with Eiko, with whom, in a few years from now, we may tell that kind of stories again about the great experience we are going through right now.
