Hidemi's Rambling

Our tour group was small and about half the members were young, which was unusual for a package tour from Japan in those days. One night the attendant suggested to young members that we should go dancing with him after adults retreated into the hotel room. We had great fun and it had become a custom that the attendant had taken us to a club at every city we visited since then. We had become good…

An attendant from the package tour company traveled with us all the way from Japan. I had a little crush on him. When we were leaving one of the tourist attractions in Italy, the charter bus was waiting for us on an unpaved lot covered with wild flowers. At every venue, the attendant was standing by the bus to make sure everyone in the group was getting on the bus when leaving. My sister and I…

We got back from Orvieto to our hotel in Rome by a charter bus. When we were getting off the bus, my father abruptly stopped at the exit of the bus. He stood by the bus driver and looked at him resolutely. It seemed that he was about to make a significant action of a lifetime. There was a tense moment of silence and other tour members were also looking at my father. He opened his mouth and said,…

We traveled on a charter bus to Orvieto from Rome. It was a beautiful small village like the one I once saw in a picture book. Since it was famous for wooden handiwork, there were many stores for it along the narrow street. I found handmade wooden dolls and got one of those as a souvenir. It looked an authentic Pinocchio to me. The lunch included in the tour was at a restaurant also looking like…

We took an Alitalia flight to Italy. It was a bumpy visit from the very beginning. I experienced the scariest landing in my life, in which the plane took several sharp dives during the descent under the perfectly fine weather and made me scream repeatedly. It landed with a couple of powerful bounces on the runway and while I was pale and near to crying, other passengers were cheering and…

In voice mail, there was a message from my father that said he needed to be called back immediately. I was chilled to the bone. I have never received a single phone call from him that’s not disturbing. When he calls me, he does it to vent his spleen about his daily life and about my career as a musician. What comes out from the receiver is his lengthy verbal abuse. Nevertheless, I mostly return…

The next destination of our fourteen-day trip was Spain. We visited the Prado Museum as the tour package’s itinerary. Since we were a bumpkin family from an old-fashioned town, we didn’t appreciate art so much. We got out of the museum quickly and waited for the other tour members on the bench outside. It was a beautiful sunny day and I saw the blue sky above me. I had never seen such a clear,…

This podcast is narration works of short stories from the books Hidemi Woods wrote. And her talking about them.Hidemi Woods was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan. A singer-songwriter and an author.Her stories and talking are about life in Japan, music, family, childhood, and embarrassing everyday-experiences. Episode from⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠An Old Tree in Kyoto: How a Japanese girl got…

The tour package we chose included almost every meal in its fourteen-day itinerary. Our tour members had dinner together on the second night in London at a restaurant called Beefeater. It was a medieval-themed restaurant where servers were wearing medieval costumes and the dinner assumed as a banquet held by the king and the queen. Our tour guide appointed a king and a queen for the night in the…

As a young and stupid teenager, I used to think it’s uncool to travel carrying big bags and suitcases. Before leaving for Europe, I reduced my stuff for a two-week trip to a minimum that just fit in my taut bag. That decision made me unable to bring a coat in case it was cold out there. When my mother opposed my light equipment, I confidently declared that I didn’t want to look like a country…

From the airport, we were headed by a charter bus for a hotel in London where we were staying for three days. It was still early in the morning and we had a continental breakfast at a restaurant in the hotel, which was included in the package tour. None of us – my parents, my sister and I – knew what a continental breakfast was. After coffee and bread was served, we were waiting for the dish…

The first international flight I had ever taken was from Tokyo to London. It was a long time ago enough that coincidentally, the day was when the United Airlines’ first flight to Japan arrived. It was the time when smoking was broadly allowed in the cabin, and I had to fight off constant cigarette smoke from the seats in front of me through the long flight. An overseas travel wasn’t so common…

When I graduated from high school, my parents and my sister took the opportunity to go on our first trip abroad. We joined a two-week tour of Europe. To take the international flight, we needed to take a domestic flight from a local airport. It was my first flight since I was little. Before taking off, my mother bragged about me entering college to the flight attendants. They congratulated and…

When I left Europe and came back to Japan, I realized that my life would never be the same. Now I knew the world is so big and so many different people live in different ways. It seemed ridiculous to be obliged to live by an old custom or by what other people do which I didn’t want. I was told by my parents all my life to succeed the family and to live with them in their house by staying in my…

Nephritis confined me in the hospital during the summer break when I was in the fourth grade living in Kyoto, Japan. Although I didn’t feel so sick, the doctor ordered me to be inactive all the time. Inside a six-bed pediatric ward and a hallway between the nurse station and the hospital kitchen was the allowed portion for me to move around. When I needed to go beyond it, a nurse put me in a…

A lottery promotion is occasionally held at 7-Eleven stores in Japan. A customer draws a card from a box by every six dollars purchase. If a winning card is drawn, the customer can get merchandise that the card shows for free. The prize merchandise varies in what is sold at about one dollar, such as an ice cream, a snack, and a soft drink. In my experience, one in every three cards is a winning…

I have signed up for a few online survey websites and answer some questionnaire or other every day to earn small change. Other than money, there’s a byproduct in answering them. Each questionnaire has a set of answers to choose from that a survey writer thinks participants’ answers are supposed to be. I can see a trend and an opinion of a majority of Japanese people through the choices. To be…