Anna Matsushita

  Even now, when I look back on it, it was a most peculiar encounter. It happened nearly 40 years ago.   To call it an "encounter" may be overstating it, as I merely caught fleeting glimpses of the man in two different places. Yet, to this day, it remains a mystery that lingers in my mind.   In the early 1990s, I travelled to the United Kingdom for a year-long university exchange programme. A friend who had helped me arrange my plane tickets and Eurail pass accompanied me on the journey.   We flew with Aeroflot Airlines. After an overnight stay in Moscow, we set off for Heathrow Airport. Upon arriving at Heathrow, we boarded the Piccadilly Line underground train and headed towards our destination—a youth hostel nestled within Holland Park, right in the heart of the city.   It was late summer, and the park itself was alive with the sounds of music festivals. Simply staying there, one could enjoy operatic performances and concerts wafting through t...

This is a fiction based on my personal experience at a university in Tokyo, back in early 1990's   ------------------------------------------------------   I first noticed her in October 1987, during the admissions interview at Zophia University in Tokyo.   The English department, my dream destination, had a rigorous selection process—both a written test and an interview. Having cleared the written test, I received the much-anticipated interview invitation.   I’d spent five years in the northwest of England during my secondary school years. This background gave me an advantage, but my motivations ran deeper than just fluency. I wanted to study linguistics, to truly understand the English language from every angle. My aspirations spanned teaching, translation, or even interpreting. I had a lot riding on this.   The interview was to last just ten minutes—a brief window to define my future. How it would go, I couldn’t predict, but I’d prepared myself as best I coul...