The Story of How I Chose My University for a Small Reason

On the day I was heading to Tokyo for my university entrance exam, all flights were canceled.

It was due to heavy snow.

This was back in a time when we didn't even have mobile phones, let alone smartphones.

It seemed to be the first total cancellation since the airport opened, and the airport was in complete chaos.

My younger brother and I were trying to head to Tokyo from Hokkaido.

We were getting almost no information.

The only thing that seemed certain was that the planes wouldn't be flying.

Should we go back home, spend the night at the airport, or find another way to get to Tokyo?

My university entrance exam was the next day.

The option of going back home was immediately ruled out.

Even if we waited at the airport, there was no guarantee we would actually be able to get on a flight.

Then my brother said,

"Let's go by train."

We pushed our way through the crowd and headed to the station.

It seemed many people had the same idea, as there was a long line at the ticket counter.

While standing at the end of the line, I saw a JR timetable sitting on someone's luggage.

The timetable is my brother's favorite reading material.

My brother took it without asking and started flipping through the pages.

"If we take this train and transfer to that train, we can reach Tokyo in twenty hours."

Then, a man standing in front of us turned around and said in a panic,

Oh, I'm sorry. That's actually my personal property.

It wasn't provided by the station.

It turned out to be a timetable that a JR employee had been carrying around during their private trip.

That person said,

I think the non-reserved cars will be quite crowded. The aisle in front of the reserved seating car might be a little less crowded.

That's what they told us.

Following their advice, we secured a spot in front of the reserved seating car and were able to sit on the floor.

It was a huge difference from standing the whole time.

The train, packed with a massive number of people, felt just like a pioneer-era train.

Maybe it was like this when our great-grandparents were rocked on a pioneer train as they crossed over to Hokkaido about a hundred years ago.

Of course, it wasn't a steam locomotive, so our faces didn't get covered in soot in the tunnels.

We are surely much more fortunate.

Even so, I couldn't help but worry about whether we would really make it in time for the exam the next day.

Since we had managed to sit on the floor, I tried opening my English vocabulary book, but nothing would sink in.

We passed through the Seikan Tunnel and entered Honshu.

I finally got a seat along the way, but perhaps because of the tension, I could barely sleep.

We arrived at Ueno Station early in the morning without having slept a wink.

My younger brother headed straight to the exam venue, and I headed to our lodging carrying both of our bags.

I slept like the dead, and after recovering just a little, I took my exam the next day.

My brother, perhaps due to lack of sleep, couldn't keep his body temperature up and apparently took the exam while shivering uncontrollably.

After that, we rented a studio apartment from an acquaintance and spent about two weeks in Tokyo living the life of entrance exam candidates.

As for the results, my younger brother failed his first-choice school and slipped into his second-choice.

I passed my first-choice school.

Originally, we had planned to live in the same apartment in Tokyo and attend different universities.

However, after living in a cramped studio apartment for nearly two weeks, the atmosphere gradually turned sour.

I am an early riser, and my brother, who stays up late, would get angry at me, saying I was noisy in the morning.

My brother is a messy person, and I, being a neat freak, couldn't help but nag him.

And then, one day.

I said,

Pass me the soy sauce.

to him.

Then my brother, looking sullen, said,

No.

I felt annoyed too.

I thought to myself.

—This is impossible.

If I live with this person for four years, we will end up fighting over soy sauce every single day.

Even though I had ridden a train that felt like an immigrant train for twenty hours to get to Tokyo.

Even though I had passed my first-choice school.

Even so, I decided to go to a university in the Kansai region instead.

In life, relatively big things are often decided by something as simple as soy sauce.

#Essay #DailyEssay #EntranceExams #UniversityEnrollment #Funny #SueRecords

Click here for the story about my train-loving younger brother.

"The story that never began - A train-loving family"

Click here for the story about the difference in how my brother and I clean up.

"My brother, who uses the floor as storage, and me, who uses the closet"

Click here for the story about when I tried to stay at my brother's place and got turned down.

"Please let me stay, even if it's just in the hallway"

I will continue to write down these small fragments of daily life.
I would be happy if you could follow or leave a like to keep watching over my journey.😊