A Festival for Me

By; Yuichi

(1^st Prize Writing Contest-May 2009)

Every time I go to festivals in Japan, I remember a little gold fish and my girlfriend. When I was a university student, I lived in Kyoto, which is one of the ancient cities in Japan. Many traditional cultures still remain there and every year a big festival is held. Its name is “Gion Festival”.

I went to the festival with my girlfriend when we were senior students. There were lot of shops on the road during the festival and we dropped by a fish-catching shop where we could use instruments to catch fish. While I failed to catch it, my girlfriend succeeded in catching it. It was a colourful and little goldfish. On our way home, she gave me the fish as a thing which reminded us this day. I took care of it like a son.

After a few months later, she had to quit university because her father died suddenly and she had to go back to her province.I was so sad with our separation but decided to bring our son up by myself. My son became bigger and bigger every year. Other sad events occurred. When I graduated from my university and started working, I had to go to Tokyo, which is far from Kyoto. I gave up bringing my son to Tokyo and so released him in the pond of my university.

Several years have passed since then. Every time I go to the festivals in Tokyo, they remind me of the little goldfish and my girlfriend. She already got married with the other man and spends a happy time with her new family. When it comes to my son (‘not our”), he is swimming freely in the pond.

Everybody is happy now, except me.