In Japan, we recognize a year by the name of Era. The name of Era is based on the reign of the emperors. We use the Era year in a variety of paper works in our daily life, so that we keep being alert what year of what Era.
Traditionally the name of Era had been changed when we get a new emperor. The current era is called “Heisei. This new era started on January 8, 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito.
The current emperor, Emperor Akihito, decided to abdicate the Chrysanthemum Throne before he passes away. Thus, Heisei Era is coming to an end on April 30th 2019.
Many news articles and celebrities review these 30 years of Heisei period. I should review my Heisei period before it ends.
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As for my 30 years of Heisei Era, it was my early adult years.
When Heisei era started, I was 19 years old. I was a university student majoring in English linguistics. Although I didn’t study hard, I always got high grades. Studying English was not difficult for me. Instead of studying, my days were occupied with dating with my boyfriend, attending parties, and working a variety of part time jobs. I never worried about money because I was living under my parent’s roof, physically and mentally.
At the age of 21, my parents bought a new house and moved to the new house. I thought it was time for me to be independent from my parents, so I started living alone.
At the age of 22, one of my professors encouraged me to proceed to the graduate school. With their kind offer of a scholarship for the tuition, I pursued my further degree. I earned a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in English linguistics.
After graduated, at the age of 24, I started working at my dad’s company. I was planning to take over his position, to become a president of the company. I literary learned “Saying is one thing and doing another” by my direct experiences. It was tough. I had never experienced such heavy stress before. It was my first challenge in my life. I learned a lot from my mistakes while working there.
On January 17 1995, at my age of 24, I was at the middle of big earthquake, known as the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. I was renting one of the rooms of the 2-storied apartment. The building collapsed at both ends. Due to the evacuation order, all the tenants were required to move out to a safe area. I moved to the next city. Since my new residence was away from my parents’ house and I felt uneasy, I moved back to my parents’ house. Soon I found myself living uncomfortably living with my parents. I needed a drastic change. I decided to marry to a man whom I had dated only for three months. We had a huge wedding ceremony on December 9th 1995.
We got married without knowing ourselves. We started disagreeing for everything. Soon we realized our marriage was a huge mistake. After lived for one year, I moved out to a new place alone on December 1996.
At that time in Japan, a divorce was one of taboos. Both my parents and his parents were against of our divorce. They felt embarrassed for our divorce. My husband and I pretended we were still happily married even though we lived separately. After eight months living separately, our parents finally approved for our divorce. It was summer of 1997.
Up until then since I was born, I had moved my residence six times. I was still working at my dad’s company with a high position. I could afford to buy my own house.
On December 1997, at my age of 27, I purchased my own condominium with a 15-year home loan. At this moment, I didn’t want to get married anymore. I thought of living by myself for the rest of my life.
Continued to part two—
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