Dream Log Archive

Category: Residential

  • July 7, 2024

    (tokyo meetup / driver’s license / tv show over dinner)

    I live in Japan, somewhere somewhat rural but still close to Tokyo. Friend K is visiting Japan, and since I have some days off, I decide to meet her in Tokyo.

    We meet up and spend time together. It was recently my birthday, and I had posted online asking people to message me. Akira had messaged asking if I wanted to meet at “dept Machada.” I’m unsure if that means a tea shop in a department store or if it’s a typo for Machida in Tokyo, and I briefly wonder if he’s following my updates too closely.

    In the early afternoon, Friend K and I talk about what to do next. I mention something my host family has for me that I never picked up. Friend K feels responsible and offers to go get it. She has a train pass, so it won’t cost much.

    There’s a special express train leaving soon, so we go to the station and she takes it. I wait with her for about twenty minutes, then stay behind to catch a regular train into Tokyo. We plan to meet again later.

    As I’m on the train, I realize I didn’t think the timing through. We both left around 3:30 or 4:00pm, which doesn’t give her enough time to go to my host family and come back. I also realize I never told my host family she was coming, and she’s going to Sapporo, not Kushiro. I scroll through my LINE messages trying to find Okaa-san, but there are lots of recent messages from people I don’t know well, along with ads from businesses, especially home goods.

    I arrive at a building that looks very American, with an entrance like a dentist office. There’s a front parking lot reserved for certain people. A friend parks there, and when I ask why, she says it’s because her small truck doesn’t fit in the regular parking spaces.

    I think about getting my license. Instead of retaking a test, I go to reception and they reprint it for me based on past data. There’s another window that looks like it can print passports too. I answer a few simple questions, and they print my card, and now I can drive.

    There’s a car outside that I can take, though I realize I don’t actually have permission to park there. I take it out anyway and drive around the streets for a bit. Dad is also there at the building when I get my license.

    I’m at a very fancy house, possibly In-laws’. I talk with someone about a show I’ve been watching and put on the first episode while I make dinner—pasta and salad.

    The show is about a girl who is treated very badly by her family. Her brother and sister treat her like a dog, and the father is cold and doesn’t stop them. At some point, the father brings her for experiments. The siblings realize what they were doing isn’t just a game but actually harmful.

    The sister tries to stand up for her but has no power against the father. He forces the daughter to watch the experiments even when she refuses to help him call the girl over. He drags them both instead.

    The girl understands vaguely that the siblings are trying to help, but she’s powerless, and the way she’s been treated has become ingrained in her. She behaves like a dog even as she’s strapped to a table for experiments, while the sister is tied up nearby and forced to watch.

    The house itself is bright and grand, with a pool in the garden and grass and flowers everywhere.

  • July 17, 2021

    (house with medical past / naked embarrassment / ghost pursuit)

    Sister and Sister’s Husband move into a house. It’s fully furnished from the previous family, including a medical area where their daughter used to live. She had a condition where her hands could never fully dry out, so her bed is surrounded by shallow tubs of water with toys to keep sensation in her fingers. There’s also hospital equipment like IVs. She could only see friends occasionally, on good days.

    At one point, there’s a gathering. The adults sit at the dining table, and the “kids” sit at the kitchen bar. I sit between a fair-haired girl and a dark-haired girl. I start talking to the fair-haired girl as if I recognize her, but when she turns, I realize I don’t know her. The dark-haired girl talks to me like we already know each other, but I can’t remember meeting her. It’s awkward until she mentions an online friend I had, and I realize I’ve never met her in person before.

    Later, I’m inexplicably naked in the house. I need to get to my room for clothes, but Sisters Husband is walking around. I avoid him by heading into a bathroom off the living room and close the door just as he comes into view, though it catches slightly on the rug.

    Sister’s Friends B and I arrive by bus. I see Sister, Sister’s Husband, and Sister’s Dog going out to greet them, so I run through the house to get dressed properly.

    At some point, I become the dark-haired girl, who lives near the house.

    A friend drags me to a church. We were supposed to perform a sealing ritual for a ghost, but this is something different and urgent, like we’re being hunted. Instead of sealing it, she unseals the ghost by swiping a bronze token so its name becomes visible. A hole opens in the altar, and she throws me down into it before escaping through a passage to the right.

    A man named Ilya chases in after me.

    I try to hide, but the ghost has also been released into the basement, and I keep running into her. She wears white rags and is emaciated, her bones visible through grey skin. Her long black hair is tangled and oily, and her face looks partially mummified.

    I eventually find my way up and run toward the sea. Ilya and the ghost are both chasing me. I manage to fly briefly over the water, but then I fall into a rift.

    The rift leads to a spirit world—an endless sandy desert. Above me, the rift opens and closes repeatedly, showing the ocean just out of reach. I try to fly back up but can’t. I walk along the desert, searching for another exit, and eventually reach a shoreline. I try stacking stones to climb out, but they won’t stay stacked.

    Just as I’m about to give up, the ghost appears behind me, and Ilya pulls me back through the rift onto the shore. Even though he was chasing me before, he doesn’t want the ghost to be free.

    As we escape over rooftops back toward the church, he asks what happened. I realize then that my friend intentionally unsealed the ghost.

    I show him the items I have to reseal her: a bronze oval pendant, a pair of her earrings, and a small silver token—one for each of us. He urgently tells me to store them somewhere that locks, because that’s how she’s tracking me. I’ve just been carrying them in a small folding box that closes but doesn’t lock.

    I try to find something secure, but the ghost catches up again and we have to keep moving. We decide to return to the church so Ilya can help reseal her.

    I worry about my friend, but Ilya reassures me that the ghost is following me because I have all the tokens, not her.

  • February 20, 2020

    (friend’s house / awkward family moment / celebrity visit)

    I’m at College Friend J’s house, which has the same layout as my apartment but wider. We’re sitting on opposite sides of the couch watching Hannibal. College Friend J keeps trying to catch his cat.

    I want to move closer to him but don’t want to seem clingy. I slowly shift over until my head is resting near his legs. He looks at me strangely, then tells me to scoot over and lets me lean on his shoulder.

    His mom comes in and out of the room, and before she leaves, she tells him to do the dishes. After a while, I remind him, and we go to the kitchen. He washes while I help put the dishes away.

    Outside, near the front door where the car is parked, College Friend J’s dad, mom, sister, and a transitioning person are standing. His mom doesn’t seem to trust the transitioning person. We make inside jokes about her behavior based on the show Hannibal.

    Something bad happens, and his mom immediately looks at the transitioning person and insists she knows they don’t have top surgery done.

    I’m in a school classroom. A visiting musician comes in. He’s short, almost dwarfish. He plays a couple of strings on a guitar and tries to make jokes while talking about where he’s been and where he’s from, but his talk isn’t very put together. He says he’s from Scotland.

    The jokes don’t land well, and many students become disillusioned, though some still go up for autographs. One girl has lined paper folded into four sections, filled with celebrity signatures.

    There’s a flashback to Catherine Tate signing something. She says her signature doesn’t look as good as another celebrity’s, possibly Hugh Jackman’s.

    I go up to the girl with the signatures and ask what it’s like to meet celebrities. She says most of her experiences are short and she doesn’t get much time to talk. I say it’s been the same for me in Japan.

    There’s some kind of raffle, and people receive a lot of perishable goods and share them around. One item is a kind of gel mochi with something inside.