Dream Log Archive

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  • April 13, 2020

    (cafe search / imagined intimacy / hotel meetup)

    I’m living in Tokyo, or somewhere like it, and heading into the city to meet friends to play a game at a tea shop. Last time, we had to search around because the first few places wouldn’t let us stay for a long time.

    I consider going back to the first place, but it wasn’t ideal, so I keep looking. I pass a high-end grocery store and go inside. They have a lot of ice cream cookie sandwiches, but I realize I can’t buy them if I’m going to leave them sitting in a café for hours. I check the store hours—it closes at 23:30—so I think I could come back later before heading home.

    I check another café, but they don’t allow eating inside. I start thinking the first place might be the best option after all.

    Then I pass another place—bright and sunny, with a bar along one wall and full window panes at the back with tables. It looks promising, so I decide to ask if they’ll let us stay and play games there.

    Later, I’m in a hotel for some kind of conference or convention. I’m in bed, about to sleep, when I imagine a scene that feels very real, like it’s happening right next to me. There are two people, one slimmer and one larger, with the larger one having a metal left arm.

    I shift perspective and become the slimmer person. There’s a sense of teasing and anticipation, and I follow along, unsure but responsive, waiting for direction and reacting to what the other person does.

    Then I get distracted by something outside the window. The window opens into the middle of the hotel, where there’s a large internal walkway system and you can see the banisters of all the floors.

    I think I see HS Friend M on a lower floor, just below my balcony. I go to check and confirm it’s her. She’s with other HS friends (group of four), gathering in a room below.

    I call down with cupped hands to ask the room number—5360, on the fifth floor. I rush to grab my things—my phone (which I think isn’t charged, but it is), my glasses, my room key, and slippers, though I can only find one.

    I feel like I have something important the next day, but I can’t resist going to see them, even if it means staying up all night.

  • March 24, 2020

    (geisha training / missed goodbye / transformed return)

    I’m in a Japanese dining establishment involving geisha, where I’m in training alongside another girl who is sullen.

    I have a friend or mentor there who is kind to me. At one point, she serves a guest who is thought to be Jun Matsumoto from Arashi. After he leaves and is given an upscale gift package, it’s revealed that he was actually just a look-alike.

    The tables are fairly full, but I don’t have any customers yet.

    Suddenly, my mentor’s going-away celebration begins. I didn’t realize she was leaving. I try to join in to say goodbye, but I can’t get close to her through the crowd.

    Later, she returns—but now as a man, and apparently very wealthy. He begins buying various geisha from the establishment.

    I stand in the back, hoping he remembers me.

  • 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.

  • February 27, 2019

    (California set / new job confusion / swamp creatures)

    I’m in a place that feels like California, half indoors and half outdoors. There’s a hill with sand, a road, palm trees, and people in bathing suits, like a movie set. The ocean is nearby, and at the bottom of the hill there’s a hospital.

    I’m staying in a bungalow that looks like a tea house with SHINee. I go upstairs to a kitchen area where there are presents—lots of individually boxed oranges. I divide them into equal portions for everyone and note that we’ll have to eat them quickly.

    We all go out through a door on the kitchen level into a white hallway. Two members split off into a door on the left. I go out a different door, while the others go down either side of a T-split at the end of the hall.

    I start a new job. My boss is a middle-aged woman with shoulder-length brown hair. I don’t get instructions on how to do the job, so I go in but can’t really get started.

    Over the weekend, I have a fainting episode. I go to the hospital and move through multiple floors and crowded waiting rooms before eventually leaving again with no diagnosis.

    On the way back to work, I change into my work clothes—a swimsuit and a dress. I stop to talk with Sister’s Husband, who is a senior at the same job. He helps me register the hospital visit as a half-day sick day. I talk with another coworker, and then my boss comes up and asks about my absence. I explain the health issue and say I’ll work the afternoon, even though I still don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing.

    I go back up the hill and into the same hallway as before, entering a door near the end. Inside is a marshy area. Two members of SHINee have become swamp creatures—a turtle and a crocodile, which is possibly Taemin.

    The turtle struggles to catch food and gets teased by the other. He explains that tortoises are actually the fast ones in water. I feed the crocodile some reeds from the edge, and the turtle says he’ll also need to eat some for fiber along with his usual food.

    After feeding them and checking on them, I get ready to leave. I ask if they want anything special next time. They say they want oranges. I think this is simple, since I already have the individually boxed oranges from earlier that they know about.