Perth is a memorable place where I studied English at Edith Cowan University from Feb 2005 to Jun 2006. As it's been already 3 and a half years, many things had changed and on this day I decided to search for my memories by going to Claremont where my old campus was located and Fremantle where we can see the sunset over the ocean from a lighthouse.

Claremont

The streets in Claremont evoked a vision of those days as if they had been only a couple of days ago. A park I used for a short cut to the school, a café where I studied ardently after school, a bus stop where I waited for a girl, though there were some new buildings, all the most precious places hadn’t changed at all. I couldn't stop reminiscing about the past although I'd been focusing only on the future ever since I left this town 3 years ago.

Following the same road I used to use on those days, I arrived at the (ex) ECU Claremont Campus. Although the ownership had been transferred to another university due to ECU’s financial issues, the buildings has been preserved intact as it’s a very important national asset of Australia. It used to be very lively as around 200 students including me studied there. Maybe because of the holiday, the campus was filled with silence and during my exploration there I could easily visualise the faces of the friends who were eating lunch on the grass, playing soccer after school and on and on.

Fremantle

Fremantle is my favourite place around Perth. I would never get bored with the sunset over the Indian Ocean observed from the lighthouse on the outskirts of the town. As far as my eyes could see, there are only the ocean and the sky. The big red sun setting over them was absolutely magnificent and somehow a little sentimental. Gazing at the clear gradient between navy blue and deep orange with no clouds, I in fact felt like crying.

Come to think of the past, I'd never suffered the emotion of nostalgia like this time. It was too vivid to avoid confronting although I'd been trying not to immerse myself in unobtainable bygone days. In retrospect, the days in Perth could be my late youthful days. Studying hard, playing with friends, dealing with a love triangle, they were indeed very new for me who had been engaged with the web industry since his high school days and not known an ordinary student life. Although not everything was pleasant, I can embrace all of them as precious memories for now.

Nevertheless, I have no desire to return to those days as this journey has just begun and I have many plans after my return to Japan. Keeping these beautiful memories in my heart, I'll travel to the future again.

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