As I write this, I’m actually sitting in my grandmother’s living room fighting the stifling Japanese summer heat with a dingy fan. It’s nice being back. My first year in university and in the United States was fantastic, but once in a while something would remind me of home and hit me with deep nostalgia. I wrote and drew where the mountain gods live because I was homesick. The main plot served more as a vehicle for me to reminisce about my summers in Japan rather than to comment on my spirituality. While a spiritual story did come out of it, the graphic memoir was an unplanned product from my walk down memory lane.
AURORE ZHANG is a sophomore at Boston University’s Sargent College, studying Human Physiology. She was born in Sapporo, Japan, and grew up in both Hong Kong and Tokyo. She would like to thank Professor Jessica Kent for her encouragement and redirection when Aurore didn’t know how to move forward. She would also like to thank anyone who listened to her dramatically wistful monologues about Hong Kong or Japan.