 |
It's the first day of the New Year. I, a foreigner, who has never been outside of the United States find myself on a plane during the last day of the old year, and I land in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan on the day of New Years. The airport is packed, and even though I'm not the only foreigner there, I still received dirty looks from some obviously xenophobic people. I kick the ground shamefully, seeing as I'm so awkwardly out of place, and went to where I was told to meet my aunt.
She's already there waiting for me. She's not too old, maybe in her early thirties, with light brown hair and obviously white features. I find it odd that people are not giving her the same cross looks as they are giving me, but I don't waste time to argue the facts. Her arm waves in the air slightly, and she calls my name to beckon me over. I gather my luggage and go to her.
Her name is Sarah, and she doesn't like being called Aunt Sarah yet, so I address her by her first name. She gives me a content smile and pats my head. She first talks about how much I've grown since the last time I've seen her, I make an off color response at her breast size of the same variety. Sarah, a not so dignified woman, laughs in response and pets my head again.
"You're going to like it there," She says with playfulness in her voice. I'm slightly surprised by that having always thought she lived in Sapporo. Sarah tells me after a moment that she actually lives in a much smaller town, where there's less hustle and bustle. "It's only a twenty minute commute to the journalist’s office."
Sarah is a journalist. She moved to Japan for a change of pace, American news being too ordinary or too commonplace for a person like her. I suppose I’m no different, seeing as I’m here now simply because I didn’t want to stay in an American high school by myself while my parents move away to some new city in the US. I said I didn’t want average, and they responded by sending me to a country whose language I only scarcely understand. Sometimes, I find myself hating my parents, and then loving them for the new experience.
“You’ll be entering for their final semester,” Sarah says to me after awhile, as we walked towards her embarrassingly compact car, “So, if you’re lucky, you’ll make some friends before a new school year starts.”
I nod in response, being polite since this is my aunt, then I give her a frustrated glance once I realize just how embarrassingly compact this vehicle is. Unsure on how to place anything…well, anywhere, on or even in the car, I respond to her with another aggravated look sparing politeness for a time when I didn’t have to worry about this. She waves her hand indignantly, taking my baggage and tossing half of it in the truck and tying the other half onto the roof. I grasped onto valuables in my carry-on bag for dear life as her careless hands reached for them as well.
“Hmph! This girl can take more than you think!” She says to me, climbing into what I immediately think it is the passenger seat. I stop, after seeing her grasp the wheel and give me a cheery smile, and I grudgingly find my way to the other side of the car and get in. After getting situated, began the drive home, and eventually found a station that was not offensive to the ears, I finally got to relax from jet lag. After all, time zones were wonky in Japan. The only right ones were, of course, in the United States. I find myself drifting to sleep with the sound of foreign scratch filling my ears…