Chapter 4: Yo Brother!!!!

Back in the Umeda household after the encounter with Miyuki, I was helping Okasan to prepare dinner for the whole family. My mind kept thinking about the meeting with Miyuki, how special it was. It felt like something that came out of a movie. I could not help but smile when I think about the incident.

"Lee-Kun? Did you think about something happy?" ask my Okasan suddenly.

I was startled by my Okasan's question and almost cut my finger while chopping the radish. I guess I never knew how deep in thought I was.

"Uhm, I was thinking about what happened today at the station, I met a new friend." I answered. I had to speak slowly so that she could listen to what I had said.

"Oh? Really? Who was it? Girl or Boy?" her eyes glimmered with curiosity when she asked the question.

"It was a girl, her name was Miyuki." I blushed a abit when I told her it was a girl, somehow it was a natural reaction for guys and since she was my foster mother, it added to the awkwardness.

"Wow, Sugoine!!!!(Thats great!!!!), you found a girlfriend in just 2 days in Japan? Thats very fast!!!" She said and smiled so widely. It was the kind of smile you get, when your mother finds out you have a girlfriend and is overly curious to find out who it was. This only added to my further blushing and I replied her,

"No Okasan, I did not find a girlfriend. It was just a stranger I met while I was waiting for the train to arrive, nothing much."

"Ah, most things start from zero, that was how it was when I met your Otosan, we were never high school sweethearts, we also met quite surprisingly....... it was about 30 years ago......"

Just as she was about to tell me her story of how she met Otosan, there was a knock on the door. I was surprised as Okasan did not tell me that we were expecting visitors tonight. Suddenly, I saw a really big smile on Okasan's face as she hurried to the door to open it. Just a note for you all, everybody who comes to visit usually enters via the backdoor, weird huh? Ok back to our mysterious visitor. Okasan opened the door and started to hug the person. It was a young man. He was pulling behind him a big luggage and was clothed in winter clothes with a scarf around his neck. Okasan smiled so widely as she held him in his arms. The young man kissed Okasan on the cheek and hugged back. After all that, the young man turned to me and offered his hand to me. I was quite alarmed because I expected him to find my presence here surprising. He shook my hand and started to speak in Japanese, "Orewa, Noriaki desu". It took me a while to get what he was talking about, he was introducing himself to me and I replied," Watashiwa, Aaron desu." He then proceeded to speak japanese all the way which of course, I could not understand fully. My Okasan patted him on the back and asked him to speak english as she knew my japanese was not good. He just smiled and then spoke in very simple english,"Hello, I am Okasan's son, Noriaki Umeda, very nice to meet you."

This was 1 of the sons Otosan talked about the other day, he was youngest son, just an age older than me. As the night progressed on, we had dinner together and chatted about Noriaki senpai's life in Tokyo studying. He told me that living in Tokyo was very expensive and that he always chose to buy food that was cheap but has a big helping. I could see that was true as he gobbled down 3 big bowls of rice while I only had 1. He was quite the chatterbox and filled Otosan and Okasan in on his life in Tokyo. As he struggled to converse in English so that I would not feel left out, I knew it was time for me to leave the table and let the family have a little bit of alone time together so I excused myself with the excuse of going back in my room to talk with my parents. And as a matter of fact, I did. 

I picked my cellphone and made a phone call back to Malaysia, it was freaking expensive but my father said it was ok for me to make a call cause he said he'd miss me too. The phone rang a few times before finally my father picked up the phone. It was a relief listening to his voice again. Then I heard my mom shouting out my name in the background. 

"Son!!! You finally called, how's life there?" asked Dad.

"I'm doing fine dad, How about you? Everything fine at home?" I replied.

"Ya, sister was quite naughty today though, she had a fit when she could not find you in the house today."

As he said those words, I realised how much I missed my little sister. She is 2 this year and very cute, the jewel of the family. Sometimes the whole fmaily fusses over her too much until my auntie who stays with us and takes care of her scolds us for being "too caring", haha.  Suddenly, mom's voice boomed over the phone.

"Hey darling!!! How are you over there? Packed enough clothes? Happy there? How are your foster parents?" mom asked.

"Everything's fine mom, don't worry, their very nice to me and they take care of me very well." I calmly replied. 

My mom always fusses over me as I was her only son for 17 years until my sister came along. I love my sister very much don't get the wrong idea, haha. We went on to talk about a lot of things, about my life in Japan and what happened at home while I was gone. Nothing much happened, besides the fact that my sister threw a fit while I was gone. We stopped the conversation after 15 minutes and I promised to call more often as I bade goodbye to my parents.

Just as I got off the phone with my parents, there was a knock on the door and I heard Noriaki senpai's sound behind the door, "May I come in Yin Tung-kun?" he asked.

"Yes, no problem." I replied.

He then pushed open the door and walked into my room.

"Weren't you chatting with Otosan and Okasan?" I asked Senpai (elder brother).

"They wanted to watch drama on TV, so I thought I come and talk with you, lots of things I want to ask you." Senpai replied me.

"Go ahead Senpai." 

"Don't call me senpai, just call me Noriaki will do, haha, I don't want to feel so old." he told me.

I chuckled and just nodded. We chatted for quite a while after that, he asked me a lot of questions about Malaysia and I tried to answer the best I can. he asked questions like our customs, our languages and our religions. Seems like he is studying chinese in school too and I spoke some simple chinese just to let him know I knew chinese too, he was totally stunned. He said he could not really utter a word of chinese. After that, I dare not speak chinese again, it felt like showing off to him, so I kept quiet. He was extra thrilled when he knew I knew how to speak chinese. Then I thought of something, I went to my bag to retrieve my Ipod and passed the earphones to Noriaki and asked him to put them on. He was puzzled and just did as I said. I then started playing chinese songs and he was so happy to listen to nice chinese songs and asked to borrow my Ipod so that he transfer my songs into his laptop. 

"This is great!!! I must let Miyuki listen to them!!!" Noriaki suddenly said.

I was stunned to hear the name Miyuki again, the Miyuki at the station? I asked Noriaki,"You have a friend named Miyuki?"

"Yes, she lives in the next town, Mukainada, she is much younger than us, why? Do you know her?" Noriaki asked me.

"No no, I just thought Miyuki was a nice name, thats all." I answered him.

After a few more minutes, he left the room to go transfer the songs into his laptop and left me alone in my room to wonder, "Am I to meet Miyuki again in the future?"

Update on the story.

The main character's name has been changed so to confirm that the story is for the most part of it fictional:

Wesley Lim Yin Tung = Aaron Lee

And Christine's characteristics has been changed if you haven't noticed. She used to have long jet black hair but now she has short jet black hair as to distinguish between Miyuki and her.

The names may change for now but will be straightened out when chapter 4 comes out.

Thanks for the constant support.

Chapter 3: A Chance Meeting

"So how do you feel about Japan so far Lee-kun?" my Okasan asked as we were sitting in the streetcar. It was the next day and I went through the 1st day as boring as you could have imagined, nothing to do and sleep all day with a little introduction about Penang that I had to do at night when we had dinner. Though it was a bit fun but still, come on, I'm only a teenager, usually talks like these don't entertain me.

We are actually boarding a streetcar in Hiroshima City that was only a 10 minute train ride away from Kai Tai (the suburbs of Hiroshima, where I lived). The sight of Hiroshima City was definitely different from where I lived. Tall majestic buildings lined the streets and the city was bustling with activity. Vehicles occupying the wide roads with bicycles also joining in. From the large wide roads, there were branches of other roads leading deeper into the city that were filled with even more activity. Shops of all kinds can also be seen lining the streets: Pinball centers, mini marts, mini cinemas can also been seen showing all the newest movies from Japan, I really wanted to watch those movies, but, I don't really know Japanese that well, the frustrations of being in a foreign country. The malls were also never ending, at every corner you could see 1 standing there and filled with customers. I lived in Penang where tall buildings were scarce, so it was quite a sight for me.

We were actually on the way to the Peace Museum in Hiroshima City. It was built to remember the victims of the bombing of Hiroshima City back in 1945, when the US dropped the Atom Bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" and blasted 140,ooo Hiroshima citizens to death instantly. Thinking about it makes me shiver inside.

We reached the station near the museum and had to walk a distance to reach it. Along the way, we pass a garden where the bomb was landed, of course, the whole place was reconstructed and you could see landmark after landmark with each of it having its own history about the bombing. The 1 that really caught my eye was the A-bomb dome.

The A-Bomb Dome.....

It was one of the remaining buildings that survived the bombing and now its a World Heritage site. After taking a few pictures with it, Okasan and I decided to proceed to the museum. Ok, the details here are damn boring. The museum is what museums are supposed to be like, detail after detail after detail about the bombing. Even my Okasan got bored listening to all the explanations. They gave us a device that had every explanation about the exhibitions encrypted into it and to fully understand everything, you have to listen to everything it had to say, which of course, I skipped alot of them.

There were even things left over by the victims who died that were shown in the museum, including a lunchbox that a boy held when the bombing occured, the mother recognised her son's body because of that lunchbox, he held it tightly to his chest as burned to death, sad.....

Most of the other things were clothing and other metal items. There was even a watch showing the exact time of the explosion, 9.15am.

After 2 hours of walking through the museum, finally, we got out of it and went for lunch. It was quite a quick lunch as my Okasan needed to go back home to work and she left me alone to roam the city, she gave me a few extra yen, wished me well and left me alone to roam the big city of Hiroshima.

The feeling was exhilirating as it was my 1st time in a foreign country and roaming the city on my own. The feeling of looking for an adventure, trying new things and facing new experiences, it was all too appealing!!!! I walked and walked and went in to a lot of shopping malls visiting every floor. The japanese really like clothing because they have 7 floors dedicated to ONLY selling clothes, yes, I'm not kidding, 7 FLOORS!!!! The top floors were mainly restaurants and the waiters are so courteous when I walked pass, they kind of make you feel embarassed sometimes.

After walking through some malls, I decided to have a walk through the streets of Hiroshima. Even took a few pictures of the place:

Hiroshima Castle, 1 of the places I visited.


1 of the shopping plazas around Hiroshima

Entrance to The Castle just now.

From the castle to the shopping plaza, it took me 3 hours+ to walk around as both places were quite a distance apart. By the time I finished touring both places, it was nearing 5 o'clock and it was time for me to go back to my home in Japan. I took the streetcars back to the Hiroshima city station and waited for the train to arrive. My Okasan bought for me a station card which has a credit of about RM500 in it, have to thank her before I leave, hehez....

I was waiting by the tracks on the waiting booth as I was about 15 minutes early. I sat there and it was quite evident I was a foreigner, with the bags, thick clothing and snow cap over my head. I even wore gloves to protect my hands from the cold. The students there only wore their normal uniforms which were short skirts or thin pants as though the cold was nothing to them. There were the occasional sweaters and scarves but not all of them needed it.

As I sat there, I took out my Ipod and listened to some tunes before the train arrived. The train was loud so I could not miss it. Suddenly, a girl maybe younger than me by 2 years came walking towards me. I did not notice at that time as my ears were stuffed with my head phones. As she walked close I started to notice her and immediately switched off my Ipod.

She did not say a word. All she did was gaze at my hands as though she had seen something very interesting. I looked down at the hand she was looking at and realised that she was actually looking at my watch. I guessed that she must have been wanting to know the time so I stretched out my arm for her to have a closer look. She stumbled back and was quite surprised that I offered my watch to her, she must do this a lot and get shooed alot. After a few seconds she walked back and took a look at the time. After that she nodded her head in gratitude and walked off. I was amused, and felt quite interested about the girl. At that moment, the train arrived and both of us scurried up the train. There was a lot of people as people started to go home from work and the train was packed. I could not find any seats but the girl could and she sat down. She attempted to offer me the seat beside her but an old lady immediately sat down beside her and she hushed away. Standing there holding on to the railing above, I took a glimpse at the girl. She was quite pretty with big eyes and fair skin, her hair was long and she let it down on the right side of her face. She was clad in a student's uniform and she held a bag next to her. When she saw that I was watching her, she blushed and looked to the window. I blushed too as it was quite embarassing to gaze at people. We did not speak a word to each other until the next stop. The old lady who sat beside her got up and left the train. She offered the seat to me again and I immediately sat down before anyone could. We smiled at each other and I introduced myself: "Watashiwa Mareshajin desu(I'm a Malaysian), namaewa Aaron Lee(My name is Aaron Lee)" She then nodded and smiled. I expected her to introduce herself too, but she did not say anything after that so I offered her my card from the exchange student programme. She took it and kept it in a small bag and looked happy to make a new friend. I did most of the talking, half in English and half in Japanese and she just went on nodding her head, surprisingly, I did not feel bored for that 10 minutes we talk, I just went on and on. I don't even know whether she understood what I was talking about, because she just kept nodding her head.

Anyway, after 10 minutes, the train stopped at Mukainada and it was her stop, she just smiled at me and bade farewell in a very soft and gentle voice, the 1st time I heard her speak. I sat there as she left the seat and the train and was happy that I made a new friend. As I saw her walk up the stairs of the station, I don't know what came over me as I sped out to the train exit and shouted in English: " WHAT'S YOUR NAME!!!!!????". She spun a round as the train doors were about to close and smiled at me. She then replied: "My name is Miyuki!!!!"

The doors closed as she said those words and I waved goodbye to her, she waved back and as the train moved, the sight of her faded away..... I went back to my seat, noticing that everybody was looking at me after what I just did, I blushed a bit and sat back in my seat.

Little do I know that Miyuki was 1 of the most important people I would ever meet in my life........


End Of Chapter 3

Chapter 2: The First Meeting

I felt someone shook me as I awoke from my slumber, it was Mr Sato shaking me on my shoulder, it seems we have arrived at our destination. I turned to wake up Christine. But..... she was gone!!!!! I asked Mr Sato where she had went and he said that she had got down from the Shinkansen at an earlier station because there was where her foster parents were. We were living in different parts of Hiroshima.

"ARGH!!!!!" I groaned in my thoughts, I did not even get her number and now I won't be seeing her for the next 3 weeks, just as things were beginning to get good. Sighing, I quickly retrieved my luggage and hurried to get down from the Shinkansen with Mr Sato behind me. As soon as I was in open air, I saw a sight which slightly embarassed me. I saw a man holding a poster with "Welcome To Hiroshima, Mr Aaron Lee" printed on it. I was like, so wowed, I'm just a student, no need for that. I walked over and thanked the man.

"Aringato Gozaimasu!!!" I said to him.

"You know Japanese!!!" the man gasped and proceeded to laugh with joy. I joined him laughing. The man was as tall as me, but it was evident that he had some kind of skin allergy as his skin was pink and he was scratching all over. he had really small eyes and a very kind expression on his face.

There were 3 men there to greet me at the station, Mr Umeda(my Otosan, the guy I laughed with), Mr Hatakeyama(smelled like cigarettes) and Mr Higashi(a really old man with a full head of white hair, all of them wore suits to greet me. I bade farewell to Mr Sato and the other 3 men escorted me to the parking lot and we chatted a bit along the way. I got to know that they were all Lion's Club members and also very eager to know the way of life in Malaysia. I told them I will of course be willing to explain to them in the future our way of life.

They tried very hard to converse in English and I also tried to keep my sentences simple so that they would understand, my Otosan was the only 1 who could converse well. We got to the car and Mr Hatakeyama passed me a map of Hiroshima and bade me farewell, but hinted that we will meet again in the near future. I also bade him farewell.

Now, I am alone with my Otosan(meaning father, since he is my foster father) and we were shy at 1st, but it was quite pleasant in the end as we managed to conjure up a few conversations. He was quite a quiet man, and I got to know that he was in the "Sake(Japanese wine)" business, he said his factory was just behind his house and he worked with his wife(my Okasan, as in foster mother). I also got to know that he and his wife had 3 sons, one is 23, one is 21 and another just older than me by 1 year. As the conversation ended, the scenery around me caught my eye.

It was the suburbs and you could see small shops and pinball shops all around. Most of the shops were general stores and with a lot of colourful store signs. The roads are bustling with activity, people walking up and down the streets, some riding in cars and on bicycles, rarely were there motorcycles on the roads. Roads were confusing as the are like all tied in some kind of knot, you need to be someone who is accustomed to Japanese roadways to be able to maneuver around them. Overhead bridges were every where just to ease the traffic jam of the town. You could see people in suits taking bicycles instead of driving cars which was quite a sight because in Malaysia, it would be really funny if this was seen, haha. People around were wearing thick clothing due to the cold weather and I even saw and electric notice board by the roadside telling you how cold it was outside, it wrote 7 degrees, quite cold.

Anyway, enough of the long winded introduction of the suburbs, we reached the house after an hour's driving. FINALLY!!!

Otosan parked his car in his garage just behind his house and I saw that he had 3 cars, 1 of them was a Mazda RX-8, which i was like thinking, COOL!!!!! I asked him if he droved it frequently, and he said no. I just sighed........ Man, if I had this car, I would drive it everyday and he just leaves to dust up.

After we got my luggage out of my boot, we walked past a house which seems to be his but did not enter. We walked to another house, and entered via the backdoor, weird eh? My Okasan greeted us with a sweet smile as she opened the door.

"Lee-Kun!!!!!!" she said when she saw me," welcome to our home!!!"

She was quite a fair lady, kind looking with a mole on her nose. She had a motherly smile and also very polite in using her words. She was slightly shorter than me and had short hair like a boy's haircut. She wore an apron when she greeted me, so I guessed she was preparing dinner.

I smiled at her and greeted her too. Walking into the house, you could feel the cold air around it. The dining was connected with the living room. It was a small house but looked quite comfy. We introduced ourselves and chatted a little before Okasan asked me something.

"Would you like see your room 1st?" she asked.

"Yes, I would like that very much." I replied. After dragging my luggage along for 4 hours, I would really much like to put it down, haha.

She showed me to my room and I found out I was sleeping in their prayer room, lol..... it was quite small and there was not much light except for the small light coming from a small light bulb above on the ceiling. My Okasan introduce me to a few things in the room, like the hotbed(to keep me warm at night), the "hot cond", the switches and then left the room for me to unpack my luggage.

I unpacked my luggage slowly and started to have the feeling of being homesick, it hit me so hard all of a sudden, due to the tranquility of the place and dimness of the house. I missed my parents, my bed and surprisingly...... my very loud auntie..... I couldn't help feeling that I wanted to go home, its so so different. I guess that is what people feel when they are outstation for the 1st time on their own. I changed into my home clothes and pulled out my notebook from my bag pack and started to check for Wi-Fi connection. I was desperate for contact with my family and friends at home!!!!!!

I switched on my notebook, waited for it to start up and searched for a connection.

"WHAT THE HELL!!!!!" I shouted as the notice wrote, "no network connections found", I was so disappointed. Sulking, I shut down my notebook and walked out to the dining for lunch as instructed earlier by my Okasan which prepared hot beef noodles for me.

The lunch was very quiet though the meal was scrumptious, we had nothing much to talk about at 1st as we were new to each other, I just keep smiling to my foster parents as I had no other reaction towards them for the time being.

Finishing up, my Okasan announced to me that, there will be no activities for the rest of the day and I was free to rest. I was like, ARGH!!!!!! What a boring day!!!! At least let me do something fun!!!! I'm damn homesick now!!!!! I grudgingly gave a smile and asked to be excused into my room. I did not want to show them my discontented face.

Back in my room, I took out a doll from my bag that I brought from Malaysia. It was an anime doll which I bought for someone that I did not get a chance to give to, it made me even more depressed. I switched on my notebook, trying to look for a connection again, but to no avail, I stared blankly into the screen, thinking.... was this such a good idea????

End of Chapter 2.....

Chapter 1:The 1st Moments in Japan.....

I awoke as the flight captain announced the arrival in Japan. Rubbing my eyes gently as I woke, I gazed out the window to see the amazing view that is Kansai airport. It was an airport built on a man made island. I felt excitement coursing through my veins as I had never seen a structure like this before in Malaysia, it was definitely unique. Months of waiting have finally paid off, I have finally reached Japan, the place I have always wished to visit since I was young.

The plane landed and we started to get our luggage out, the boy sitting next to me, Darren, was still snoring away as we were ready to exit the plane.

"Darren, wake up!!!! We need to exit now!!!" I said as I shook him.

"Oh dear!!!! I slept through the landing? My god!!! I slept like a log!!!" Darren gasped and quickly reached for the luggage above his seat. He was the leader of the group of Lion's Club Youth Exchange students, including me. Though he looked playful and irresponsible, he was quite capable of handling us, suprisingly. All of us disembarked and quickly rushed through the checks necessary as our foster parents were waiting for us outside in the airport compound. The group consists of 10 people, 4 guys, 6 girls.

I don't really know the other students, I was like a cow introduced to a new herd, completely stunned. I tried to talk to a few of them, though there was conversation, but they were bland and flat, could not really click with them, this made me feel even more alone than I already was, but what to do, I had to adapt, I got 3 more weeks to go.

As we finally finished all the grueling checks needed, finally we step out into the waiting area, waiting for our foster parents to pick us up. Most of the students had their parents waiting outside including Darren, our group leader

"Ok everybody!!! I'm leaving now, keep in contact if anything happens!!!! Bye!!!!" He shouted across as he was leaving the group with his foster parents.

One by one, I saw the students that followed me here go home with their foster parents. Leaving me and another girl who I did not seem to notice when we came here. She was petite, fair and shy. She had short hair where it reaches the collar of her blazer, jet black in colour and she has cute clueless brown coloured eyes which mesmerised when you gazed into them. She was also wearing the Youth Exchange blazer that we were all required to wear for the trip. I walked up to her.

"I wonder where our foster parents could be?" I asked the girl.

"They might have forgotten us, you know, giggles...." the girl replied as she giggled away.

Seeing her giggle, I giggled too as she has quite a sweet smile. After a half hour or so, finally an old uncle wearing the blazer of the Lion's Club came by. He had a pleasant face with a big white moustache across his upper lip. He smells of cigarettes which kind of gives away the fact that he is a commercial smoker. He introduced himself as Mr Sato and greeted us with a friendly smile. He told us that our foster parents do not live in the Osaka area but the Hiroshima area and therefore we need to take a 2 hour Shinkansen(bullet train) ride to our foster parent's home.

"What the..... We just had a 6 hour flight and now another 2 hours? My god!!!!" I groaned. The girl sighed too, in agreement. We grudgingly followed Mr Sato to the train station located below the airport. As we walked out into the open air, I felt chills across my skin as the wind blew past, it was December, winter time.

Mr Sato walked quickly and it was quite hard to catch up with him because of the extra luggage I had around me. I helped the girl with her luggage too as she brought more luggage than me, pity her. Everything was in hiragana or katakana, japanese letters that is, which were displayed on boards and newspapers around. Looking at the advanced technology used around in the airport, I knew I was not in Malaysia anymore, its would take years before we could reach this level of advancement. The people were courteous too, the workers smiled and bowed as you walked past them, it kinda makes you feel a little embarrassed sometimes.

Finally we reached the elevator to take us down to the Shinkansen station. Reaching the station, the 3 of us waited for the Shinkansen to arrive in the chilling weather, Mr Sato of course had no problems, but me and the girl, we were shivering so hard as we were not accustomed to the weather.

"Whats your name?" I asked the girl realizing that I really do not even know her name yet.

"It's Christine," she answered while smiling widely at me,"and yours?" she then asked

"Aaron Lee, very nice to meet you Christine," I offered my hand for a shake and she complied. Her grip was quite strong, showing she has a great deal of confidence in her.

I then proceeded to ask her about her age and school and she happily answered all my questions. Finally!!!! someone I can talk to here, haha!!! She also asked me some of the same questions that I asked her, and somehow we even managed to crack some jokes in the middle of the conversation, giggling and laughing away.

The conversation made the wait much more enjoyable. The Shinkansen finally arrived and the 3 of us boarded it. It was quite empty and we had ample space to place our luggage so we had a lot of leg room. Christine sat beside me on the train and we continued our conversation we stopped earlier. Even Mr Sato joined in our conversation, his english was not that good but we got to know his occupation, he was a real estate agent, after struggling a few times with his english, his phone saved him as he had to answer his call. Christine and I continued our conversation and proceeded to enjoy the view from the train window. Japan was definitely different from Malaysia, the roads were small and the houses are closely packed together, you could have hundreds of houses in just 1 neighborhood, the houses were small but nice, it had that Japanese harmonious feel. they had baseball fields just about anywhere and also tennis courts can also be spotted on rooftops of buildings. Finally, both of us got tired and Christine dozed off on my shoulder. The smell of her hair is wonderful, I was surprised that she was that bold, but I knew we were friends and nothing else, we are the only people we can depend on now, in this foreign country. Slowly I closed my eyes and also dozed off into dreamland.......


End Of Chapter 1.........