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.........
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