After about 10 days in the air, we finally arrived off the coast of Japan. I had greatly enjoyed the trip—both the view and taking Vera’s money—but I was happy see land again and get a break from the monotony.
“Land ho!” cried Vera. I could hardly see it, but there it was—a faint smidgen of green on the horizon. I was delirious from almost ten days of nonstop gambling and nothing to look at but the endless blue ocean, so I could hardly believe it was real, but there it was.
“We must prepare for landing,” said Akari.
So we did. We stashed away the poker table and chairs, as well as everything else. It was all stowed away in storage lockers to prepare for landing. Vera and I each grabbed a stabilization rod, while Akari piloted the ship.
We came in low over the harbor. This was Kagoshima, which apparently was the only port that Westerners like us were allowed to enter. Below us I saw a vast number of so-called Junk ships, with black hulls and colorful, rhomboid sails. Our specific destination was a 3-story pagoda near the water. Each story had a curved, sloping roof of a different color. At the top was a large wooden pillar that I recognized as a mooring mast for airships.
https://imgur.com/UeF2y3X
[https://imgur.com/UeF2y3X]
Docking the ship was a hair-raising experience. This was my first time being on the airship end of a landing—I had only ever experienced it from the point of view of the ground crew, before.. We were wobbling in midair, struggling to maintain a fixed position while the winds blew us around, with the goal of touching the airship’s nose to the mooring mast. It was like trying to kiss an elephant on ice skates—if we collided too hard, we would puncture the gas-bag and sink.
We passed near the mooring mast, as close as possible without hitting it, and I threw down our anchor rope. The ground crew (six people, half of them men. All of them Japanese dressed in old-fashioned kimonos) caught the rope, and dragged us in. The ship suddenly jerked to a halt, and it was hard to keep my balance. Then we spiraled around the mast, getting closer and closer, and finally collided with a soft crunch. Then Akari vented some hydrogen, while the ground crew pulled us down, and eventually we ended up tied down to the roof of the structure. We had “landed” but I still felt uneasy floating in mid air, and it was obvious that one misstep would send me flying over the edge.
“What now?” I asked.
“Now we unload the cargo of course!” said Vera. “And by ‘we’ I mean you.”
“Why just me? What about all the ground crew here?”
“Well sure, they’ll help too, but they still need someone from our ship to help handle each crate so that it can be certified. Akari needs to check the ship for damage, that’s her job as the pilot. As forewoman I’ll be supervising the unloading. That leaves you, muscle boy, so get to it!”
I couldn’t believe I had flown all the way to Japan just to unload boxes. But apparently that was the system, so I did. At least it was just the one ship, and the unloading was faster than loading since the Japanese ground crew were helping. I couldn’t communicate with any of them, but there wasn’t much to say since we were just carrying boxes down and stacking them on the roof for some freight elevator. Vera “helped” by shouting orders at us, mostly along the lines of “pick up that one! Faster!” which both the Japanese work crew and I ignored.
500 crates later, and it was done. My back was killing me, and my hair was soaked in sweat, but I couldn’t deny a certain pride in my work. We had just flown all this cargo across the Pacific! Without me, none of this stuff would be here! It was the most pride I had ever felt in my work.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Vera bowed to a woman who I assume was the Japanese forewoman, and they both took turns stamping and signing some paperwork, with Akari translating. “Right, that’s all taken care of,” said Vera. “Our return cargo won’t be ready until tomorrow, so now we’ve got some time to kill.”
“Can we do some sightseeing?” I asked. As something of a weeb, I had always wanted to visit Japan, I just never expected to see this old-fashioned version of it. If I ever got back to my own world, I would definitely be bragging about this to my internet friends.
“Yes, but please stay with me. I will guide you. I think you will be lost on your own,” said Akari. “Or possibly executed for offending a samurai.”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking about that last part, but a tour guide sounded good either way. From what I could tell, this place was very isolated. There didn’t seem to be any English at all on signs here, or any white people except for me and Vera.
“Sounds good!” I said. “Can we go to a restaurant? I’m starving, and I’m sick of airship food.”
Before Akari could answer, Vera pulled her aside and whispered something in her ear. Akari smiled nodded. Considering how little they liked each other, this was odd. It was the first time I’d seen them both cooperating, and I didn’t like it.
“Yes, I will take you to a restaurant…” she said. “Vera had a very good idea for a restaurant, so I will take you there now.”
“Why did she have to whisper it?”
“Oh you know me, I’m just too shy to speak in public sometimes!” Vera laughed. This woman was the exact opposite of shy, so this probably meant she was planning something I wouldn’t like. But I followed after them anyway, since I didn’t know what else to do, and I was curious about what they were planning.
My fears were soon confirmed when we arrived at the “restaurant” Vera suggested. It was a small, one story building, with garish colors on the outside, and no visible windows. I couldn’t read the signs of course, but everything about it seemed seedy and garish, like a strip club from my world. There were some ugly drunk women sitting outside, who all stared openly at me as we approached. The door was guarded by a large man carrying a wooden sword.
A brief conversation ensued between him and Akari. At first they both seemed polite, then they both got angry. Vera and I stood by politely, wondering what the hell was going.
Finally Akari turned to us an explained: “He says that foreign women like Vera are not allowed to enter.”
“What!?” She yelled. “That’s discrimination!”
“Akari, what is this place?” I asked.
“We call it… host club. I think it doesn’t exist in America. Women pay to enter, sit with good-looking men, have a good time. You understand?”
“What the hell, Akari. I just wanted a normal restaurant. I’m tired and hungry. Why would I want to sit with men that I can’t even understand?”
Akari shrugged. “You can also eat here. It’s only Vera who can’t enter. The guard said you can even enter for free, if you’re willing to sit with some drunk Japanese women. You don’t have to do anything, just smile and be polite.”
I had to admit I was kind of curious about this place now. “How much does it normally cost to enter this place?”
“Cheap to enter, but the food and drink is very expensive.” Akari answered. “We pay a lot for the male company. I think a lot of women would want to pay for you, even if you can’t speak any Japanese. They’d be very interested in meeting a foreign man like you. But please don’t do anything… unseemly.”
I turned for a second to the drunken women outside, and saw they were all still gawking at me. They were not unattractive, even if the way they were dressed (covered in heavy robes, like the women in old Japanese paintings) wasn’t exactly my taste. If I could have met them individually I would have been happy to get to know them. But it made me feel uncomfortable being openly leered at by a group of them, like a pack of dogs staring at apiece of meat. “Yeah, I get that,” I replied. “But I’m not sure I want to meet the kind of women that come to a place like this.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway!” said Vera. “We’re sticking together! If I can’t go, none of us are going!”
“Hmm… did we agree on that?” Akari said with just a touch of smugness.
“Actually, I agree with Vera this time. Let’s stick together.” I really didn’t want to go in this sketchy place, and I didn’t want our translator to leave us either.
“Fine.” Akari turned back to the bouncer, and asked him a question. After some back-and-forth, he pointed down the street. Akari said, “Arigatou” and bowed, then turned back to us.
“He says there’s another place down the street that would accept all of us,” she explained.
“Oh? Another host club?” Vera was excited.
“Not exactly… But I think you’ll like it anyway. Please follow me.”
So with that vague explanation, we followed Akari down the street. I had to put blind trust in her, that she'd lead us somewhere decent.