March 28th, 2022, 5:30 PM

After three days of doing layovers, we FINALLY made it to Japan. Those airports were crowded labyrinths, and we lost and almost missed our second flight. I had to get a new phone and everything but I can’t understand most of what my phone says. Papa says having my phone be in Japanese might help me learn it. Maybe it will but definitely not for apps I already recognize the icons. At least I could transfer everything over to my new phone for the most part, but still. Rip to the old phone.

Since Mom and Papa have a bunch of legal stuff to do, like getting a new car, getting new passports, and all that stuff, we stopped at our new home. We got a taxi to drive us over there. We still needed to set everything up, after all. We have a pretty nice house in a small neighborhood. It’s smaller than our old home, but it’s kinda quaint. The outside was a light tan and it had black roofing.

Our neighbors across the street noticed my mom, and the neighbors went over to papa since he, you know, was born and raised in Japan and spoke Japanese and everything. Plus, he looks Japanese while Mom looks much like a foreigner, so they assumed. Kinda weird that Mr. and Mrs. Sato were outside on a Monday. You’d think they’d be at work on these days. Not sure what that was about, but anyway.

He needed to translate everything the neighbor and my mom said. I already knew what they were saying, so They also mentioned they had a son my age too! Their son opened the door, saw me, walked up to me, and greeted me in English.

“Hi.”

“Hi!” I greeted him in Japanese.

“I’m Sato Minato.” He introduced himself in the most elegant voice to ever speak Japanese.

“Nice to meet you!” I said, noticing how much my voice wavered as I said it. It’s different speaking Japanese to the people that use it daily. The same would happen whenever I spoke to Ojiisan and Obaachan in Japanese over the phone. (Or grandpa and grandma if you don’t know what that means. Or maybe you are a Japanese diary. I can’t believe I just said that.) I’ve never spoken to them in person before, but we’ll probably meet them soon. That’ll be fun. Anyway, that was a tangent on something not really related; moving on.

“How much DO you know?” Minato asked.

“I can speak it pretty well, I just get nervous around Japanese speakers in Japan, and I have a hard time reading kanji. I do know katakana and hiragana.” I explained.

“Perfect, I won’t have to speak much English. Luckily for you, I can write it pretty well.” Minato smirked. Silence washed over us for a moment. Talk about awkwardness.

“So, uh, what now?”

“Mother and Father asked me to help you unpack.” He said. To be honest, his calling his parents ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ seemed so… off. And super formal! Obaachan and Ojiisan are kind of strict and formal with Papa. Still, even he doesn’t need to call them ‘mother’ and ‘father’. I brushed it off since I had just met him.

We unloaded the truck of our packages onto the sidewalk. I separated my stuff from everything else. My pile of boxes wasn’t as big as Papa and Mom’s, so it was quick to do that. I walked inside without anything, though.

“Wait, you forgot your stuff!” Minato ran after me.

“I haven’t even gotten to take a look at my new home yet,” I said.

“Oh.”

The entrance was a sliding door, and the first room was freezing. I hugged myself, shivering in one of my long-sleeved dresses, with stockings. It was a boring, blinding, white little room with a shelf and key holder on the sides. I know in Japan, people don’t wear shoes inside, so this must be where we’d put our shoes! My family is already accustomed to this, so I took off my shoes on instinct. My demonias would ruin the floors, most likely anyway.

The tiny room had another door leading inside. We opened it, and there was a light blue room with brown tiled floors and… almost nothing yet again, except for a not-so-great fireplace. Man, we need to go shopping for some furniture. There were also windows on either side of the entrance to the house. They had long sweeping curtains that were opened to show the outside street.

Left of the living room, I assume, were the kitchen and dining room, except there wasn’t even a table. Better put that on the list of furniture to buy. Blinding white cabinets lined the walls. There wasn’t even an oven or stove. Man, the sellers were really cheap about this. At least we got a little treat… a sink.

Back in the dining room, there was a staircase to the right. Minato and I ran up the stairs in socks while my parents yelled at us not to trip as they had just entered with their boxes of stuff. Top ten Kuromiya-core moments. There were four doors, two on either side of the banisters. Of course, the floor was its usual brown tiles, and everything else was still blindingly light. I mentally swore to whatever gods out there that are listening that my parents would shop for some paint supplies.

The first door to the left was a tiny bathroom. Just a toilet and a built-in bathtub/shower hybrid. But gasp! No sink! The floors were black and white checkerboards. So basically, nothing special.

The next room was a very large empty room. Would-be the master bedroom, I assume. I’d claim it for myself, but I highly doubt Mom and Papa would let me. So to the doors on the right!

The second door opened to another empty, blindingly white room. White is my least favorite color right now. Surprisingly, it was a decently sized room. I claimed this one for myself. But what about the last one?

We opened the last door. Still empty. Still hurting my eyes. It was the same size as the room I’d claimed for myself. What would we even need this for, though? An extra bedroom? An office for dad? The possibilities buzzed around in my head as Minato and I headed back downstairs, and we started hauling boxes upstairs.

“Is there even anywhere to put all this stuff?” Minato panted while hauling half of my boxes upstairs.

“Besides in my room, not really. While my parents are out doing fun legal stuff, I’m hoping they’ll get new furniture too.” I collapsed on the floor after placing everything in my room. I checked the boxes. Clothes, old diaries, a bunch of photos from home… Unless I wanted to decorate with those photos, I didn’t have places to put these. But I still want to paint my room. The white hurts my eyes.

I heard Papa and Mr. Sato walking up the stairs and talking together in Japanese. I guess they’re best friends now. Huh.

“Keiko, the Satos, your mom and I are gonna go get passports and a car and all that. We’re also hoping to buy a bunch of new furniture. Do you wanna come with us or wanna stay home?” Papa asked.

“Actually, could me and Minato hang out?” I said, looking at Minato first.

“That’d be fun, sure.” Minato said.

“Mr. Sato, would you be okay with Minato and Keiko hanging out for the day?” Papa asked Mr. Sato in Japanese. Oh wait, I said that in English. I could’ve done it myself, but thanks anyway, Papa.

“Sure.” Mr. Sato said.

“Okay, he said yes. I’ll call you when I get back. Oh, here.” Papa gave me some yen before he and Mr. Sato descended the stairs. I smiled as I turned to face my new friend.

“I’m kinda surprised you wanna hang out with me. This isn’t a prank or anything, right?” he asked.

“No, of course not! Is that bad or something?”

“That’s never happened before…” Minato mumbled.

Damn, has he ever had friends? Guess I can be the first! Since I was new and didn’t know about that town, I’d let him lead the way.

I rummaged through my box of shoes and grabbed my walking sneakers. I’m not ruining my nice demonias for this.

Before leaving the house, Minato put his walking shoes on, and I put on my sneakers before we left.

“Are there any cool places we can check out?” I said, closing the door behind me.

“There’s a nice small ramen restaurant and there’s a local Shinto shrine. That’s probably all the interesting stuff around here. I can just show you where everything is in general too, if you want.”

“Shinto shrine? Are those the shrines everywhere?”

“Pretty much.”

Since I’ve never been to one but wanted to visit, I convinced Minato to take us there before anything else. Turns out Minato and his parents consider themselves Shintoists, whereas most people in Japan don’t. Many Japanese people practice Shinto traditions but don’t call themselves Shintoists. My dad considers himself an atheist too, but he and my grandparents went to shrines for new years when he was still living in Japan. Shoot, I probably should’ve gone to one with my dad instead. Ah, whatever. I can just pretend I’ve never visited one before if he does end up taking me.

We saw one of those big Torii gates as we walked down the path. Minato told me to bow while passing through. We came up to a pavilion of water. There were a bunch of wooden bowls with sticks attached to them. We used those to wash our mouths and hands. We walked on the sides of the open space of the shrine. Minato says deities pass through in the middle.

I was curious, and I looked up the local shrine. Shinto shrines enshrine certain deities at certain shrines, and this particular one enshrined Okunitama, Okuninushi, Sukunahikona, and the soul of Emperor Meiji. That’s a lot of shrines, I’m sorry.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Okuninushi seems to be the head of the gods of earth, as well as a god of nation-building, agriculture, medicine, and protective magic. Sukunahikona is a god of healing and brewing sake and is also associated with hot springs. Emperor Meiji was the emperor of Japan during Meiji Restoration. Apparently, early explorers of Hokkaido are also enshrined here too? I couldn’t find anything on Okunitama unfortunately, aw :(.

I went too long rambling about the info about this shrine oops. Anyway, we made it to the offering hall. Minato told me to get a coin and throw it into the offering box, bow twice, clap my hands twice, and make a quick prayer, then bow again. Tedious, but hey, I already knew what I wanted to pray about.

‘I wish I can fit into Japan like Papa wants me to.’

I bowed again then we started making our way back. We never ended up going to the main hall, which usually has a sacred object. Still, whatever, I can go back another day.

“Do shinto gods grant your wishes?” I asked as we were on the shrine exit path, walking.

“Most of them for me, yes. They can never grant the one that means the most to me though. Doesn’t matter how many times I’ve visited the shrine.” Minato frowned angrily.

“Are shrine prayers kinda like how when you blow out the candles on the cake but your not supposed to say what you wish?”

“Are you trying to ask what my special prayers are about? Because that’ll be a no.” Minato crossed his arms.

“Yes. Sorry, I didn’t think the prayers were super special.”

“Not necessarily. To me, they are. Most of the time, at least.”

I’m still curious about it, though. We just met, and I have time to figure that out. I’m probably not leaving Japan anytime soon.

After we left the shrine area, we went into town to do some shopping.

“What are we here for?” I asked, standing in front of a costume store.

“Do you know about how Japanese schools can be strict?” Minato walked inside.

“Yeah, must not be that strict if you wanna buy a costume for it.” I followed him inside.

“I’m not talking about getting a costume. I mean a wig.”

“A wig?”

“Yeah. In many schools they want you to have shoulder-length hair, if not that short maybe down to mid back? Your hair is pretty long and dyed too, and that wouldn’t fly in a lot of schools. I thought you’d rather wear a wig than be forced to cut it.” He leads me to the aisle of wigs. There were some wigs with crazy colors, but I skipped past them and looked at the black and brown colored wigs.

“Your hair is mid-back length, do you wear your natural hair length to school?” I picked a wig package off the shelf.

“No, I have to wear a wig, long hair on boys isn’t allowed at my school.”

Those words shook me to the core. In the US, that’s probably the last thing they’d care about. Catholic schools just be like that though sometimes.

“Seriously? Have you never thought of protesting that rule?”

“No? Nobody does that to rules they don’t like. The most they’ll do is find a loophole.”

“Huh. What school are you going to?” I finally chose a wig that was long and straight, something not too different from my hair right now, just shorter and dye-less.

“Jade Hearts’ High School. Oh, you probably want a wig cap too to hide your normal hair too. And maybe a few of the same wig in case one of the wigs get messed up or something” Minato grabbed a wig cap and a few more packages of the wig I chose and handed it to me.

We walked to the counter, and I paid for the wigs and wig caps. I nervously thanked them, my voice wavering in Japanese. It was awkward this morning, but I felt more comfortable the more I hung around Minato. Why do I have to get nervous around the clerk person? Grrr.

I grabbed the bag of stuff, and we walked out of the store. It was still relatively warm out, and checking my phone, it had only been two hours.

“Where to next?”

“There’s a ramen place nearby. Please tell me you’ve had ramen before.” Minato made a praying motion.

“Of course I’ve had ramen before!” I said.

But I was not yet aware of what I was about to experience. When I ordered miso ramen and tasted it, it was nothing I’d ever had. Okay, well, I did have it before, but you know what I mean.

Noodles in a golden brown broth, paired with a runny boiled egg. Five pork bellies stacked on top of each other. It looked amazing, but did the taste live up to the looks?

Absolutely.

As soon as I raised the noodles to my mouth with my chopsticks, I was in heaven. Japanese heaven? What’s Japanese heaven called if that’s a thing?

Okay looking it up it’s Yomi-no-kuni. So yeah, I was there while Minato was eating his ramen in confusion. I spaced out because it was so good, so he looked at me.

After that, I forced him to go clothing shopping with me. He was such a good sport, carrying my clothes and stuff. Unfortunately, Hot Topic isn’t a thing in Japan, where I get a good portion of my clothes. Still, the good thing is there’s a local store that has gothic lolita stuff, so I know where I’m convincing my parents to take me!

We went home at around four, and my parents were home while Mr. and Mrs. Satos were helping my parents move furniture inside. It seemed they were finishing up as Minato’s parents waved and went back inside.

“Oh hey, Keiko.” My mom greeted me as she panted, walking down the stairs.

“Did you get furniture for everything?”

“Yup! Go take a look.”

I glanced at Minato and encouraged him to come to see my room. I raced upstairs, and he hesitantly followed.

The room was still white. From my bedroom entrance, right across from me, was a black bed frame with black sheets and pillows with a purple comforter pushed up against the wall. On the left of the bed was a black night table with a lamp. In the opposite corner was a black dresser, and in the corner opposite my doorway was a black desk and a spinny chair. There was nothing on it. Mom and Papa were letting me take the reins from here.

“It’s perfect.”

“It’s very black.”

“Listen, it’s easier to get furniture in black than in purple.”

I flung myself onto my bed and jumped on it.

“Do you eat dinner around this time?”

“At five, yeah. Why?”

“I mean obviously since you could hang out with me for a good while today you don’t have anything else to do. Do you wanna stay for dinner? Assuming your free past four that is.”

“I’d say yes but you heard my English, it’s terrible and my accent is so thick I don’t know if your mom would understand me.”

“Oh, you’re fine! Papa would translate conversations between my Japanese grandparents and mom ALL the time, he’d have no problem doing it!”

“Oh thank the kami. So uh, what should we do before then?”

And then we ended up not doing anything before dinnertime except sitting in my room, chilling, and talking about random topics.

As Mom and Papa called us downstairs, I raced downstairs while Minato lagged behind.

“Oh, Minato’s staying over too?” Papa asked.

“Yeah, probably should’ve mentioned that.”

“It’s alright. Hope your folks are okay with you missing out on dinner at your house.”

“Eh, it’s fine, I’m the one that reminds them to make dinner anyway.” Minato chimed in. Something doesn’t seem right about that, though… Hm. I just met him today it’s too early to press for that sort of thing right away.

We each grabbed some food and put it on our plates, and sat down.

“So Minato, what school do you go to?” Mom asked in English. Minato froze up.

“Jade Hearts’ High School.”

“Yes! I told you I had a good feeling about that one for a reason!” Papa cheered in a mixture of Japanese and English. Englanese? Minato and I looked at each other, then at him.

“Oh, uh, Keiko, we signed you up for Jade Hearts’.”

“Oh! That’s perfect. Would you show me around on the first day?” I asked Minato.

“Sure.”

“Now, Minato, when I lived in Japan as a kid I know you bought uniforms from a local tailor that were crazy expensive, is that still true?” Papa asked in Japanese.

“Yup. This neighborhood has a pretty equal mix of kids in lower income and higher income families. It sucks to overhear certain kids talk about how they can’t afford new uniforms and saying they have to work to afford new ones.”

“Is it fuku and gakuran style uniforms or more catholic styled uniforms?”

“Fukus and gakurans for the middle school and I think Jade Hearts’ High School switched to catholic uniforms recently?”

And then, for the rest of dinner, Papa went into a rant about school uniforms, and I literally didn’t catch anything. I want to wrap up tonight’s entry anyway.

When I got home, I didn’t really get to look at the rest of the house. The living room now had a tv and probably the best couch I’ve ever felt. The kitchen had a cute dining room table. The mysterious third room is still empty, though. Guess I’ll ask them about it later.

Anyway, when we finished dinner, Minato and Papa become… friends? And Minato tried to use some English with my mom. She was very encouraging to him. When we finished, it seemed he didn’t want to leave. Very suspicious.

Anyway, my parents enjoy Minato as much as I do. And we’re gonna hang out tomorrow, too, probably! He said his parents aren’t home until late again tomorrow, so we can hang out all day long without worrying about the housekeeping we needed to do today. I also have something amazing to share! I think he left with a smile on his face! He hasn’t smiled at all today up until that moment. He’s got like a resting :| face most of the time.

Anyway, I still have to put my room together, so I’m gonna go do that. I’ll write here later. Bye Tanya!