Aerophobia wasn't helping me when I was on a plane still just over an hour from landing into Tokyo. That wasn't all that was worrying me, though. There were posters of an anime version of a Japanese girl with bright blue hair and a blue tie surrounded by fruit or holding a bottle of green liquid. Her fingernails were exactly the same shade of blue as well. And it seemed to be – apart from water – the only drink the stewardesses had on board. It was actually extremely creepy, and it was freaking me out beyond belief.

There was one poster that was scarier than any or all of the others put together. It had a spirally green background, and the green bottle of liquid in the girls hand, but her face was extremely strange. It looked almost evil-esque. Her bright blue eyes (the same colour as her hair) were extremely wide, and she didn't have a smile, but her mouth was drawn as a thin line curved slightly downwards, making her look positively angry.

Whatever this drink was, it was obviously quite popular in Japan. And all of the posters were advertising it as costing only two-hundred yen. I wasn't sure whether to buy one of the drinks or not, and so decided on not doing so. That only reminded me that the evil-like picture of the anime girl was looking at me angrily from behind. I still wasn't going to buy it. It was just far too frightening for me.

Fifteen minutes before our expected arrival in Tokyo, I noticed that every single other person had a bottle of this strange green liquid in their hands. It must have been really popular for the Japanese.

One of the stewardesses came over to me, with her tray full of bottles of the drink. "Excuse me, Sir," she said to me in Japanese, "I've noticed you haven't got a drink. Would you like to buy one?"

I looked at her tray. There was nothing on it except for these strange bottles of juice. "You wouldn't happen to have any bottles of water anywhere, would you?" I asked in Japanese, not wanting to touch the creepy juice because of the strange posters advertising it everywhere.

"Sorry, Sir," the stewardess replied to me, "But we only have certain amounts of any drinks, and you have brought up our entire supply of bottled water, Sir. Could I offer you some juice then, Sir? The green-coloured juice is not only the most common, but it is also my personal favourite."

"No thank you," I said. "I'll be fine, and I'll get myself something to drink when we touch down."

It was only when she was walking away did I notice it. It was something about her eyes: they were filled with green. Exactly the same colour and shade of green as was in the juice. I decided not to worry about it, and put all strange and paranormal thoughts out of my mind for the moment.

The airport in Tokyo that we landed at was extremely strange as well. There weren't that many people around, and all of those strange posters of the anime girl were around.

I walked up to someone standing at a counter who looked like someone who would be able to help me. "Excuse me?" I said by way of introduction.

"Hello," said the lady in a strange sort of voice, which seemed as if she had been possessed by something. I saw the eyes again – the eye sockets were filled with yellowness, no pupil or anything, just yellow. "How can I help you?"

I tried to put the strange eye thing and the anime girl out of my mind, but it was rather difficult. "Could you tell me where the nearest hotel is?" I asked politely.

The lady's yellow eyes seemed to twinkle like a white star when she spoke next. "Yes, just down the road from here." The lady then seemed to notice my eyes for a moment, and probably how normal they were, before she spoke next. "Would you like something to drink, Sir?"

"Erm – no, thank you," I said in reply, walking off out of the airport and thanking her.

Outside the streets were rather silent for the usual Tokyo. Actually, the megacity looked more like a rural town, without too many people walking around.

"What the –?" I muttered, looking around. A young man walked past me, dressed professionally and in a suit, his stature seemingly robotic and timed. I took a quick look at his eyes – bright blue, exactly the same as the anime girl in all of the posters with the bottle of green liquid. In fact, almost all of the people who were walking around were the same. There was something wrong here.

Then I found him.

The man was walking along, attempting to be like every other person around, but firstly he was keeping his eyes closed, and secondly (and I don't know how I figured this out), he was out of step with everyone else. I went up to him and stopped him in his tracks.

"What's happening?!" I whispered hurriedly to him.

The man opened his eyes and looked up at me, seeing that my eyes were normal, like his. "The juice company has been brainwashing the Japanese people into buying only their juice. They've taken over."

"You're kidding, right?" I said, trying to put on a smile. But the smile dropped when the other man didn't do anything. "You're not?"

"No. We have to get out of here. We have to get off of the streets before –!"

All of Tokyo's famous advertising television screens (which had been turned off, something I didn't notice) showed the picture of the blue-haired anime girl. And I used by Japanese translating skills to figure out what she was saying.

"Come on, drink this! You like vegetable juice, don't you? I've decided that you must, right now! So drink up! My vegetable juice costs two-hundred yen. It'll agree with you, vegetable juice. Light-bodied, vegetable juice. Most of all, what I recommend is the green vegetable juice. Vegetables! They're bursting with life! Now you are too! Come to love vegetable juice!"

While this song was playing over the television screens with the dancing, blue-haired, anime girl, everyone else started dancing the same as her. And so did the other man. I quickly ran as fast as I could.

This Japanese vegetable juice was taking over the world.