A large cityscape, a clear blue sky, the peaceful clamor of the passer-bys, and the flutter of wings as a flock of doves took to flight.
All of these things greeted the young woman's eyes.
She took a deep breath, and exhaled, pushing down the urge to jump in the air and squeal from the pleasure she found in just seeing these things.
It was a delightful contrast to the suburban landscape she was brought up in, and in her mind harsher…
She lowered her head, knowing full well that if she continued to stare up at the sky she would make the perfect target for a pickpocket or a mugger. She shivered, not from the breeze (which was pleasantly mild), but from the uncertainty that she felt from walking alone. She had been careful before leaving her hotel room, packing light, and only things she considered useful, but she had doubts about her ability to wield the small penknife in her pocket, and the equally tiny bottle of pepper spray.
She took a breath, hunched her shoulders together and started to walk, passing a group of young men she was certain were in a gang, they were all wearing a garment of the same color for heaven sakes! How could they not be in a gang?
The girl instantly felt guilty at her uneducated guess, and she justified that it must be a fashion trend with the amount of boys wearing yellow…
But what if they were all in the same gang? She didn't want to consider that, a gang of that size was impossible.
Right?
Surely the police…but then she stopped, for all her knowledge led her to believe that police were useless…
Or at least that's what the various manga she read, and anime she watched suggested.
She considered all of this as she continued on her journey of sightseeing. Stopping to marvel and the buildings, even ones that looked purely residential and not at all important, they each instilled a sense of beauty to her, and it was truly an amazing city.
She was amazed at its ability to look and sound so peaceful, and yet be very much at the height of pedestrian traffic for the day. This juxtaposing of qualities, she supposed, was what gave the city it's magic.
She passed the storefront of a small café, and stole a peek at the people inside. She allowed herself a small chuckle at the sight of a group of teenagers (they could only be a year or two younger than she was) goofing off. Or…from what she could see just passing by…one boy acting out a story in a rather William Shatner-esque way, and his friends (another boy and two girls) switching between looking at him as if he were an alien, and laughing from his antics. It made her happy, to see others happy, and so playful.
She continued on her way, not wanting to appear odd in the city by staring at minors through café windows. Of course, she wasn't exactly sure if she would. The problems of going foreign she supposed was the only sense of Japanese society she had was from her extensive knowledge of manga and anime…
And she cursed the fact that she couldn't wait till she had at least a handle on more of the Japanese language.
Buying a dictionary and hoping for the best was a stupid and impulsive move on her part, but she couldn't wait. Who knew when she would next get the opportunity to go to Japan, and she really didn't want to when she was middle aged…
No, now was perfect…
Her thoughts were interrupted by her knocking into a man.
She stumbled back and apologized in English while bowing, surely confusing the victim of her air headedness. She looked up, expecting the man to be annoyed to say the least, but he was laughing. Over his shoulder she could see his companions were laughing as well.
The group chatted with her, albeit in a very odd way switching from English to Japanese with every sentence and sometimes with her pausing to nervously flip through her dictionary. They were fun people to chat with though, and two of them (a boy and a girl who she was convinced were otakus) gave her a list of the best places to buy manga. She thanked them, and apologized for her clumsy ways, whilst waving goodbye.
Funnily enough, she did this while walking backwards and almost walked into the busy street, when a large hand unexpectedly pulled her out of the way. She wobbled a bit from shock and turned to thank her savior, only to be greeted by an unexpected sight.
A large man, clearly of African descent, with what looked like a sushi chef uniform on. From the looks of him he could snap her in two if he really wanted too. His expression was harsh and for a second she was scared he might just do that.
Then he laughed and smiled, and she found herself laughing as well, she thanked him in Japanese, only for him to respond in what she could even tell was broken Japanese. She felt a little better if a local was also a non-Japanese speaker.
She tried English next to thank him, and asked him if there was anything she could do in return. He responded in very heavily accented English, by telling her she should visit a Russian Sushi restaurant, she had no idea something of the sort could exist. She promised to give it a try and thanked him, and he left her with a reminder to be more careful.
Her journey continued and still she marveled at the peacefulness of the busy streets. The calmness was replaced by excitement though, as she heard the approach of motorcycle. The crowd immediately congregated on the edge of the side walk with cameras at the ready and she saw numerous flashes. Through the heads of the others she caught a glimpse of a black bike and a rider with an interesting helmet. She shook her head and continued on, convinced that said rider must be some famous racer or something, to draw a crowd like that.
She mused at the effect the peacefulness had on the town, not only did it add to the magic. No, it also served to heighten the effects of anything out of place. It made them more memorable as something that went against the flow…
And so she walked on, considering what she would do next. She started to gaze into shop windows again, which only served to once more cause her to stumble into someone.
Again she apologized profusely in both Japanese and English. She looked up, and was thoroughly frightened.
Everyone was had backed away, creating a small ring around her and the other person. She glanced in fear at the man she walked into, and was greeted with the sight of a tall blond man in a bartender's suit. A man whom she guessed was his friend put his hand on the bartenders shoulder, and looked to be trying to pacify him.
She stood nervously, worried that she somehow had walked into a mafia boss, or a high political person, or…
But the bartender just shook off his friends hand and continued on to walk, stopping to only pat her on the head, which she took as him saying "just be more careful next time".
He parted the crowd as if he was Moses, and walked on leaving the rest of the witnesses to regard her in awe.
She was stunned, and not entirely sure what just happened, but she took it all in stride and continued her stroll.
It didn't last long because only two minutes later she could hear loud bangs and crashes. She looked behind her and saw dust rising, had there been an accident?
Another man ran through the crowd, oddly dressed because even in summer he still wore a coat, and he jumped behind her.
He chuckled and when she sidestepped followed her, as if he was a child hiding behind her.
And then she heard the sound of a feral growl and looked up to see the bartender walking towards her, with a streetlight…
She was hallucinating, right?
The odd man behind her popped out and from what she could tell began to taunt the bartender, and it was all getting weirder and weirder.
She decided that since the bartender had been nice to her once, she might return the favor and in the middle of the odd childlike man's monologue chose to duck and run.
This of course surprised the man she had been shielding and he had to stop mid sentence to leap of the way of the streetlamps trajectory. He then regarded her with an expression that made her feel like an ant, and said something in Japanese before dodging another swing a la streetlamp and fleeing the scene, bartender hot on his heels.
She steadied herself, adrenaline still pumping, and to explain to herself what just happened simply came to the conclusion that jetlag was getting to her and she should return to her hotel. She…
But as she was quickly figuring out, the city was against her, and it was not going to be as simple as heading back the way she came.
Once again the crowd moved towards the edge of the street as the sound of motorcycles and sirens filled the air.
The enigmatic racer was once again speeding past them, chased by at least fifteen cops. And it took a while for people to calm down. She heard the oddest thing though, someone was laughing. She turned around and was met with the site of some guy, in a lab suit, wearing a gas mask…
Needless to say that it was not what she expected and she bolted from the scene, to only stumble once more, for the hundredth time, as usual…she really needed to start learning to be aware of her surroundings…as she was apt at doing, in continuation of her previous incidents, as an encore to the aspirations of the rest of the day…and she really needed to learn all of this in Japanese…and finally as an effect of her stereotypical status quo of characterization required to portray her as a moe archetype for the general populations and demographic reaction to the character as both charming and endearing…yep, the jet lag was really getting to her if she was spouting this nonsense while narrating to herself.
She apologized profusely once again to the couple she had stumbled into. She noticed that the girl, who was attached to the boy like superglue, was smiling…at her boyfriend, while her partner switched between loving glances towards his companion, and death glares that were rather disproportionate to the situation towards the perpetrator.
The girl took the hint and continued to go on her way, the city, it was becoming too much, and to think she had at first considered it peaceful…
She then spotted him…the fur coated psycho from before…and a woman, also in a lab coat (another trend?). The strange man seemed to be teasing the woman profusely, and the woman was obviously used to it, for she seemed to be ignoring her stalker…
After a quick moment of consideration she went up to the odd man and slapped him, and started to yell at him in English (best to act like a complete foreigner in these situations she thought). She was just beginning to yell about her anger at his ploy to use her as a human shield, only to realize that her victim was currently laughing his head off. In perfect English he apologized, and remarked that he "knew she would react that way", and then waved her off condescendingly as he raced to catch up to his companion who had taken the opportunity to escape.
Leaving the girl fuming, and very stressed…This was a vacation for crying out loud, and she was stuck in a town full of weirdos.
Sighing she decided that all must be lost in her quest for an apology, and went on her way back. She passed the teens she had seen before; two couples from the café, at least one real couple and from what she could see a boy and a girl who were too shy to admit anything. Unwilling to let this pass, and her romantic side kicking in, she once more stumbled (this time on purpose) pushing the girl into the boy. The result was two red faces and peals of laughter from their friends, for as it happened they appeared five seconds away from kissing.
Prided with a job well done she began to suspect that maybe her sanity was safe in this city, and that she had been overreacting. She decided that maybe her visiting this city wasn't so bad, and decided to give it a chance, maybe the cities odd qualities would be explainable, and she would be able to take it all in stride. She walked back to her hotel, fully ready to change and eat dinner at that Russian Sushi place.
Only to be passed by a man and a woman in Santa suits…