Step 1: Welcome to Japan
Moving sucks.
From moving to a comfy bed to the bathroom, to moving from home to work,
Moving
Sucks.
It sucks even more when you move from one country to another.
What might prompt such a great movement?
Well…
"Hah?! We're moving for your dumb fast food job?!" She yelled.
"Sweetheart, what you call a "dumb fast food job" is a job as manager of the new WcDonald's stores opening in Japan." He stated, resting his chin on laced fingers.
"In Japan!" She repeated furiously. "Japan is on the other side of the world, thousands of miles from America! And we speak English in this household, not Japanese!"
"Your mother is a Japanese woman who taught you the language since you were born, so we speak English and Japanese in this household." He argued calmly.
"I. Don't. Care." She hissed. "This household has been my home for sixteen years. You are not uprooting my life just for a stupid promotion!"
"Sweetheart-"
She slammed her hands down on the table. Steel blue eyes glared at the man seated across from her. "Don't you "sweetheart" me, Papa! We are not moving to Japan!"
"Ladies & gentlemen, we have arrived at Haneda Airport. The current temperature is 10 degrees Celsius, with cloudy skies. The current local time is 15:23 PM. Thank you for flying with us today and enjoy your time in Tokyo. Please be sure to take all personal items with you."
She groaned before slamming her head into the seat in front of her, a cry of disdain emerging from the person sitting there.
Moving sucks.
"And that's the last box!" Her father huffed and dropped the box in his hands. Metal banged and clattered in the box.
"Papa! My stuff!" She wailed, clutching the box like it was her life. No, it is her life.
Her father shrugged unsympathetically. "Sorry, but you should have carried it yourself if you cared so much."
She gently set the box on the kitchen counter, muttering under her breath. "Who couldn't carry all his lame WcDonald's merchandise?"
"What was that?"
"I said," She hissed, snapping her head in his direction. "Who couldn't carry all his lame WcDonald's merchandise?"
Her father cocked his head, gray eyes boring into her skull. He straightened his back, rising from his typically slouched self to his proper tall stature. Far taller than his daughter, whose height only met to his shoulders.
Her anger fled upon the gunpowder gray gaze of her father.
Normally, her father was a very temperate man, but jet lag and an ill-tempered daughter had made him very irritated.
He smiled brightly at her and she flinched. "The same man who's kicking you out of the house."
"… Wait-" Before she knew it, her father had shoved her out of the house.
"Have fun outside, sweetheart!" Her father waved at her before slamming the door in her face.
"Papa!" She rammed into the door, missing the opening. "Papa, I'm sorry!" She wailed, slamming her fists on the door. "You know I'm an introvert at heart, don't do this to me!"
People walking by gave her looks. Probably due to all the English spewing out of her mouth and her fallen figure on the porch.
She sat up and sighed, threading her fingers through silver locks.
It wouldn't hurt to explore her new home…
She stood up and rummaged through her purse. She had her cellphone, her wallet (she cried when her father replaced all her bills and coins with yen), and bag of mixed nuts.
"Okay." She stood up and slung her purse over her shoulder. She supposed that she could go grocery shopping while she was out. She remembered seeing a supermarket just a few blocks north from their home, so she began walking in that direction.
She had seen pictures of her mother's hometown and she had to admit that the scenery of this country was much more beautiful than it was in the pictures. Rows of tall, tightly packed, houses lined her path. Foliage, dyed with the colors of autumn, sparsely took what little space there was in between and in front of houses.
She guessed it was a nicer looking neighborhood than she expected, but she was not gonna like it here.
Not at all!
Not. One. Bit.
A door clicked open and a casually dressed man exited the house on her left along with his dog. She glanced at the dog and realized it was a corgi in a teal sweater.
…Dammit it was pretty cute.
…
Maybe she could get used to living here.
Eventually, after a bit of adventurous wandering, she found the supermarket.
"Finally!" She sighed happily, rushing inside. Walking around for a while and her last meal being some scrappy airport sandwich, she was getting kind of hungry. She plucked a grocery basket and balanced the handles on her forearm.
She barely spared a look at the produce section before heading over to the ready-made foods aisle. She was too hungry to cook anything right now and she was sure her dad hadn't set up the refrigerator yet.
Let's see…
Blue eyes peered curiously at all the packages lining the shelves. There were a lot of packages with noodles but she was curious about the surplus of triangular and round ones that were green in appearance.
She understood the wrappers said salmon, pork, and plum filled, but she didn't understand the kanji that constantly appeared on each wrapper.
お握り?
She saw a store attendant pass by and she called out in Japanese. "Excuse me?" The worker turned to her and smiled politely. She held up a tuna-flavored triangle. "I'm a bit lacking in my Japanese, so I was wondering if you could tell me what this is?"
He gazed at her, a most horrified expression on his face. "That's onigiri, miss."
"Onigiri?"
The store attendant paled at her. "You must be a foreigner if you don't know what onigiri is." In a panic, he snatched the package from her hand and tore through the plastic in a frenzy.
"Um… sorry?" She didn't know what else to say.
Tossing the wrapper away, he placed a green triangle in her hands, white peeking out of the corners. "Try it! Try it!" He urged her, eyes gleaming.
"O…kay?" She was really confused, but took a large bite anyway.
OH!
"Delicious!" She managed to say through a mouthful of rice.
The worker let out a cheer of victory as she snatched more onigiri and tossed them in her basket.
Onigiri is the greatest food in the world!
After a very spirited conversation with the worker and purchasing a multitude of onigiri and other ready-to-eat foods, the silvernette left happily with a bag of food in hand.
Maybe she could convince her father to eat something other than WacDonald's. And speaking of eating…
She took out another onigiri and unwrapped it. The worker had told her this was, in plain words, an onigiri with rice cooked in pork bone broth and a gooey hard-boiled egg.
She licked her lips and raised the onigiri to her lips when she noticed a hunched figure.
A guy sat forlornly on a bench. He was in a loose green sweater and wore a black beanie over his chestnut hair, mud and dirt staining his entire being. His whole posture was lackluster, lifeless, like his soul had wandered to wherever his pale taupe eyes dazedly gazed at in the distance.
Her heart ached seeing the man. He looked to be the same age as her and yet he was out in this cold fall weather with such meager and soiled clothing. He was probably hungry too.
She looked down at her bag. She did have a lot of food…
He sighed, his breath emerging as white mist. A hand suddenly appeared in his vision, and he glanced up to meet steel blue hues.
"Here." She smiled brightly, holding the unwrapped onigiri. "You need it more than I do."
He blinked at her before she took hold of his hand and placed the onigiri on his palm.
Hearing her phone ring, she rummaged through her purse for it and turned it on to find a text from her father. "It's curfew already?! I need head home!" She looked up at him before bowing and smiling again. "Sleep somewhere warm tonight, alright?" She waved goodbye, before jogging off.
He blinked again before looking down at the onigiri confusedly.
He had thought about how hungry he was and how nice it would be for some sushi or something, but he didn't expect food to just land in his lap.
…
If he wished for money, would it rain from the heavens?