Drowning in tears of blood; CH 4

Please excuse the long wait, I've had a case of writers block coupled with year 12 studies. Enjoy this chapter. ^^ Siren

Walking out onto the tarmac, up the stairs. Threw the door. My eye's flitted around as I took in the plane's interior. I'd never been on a plane before. Boats yes, but something that flew? Unless jumping off cliffs to practice landings (Hiko's idea) which I don't think counts, this was a first for me. It was a bit squishy. But hey, students took what they got. I was just happy to be going. I had never been to Japan in a time after the Meiji era, so I was very curious to see if it had changed really that much. Camera in hand I took my window seat.

"So little Kattana, ready to fly?" Asked Tom.

"First you have to run young Tom." I responded taking a sneaky snap of him before turning to the window with a smile. By run I meant taxi, which I imagined would take much longer so was shocked at how quickly we took off after beginning to move. But we were on our way. It was a long way to Singapore were we met up with the other Rotary exchange students, before boarding a second plane for the final leg of the trip. Most of the Aussie kids had left the day before us, and being the only rural kids in the group was a bit odd. Suprisingly several of them had been through our town to check out the festival on it's first day.

"Hey, what school are you guys from?" Asked one of the girls walking over as we sat in the hotel lobby waiting for our mentor to get his stuff together before we left off again.

"We're from '...' senior school." I answered with a smile. "This is Tom, Cheree, Alice, Issy, and I'm Georgia. Hajimemashte."

"Hey we were at your school the other day to check out the festival. That was fantastic. Do you know the girl who dressed up and danced like a maiko? I could have sworn she was real until she talked. Oh yeah, I'm Bree, this is Angus, Kate, Billy-Joe, Samantha, Toby, Ben and Simone."

"Glad you G's Performance she's been practicing that dance for weeks!" Grinned Cheree.

"Wait, that was you!" Asked a now gobsmacked Kate. I blushed. "Well hard work and knowledge goes a long way."

"That means your Kattana. I watch your blog. I was so excited when you started posting about the festival and I was going! You're an idol of mine. Your pictures and dress sense are awesome!" She gushed. I blushed even harder now and grinned. "Bet you can't wait to see the right up on the 3 days. I finished writing them on the first leg of our flight."

"Yes! When are you posting them?"

"As soon as I get access to the internet. So the hotel tomorrow." The blush was gone now, but her excitement was infectious. The rest of the group of exchange students also seemed to have heard of my blog and a few of them fans of it. Turned out most of them had started blogs for family and friends to keep up with their overseas antics. It was strange to meet people who were fans when you yourself don't think your that famous or important.

Several more hours on, I got my first glance of Japan from the Sky. Even though it was a small country it still looked massive to me. Taking out my camera I took window shot after window shot, plus a few of my asleep friends as they drooled into pillows. Before we landed in Tokyo. Customs was… Customs. If you've been threw it there no need for explanation, if not. Well can't help you there. But when we were finally threw the other side I felt like I'd stepped into a whole new world. On the down side. Still being used to Edo direction writing I was reading some of the signs backwards before I realized what I was doing wrong. More fool me. Next was money exchange and then we grabbed a packed Obento to eat on the way to the hotel. It was, overwhelming to say in the least. I hadn't spent much time in Tokyo back during the bakummatsu but I had remembered landmarks that were now non-existent due to all the modern structures, and the telephone poles were an eyesore since I was so used to buried lines. Getting to the hotel we didn't get much more done than sitting on our beds then waking up the next morning to find we'd slept in our clothes. At breakfast I finally got the chance to open my laptop and post my blog in with a photo at the end of me with my breakfast and laptop Cheree took with her phone to show everyone I was here safe, sound, exited and hungry. Telling the others it was up I downed the rest of my orange juice and had a look at their blogs. Most of them had made a post the night before recounting the trip, and that "I'm traveling with a legendary blogger. Photos and info to come." Smiley face XD.

Seems I had underestimated my popularity.

Day one was spent sightseeing but day 2 got interesting. Making our way into a department store for lunch I located a store specialising in manga. Lots of Manga. And since this was my main travel source I had a through look for new destinations and just plain good story's.

New issues of - man were the first to cross my eye, and some shonen jump magazines. So I grabbed them before we had to run to get lunch in time. Annoyingly I didn't get time to touch my new books as the rest of the week was filled with a decent amount of information and language classes until by the end of the day it was literally leaking out your ears. One of the Teachers told me straight out. "Your way of speaking is old and I can't understand some of it. Can you try speaking Tokyo dialect?" Hmm I thought. Probably but this sounds way cooler and my cousins haven't ruined the way you say Ookini like they have Arigatou (Ookini is Kyoto dialect for thank you, Arigatou is the normal way of saying thankyou in this day and age. Although I've found that so many people have said it wrong or just in a nasally and very Australian accent for it to grate on my ears whenever I hear it written or typed ^^) I told him exactly that to his surprise.Finally after 7 days in Japan we had a day to run wild in Tokyo before we went to join host families the next day. I had plans to go to Asakusa and waste some cash so at 8:00 in the morning I found myself walking up the gates to the Shrine to make a prayer. I side with relief. The shrine had barely changed, albeit for the PA system and multi lingual signs. I closed my eyes and prayed.

'It's been a while Kattana san, how have you been?' Said a voice drifting into my head. I smiled as I realized it was the Shrines god. The gods like the Demons that were my usual enemy were only one, no matter which dimension they were the same. "Just a little." I replied, "How have you been?"

'Annoyed at these Pa's and infinite number of tourists here to take snapshots. Although you're a tourist now to aren't you?'

"Just playing my part. I'm here for the year, may I have you blessing for a safe trip in these lands?"

'Always' The voice replied and I left the shrine. Browsing the shops at its foot a man's face suddenly caught my eye watching me with a soft grin. My eye's widened, standing stock still I watched as I watched Yuki turn and walk away.