Beyond the Sound | Yuzuru Hanyu

3.

Sure, Maya had been expecting her mother to be mad. The last thing she expected was the reaction that the woman ended up having.

Giulia was essentially telling her to go.

The girl felt weird because while her mother was allowing her to move to the other side of the world, she had done that even before Maya knew if she was going to go or not.

She had to actually have the job offer in order to go.

The plan was to send her spontaneous offer through email.

Well, they were faster than her.

Chiara wasn't joking when she said that she had spoken about her. It took just a few hours until she received the phone call from the English recruiter asking if she would be interested in working at the Dome.

They had mentioned that speaking Japanese was a big selling point on their interest.

There might have been a lot of English fluent candidates for the job, but the list of the ones with enough experience, young and Japanese speaking was certain to be smaller.

The offer was very generous and unexpected. Maya wouldn't be starting in a big and prominent position, but she didn't expect to be a leader straight away. She knew she could climb that ladder as she did in Verona.

Chiara was more than excited with the news. They were going to meet with a representative of the company hiring them so the real discussion could be made, and the contracts signed if everyone agreed in the terms.

Everything happened so fast that none of them knew how to react. Maya started watching a few Japanese shows to get the language back in her system and even reviewed a few of the most important Kanji. That was the easiest thing to forget after being away for over 10 years.

Sure enough, things would be harder for her overly excited friend, who didn't know a single Japanese word but knowing Chiara, she was up for the challenge.

Just after two weeks of planning, they had an Apartment rented in Tokyo and were looking into flights.

It happened so fast that none of them truly realized the impact of leaving the place they called home.

Maya only realized on the last week in Italy that she was leaving her mother all alone.

"I will be fine, dear." she had told her.

"But what if..."

"No what ifs. I told you, this is a good opportunity, even if I don't like where you're heading."

"You could come with me."

"No."

"You said you liked Japan."

"I do, but I can still work for a few years, and I refuse to work in that country."

So that was it. 

Leaving her mother behind wasn't something she had been particularly proud of, but it was a necessity given the circumstances. 

And well, she wasn't necessarily alone, Giulia had her parents in Italy and a few cousins as well.

Maya and Chiara went on their adventure with nothing but a dream and a suitcase. It was during those times that they learned to make choices. Airline fares were expensive for bags, and they had to choose carefully which items to take with them.

Arriving at the Haneda airport felt familiar to Maya.

Memories of every single summer trip they had done to Italy filled her mind as she remembered vaguely each hallway of the airport where she spent hours of her childhood.

Straight out of the flight, Chiara was quick to understand just how utterly screwed she was. 

Attempting to ask for directions in English seemed to be quickly deemed impossible.

The Italian girl came to her friend in a frantic worried state, not knowing how they would be able to get out of there successfully.

"Calm down. I speak Japanese, remember?"

"Oh... Yes, of course. I'm dumb."

"No, you're just starting to realize how hard it would be to come here alone."

Chiara laughed and poked her friend.

"Why do you think I brought you?"

"Because you would miss me too much?"

"Nah... purely out of interest."

"You didn't even know I spoke the language when you first mentioned it, silly."

Maya didn't need any reassurance to know what her friend's intentions were. Her and Chiara had bonded so much that they felt like sisters.

There was no one else that she would do this with.

Eventually, and with Maya's ocasional request for help, they managed to get into the center of Tokyo through public transportation and eventually, the right address to their new apartment.

This was a city that was vastly different from Verona and even for Maya, who had been there before, it was a whole new world ready to explore.

The tall buildings, the huge seas of people... everything was on a new scale, foreigner or not.

Compared to Tokyo, Kyoto was quiet and reserved. This experience was as new for Maya as it was for Chiara.

The difference was that one of them was more comfortable with the language.

For the Italian girl, the cultural differences would hit her straight in the face as well. This had been something that her friend had warned her about, but one that she only fully understood when they arrived.

Standing in front of a crosswalk and waiting for the green signal even though there were no cars passing seemed to be ridiculous for someone raised in Europe, but it was exactly what happened in Japan.

The rules were made to be obeyed, after all.

This was just the beginning of their journey, one that none of them knew what to expect but that was exciting at the same time.

Now it was just a matter of getting settled.