Ubiquitous

When We Met (Day 1)

so I watched Lost In Translation for the first time and felt like writing sort of a homage to it because it's /that/ good. I don't know what you could exactly call it, but it's just my characters put in that world and using the scenes in the movie. (???) wtvr i hope you enjoy it anyway and you don't need to watch the movie to get the story. but it's a good movie, just saying

This 5-part short story centres on a rising teen actor and her 5-day stay in Tokyo. She meets someone, and they share an interesting similarity with each other. But how far will it go?

xxxxx

I'm not saying that this totally foreign to me, but this is totally foreign to me. The moment I step out of that airplane, I could almost smell the foreign-ness. It's kind of that feeling you get when you step into a club and you don't really know anyone there and you just want to go home. Sort of. But I've got work to do and I'll just go through these 5 days like any other 5 days in my life.

So, Tokyo.

I've read about the city in books. I was reading about it in the plane, in fact. What can I say, I'm an eager child. But yo, I'm not a child anymore. I turned 18 last month and that is why I am here, travelling alone. I don't have my mum to be telling me where to go or what to do. I mean, it's great that my mum is my agent and all but I'll need to let go at some point, right? Right.

"Miss Jenny Kibon! Welcome to Japan. I'm Yuki and I'll be your host during your stay here. I'll also be your translator." A Japanese lady in her 30s greets me, bowing. I bow back and say, "It's Jenna Kilborn, but okay. Hello, Yuki." Yuki nods and still hasn't stopped smiling since I got here. Also, her English is pretty worrisome for a translator. I'll worry about that later.

The taxi taking us to the hotel is nice. I mean, it's just like any other cabs. Maybe more comfortable than New York ones, I don't know. I look out the window and marvel at the buildings surrounding the city. Billboards everywhere and LED lights that'll probably light up later tonight and look pretty scatter about the landscape. "It's a pretty city." I say to no one in particular. The cab driver doesn't look remotely interested with taking part in my amazement. My host, or what I would call my temporary agent, is busy going through papers. I look back outside and sigh. 

And then, I see my face...on a building. It's a pretty massive advertisement board with my face on it. I'm holding a bottle of carbonated drink called Ramu or something. It's a cute ad where I am pictured as a bubbly teenager holding the bottle to my face and grinning like an idiot. "Hey, that's me!" I exclaim. My host laughs and nods, going back to her paper. I watch as it passes by me. "Wow. Isn't it weird? I'm already here...even before I got here." The cab stops. I look out the window and see that we have arrived at the hotel.

Yuki leads me into the hotel I'm staying in and at the lobby are about 5 people with gifts in their hands. I smile at the sight, feeling rather excited because I love gifts. One guy hands me a bottle of champagne, which gives me an idea that I'll possibly indulge in later. Do they know I'm 18? Probably not. Another dude passes me a box and I'm guessing it has some weird ass candy in it or some kind of cookie that I'll end up puking back out. The next person is a lady, who only passes me her business card. The next dude does the same. The last lady gifts me yet another box. I smile at them and bow, carefully saying, "Arigato gozaimas...? Gozaimasu? I don't know, sorry. I'm an uncultured swine." The bunch of people laugh and then my host tells them I'm leaving. They bow at me and I bow back. Lots of bowing, huh?

We enter the lift and a few more people enter, each of them pressing different buttons on the wall. Only numbers 2, 3, 4 and 6 are pressed. My room's on the 6th floor. It's rather comforting that I blend in quite well here in terms of height. 160 cm isn't very tall when you're surrounded by giants all the time. I look around to see bored faces everywhere in the small space. All but one, a guy. He's possibly Caucasian, in his 20s and also pretty tall. He'd be of average height in America. His hair is blonde, just like mine but paler. He looks around too and looks at me when I'm coincidentally looking at him too. He smiles at me and then looks away. I got to smile back. It was probably a 3 second exchange.