A Change in Life

A Passage of Time

By the time we finally got our luggage and found our dad's coworker, Bruce and I were ready for some sleep, food, and a shower of some sort. Dad's worker came over for dinner at the new house after a few more hours riding in a car and introduced himself as Mr.Farashima. He was an old man, kind of a sort of grandfather. He was short, and had crescent moon eyes turned downwards gently, and he looked like he knew a lot. The afternoon went by in a flash pretty much, between the house tour and being told how to live there, along with eating some ramen made from bottled water. Our bodies needed time to get used to the water for a bit, so we mixed the tap water and bottled water together to eat with. Mr.Farashima told us about what kind of work he did, and that he himself lived close to the baseball field, right across from it actually, and he was a good friend of the coach of the baseball team for my high school. Thankful for the heat and full stomach, I showered, and went into my room. It was the only room that wasn't connected to any other, and from there it had a sliding door that lead to the outside, which was the back of the house. It was winter and barely starting to warm up, so I kept the door shut tightly and put my futon on the other side of the room. There was already a desk against the wall to the right of my futon and a backpack as well. I heard the sounds of everyone going to bed, and saying their goodnights before I turned off my own room's light and sat down in the center of my room. I let myself think for a long while, since I had gotten plenty of sleep. 

 Sports wouldn't start up for a long time, not until school started anyways, and I had a while until then, about three months actually. I sighed deeply out of my nose. Three months of doing core inside my room and running around to get to the market nearby I guess then. Sighing again, I leaned my head back onto my pillow and watched the ceiling for a bit until I rolled my eyes and just shut them to go and waste my time by sleeping. 

 The next morning I was woken up by someone knocking on my door, I let out a loud groa before standing up and sliding my door open. In front of the door was my Mom, who was holding up some clothes for me to wear.

 "What's that for?" I asked, taking the items from her and changing into them as she stepped into the room. 

"We're going to go head to the stores today so we can buy a few things to make food for the restaurant, later Mr.Farashima and the coach from the baseball team will come by and eat with some other acquaintances so we're going to get ready for them." She explained, and placed a kiss on my cheek before leaving the room. 

"What about Bruce and Dad?" I called after her, following only when I had grabbed my phone. 

I turned into the main room to find Mom picking up her purse and heading out the door. 

"They've gone to work and school already, you've basically slept the day and night away. Oh, by the way, remember the way to the market because I won't be taking you here and you'll have to go by yourself to but food and other things like that by yourself." Mom gestured to the area in the front of the windshield of the car and I nodded. 

"What are you going to name the restaurant Mom?" 

Mom glanced at me before parking the car. The drive had lasted about ten minutes, and I sent her a 'I got the way' look as she tossed me a dirty look.

"I'll name it Thanh's place." Mom said. 

Thanh's place, sounds pretty nice to me. I grinned at her and in return she patted my cheek. 

Not long after, Mom handed me a list of things we needed to put into stock for the store and set me out with a good amount of cash to go buy it. Which means, free range roaming! I zipped up my coat and wandered around until I found a few stores with the right vegetables, and went into a few stores with a furniture to buy. I got the rest of the list with a breeze, with the help from a few other foreigners who knew the word for eggplant and the like. Although Arashiyama was a countryside place, it got a lot of tourists and visitors anytime due to the views it had, like the famed monkey zoo thing, and the bamboo forest and the train. I don't think I lived too close to any of those places but I knew enough about them. I found a store that sold some hot chocolate and with the rest of the money Mom had given me for groceries, bought a nice warm drink. Once I sat down, someone came to sit next to me and sidled up right next to me.