"Hey Jake, are you sure you don't wanna come with us?" Bill said.
I shook my head.
"Oh, come on, man!" Rowan added. "It will be fun!"
"Sorry, mates! Really not into partying!" I added.
"Ok, whatever! Have your fun!" Rowan said. "We'll surely come back very late!"
"Or maybe, we won't come back till tomorrow noon!" Bill added, chuckling.
Bill and Rowan went out to the snowy road of Hakodate in Hokkaido, Japan, ready to head to bars and nightclubs for the first of several crazy nights to follow. They're my close friends since high school. They are party animals and I am not. I used to follow them a few times to go drinking, but I somehow couldn't enjoy it that much. The alcohol was fine, but the dancing and non-sense talking were simply not my cup of tea.
The clock showed 9.35 pm. It was Wednesday, 21 December 2022. We just arrived this morning from our home town of Seattle in Washington, U. S. A.. I still feel tired from the flight and drinking was the last thing I needed now. I took some warm bath after resting for a while, I thought that taking a walk around the area would not be so bad. We stayed in a small traiditonal inn. This was our graduation trip and our budgets were kind of limited. This was my first time to visit Japan. The country was not foreign to me. I grew up watching its cartoons, reading its comic books, ate some of its food and of course, watching some of its porns. Sushi was my favourite food. At some point of time in university, I tried to learn Japanese, but soon found that the language was very difficult to master. I could only utter some simple words such as "sake", "maguro" etc., which I used once in a while when visiting some sushi restaurants. Other than these, practically, I could not converse in Japanese.
I stepped out to the cold night of Hokkaido and walked casually and slowly. I passed by some couples and soon recalled that Christmas was practically a couple holiday for loving couples in the country, just like Valentine's day. For a moment, I remembered my ex-girlfriend, Emma. We dated for a couple of years before she called it off citing that our relationship was not meant to be in the first place. I could not blame her. She was pretty much an open-minded person. She initiated sex most of the time, but I guessed my libido could not match hers.
I stopped at a tea shop to get a cup of Japanese green tea or "ocha" as the Japanese called it. It had stopped snowing and the wind was quite cold. I was walking along a small canal when I noticed a lady sitting walking slowly to the opposite direction. She was gorgeous with nice make-up and fair skin. She was around 1.6 m tall with shoulder-length hair.
I tried not to stare at her too obviously. I slowed down a little, but I guessed I was too mesmerised that she noticed my gaze. When she looked at me and our eyes met, I was nervous that I spilled some hot tea onto my right hand.
"Ouch!" I shouted insinctively feeling the heat. "Shit!"
"Gaijin!" she said. "Okay?"
I understood what she said. I was "gaijin" or foreigner. It was unmistakable. My blonde hair, my facial features and the English swear word that I just uttered showed it clearly.
"I'm okay! It's fine!" I said, looking at my red skin. When suddenly I realised that I was talking to a Japanese who might not understand English, I immediately said some simpler words.
"Okay!" I said while shownig a thumb up. "Daijoobu!" I added in simple Japanese.
She smiled and chuckled a little at my broken pronunciation.
"I understand English!" she said. "I spent a few years of my childhood in America."
"Your skin looks red!" she added. "It's quite late, but I know a convenience store. We can buy some lotion before it gets worse."
I followed her for a few minutes of walk. We chatted. Her name was Mai and she was a primary-school teacher in a local school. We found that she was a few years older than me. I was 23 years old while she was 28 years old. I bought some lotion which she recommended and found it soothing after applying it.
