Gimai Seikatsu

I heard a sound that pulled me out of my dream and back to reality in my dark room. The alarm I had set earlier was ringing. I hurriedly stopped it and turned on the lights inside my room. The legs I stretched out beyond my blanket immediately felt cold. It was currently 4 am during the mid-winter season. It was still two more hours until the sun would start to rise. However, we had to meet up at Narita Airport at 7 am. In other words, we had to leave the house at 5, or we wouldn’t make it in time.

That being said… Man, it’s cold. Since I set the alarm early enough to give myself a reasonable buffer, I can just take my time and—My thoughts were interrupted as someone hammered on my door. It was my old man asking “You awake in there?” which made me gasp. That was close. I almost fell asleep again.

“I’m awake!” I responded.

I jumped up from my bed and started changing. I barged inside the bathroom to wash my face, only to almost bump into Ayase-san. She had already finished her makeup and everything, as you’d expect of her. We exchanged quick greetings and passed each other. I finished washing my face and brushing my teeth in about five minutes. We seated ourselves at the dining table at around half past 4 am, perfectly on schedule. Akiko-san, who had come home not too long ago, was still wearing her work clothes as she prepared breakfast for us.

“Shouldn’t you be getting some sleep, Mom?” Ayase-san asked, but Akiko-san just returned a smile.

“It’s no problem. I can get enough sleep after I see you two off. I actually left work earlier than usual because I wanted to see you one last time before I don’t get to see you again the next three days,” she said and pushed a large plate our way.

On top of it were ten rice balls, all wrapped with seaweed.

“Here you go. I figured something simple to eat would be best, so I went with rice balls. They’re packed full of delicious goodness. I’ll get out the miso soup, too.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

Ayase-san and I both thanked her in unison as we started eating. Meanwhile, my old man sat down across the table, swallowing a yawn.

“Do you think you can make it in time?”

Ayase-san and I nodded. We stuffed our cheeks with rice balls and drank the miso soup. Our goal was to take the Yamate line that passed through Shibuya station at roughly half past 5 am. Once we finished our breakfast, we checked our belongings one last time and then left the apartment.

“Don’t rush too much!”

“Be careful, okay?”

My old man and Akiko-san saw us off with cheerful voices as we stepped inside the elevator. I took out my phone and checked the time. It was 5 am flat. If nothing bad happens, we should make it in time. As the elevator slowly descended, both Ayase-san and I sighed in unison. We dragged our heavy suitcases to Shibuya station and then checked ourselves one more time as we sat inside the train.

“Think we’ll make it?”

“Should… be fine,” I responded to Ayase-san’s question.

We have to change trains once in Nippori, but as long as nothing causes a delay, we’ll arrive at the 2nd building of the Narita Airport at 6:40. That should bring us to our gathering point in time.

Since the sun hadn’t even begun to rise, the inside of the train was completely empty. The seats were still cold as Ayase-san and I sat down next to each other. Normally, we’d pretend to be strangers during a situation like this, but with our first trip overseas about to happen, neither of us could afford this much leisure. At the same time, it was probably because we were fine if people found out that we were siblings… as long as we’re careful to not reveal that our relationship goes beyond that.

…Or so we made excuses as we moved together like this as we sat together until the train reached Narita Airport. We pulled our suitcases along as we hurried to the gathering point. From the long elevator ride, we walked down the sparkly-clean floor that lit up from the ceiling lights, onwards to the meeting room. From afar, we could see our school’s familiar uniforms, so we split our paths here. Sure, we didn’t mind if people found out, but we weren’t exactly trying to help them find out, either.

Ayase-san’s back was starting to grow more distant with each step, as I stood still to create a slight distance between us. The students of Suisei High split up into their classes and formed lines, and I spotted a large boy in the line for my own class—It’s Maru. He saw me approaching and raised his hand to wave at me.

“Morning, Maru,” I greeted him and stopped right after him in line.

“Yo! Sure took your time, eh?”

“I still think I’ve got plenty of leeway, though.”

When I answered his remark, he pointed at the outside of the meeting room.

“What are you saying? Do you even know how many plane take-offs you missed so far?”

It seemed like Maru’s heart was tickled by the romance of the airport.

“The sun’s only slowly starting to rise. Just what were you looking at, anyway?”

“Asamura… You don’t understand the beauty and graciousness of an airport at night, do you? The two lines of guiding lights blink like Christmas lights, as the plane’s nose slowly pushes upward into the sky, with the wing and tail lights of the planes gradually growing smaller until they vanish completely. And such beautiful scenery has been on repeat here.”

“What a poet. That’s what you were watching this whole time?”

“I was keeping the line in check so I couldn’t watch.”

Then what was the whole point of that comment?

“By the way, do you know the movie ‘Airport ‘75’?”

“Haven’t heard of it. Is it set at an airport or something?”

“It’s a movie where the pilot can’t control the steering of the plane any longer and they have to perform an emergency landing.”

“Could you not?”

I’d rather not hear about any air disaster films right before boarding a plane. After this quick banter, the head teacher of the student year repeated the same usual safety warnings to us endlessly, and we finally started to board the plane. We moved through the small testing area that had been recently built to check for any illnesses and then spread out inside the airport. The bigger luggage was checked by personnel and placed on the corresponding lane, which would now be loaded onto the plane. It’s farewell to all that until we safely land again. I just hope it doesn’t end up as lost luggage—basically belongings or other objects that didn’t get loaded on the plane for various reasons.

And thinking about that, I realized how nervous I had really been about this whole trip. Then again, this’ll be my first time going overseas, as well as my first time taking a plane somewhere. By the time we finished checking in, it was already 8 am. We had roughly one hour left until departure. After our carry-on luggage went through the x-ray check, we then had to go through the metal detector. Taking off our shoes for this was honestly pretty annoying. What about the people who like to wear those super difficult-to-tie big boots on their trip? And why am I worried about those people in the first place?

With all that cleared, all of Suisei High’s second years started walking toward the boarding gate. Then again, with this many people, we only moved along at a snail’s pace. But we were slowly making our way towards the plane. Ayase-san should be somewhere inside this crowd, but since our classes are different, I couldn’t see her.

“Sure is huge, though.”

One of the boys walking next to me—Yoshida, who’ll also be a part of my group on this field trip—commented, which made me turn to my side and look outside the window. Sunrise today was at around half past 6 am, which was a good 90 minutes ago, so we could clearly see what was going on outside. Spreading endlessly outside the window was the runway. Seeing the planes that you’d normally witness soaring through the sky moving like cars on the ground sure felt weird. Even the one closest to us looked exactly as I’d imagined, but it was much larger than I had imagined. It’s just as Maru said. These things are huge. The employees walking alongside the planes simply looked like ants gathering around a cake. But when I said that aloud, Yoshida gave me a dubious look.

“Cake? Are you hungry or something?”

“It’s just what I thought of. That’s the kind of scale I pictured.”

“Asamura, you say the funniest stuff sometimes.”

“Really? I think it’s perfectly normal.”

After talking with Yoshida and the people from my group some more, I realized that using comparative speech and metaphorical expressions isn’t exactly what most people do. The few friends I have like Maru or Yomiuri-senpai are all a lot smarter than me, and our conversations always end up this way. And even Ayase-san, who might have struggled with Japanese a bit here and there, is the kind of person to hold psychological and ethical thoughts, so our way of speaking and what we talk about really resemble each other.

To me, Yoshida, who struggles to keep up with metaphorical expressions, is the exception… But that’s probably true for both of us. Either way, we might not talk to each other much normally, but I wanted to take this chance to get to know people I rarely speak with. And when I think of having to talk with the foreigners I’m about to meet, then this isn’t a big problem at all.

“It seems like our luggage goes up there.”

Maru’s comment made me look up, and I saw a luggage space above us. It wasn’t a line of pipes like you’d see in a train, but more like a locker with a separate door for it. And I could tell that taking it out later would be a pain. But I’m guessing that this is to keep the luggage tight and secure in case the plane shakes. But how much would it have to shake for that to happen?—is a thought that crossed my mind, but I quickly shook my head. I wonder if they’ll let us open these lockers mid-flight? I kinda doubt it. I’d like to keep at least my phone and nausea medicine close to me… Oh, right. I have my knapsack. It said in a guidebook that keeping both hands free as a tourist is a lot more convenient. While I was thinking this, Maru bumped his shoulder against mine.

“Hey, give me your luggage, I’ll put it in there.”

“Sorry, give me a second.”

I handed him my larger bag after taking out all the things I’d need, placing them in my smaller carry-on. Now I shouldn’t have to go through any of my other luggage mid-flight. And with a glance around me, I could tell that other passengers were preparing themselves the same way. After we switched places, Maru placed my suitcase inside the luggage locker. After that, I sat down on my seat and placed my bag on me.

I sigh escaped my lips as I sunk deeper into my seat, glancing outside and listening to the sounds I could hear around me. The small grumbling sound I could pick up between my classmates’ chattering must be the engine. It really feels like the plane’s been vibrating this whole time. And if it can make a lump of metal like this constantly shake, then the power it packs must be amazing—A lump of metal, huh? Can it really fly?

Yet again, I found my nerves on edge. Maybe I should just close my eyes and sleep right away. I checked the time shown inside the plane, which told me there were still 15 minutes left until takeoff. That much time plus my severe lack of sleep means I might really be able to doze off. I took my phone out of my bag to check something and just then Maru spoke up.

“That’s a waste, Asamura. You’re going to see this for the first time, so make sure you don’t regret missing out on it later.”

“But I might regret seeing it, too.”

“The fact that it’s your first time is more important. It’s the same with anime and s, right?”

I guess that’s true. Even if you read a with a shocking revelation or plot twist at the end, the impact is only really significant the first time you read it.

“Once you get used to it, taking off in a plane just becomes mundane. And the scenery outside will just look like either Narita or Haneda.”

“Really?”

“I think so, at least.”

Hey now, that’s awfully vague. And his broad statement that everything will eventually look the same and thus lower your admiration for it is probably just a rephrased explanation of what it means to get used to something. That’s sort of boring, actually. Normally, it should be different every single time. Like a takeoff in the morning should have its perks compared to landing in the evening, and so on. Even just departing with clear weather like we had right now should be fundamentally different from taking off during bad weather.

Similarly, even as the days change and time moves forward, the gaze I have when looking at things around me changes. As such, every scene I see should be a tiny bit different. And even so, at one point, you start feeling dull towards that change, and start saying that everything feels the same, so treasuring this ‘first time’ is probably more important than I gave it credit for.

Finally, an announcement came over the plane’s loudspeakers, stating that we were about to take off. Making excuses once again, I fought against the fear creeping up within me and looked outside the window. Since we were seated a bit behind the wing, I couldn’t see too far ahead of me, but plane windows are relatively small to begin with, so there wasn’t much to gaze at. At the start it was just like a car speeding up. I could just see much farther outside the window. The distance to the small forest and tiny buildings in the distance didn’t feel real.

I heard that a plane speeds up to 3000km/h when it’s about to take off, which means we’re reaching the same speed as the bullet train with such a giant object… But it still felt pretty crazy. Man, I’m even being pushed inside the seat… Oh? Are we speeding up even more? I looked outside the window again and saw that the ground was flying past even faster. This is… a bit too fast, right? The ground looked like it had just melted into a grey paste.

While I was pressed further into the seat, the scenery outside the window changed. The head of the plane had gone up into the air, the view outside turning into pretty much only just sky. With my back still pressed into my seat, I realized this pressure must be even crazier if I was on a rocket. I tasted the sensation of being a part of a science-fiction as the plane completely took off the ground.

“The view down low’s amazing.”

“Down low?”

Hearing Yoshida’s comment, who was seated behind me, I looked out the window on the right side, which offered us a view of the ground. Overwhelmed, I let out a voice of admiration. All the buildings and roads had shrunk to the point where it was impossible to distinguish them apart. The forest reminded me of broccoli, and it turned more into a lump of green, the trees inside the streets like small dots of green on a large map. My feeling of solidity had vanished completely, too. I swallowed my breath as we slowly moved further away from solid ground. Even the smaller roads began to vanish as only the bullet train’s railroad stood out like a blood vessel.

And right after, the entire view turned white, making me realize that we had just passed through a cloud. The sights in the far distance vanished inside this grey-ish world, and the wing next to the window periodically vanished and reappeared. This continued for a while, and we finally made it out of this white mush and into a world like we had just dove straight into the water. The entire view outside turned blue. The plane had become a lot more stable compared to before, but we were still going up. As the plane moved through the blue sky, a gaze downward revealed the Pacific Ocean adjacent to the coastline. This was normally something you’d only get to see on a map: The contour of the archipelago reaching from Ibaraki to Chiba, with Inubousaki as its summit.

“It really is… like on the maps.”

This really is something I’ve only seen for the first time. I’m glad I got to see it for myself.

“What are you blabbering about now, Asamura?”

“I mean, I was just impressed that it has the same shape as all the maps I’ve seen.”

“If a map didn’t reflect the accurate geographical state, then what else would we believe in…?”

“I’m saying that it only set in just now.”

“Great experience, eh?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I would have missed out if I didn’t see this.”

Maru grinned like he had been proven right, but I glanced outside the window once more. I’m thankful I got to experience this, but… I really wish the plane wasn’t shaking quite as much during the liftoff.

Soon enough, I fell asleep, only to be woken by Maru shaking me gently. When I opened my eyes, I realized that the plane had landed and was already taxiing down the end of the runway.

“You kept your seat belt on that entire time. Wasn’t that uncomfortable?” He asked with a bewildered sigh.

“Well, I fall asleep a lot in my dad’s car. Though he gets angry at me sometimes because when the copilot falls asleep, it makes the driver just as sleepy.”

Now that I think about it, Akiko-san was talking with my old man the whole drive back during New Year’s. I guess that was her way of looking after him.

“You slept for seven whole hours, though.”

“I slept that long?”

“Like a rock.”

That means I must have pretty much slept the whole flight. And if memory serves me right, that’s how long the flight was supposed to be. I don’t remember eating anything, either. What a shame. Still, I took out my smartphone and checked the time—3 pm. Hm? We departed at 9 am, so… only six hours have passed? But then I remembered that it was because my phone matched the local time here in Singapore, and there’s a one-hour difference between Japan and here. In Japan, it should be 4 pm right about now, and evening. But since we traveled west, we still had plenty of sunlight left.

I heard that the highest temperature recorded in February could be above 30°C. Since we were still inside the thick airplane, I didn’t feel much of the sunlight from outside, but I did feel a faint warmth. Probably because we came from Japan, where it’s mid-winter right about now. We were told we could remove our seatbelts again after the safe landing, so I did just that, got up, and looked around. Everyone was preparing to get off the plane. The classmates sitting next to the aisle in the center of the plane were grabbing their belongings already.

“Maru, Asamura, here you go.”

Maru and I accepted our sports bags from the person sitting near the corridor.

“Aye.”

“Thanks.”

And once we gathered all our belongings, we thanked the flight attendant standing next to the gate who saw us off and entered the airport ahead of us.

Singapore Changi Airport—What was the difference between this airport that greeted us at 3 pm local, and the Narita Airport that saw us off a few hours ago? To be honest, I couldn’t tell any difference, to the point that it made me wonder if we had really gone overseas. The only difference was the strong sunlight entering through the windows.

“This really is Singapore, right?”

“Are you still half-asleep, Asamura?”

“But…”

“Do you see any Japanese around you?”

…Ah. That is true. Back at Narita Airport, there were signs translated into countless languages to really show off that it was an international airport, but unlike there, I couldn’t find any Japanese signs or kanji anywhere. In fact, the majority of signs I spotted were in English, followed by Chinese. Seeing these two as the majority was also probably why this was regarded as an international airport, but here in Singapore, the official languages are English, Malay, Chinese, and Tamil, so that’s probably all it is. Then again, other than the alphabet and kanji, I don’t know any other foreign writing systems, so I probably just don’t consciously notice them.

“It really feels like we made it overseas,” I voiced my genuine feelings, but Maru just gave me a dubious look along the lines of ‘Only now?’.

We took the same procedures as during our boarding process but just in reverse, as we lined up at the Changi Airport waiting area. After a moment, the head teacher guided us to the hotel where we would be staying (and thankfully all students got their correct luggage). We took a bus leaving from the airport, which took us along the coast for the next twenty minutes.

The hotel where we were to stay was about two floors tall, split into buildings separated between boys and girls. And one room fit three people, which meant that Maru, Yoshida, and I would be staying together. That was the main reason we were told to form groups of six consisting of three boys and three girls. And while we traveled to the hotel in our bus, I was finally allowed to take in all the scenery around us. More than anything, each country has its own unique smell. For example, staying overseas for a long time only to return to Japan makes the scent of soy sauce and miso even stronger.

However, if it’s your first time visiting a country, you’ll probably struggle to figure out where this distinct smell is coming from. You’ll only realize that something is different from your home country. And since your sense of smell is the sense that adjusts the quickest, this discrepancy vanishes as quickly as it came. Finally, we reached the hotel room. We placed our belongings and moved everything we needed into our smaller personal bags.

“Make sure to register for the free Wifi here,” Maru said, as Yoshida panicked and asked how that worked. “Didn’t I write it down for you in the guidebook?” He grumbled, but Yoshida just played it off with a clumsy smile.

I had already finished setting that up when we arrived at the airport. In Singapore, the government offers a free wifi service, actually. It’s mostly used for public institutions, but traveling students like us should probably set it up right away.

“Anyway, let’s head out, Yoshida, Asamura.”

Led by our esteemed group leader Maru, we went back down to the lobby, spotting the gathering of Suisei High’s 2nd-years, then joined our own class, and finally split up into groups. The teachers then told us when dinnertime was and told us when we had to be back at the latest, all the typical stuff. Granted, I doubt these warnings reached most of the students who were already beyond themselves with excitement, but the guidebook had all the detailed information marked down anyway, so it shouldn’t cause any problems… probably.

Plus, the first day consisted of the whole student year visiting three tourist spots that the school offered as options, so we won’t be moving around independently, either. And to reach these places, we had to take the shuttle buses here. Basically, we’d head somewhere, then we had some amount of free time to check out the area, and then we’d gather up to take the bus out again.

We met up with the three girls from our group and then hopped on the bus. The first stop for today was the National Museum of Singapore¹. It was a western-themed building consisting of two floors with a large round dome on top of the center building. That could be a planetarium or an observatory, but I’m not too sure. Or is it just shaped like that as an architectural choice?

By the time we reached the front of the building, it was already 5 pm. In Japan, this was around when the sun would set. But in Singapore, that only happened at roughly 7:20 pm, so we had plenty of sunlight left.

“The history gallery closes at 6, so we should start with that first,” Maru suggested, so we followed suit and made our way to the history section.

At the entrance, we ran into another group and stayed with them. The guide who just sent off a group of tourists then turned towards us with a smile. I figured they’d be showing us around while speaking English, but…

“Good evening, everyone. You must be the students from Japan, correct? My name is Wan, and I will be showing you around now. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

To my surprise, the young man greeted us in fluent Japanese as he began the tour.

“His Japanese is a lot more fluent than what I could manage with my English…”

I had to agree with Maru’s comment, but that wasn’t the end of the surprises. After the guide finished showing us around, he then greeted another group of students with flawless Chinese, beginning his explanation with what I thought for sure was a native accent. Upon witnessing this, even Maru was surprised. Just how many languages does this legend speak? After thoroughly enjoying the gallery until closing time, we had 15 minutes until the next shuttle bus would arrive. We figured we might as well check out the museum’s inner garden, so we took a stroll there.

Around the same time, the sky began turning orange from behind the eastern bloc. The sharp sunrays had gotten weaker compared to earlier this day, but the temperature of the air showed no signs of cooling down, and I could feel a bit of sweat building on my body by just walking. The humidity was also fairly high. Though it’s not as bad as Japan’s summer season, at least. The girls in our group were busy discussing which sunscreen to use. As we made it through the grassy path and returned to the museum’s front entrance, we spotted a crowd of people. Wondering what that was about, we approached them, and we heard someone singing from the center.

“A street performance, eh?” Maru said, and the girls said they wanted to check it out. “Well, we don’t have too much time left, so it’s better than heading off elsewhere.”

Receiving permission from the group leader, we entered the ring of people. Inside the crowd was a woman with a guitar on her lap, sitting on a plastic chair. A cord was connected from the guitar to a nearby speaker. At her feet, she had a small box for money, filled with coins and bills.

“What a soothing voice…”

“And she’s so pretty!”

I heard the girls whispering nearby, and I had to agree. She had long, blonde hair and almond-shaped, black eyes. Her facial features were very good-looking, probably of south-Asian origin. Her body possessed a healthy and natural tan, which earned her admiration from men and women alike. And it seemed like she was singing in English… In fact, I felt like I had heard this song before.

“With recent SG acoustic guitars, it’s either about getting in the masses or going your own way. And with this familiarity, it’s why she’s getting viewers like this,” Maru commented.

“Do you know the song?”

“It’s pretty famous, y’know? Pretty sure you must have heard it before. It’s ‘El Cóndor Pasa,’ made known worldwide by Simon & Garfunkel. It was originally a south-American song of the people, but you sometimes hear it played at schools in Japan when classes end.”

I swear, Maru’s otaku knowledge reaches into the weirdest specific areas at times. Well, I could tell that it was folk music from South America, at least. As for the woman, she had a great vocal range, and even an amateur like me could tell how good she was. After that first song ended, she switched to one with a sharper rhythm.

“You know this one, too?”

“No clue. It’s probably music from around here, no?”

Around here… means Singapore, huh? But instead of sounding like a popular song that could make it overseas, it felt more like folk music again. The volume of her voice almost felt like it was pressing against me, as it filled me with vigor. The way she played her guitar was also more radical than before.

“I see how it is. Drawing people in by playing a familiar song only to then reveal the real deal,” Maru spoke like he was analyzing a military move.

A round of applause came from everyone, as several people put some money in the box in front of the woman. Since you’d rather see people doing something similar online to receive donations, it felt a bit old-school to witness such a street performance. But I’m glad this tradition hasn’t died out.

“Melissa… huh?” Maru narrowed his eyes as he muttered something to himself.

That sounds like a foreign name.

“The singer?”

“Yeah. Though I’m not entirely sure.”

Tracing Maru’s gaze, he was looking at a sign standing next to the woman, which had a bit of information about her written on it. I’m shocked he could read something that small.

“You mean that small text up there?

“No, that’s too small. I’m guessing it’s some kind of permit to perform here. If you don’t display that at places like these, you get taken in by the police. But the one below it has her name, see?”

“Yeah.”

So he was talking about the sign. I would have loved to listen some more, but since our bus would be arriving soon, we had to return to the parking lot. And by the time the entire sky had turned orange, we made it back to the hotel.

Today’s dinner happened in the restaurant located in the lobby area on the 4th floor. Since you could get there from both hotels, this is where the boys and girls grouped up again. It was a buffet, which also had Japanese food, but I wanted to take this chance to try out some foreign dishes. What was especially good were the southern fruit dishes. They had a lot of fruits that hadn’t quite made their way to Japan yet. Though I guess mangos have become more common over the past few years. I used the wifi inside the hotel to look up the ingredients while filling my plate. Flat peaches, rambutan, mangosteen, and sugar-apples… I wonder if they’ll ever find their way to Japan.

“Everyone, please lend me an ear while you enjoy your dinner. I’d like to once again repeat the safety orders—” The head teacher’s voice interrupted all private conversation.

Unlike today, tomorrow we won’t be going to places the school suggests. Instead, we’ll be dividing into smaller groups to check the places we as a group had decided upon, which was why the teachers were especially pushy with their warnings. After we finished dinner, we were free to return to our rooms and take our baths, as well as head to bed after. Until it was lights-out time, Maru and Yoshida went adventuring inside the hotel. Those sporty folks really have endless endurance, I swear. I, for one, was tired, so I stayed in my room. I let the indoor AC cool my body as I gazed at the scenery outside the window.

I’m guessing it’s because the day started late, but the lights in the town were still on for the most part. Looking down at it like this, the scenery wasn’t all too different from Japan’s major cities, and yet I was currently in a completely foreign country. It honestly didn’t feel real. I think my old man mentioned something like this before. Something like he never would have expected me, his own son, to be heading overseas for his field trip. Back in their generation, the schools in the Kanto region generally went to Kyoto or Nara, I think. I was told that transportation and communication were a lot more limited back then, but I guess to him, he never would have imagined that we’d travel this far for a simple field trip.

“Then that means…”

The generation after us—our children—will travel even further. Even beyond just overseas… In the distant sky, I could see the moon slowly beginning to rise. But even so, I don’t think we’ll be traveling there anytime soon. Though it is the closest place in space from our perspective. Or maybe humanity will surpass all my expectations, and I’ll be sitting down with my children to tell them how “simple” things were back in our days… Also, why am I just blindly assuming that I’ll be having kids? There are a lot of other things to take care of before I can even think of that. I shook my head to rid myself of these thoughts and thought back on the day.

It was a stressful day, that’s for sure. Together with my very first plane flight, I encountered so many odd things that made me stop and think, and not just once. But even so, we just went from point A to point B and wandered between buildings and vehicles, so I can’t really say I’ve got to know Singapore already. If there was any difference compared to Japan that I felt, then it must be the plants and vegetation growing here. The shape and color of flowers, the growth of green around me, and the way the trees were formed all had slight differences compared to what I was used to in Japan.

And this was the overall biggest difference I picked up throughout the day. Probably because it’s a lot farther south than where I was used to. Other than that, I think the scent of air is different. And the sounds of my environment when walking down the street, as well as the music playing in public. And the letters on the billboards all around me. The cars driving down the street, the modern buildings, and the interior design of the houses aren’t too big of a difference.

What about smartphones? Tourists weren’t the only ones who came to the museum, and I bet a lot of people from Singapore came to visit there, too, but they all used their phones as cameras or dictionaries, which made me realize that some things never change no matter where you go. Nowadays, electronic devices like phones are a necessity no matter where you live.

And during that train of thought, my gaze dropped down to my phone. The LINE icon entered my view. Ever since we split up this morning, Ayase-san and I haven’t seen each other. We may be staying at the same place, but our classes are different, and so are our activities. Since I get to see her face daily, I’m now beginning to feel like something is missing.

I tapped my finger on the LINE icon and booted up the app. I clicked on Ayase-san’s profile picture inside the row of chats, reading the last message we sent each other. I wonder what she’s doing right now? Since we had free wifi here, I played with the idea of sending her a message. But I stopped myself, figuring that she might be having fun talking with Narasaka-san and the others in their room. Getting a message during that time might make the others suspicious… or maybe I’m just thinking too much? It could just be from her parents or a friend, right? And on top of that, I remembered what we did just yesterday.

‘We might not be able to see each other for the next four days, right? So, well…’

We used the fact that our parents wouldn’t be able to see us as an excuse, riddled with guilt, but we still couldn’t hold back our desires. If so, then maybe Ayase-san might be feeling lonely because I didn’t send her a single message throughout the day… And more than that, I just want to hear her voice. If I can’t even get that, then I’d at least like to talk a bit. When we were all walking around together this afternoon, I didn’t really have much time to think about all that, but now that I’m sitting here alone like this, this desire came dwelling up inside of me.

But she’s with Narasaka-san. And considering how sharp she can be, she might just go full detective mode, saying stuff like ‘Hey, who was that? Is it your older brother? It must be, right! Man, you sure are loved, you damn little sister!’ by simply hearing the notification from Ayase-san’s phone. And then she’d go into full teasing mode.

“That’s… entirely possible.”

I could easily see her say that. Then again, not sending her a message for that reason is a bit strange. I can’t be hung up on Narasaka-san if it means making Ayase-san feel lonely. So for that reason, I should really take the initiative here. Right as I went to start typing a message, the door swung open, with Maru and Yoshida barging into the room together with a loud ‘We’re back!’.

“I-I’m back…”

Maru gave me a dubious look as he saw me acting flustered.

“That’s our line, right?”

“Sorry, I misspoke. Welcome back.”

“Aye, that we are.”

“You should have come with us, Asamura. The convenience stores here are hella interesting!” Yoshida said, swinging a plastic bag around.

It seems like they visited the convenience store on the hotel premises. A bit ridiculous that their final destination to adventure this new world would be a regular convenience store. They then went to the table in the room and spread out the contents of the bag, which turned out to be sweets.

“…Don’t we have most of these back in Japan?”

“They’re actually a bit different.”

From then on, Maru and Yoshida told me about all the exciting discoveries they had made in this foreign hotel, giving me no opportunity to return to typing my message. Eventually, it was time for lights out, and the first day of the field trip came to an end.

1While looking this up, I spotted a Museum of Ice Cream. Boys, we’re going to Singapore. https://www.museumoficecream.com/singapore