24 Apr The glasses and the Kangaroo
The Glasses and the Kangaroo
Tokyo, Japan is an extraordinary place, especially in the spring. This season is known as “cherry blossom season”. The subtropical island blesses the already beautiful city and nature parks with a pink blooming of “sakura”. And this was the perfect time to welcome the school semester and freshmen. Two freshmen, to be more specific.; Mark and Ana. The American-Japanese school boy who was getting a little tired of biology books and the wildfire blonde girl from Australia. The shared very little in common but they were about to make an impact in each others life.
Mark stood 6 foot, he spent most of his free time growing up nose-deep inside a book. He just moved from Los Angeles, California and was very familiar with Japan, this was a homecoming to him. On his way to pick up his first class schedule he walked towards the registrar office which was a tiny building surrounded by a pathway with rows of cherry blossom trees in bloom. The tone emitted was breathtaking but he didn’t think much of it as he was a native. Finally he strolled and arrived but something caught his eye. The track and sports facility resided right behind the registrar office and he’d never seen it before so it peaked his curiosity. Submitting to it, he walked towards it and noticed the women track team was out conditioning for the season. He rembered the prestige surrounding the decorated team and took a seat on the bleachers to spectate. He witnessed all these beautifully talented women pouring their heart out and became impressed. After 15 minutes or so, he got up and returned to his stride, he had to eat something before he began the arduous medical curriculum. As he walked turning his head looking at the track, he hit a small deer. It felt this way because although whatever he struck it was damn strong and sturdy. Or maybe something hit him?
Ana was an Aussie native and moved to Tokyo because of her love of sprinting. She didn’t speak lick of Japanese but that didn’t discourage her, she didn’t mind being a lone wolf, or i guess a lone “Kangaroo” in her position. Ana stood 5 foot 9 inches and had spoke english and Australian gibberish. She was understandably distant to people because she sort of had baggage in her life, due to an incident involving family. When she first arrived she was fucking astonished at the sheer natural beauty. The most intriguing aspects revolved around the culture and historical architecture. Her first week, she often explored the city as it is literal stimulus overdose, it is an enchanted outdoor casino with buildings, traffic and shoulder to shoulder packed walkways. Ana was so in to it, she liked the adventure as she used to ride horses and play with animals in her home farm. Tokyo was just a different kind of farm with many short mammals (humans). On her first day of classes, she showed up early to pick up her class schedule as she needed to begin warm-up with her collegiate top notch sprinting team. Once she arrived, she noticed the cherry blossoms blooming around the sports facility. Once inside the locker room, she noticed something curious…the room was empty. Like a lighting bolt struck down her spine, she jolted, she noticed she was super late for her first day of training. In a heated hurry she dumped out her sports bag and swapped outfits like a pro. Already she worked up a sweat and paced with her eyes looking down hoping no one saw her. In an quick flash….she struck what felt like mount Fuji. Bang!
As Mark shook his head as if to gather his orientation, he slowly looked up, starting with track shoes in front of him, track shorts, track shirt, and finally, a beautiful girl. Mark the geek he was raised to be nearly bursted his aorta, he’d never seen anything like this woman. He couldn’t contain his Japanese shriek “Kuso!!!!”, that means fuck by the way. Ana reacted with a scream as well “Bloody bastard!” Its the equivalent for “fool” in American english.
“It’s my fault, sorry about that” said Ana, as she felt responsible for being in such a hurry. Mark was blood shot red at this point.
“I-t-It’s okay don’t worry about it” Said Mark.
Ana looked at his face and became surprised that he could speak english, she also thought he seemed like a nerd, mostly due to his glasses.
After a few words, they somehow became acquainted and swapped numbers. It was mostly Mark as he was truly infatuated by Ana.
As the semester went by, they often texted . As finals came and left, they worked hard but it was finally time to celebrate the end of their first semester. Mark begun to notice Ana’s texts began to fade signs of interest and eventually stopped answering him. He was quite devastated, he’d only spent more time texting his mother. He made a bold move and called her to ask her out to “Setsubun” a Japanese party/celebration of throwing beans in order to ward off evil spirit. He didn’t believe in superstitions as he was a man of science, thus his subject of study, but he did think it ironic that he made move to “ward off” her dry texts towards him.
It was night time and they visited Fukushima because it was the place to be for the occasion, it was lively and beautifully decorated with Japanese pots and lanterns. Ana met up with him and suggested drinking, and Mark was all in for it, he was increasingly tired of being uptight and desired turning a leaf. AS the laughs came, they sipped on Sapporro and Sake. They danced and shucked beans at people on the street, but its okay because everybody was in on it. Ana and Mark became tired so they sat on a bench beneath a tree with lights wrapped around it. Mark had grown tipsy so he asked her what was going on, and Ana decided it was time to come clean. Ana explained how she was afraid of getting close people, she explained how having her father pass away in a cattle rescue mission deeply hurt her. It was at this point that Ana’s eyes watered up. She told him she wanted to be alone. Mark listened and realized he was about to lose the very best thing that had happened to him in his short nerdy life, I mean seriously, this girl was a babe. Mark was a different man, he was tired of his authoritarian bringing up, he was tired of being told what to do. He took of his glasses and Ana realized that Mark was actually a very attractive man and in a split second, he acted…he kissed Ana.
4 years after the “Setsubun” night and Mark was receiving offers for his residency for medicine and Ana was interviewing at an advertising firm. They had grown into professionals. Ana was stretching for her sprint, she has an important race that day. As she approaches the bench, she picks up a bouquet from a man and kisses him. Mark says “good luck my little kangaroo!!” And she chuckles. They make a great team.
