As her plane landed in Tokyo, Carolina felt a mix of trepidation and elation. Finally, she had escaped her tiny hometown in Brazil. However, it meant leaving behind everyone she had ever known, in favor of a new country. She spoke fluent English but no Japanese. She knew this would be a problem, but fortunately, the modeling agency that had scouted her at a local mall had arranged for her to stay with another Western model, Lorena. Together, Carolina hoped, the two of them would bridge the cultural divide and acclimate to life in the East.
When she arrived at the specified apartment, however, there was no Lorena staying there. The model who would apparently be Carolina's roommate was a Japanese girl. Carolina introduced herself in English, hoping that Leiko spoke the language (and assuming she didn't speak Portuguese).
"Hi, my name Leiko. I help you fit in. Come," she commanded with a heavy Japanese accent.
Leiko gestured for Carolina to follow her to the foyer. There, she strapped her bare feet into a pair of sports sandals. As Leiko did so, Carolina noticed that Leiko's feet bore deep tan lines corresponding to the shoes' straps.
"You wear those often?"
"Yes, we all wear Tevas all time. You wear Tevas too." Leiko went into a nearby closet and produced a second pair, which she handed to Carolina.
"Umm, no thanks. I don't really like wearing sandals."
Leiko laughed. "You change you mind. You see."
The pair departed and went around the corner to another apartment building. They ascended a flight of stairs and knocked at the door. Two Japanese girls answered. Leiko hugged them and addressed them in Japanese. Carolina stood at the apartment's entrance way, seemingly unnoticed, for minutes while the girls talked among themselves in their native tongue.
Carolina, no shrinking violet, interjected to introduce herself to Leiko's friends. "Hello, my name is Carolina."
Leiko's friends looked at each other and covered their mouths while they guffawed. Leiko finally made the introductions. "This Chidzuyo, this Debuko."
The three promptly returned to their impenetrable conversation.
After standing around for several minutes while the Japanese girls socialized, Carolina observed them prepare to leave. Chidzuyo and Debuko strapped their bare feet into Tevas and, with Leiko, departed. There was no explicit invitation for Carolina, but, with nowhere else to go, she followed, as the group made its way to a restaurant.
The Japanese girls made no effort to include Carolina in the conversation en route to the restaurant or once they were seated. She sat there in silence, periodically picking up an English word, often used with derision. Finally fed up, Carolina stood. "Excuse me, Leiko, could I please have a key to the apartment? I'm going back."
Leiko looked aghast but handed her a key. Then, she returned to her conversation, not acknowledging Carolina as she left.
In the apartment, Carolina called the contacts she had at the modeling agency. One answered. Lorena, the contact explained, was gone, but Leiko would be a valuable role model for Carolina. She should show up the following day at the agency with Leiko, for orientation. It dawned on Carolina that she may have made a big mistake in accepting the agency's offer, though she ultimately concluded again that the opportunity to make something of her life was worth the travails she was experiencing.
A fitful night's sleep later, Leiko woke her. She was dressed and ready to leave. "Get up now! We go to agency!"
Carolina inhaled some cereal and quickly brushed her teeth, showered, and got dressed. She put on some slim, stylish pants and her favorite boots. Leiko, by the door, wore her Tevas again. She rolled her narrow eyes at Carolina's outfit.
At the agency, they were greeted - in Japanese - by an elegant Japanese woman in her early 30s. Leiko returned the greeting with some remark in Japanese, and the two laughed. Carolina sensed that it was her turn to speak. She extended a hand and said, "Nice to meet you. I'm Carolina." The woman visibly shuddered and turned away from Carolina, returning to her conversation with Leiko. After a moment, Carolina realized her hand would not be shook and retracted it, humiliated.
The woman left with Leiko. Carolina waited in the lobby of the agency for the rest of the morning. Around lunchtime, Leiko returned alone. "We go now." Bewildered, Carolina followed her.
"Could you please explain what happened? I was told to come here today. That agency paid for my flight and is paying for me to stay with you."
"She not like you."
"Why? All I did was say hello!"
"You too gaijin."
"So what?"
"Gaijin ugly and stupid. You not ready."
"For what? I was already hired!"
"You not ready model for Japan."
Carolina raised her voice. "Why did they hire me then?!?"
"Sometime, agency do that. Take girl, train her. We do that with you."
"What training? No one even talked to me!"
"I train you."
"OK, on what?"
"Fitting in."
"I don't even know what that means. What happens if I don't fit in?"
"They no pay anymore. You do something else."
"But I don't know anyone else here! I don't even speak Japanese! And I can't afford a flight back home!"
Leiko shrugged, but said no more. They returned to the apartment in silence.
Carolina spent the next several days in the apartment. Leiko came and went with her friends, including Chidzuyo and Debuko. No one made any effort to include Carolina in their activities, acting instead like she wasn't even there. Carolina's attempts to include herself were consistently rebuffed.
The isolation really upset Carolina. She came to envy those girls' closeness. And, come to think of it, they were all really pretty, with their tanned complexions and shimmering, long black hair. Even the way they all seemed to dress similarly was cute. The sound of velcro Teva straps fastening and unfastening became a regular companion, and Carolina found herself starting to like it.
Japanese culture was different, Carolina thought, but it was also amazing. She realized that Japan had no obligation to adapt to her - quite the opposite, actually. And adapting to this culture she was growing to love wasn't an inconvenience. It was a chance to become something new and beautiful.
For the first time in days, she left the apartment. She went around the corner to the nearest shoe store. "Time to start dressing like less of a gaijin," she thought to herself as she pointed the clerk to the pair of Tevas she intended to buy. A note of frisson crossed her body as she removed a boot, then a sock, then adjusted the series of straps that would hold the sandal to her foot. A second note crossed as she did the same to the other foot.
She paid the clerk, placed her boots in the box, and exited.
The wind blowing on her bare feet was a new and thrilling sensation. The periodic glimpses she caught of her feet in the sandals aroused her, as did the occasions when she came across throngs of Japanese girls of similar ages, many of whom also sported Tevas. Carolina felt like she was finally getting used to Japan.
While waiting the opportunity to cross a busy road, Carolina stood next to a stylish Japanese woman of about 25. Looking down, she saw that this woman, too, wore Tevas. The sight of her own Teva-clad feet against this woman's, though, reminded Carolina of her status as a foreigner - the woman's feet were several shades darker than Carolina's.
Carolina stopped off at the next tanning salon she came across, to address the issue.
She returned home.
She didn't see Leiko for another couple of days. Carolina spent the time wandering the city and growing increasingly enamored of the beautiful women there.
Enamor turned to respect. Japanese women weren't reserved, she grasped at last - they were refined and elegant. They were wary of outsiders because they had to be. to maintain the purity of their culture. With that realization came the realization that she desperately wanted to be part of that culture, permanently.
When Leiko returned to the apartment days later, she was greeted by Carolina kneeling before the entrance way, a total supplicant. Leiko looked with approval on the Tevas strapped to Carolina's feet and her now-olive complexion, and she was unsurprised when Carolina said with a bowed head, "Watashi wa nihonjindearu koto o tasukemasu, Leiko-sama."
Leiko nodded in acceptance.
Leiko brought her friends Chidzuyo and Debuko over to assist, and together, the girls helped Carolina shed her Western ways and fully assimilate. They drilled her relentlessly until she spoke flawless Japanese and English and Portuguese with a thick Japanese accent. That accomplished, Carolina declared that she would now be known as Chiyumi,
Leiko, Chidzuyo, and Debuko were thrilled to help Chiyumi with her hair. As the dye settled and replaced Chiyumi's blonde-brown color with a perfect black, she couldn't contain her excitement at her transformation.
Still, there was one aspect of her appearance that would forever mark her as gaijin, Chiyumi knew. Without a word, Leiko grasped Chiyumi's hand and gave it a gentle, knowing squeeze, then helped her to her feet. The girls then led Chiyumi out of the apartment and down the street, to a cosmetic surgeon's office.
The pain Chiyumi experienced as her eye pigment was altered from blue to a gorgeous brown didn't bother her in the slightest. Nor did the anesthesia or the dull ache she felt in her face when she woke up. Elation and anticipation mounted as she removed the bandages around her head, to the applause of her friends Leiko, Chidzuyo, and Debuko. Debuko handed her a mirror, and Chiyumi tentatively traced the slant that had been added to each of her eyes. A joyful tear slipped out of her now-almond-shaped eyes. Finally, she was Nippongo!
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