Lorena was ecstatic as she stepped off the plane at Narita International Airport. A week earlier, she was just a college student in Germany. A spotter for a modeling agency saw her on a football pitch and spun her a tale of a life of glamour, fame, and riches. In Japan. And so, Lorena bubbled with excitement as she stepped off the plane in Tokyo.
She walked through the arrivals gate and scanned the crowd. She was supposed to meet two American girls her age, Danielle and Caroline. The modeling agency had arranged for her to stay with Westerners while she adjusted to life in Japan. Fortunately, Lorena spoke fluent English. Instead of Americans, though, she saw two Japanese girls holding a sign with her name on it. Lorena approached them.
"You Rorena?" the one on the left said in heavily-accented English. She had long, straight black hair and olive complexion. On her feet were some sort of sports sandals.
Lorena nodded. The other girl then chimed in. "Good. You come with us now. We show you how be Japanese." Like her friend, she had long, straight black hair. She also wore sports sandals. "I Chidzuyo, this Debuko."
"So nice to meet you! I can't wait to get settled in!"
"Hmm-hmm," Debuko murmured. "Come now." The three left the airport and got on a Metro. Chidzuyo and Debuko grabbed the two available seats, leaving Lorena to stand in front of them.
For the whole trip, the two Japanese girls talked animatedly to themselves in their native tongue, leaving Lorena to stand silently in front of them in the crowded car. Unable to cope with the awkwardness, Lorena tried to interject.
"Do you two know the girls I was supposed to meet?" she asked.
"Hmm-hmm," Debuko murmured. Lorena took it as a yes. She also took it that no additional information on that subject was forthcoming.
"OK, great. Do you live in Tokyo?"
"Hmm-hmm."
"OK great..." Struggling for conversation, Lorena then asked, "Your sandals look pretty ... cool, I guess. Are they popular here?"
"These Tevas. Yeah they popular. You get a pair."
"No thanks, I've never worn sandals before."
The two girls looked at each other and giggled. Chidzuyo interjected in plain English, with a distinctly American accent, "Everyone wears Tevas here, bitch. You'll be wearing them within a week."
Lorena was stunned. What was going on here? She was silent for the rest of the trip, while her Japanese hosts chattered away in Japanese.
They arrived at the apartment. There was a spare bedroom for Lorena. For the next several days, she barely left it. Her hosts cruelly isolated her, speaking exclusively in Japanese and frequently making fun of her. Once, when Lorena asked where she could go to change her money to yen, Debuko mimicked her question in a deep, slow voice, her hands on either side of her face, pushing her eyes together to make them appear Western.
When Lorena checked in, the modeling agency had nothing for her to do for the next several weeks and suggested she just try to get used to living in Japan.
Later in the week, she broke down to her Japanese roommates. "Why are you guys so mean to me? You speak English! Why can't you just be nice to me?"
Chidzuyo answered. "You no fit in. You no even try. People in Japan fit in."
"I can fit in! Let's hang out! I'll show you!"
"Fine, we go out now."
"Right now?"
"Yeah. Me and Debuko meet friends at bar. You come."
"Umm, sure. Sounds great!" Lorena was excited at the chance to make some inroads towards friendship with the only two people she knew in Japan.
The girls got ready to go out. At the foyer into their apartment, Chidzuyo and Debuko each strapped her bare feet into Tevas, while Lorena put on her sneakers.
"Here, put these on," Debuko said, handing Lorena a spare pair of Tevas.
"No thanks. Not really into sandals, remember?"
"You stupid..." Debuko then said something in Japanese to Chidzuyo, who covered her mouth while she tittered.
The girls all left and headed down the street to the bar. Chidzuyo and Debuko's friends were waiting. They were all girls in their early 20s, all fashionably dressed. In Japan, Lorena was realizing, that meant that they were all wearing Tevas (some with socks, strangely).
Lorena sat on the side of the conversation, predictably excluded while the rest of the crowd chatted in Japanese. Her attempts to mingle with the other girls went nowhere.
Finally, Debuko got around to introducing Lorena, in English no less. "This Rorena. She German. She hate Japan."
"That's not true! I love Japan!"
"Hmm-hmm. Why you no dress like us?"
"What do you mean?"
"You no even wear sandals! Why?"
"I just don't want to! What difference does that make?" Lorena asked, indignant. The rest of the girls all started sniping at her in Japanese. Every so often, she caught one pointing at her and laughing.
When Lorena was on the brink of tears, Chidzuyo walked over to her. "Come on. Let's go get you some Tevas," she said, again bereft of the pidgin English accent she adopted nearly all the time.
Lorena nodded. She was ready to do what she had to to fit into this new country.
She and Chidzuyo left together and went to a nearby shoe store. Chidzuyo said something in Japanese to the clerk, who returned moments later with a shoe box for Lorena. She opened it and found a new pair of Tevas. Off came her sneakers and her socks, and into the sandals went her bare feet. Lorena adjusted the velcro straps until they gripped her feet perfectly, paid the clerk, put her sneakers in the box, and left with Chidzuyo. The warm afternoon air felt amazing on her bare feet.
She returned to the bar a changed lady. After the group complemented her on her new shoes, she actually began to laugh and joke with them, even in spite of the considerable language barrier. It wound up being a fantastic afternoon and night, and Lorena realized that she really could grow to love Japan, especially if she could continue to work towards fitting in.
Her efforts to learn Japanese intensified. Wearing Tevas daily left her feet bronzen, obliterating the lifelong sock tan she once sported. Her relationships with Chidzuyo and Debuko thawed as they acknowledged her efforts.
Over time, Lorena came to cherish Japanese culture. She was even envious of the ease with which Chidzuyo and Debuko interacted with Tokyo, a place where Lorena was still a stranger. Lorena was determined to shed her Western style and ways.
They were more than willing to dye Lorena's, or Leiko, as she asked to be called from then on, hair. As the gaijin light brown washed out of her hair, replaced with a glorious, deep black, Leiko approached orgasm.
Leiko knew that someone looking at her hair or her clothes or speaking to her would think she was Japanese, and the thought was powerfully erotic. Still, one look into her blue eyes would clue that person in.
Fortunately, Debuko had some extra money for just such a purpose. As a needle pierced her eye and injected brown pigment, Leiko fantasized about her new life. Later, after waking up from surgery, she opened her now-almond-shaped eyes and saw her two best friends, Debuko and Chidzuyo, waiting by the hospital bed. They handed her a mirror. Admiring the Japanese visage facing her, Leiko said, "Watashi wa totemo utsukushiku miemasu!"
Debuko really was happy to introduce Leiko to life as a Japanese girl. But she was also happy to have met her obligations. Out of earshot of Leiko, she phoned the modeling agency. "She's ready," she whispered into the receiver.
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