Chapter 1
Yokohama, autumn 1994
The hot, humid summer had been over now for several weeks and the cicadas had finally stopped singing. The maples were now in their brilliant red that could be seen all across Japan and always caused great excitement. Soon tourists from all over the world would be visiting Kyoto.
It was another busy day at Hiratsuka station: some steps along-side an escalator that led up between department stores. There were announcements about trains approaching in the distance from crackling speakers.
Near the ticket machines, were some tramps resting in neat cardboard boxes. There were no calls for money or assistance. They were quite simply rejects in society having lost their jobs when the bubble economy burst in the late eighties, kicked out by their wives for being Ronin- masterless samurai.
Past a convenience store there was a platform entrance machine, this led past some kiosks and then down another escalator to get onto the platform. The wind blew along the platform.
Standing on the platform with his head in The Japan Times newspaper was twenty-five year old Daniel Campbell. Hiratsuka station was about twenty minutes from Yokohama in the Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa on the east side of Honshu. He was engrossed in an article about the religious organisation that called itself Aum Shinrikyo.
Daniel was a handsome man with dark looks and on the tall side. He had prominent features and bluey-green eyes. His body was in good shape through constantly practicing sports. He was wearing Chino trousers and a striped white shirt and plain blue tie.
A keen sportsman and into oriental martial arts was in need of escape and Japan had not disappointed: it was quite simply the perfect place. It was a haven for someone of his age and offered all that life could throw at a person and consume: women, money, materialism, neon lights, late night bars, and twenty-four hour restaurants; but most importantly at all total and complete freedom.
He smiled to himself at the freedom he had found, a weight of his shoulders without the grind of the UK. He had always seemed attract female attention; or so he thought so. He was well-tanned due to regular surfing. He often wore clothes that were rather on the trendy, cool side as opposed to the pretentious, vain variety. He was a good runner and footballer. In Japan he became interested in baseball and had seen Yokohama’s Baystars at Yamashita Park several times now.
He was generally confident and fitted in, although he could have his moments of insecurity. He was very well turned out, except a little stubble remaining as he had forgotten to shave. He smiled.
So nice not to have my family on my back, he thought, you certainly can’t be a king in your own country.
He enjoyed living in Japan; having a relaxed disposition and adapted well to the alien culture and it was an alien culture. He enjoyed reading about the history and studying their art. He had already been to Kyoto and Hiroshima. Japan was indeed a beautiful country outside the cities and unspoilt where you can hardly see a soul in hours.
He had been in a relationship in London, to a blonde haired girl, Christine, it had not worked out, she wanted to settle down, and he did not. One day he thought enough is enough and took the next flight out, just like that, waking up at Narita airport one cold evening with just a glimpse of rice fields flashing by as he caught the train to Tokyo.
The train arrive at Yokohama station, it was quite full and as the automatic doors opened he was pushed onto the platform. After living in Japan for some time this was not alarming at all and had in fact become the norm.
He passed all the vending machines and the public address system noise to make his way to the exit. A small yellow poster caught his eye showing people wanted for criminal activities from the organisation Aum Shinrikyo; a short walk led him to the entrance of the GABA English language school. Birdsong could be heard out of the station speakers had which had a calming effect on commuters, or was suppose to.
Standing outside was Hans Zimmermann, a thirty year old chemical engineer from Germany; he was also an expert in nature and often went hiking around Japan’s coastlines at the weekend; Yokosuka, near Yokohama being a favourite.
Although in every way he was a decent person he came across as tedious, pedantic and a know-it-all who was socially awkward in most situations: he tended to alienate himself.
Daniel had a soft spot and admired Han’s intelligence, something Daniel lacked: Daniel had scraped through University being only successful at computing; Hans on the other hand had breezed through.
Hans stood talking to Jennifer Roberts who was from Los Angles and streaming smoke from a cigarette, he was leading forward, nodding his head in the way that a dog does.
The contrast was stark: Hans was bespectacled, unattractive, and plump and looked very much like a typical academic. Jennifer, Jen to her friends was beautiful, sexy, had an amazing figure and she knew it, chalk and cheese.
She had come to look for modelling work and decided to live in Roppongi in Tokyo a well-known spot where drunken Japanese salarymen will pay extortionate amounts of money to western hostesses. She was worried, very worried, recently a girl she knew had gone missing: she had spoken to her a few times. Some other hostesses had been killed by some derange psychopath who lived around the Yokosuka area not far from Yokohama. He bought her a drink, drugged her, killed her; using chloroform, he lived near the coast.
She had been warned, but she did not listen to anyone. She was twenty-five years old, no one who is twenty-five years old listen to anyone and Jennifer was no different.
“Jennifer be careful, these Japanese men, crazy you know.” Hans said tapping his temple with his index finger.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah I know.” The tone of her voice showed that she was now concerned and that even she should maybe start listening.
She warmed to Hans, and the fact that he was concerned: this being the reason that she sometimes chatted to him. He was smart, he talked sense, he was German and Germans were smart to her.
Begin so far from home unusual friendships were formed due to the loneliness of life abroad. Daniel saw them chatting.
“Oi! Daniel late for your class again!” He sniggered
“No.” He replied. Why does he always annoy me? Daniel thought.
“Everything late in England, nothing works; Japanese would have a heart attack there.”
He barged past him and then greeted Jennifer who he fancied more than anyone woman in the world and he also knew that he would never have her.
“Out the way” She faintly smiled; he felt a warm feeling.
“Daniel, do you want to go hiking at the weekend?” Hans shouted from the below.
“Oh yeah maybe, I’ll see what I’m doing. I’ll see you later” Daniel replied without giving it much thought. Daniel had almost forgiven Han’s earlier criticism. He liked hiking and he liked to go with Hans, he knew all the best routes and had all the guide books and maps.
Daniel passed by reception and was greeted by Ana Tanaka, a thirty-three year old who worked as a counsellor, assisting terrified Japanese language students in their quest to master the English language. She was a naturally beautiful girl, with long, fine brown hair down to her shoulders; intelligent and conservative she longed to live and work aboard in Britain or America.
She adopted many western traits and to some degree rejected a fair few Japanese ones.
She fancied Daniel a lot and he knew. She smiled sweetly as he passed.
Why can’t he take me away? She thought.
“Ohayo gozaimasu Daniel-san.”
“Alright?”
“Fine, you have a student in No.5.”
He rushed over, and saw an old lady with glasses and smiling politely called Midori.
She had been studying English for several years but only picked-up a few words; like many Japanese.
He smiled and sighed.
“How are you Midori?”
I just know this is going to be painful, he thought.
“OK.” She replied.
I knew it, he thought smiling.
“What have you been doing?”
“Husband working late, I haven’t seen him; work, work, work.”
Although she understood the question, the answer is always the same. Her husband was retired; it was like a spiritual death before a physical one.
In Japan it had become increasingly common for housewives to either separate or divorce from their husbands upon retirement. He would probably suffer the same fate as some retied salarymen; catching the early morning train to work only to find that he does not work there anymore and then returning home to emptiness. Daniel had heard about this, the husband would get under the feet of the wife.
They will soon separate, I know they will. I’ve heard it a thousand times. He is a pain in the arse, in the way, there’s no connection. Why can he go to Hokkaido and die there in winter: freeze? That’s exactly what’s she’s thinking right now. Daniel thought.
The lesson continued, Daniel trying not to think about his café latte at break time and chat with his friends.
He looked over to Jennifer who was in deep animation with an attractive young Japanese lady called Noriko Mori, who worked for a Japanese investment bank. She had worked hard long hours and climbed up the greasy pole to board level, a rarity in a male-dominated Japanese business cultural.
She looked tired and stressed-out but still forced a fake smile to Jennifer. She did genuinely seem to enjoy the lessons and the two girls did look good together and seem to enjoy each other’s company.
Noriko was near fluent through long home-stays and work placements in the UK and US. Daniel looked over thinking how long she would last before she would be well and truly burnt out in the intense pressure cooker society that is Japan? Would she still be working when she’s forty he thought? Or would she be confined to the scrapheap of promising young things destroyed by the high-speed intensely stressful work ethic; or would a worse fate be awaiting her?
Jennifer finished-up her lesson and smiled as Noriko quickly left the building. Daniel similarly finished his lesson.
“So, I’ll see you next week Midori.”
“Yes bye.” She replied and quickly walked off without a moment’s thought.
With her head bowed down and apologising to anyone she came even slightly near she eventually exited the GABA learning studio. Daniel’s eyes followed her as she left, before the alarm sounded for the next lesson to begin.
He walked over to Jennifer.
“Jen, how’s Noriko, she looked down?”
“Oh she seems alright, we were talking about topics in the news, you know this crazy new religion here, and how they are making their money.” She replied.
Daniel was curious was about a strange religion that called itself Aum Shinrikyo earlier. He had not paid much attention: there were so many crazy things happening in Japan.
A young Japanese man hijacked a bus; he killed one woman and stabbed three women in the neck. The incident happened in the south-western island of Kyushu. He headed towards Hiroshima and then later on to Tokyo, letting off some hostages at service stations, riot police finally ended the hijack one hundred and ninety miles after it started.
Another notorious tragedy happened in 1997 in the city of Kobe where a fourteen year old boy killed a younger boy and cut-off his head. He left the head outside the school and was eventually arrested but not before killing another boy.
Bullying is a problem in all of Japans schools as there is an imperative to fit-in to the tight social structure; anyone not slotting into this system was likely to be singled-out for bullying. Some experts think that it the straight-jacket society of Japan that is causing these problems with all the high expectations and regimented school, routine which often includes hours of after school cramming classes.
Even more disturbing is the hostess bar culture where young girls work, entertaining drunk Japanese men who seldom see their wives. This can include just simply chatting to sleeping with their clients; some of the girls can be still at high-school. There had been reported recently in the Japan Times cases of Japanese business men luring young western women back to their flats after drugging them.
One such high profile cases had been recently reported in Japan about a young British girl being kidnapped from Roppongi and then taken away to a psychopath’s home never to be seen again. This all troubled Jennifer.
After finishing his schedule of lessons he left the studio to meet up with his fellow teachers in the local café. Passing reception he waved to Ana who looked up as he went by and smiled sweetly.
“Mata ne Ana-san.” Daniel said as he passed.
“Bye Daniel-san, see you soon.”
In the Doutor café he spotted some of the other teachers: Lara an intelligent but unattractive Australian girl and Tom a sarcastic Brit.
He waited in-line, received with the usual rattle-on from the coffee shop staff; he did not really know what they were saying. He nodded and got his coffee. He muttered thank you in Japan, which is not necessary, then sat down.
“So Daniel how about it: how about coming with me for a hike at the weekend around the Miura
peninsula, it’s not far away, anyone else want to come?” Hans asked.
There was quite a silence and there appeared to be little if any interest. Hans’s hikes were
notoriously long and he walked at such a speed that most people present could not keep up with
him.
“Sorry tied-up this weekend.” Daniel finally said.
“Yeah c’mon Dan! You know you like a good hike with our German friend here!”
Tom said drawing on his second cigarette in five minutes.
Tom stared right at Daniel which only added to pressure to go. He sat there were an air of arrogance. He had lines around his face through persistent smoking; he wore a small thin moustache which gave him the look of a soldier in the First World War. He was not tall at all and wore a shabby pair of trousers, un-ironed. He wore a short sleeve shirt; tight fitting and his hands were stained in nicotine.
He was one of those people that always had a smirk on his face: over confident with nothing to be over confident about. His short neatly cropped hair was slightly thinning on top, his voice had a penetrating quality that seemed to cut through any conversation and be heard and at times unfortunately listed to.
He was forty six and had been in Japan for at least ten years, it could have been longer: no one was counting any more. After a string of part-time temporary jobs, signing-on to claim benefits in the UK he had finally ended up in Japan, where he realised that you could get paid well for doing sometimes very little work. He had no teaching background to speak of or really any sort of formal qualifications. This did not seem to matter where there was such a demand for English teachers, even Tom could find a job. Even non-native and the Japanese themselves could find employment in Japan’s lucrative market. He spent most of the time in pubs around Yokohama or sometimes in nightclubs in Tokyo where it was easy to pick-up a girl and take them back to his apartment.
Tom never had any intention of settling down or marriage; the thought of it made him wince: he
was a true free spirit.
“Why can’t you go then Tom?” Daniel abruptly replied.
“Oh, because Jennifer and me are meeting up this weekend in Roppongi.” Tom replied smiling.
“I’m not that desperate.” Jennifer shouted.
“Well, I can’t afford your rates?” Tom replied.
She got up.
“Give it a rest! You pomme bastard!” Yelled Lara. There was an uncomfortable silence as she left. The automatic door closed and she was gone, no one knew if she would return?
Tom lent on the table and placed both his elbows bolt upright, to show no sign of intimidation, he
had a snigger on which Daniel found really annoying; he had already forgotten upsetting Jennifer.
Hans tried to move everyone’s attention back onto the hike.
“Well you know Dan you really would enjoy it. Last time we got to the tip of the how do you say, peninsula? And from there it’s like a moonscape I tell you, it’s really quite amazing.”
What Hans forgot to say was that the path had not hardly been used for the last ten or so years
and was in desperate need of repair, some of the foot bridges were missing; the only way to
continue was to wade through the sea.
Last time he was met by a mother and her young son. As the boy waded through the sea the water was almost up to his chest height. He decided to take the long way round and climb over the cliff to the other side to pick up the path again.
“So what about it Dan the man, are you up for it?” Tom pressed.
“Good idea but I’ve got a karate lesson in Ofuna that day.” He tried to wriggle out of out even though he knew he would not be able to.
Hans was still convinced he could get Dan to go.
“Look mate, if he doesn’t want to go then zip it right, get over it!” Lara shouted.
Tom lit up another cigarette, thanking the liberal smoking laws and cheap cigarettes in Japan,
blowing smoke at Dan, the pressure was mounting, why is it always me? Thought Daniel.
“You will like it, and I’ve got something important I want to tell you.” Hans said.
Daniel meanwhile had been thinking about what Hans was saying, he was intrigued to hear that there was something important he wanted to ask him? He thought for a minute. Hans could see he almost convinced Daniel to go. What was he wanted to discuss with him and why him and not the others? Then he thought about the girl waiting him, another missed opportunity. There was silence.
“So I’ll meet you at the Sakigake No Mai statue outside Yokohama station at 10am on Saturday
OK.” Sakigake No Mai is a symbol of beauty, virtue and peace.
This is very hard to get out of! What about this girl? He thought.
“OK Hans, you’re on.” He said. Why did I say that, did I not want to offend? He thought.
He finished his coffee and left to go to his Karate lesson in Hiratsuka. Hans caught the Tokaido line train with Daniel still talking enthusiastically about the hike to go to Hiratsuka where Hans was working at Sika next to the Sagami River.
He was allowed by the company to do some teaching lessons at the GABA language school in Yokohama in order to get a better understanding of the Japanese culture. He also attended lessons at a local library where middle aged Japanese ladies taught foreigners Japanese free of charge.
They had little professional teaching experience, often spoke at native speed making understanding difficult even at the best of times. Hans enjoyed the challenges that these lesson provided and he had a certain talent for picking up foreign languages party due to his ability to speak English so proficiency and transpose this skill.
They boarded the train and found seats fairly easily as it was only around three o’clock. Hans got out the Mainichi Daily newspaper and was soon in a state of deep concentration.
Daniel meanwhile just stared out the window at the reflections in the rice fields and was wondering what might have been? Would the girl still be there, pretty ones did not wait around: the world is an easy place for beautiful people: who said that he thought?
The guards blew their whistles and boarded with the automatic doors shutting behind.
Soon the train was leaving the platform as Hans smiled to himself as it disappeared into the distance.
The small red lights on the train looked like pinpricks until eventually they disappeared.
A stray bronze leaf fell onto the platform, propelled by the wind the train made.
All was quiet at the station again, except for birdsong.
