Between Him and Her

Coming to Japan

The walk to the school was extremely short. She could do it without a thought. Liya put her headphones on her head and bopped her head to the music. It was one thing she could never go without in her life — music. Her jean-clad legs moved swiftly on the paved road giving side to oncoming traffic. Since the school was in a remote area of the village town, she didn’t have to worry about being run over. If anything, she would have to be careful of not falling into a side ditch. However, it was not a problem; even if she had, it would be the cleanest ditch to be inside. She smiled as she felt that breeze that carried the scent to rich earth from the paddy fields.

Liya saw the gates of the school and walked briskly towards it. She didn’t have to teach any lessons yet since the students were still going through orientation. They already had a Japanese teacher who was their English teacher. Liya was their connection to the native English. She planned fun activities and headed the English club for the students. Being in a Japanese school was an eyeopener for her. For the Japanese people, she was their eye-opener. No one knew what to think of her. She challenged their very perception of what an American was.

You see Liya was an Indian American. She was an immigrant teenager when she came to the US with her family. She was the youngest in the family and the first one among her siblings to graduate with a college degree after her father. Coming to Japan was a decision she had taken, and after much convincing from her sister, her parents had let her come to a place where she didn’t know the language or culture. Liya had agreed readily to get this opportunity because her other option was to go through an arranged marriage following her customs.

"You are only gonna be gone for a year, right? After that, you will come back.” Her father stated as it was a finality. He was seated in his customary seat of the IKEA chair that her sister Stella had bought for her apartment. He was flipping through different TV channel hugging a big coffee mug to is the chest.

“Yes, papa, I will only be gone for a year.” She crossed her fingers behind her back.

“What do you mean "gone for a year"? You need to be married and start a family not go running around the world without a husband. At your age, I was already married and had your brother.” Her mother angrily expressed from the kitchen.

Stella muttered. “I am married too. Look where that had brought me to?”

Liya ignored her mother and sister and looked to her father.

“You say there is the opportunity for you to grow in this field of education you say?” He asked after a brief period of silence.

Her father was the only one in the family who was more academically inclined. If anything he had let her take a major that was so controversial for any Asian parents to have let their children take in college and pay for it - History and International Studies. Then when she had signed for the five-year program in Education, the promise of a master of science diploma made her father feel relieved.

Now that she had brought up this opportunity of going to Japan to teach not History but English, he had become skeptical. So Liya had recruited her sister’s help.