Akio: A Samurai's Crossroads

The first time I left Japan, I was only four years old.

My father took me to the docks of Hiroshima to wave goodbye to his friend, who'd been sent as an envoy to America.

"I wish you a safe journey," he said as he handed his friend a small box. "And, please, remember that the rain they call 'fall' is not nearly as pleasurable as the other kind."

His friend opened the box and chuckled. "Ah yes! My favorite pastime in Seattle was making new friends with this rain." He lifted a pink umbrella from the box. "Thank you for always thinking of me."

My father nodded and smiled. "And this is my son, Akio. His mother named him after the sun god so he could shine his brilliance upon all."

The man squatted down and looked at me. "You've got your father's eyes," he said in Japanese before switching to English and flashing a white smile. "Nice to meet you, Akio!"

He straightened up, waved goodbye to my father, and boarded his ship for America. As it left the dock, I saw my father wipe tears from his eyes. He turned to me and smiled sadly before walking away without another word.

That was when I became an orphan. The Hiroshima family who took me in told me that my mother died during childbirth, but they never spoke of my father again. Whether they hated him or were embarrassed by him, I did not know. It didn't matter though; I had no memory of him or his actions anyway. To me, he was simply a name - Nakamura - spoken with reverence by some people and disgust by others whenever they learned who I was named after. In any case, they would not have wanted their own children associating with someone who bore such a name; strange men named after gods seemed to be more trouble than they were worth in this world where gods weren't even supposed to exist anymore. So I grew up alone on their farm outside Hiroshima City with no one but myself for company. They taught me what little reading and writing skills they themselves possessed, but otherwise left me to do little else but farm for them until I reached adulthood at age 18. When I turned 18 that summer, however, there was a great typhoon that destroyed our crops and flooded most of our fields beyond repair; we didn't have much food left over thereafter so we decided that I should head out into the world and find work elsewhere if there was no way we could pay back our debts before winter set in like this year's typhoon season always did. After buying me some clothes and food for my travels, they gave me a thousand yen each and sent me out into the world to make my way as best I could while on a pilgrimage of sorts: towards where my ancestors hailed from - Edo - and towards what would become my home - Tokyo - where it had been said that there was still much work available if one knew how to look for it and ask politely enough.

She started laughing hysterically when she saw me looking at the job postings outside Shinjuku Station's South Exit Gate. She couldn't stop laughing for about ten minutes straight until she finally caught her breath again and walked up next to me on her own two feet instead of rolling herself along beneath her wheelchair like she'd done before that very moment. Her laughter must have drawn quite a bit of attention from others around us because she quickly calmed down once she noticed it; then she just growled at everyone before rolling herself off towards Tokyo's Downtown District on her own accord even though fate clearly hadn't intended for such an excursion today...or perhaps ever at all? But why? Why had this woman whose name I didn't even know been so cruel to someone else whose name she also didn't know? Was it just because she laughed at something so trivial as a job posting? Or was it because she felt degraded by someone who'd had all their legs taken away from them somehow? If it wasn't one thing then it was certainly another; life wasn't fair like that sometimes...especially here in Tokyo where nobody really cared about anybody else unless they were standing right in front of them! This woman must have known something better than what everyone else knew about finding employment here...but why hadn't anyone else figured it out yet? And what kind of job would be okay with hiring someone like her anyway? Perhaps someday soon the rest of us would laugh at those poor souls too...because sooner or later we'd be those poor souls ourselves! But these thoughts only made me angrier! How could she be so cruel when we were all suffering equally under this wretched system?! How could anyone think themselves better than anyone else!? That is when something came flying through the air: an apple core! The woman had thrown it at someone behind her who'd just shared those very same thoughts aloud with some friends! The woman laughed once more before rolling away again while everyone else stared at each other in silence; then everyone went back to their business like nothing had happened at all...because no one really wanted to get involved in anything beyond their own lives here in Tokyo! Yet despite all this cruelty around us, I still kept staring at those job postings regardless until suddenly someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind! When I turned around however, there was no one there except for those same job postings behind which I'd been standing all along! The only difference now though was that one of them had changed! A new posting now showed up which read:

[MENTAL HEALTH SCRUTINY] [WANTED] [SEEKING EXPERIENCED PSYCHOLOGISTS] [SEXY AND SEXY] [EVERYONE NEEDS SOMEONE TO TALK TO] [APPLY HERE] [NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED] [FULL BENEFITS PROVIDED] [REFERENCES REQUIRED] [ALL SUBMISSIONS WILL BE RESPONDED TO BY CANDIDATES WITHIN 24 HOURS UNLESS WE DON'T WANT YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE A LOSER LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!]

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