Two Worlds, One Goal
It was always nice to leave the homeland and explore new places, absorbing the culture that came with it. If only some things weren’t so temporary. Visiting a new country was akin to a specialty item, it was only there for a limited amount of time.
Despite the time lapse between France and Japan, the foreigner was wide awake, unlike her rink mates and coach. She had snuck out during the time where the sun had barely finished waking the town. Spring was in the air, between the skating season. Pulling out her phone she scanned the GPS for the nearest rink. Looking over to the horizon she could see the silhouette of a tall castle. That looked about right in the picture.
Stretching her legs a little she inhaled a breath of the salt and flower scented air before jogging along the sidewalk as a few cars drove by with occupants heading to or from work. The flight had been long and the hotel bed had made her limbs stiff so it was good to jog and stretch the cramped muscles.
Short of breath, she reached out and opened the door to the building, the air felt a little on the cool side, but it wasn’t like when it was standing on ice. Glancing around a little bit she then spotted the young woman who was attending the counter. The blonde approached the counter, at first a little startled by the happy voice from the staff member (along with the language barrier), she seemed a bit at ease.
Bowing politely, and with a bit of broken Japanese, and somewhat more clear English they were able to strike up a decent conversation before the blonde was leaning over the time slots that were available and decided to take some time for right now. It also took a few attempts to think about how much it was going to be...she was so used to Euros. Thanking Yuko (as she learned), the foreigner walked her way to the locker rooms to place her bag and change out her shoes since she brought in her own set of skates.
Stretching her body one more time before she carefully balanced on the blade guards until she reached the wall to get access to the rink. Placing earbuds in her ears and readying her playlist she stood up on one foot then the other to remove the purple clear and glittered guards to show off some blades that were colored like cobalt. Taking a breath she eased herself onto the ice and chuckled softly, doing a quick spin in place before skating towards the center. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her phone and hit the play button, replacing it back where it was. Slowly she started to skate to the music she listened to, changing tempos and movements according to what she heard.
@katsudon-king
