School Trip

Minamiaiki, Nagano,Japan
February 18

Today we are traveling in a bus with the rest of the class, we headed towards the mountain to spend a couple of days on the school excursion. Tamamo and I were in the back of the bus, while Maria is in the front among the first seat, Haru on the side of her is a couple behind her, she is talking with a friend. Our teacher Xian is also traveling with us, although she is driving in a car in front of the bus. It was the school excursion trip, we headed towards the town of Minamiaiki in Nagano about 120 kilometers from Tokyo, in a journey that would take about three hours. The trip had a last-minute change regarding our program, due to maintenance on the dam, so we will be camping first and then we will visit the hydroelectric power station on the last day.

I can't believe that so far I have had the time to see Japan outside of its mega-metropolis. This creates a great contrast, because out here there is a lot more space compared to the city, although not as much as I would like. It is not to complain but whoever designed Japanese seems to have done it thinking not to give space. Everything is so cramped, small, or tight, in Tokyo, there is hardly room to walk and I feel that I have to be very careful where I am to avoid tripping over something. In the field, things improve even if it is not fixed to my liking. I don't know, back at home we had space to even play soccer in the street, here I feel like there will be lucky if two bikes pass through a street lane. And in the field, there was so much space that it was even an adventure to go from my grandparents' house to my aunt's house that was "close" to them. But hey, it is also the same place where there is no other public transport other than the bus, so to go anywhere in another thing than in your own car is very uncomfortable plus there were always traffic jams. Without a doubt, the subway has been the biggest change I have seen in terms of traveling through a city since I left my country

The happiest on the trip is undoubtedly Tamamo, which indicates that once you see outside the city of Tokyo, the places look more like the Japanese that she remembers, with the rice fields and traditional houses, and the surprising thing about to hear that she just looked out the window of candy store she used to visit, which was a thousand years ago! Hell A thousand-year-old store! That store had been around for a long 500 years before Christopher Columbus even discovered America! I have to visit them someday.

When we finally got to the place we were in the middle of nowhere, it was a camping place and several cabins where we would sleep. The town was quite small, it was about 4 kilometers away and the dam about 5 I think. The first thing we did was prepare the place by cleaning it, or rather collect garbage that was not even ours because we were just arriving. After that, we spent doing various physical activities such as camping games.

After that, the boys started playing soccer while the girls were talking about girls' issues. For my part, the truth is, I never really liked soccer and I have no idea what to talk to the girls about, so I put myself in survivor mode again and started looking for things in the forest to cook with fire. improvised, then the teachers scolded me for leaving without warning and almost causing a forest fire. But what the hell are they talking about, we are at the beginning of spring the trees are not yet dry and I am not even that far from the camp, you can still see it! Tamamo is next to Maria who are secretly watching Haru, which translates to the two of them sitting on a bench eating all the sweets that we had brought for the trip while they watched Haru scold another to see Yamada for trying to annoy others with heavy jokes.

After that at the end of the day the real game began, we were taken to some public baths. Obviously Japanese in style, which means problems for me, because except when I was in Oriente 6 I had never been in one of these before, and I even had a bathroom there for myself. I don't have the self-esteem to be naked in front of the other girls in the class, plus I couldn't hide my tail or fox ears there either. Tama and Maria had no problem entering, my wife is Japanese so of course, it was normal for her, besides she seems to care very little what people think of her now that she is with me. Maria, on her side, spent a long time in a hospital, so that subject is simply not very difficult for her. In my plan to sneak out of this I was pretending, actually, I wasn't pretending much, that I loved the massage chair so I have a long time left there. Later when I noticed that most of the girls were coming out of the bathrooms, I asked the teacher to guard the entrance and not let anyone pass for about 5 or 7 minutes while I bathed.

What happened next was the Streisand effect, where wanting to hide something only ends up attracting more attention, because although I tried to be as fast as possible Tamamo came back in to help me bathe, as I had seen in a manga that I had bought. Which only attracted the attention of the class when they heard Tamamo talking to me. the men shouted excitedly, while the girls tried to enter stagnant to see, so fearing for my secret entered the sauna and closed the door until they got tired and left me alone again. I had never done such a stupid thing before because I was on the verge of fainting in addition to that I felt completely cooked. And I ended up so sweaty again that I had to take a shower again. To end the story with how big our fox tails were, the fur absorbed a lot of water, which took time to dry, in the house we used a dryer, which we did not bring and we had to wait an amount to dry, so the rest of the class left on the bus and then Xian came walking to pick us up. Damn it, if they were going to do that in the end I would have stayed in the massage chair, and later I would have come walking and come back in the same way. Besides all this nonsense just to prevent them from seeing me and talking about my tail or ears, when with Tamamo that issue had already passed and now everyone takes it for granted. Really, I should ask myself if hiding them is a better option than continuing to suffer this every time I try to hide them.

Back at camp, they were all setting up tents. Which reminded me of the not very old past in the military. Knowing how to put these things together even with my eyes closed I did it in record time, then several came to me, and approached me to ask me for help to build their own tents. Since I saw it as a way to make people forget what happened in the bathrooms, I got down to work and began to build one after the other. It was on fire, so much so that later I started to make another fire to cook, chop wood despite having charcoal, and if they had given me a shovel I might have made a trench.

The meal was a barbecue with everything from fish to beef and vegetables. Seeing people in the same uniform gather around the fire talking and eating, it almost reminded me of being with the boys again, giving me that sense of security again by being surrounded by people that I can call companions. That he could trust them for anything that might happen. Although it was only a feeling because I am sure that if something like this happened these people would do whatever it takes to save their lives, even if it is to sacrifice their friends. For my part I just have to do the same, take Tama and Maria out as my highest priority, and after that the next one is Haru. The rest were not necessary for me, because without a doubt they would do the same with me. Although of course, it is easier to simply kill the threat before it can attack, but you don't always have what you want.

At bedtime, the teacher arranged the groups in each tent, by pure "chance" Tamamo, Maria Haru and I ended up in the same tent. It was just supposed to be a simple night and sleep, and even though I could perfectly sleep here because it reminded me too much when I did it in Europe, it was for the same reason that I could not sleep, because there was no one watching outside. Well, there were the teachers, but they were more than anything watching that the boys did not come to our tents, I was referring to patrols outside prowling in the forest looking for enemies, reporting anything out of place. But of course, I'm on a school trip, I can't expect any of that. Seeing that I could not sleep, Tamamo got up and hugged me and again when the moonlight did it, you could see in the night sky, released from the clouds and almost completely full, by the entrance of the tent You could see the whole place almost as clear as day.

I don't know how late it was when I managed to fall asleep, but what I do remember was getting up before the sun came up, once again out of custom in the army rather than out of desire. Since there was not much I could do, I began to clean my pistol, disassembling it and reassembling it, checking that it was in optimal condition. I managed to finish before Haru got up and saw me with the gun. Not long after the teachers got us up to start the second day, which would start with our way to the dam near here and see how it works. The idea did not really catch my attention, because unlike Japan where I lived the hydroelectric plants are the main source of energy, so they are very common in addition to the fact that I already know how they work by heart. But one more time is just my opinion, Maria will surely like to see one and it is also a good opportunity for Tama to learn how one can turn water into lightning, which is what makes her watch her series. of superheroes on television.