A Night with TREA

I’ve always thought that I lived a very boring, very normal life for someone my age, a sixteen-year old second year high school Japanese student. I went to a good high school, made decent grades, and then stayed to train with the volleyball team. I’d go home, exhausted but satisfied, and be greeted by my Okaa-san and my little sister, Eiko. After taking a bath I would finish all my homework for the day, which would sometimes take longer that I would expect, and collapse onto my bed. Then I would wake up the next day, and the whole cycle would start all over again.

I’m not saying that it’s necessarily a bad thing, of course. I know I have life pretty easy, especially compared to some of friends and classmates. Still, I want something interesting to happen in my life, just for once.

I guess I should have been careful what I wished for.

Today was the same as any other day. After getting ready, I walked to school with Risa and Kimiko. Thinking back on it, I should have figured something would be weird today, since Yamada-sensei came in later than normal. She’s never late for class! Compared to what happened later, when I was walking home from school, this little event was almost normal.

It was after school and volleyball practice. I was taking my normal route back home when I saw this unnaturally white patch among the sea of black, dark blue, and green. As I got closer, the patch of brightness became clearer to me -- it was the back of someone’s head. An elderly person perhaps? Whoever it was, they certainly were tall!

I was only a foot or so behind the person when the suddenly turned around to face it, forcing me to stop as well. To say that I was caught off-guard would have been an understatement. I didn’t think my face showed how shocked I was, though I was sure my eyes had widened just a bit when I saw his face.

A gaijin? I thought, taking note of the most definitely non-Japanese facial structure. What confused me more, though, was why someone so young would willingly choose to dye their hair white.

My friends and I would go to Harajuku and Shinjuku, and the outfits and hairstyles we saw there were easily more -- how would I put? -- extravagant compared to what this gaijin had. Still, what made him so unusual was that his unnaturally white hair and blue eyes didn’t look out of place at all on him. They suited him better than any other hair and eye color than I could imagine.

“Ah! Sumimasen,” he said politely. “I didn’t mean to stop so suddenly.”

“It’s alright.”

In less than the span of thirty-seconds, he had surprised me once again. Even though I knew for certain the man before me couldn’t possibly be Japanese, there wasn’t the slightest hint of an American or European or any other type accent. It was quite the opposite! If I hadn’t know any better, I would have sworn I was talking to a native Japanese speaker.

“I was wondering if you could help me,” he started.

I sighed inwardly. I needed to get home soon, before Okaa-san reprimanded me for being late again. But I couldn’t just leave him there when he was asking for help, so it seemed that I would just have to gaman.

I plastered a smile on my face and asked, “What can I help you with, Ojii-san?”

“Oji-san?” the man asked, the confusion evident on his face. “I don’t think I’m your uncle.”

I fought back a giggle. For someone who seemed to be well versed in Japanese, he sure was clueless. “Oji-san is just the term that’s used to refer to an older male outside your family who you might not know the name of. An equivalent would be, um...” I paused, trying to think of the English equivalent of the word. “Mister?”

His face brightened in recognition. “I understand now.”

“So what can I help you with?” I repeated.

“I’m here on a mission. I’m hear to see if my translating capabilities are good enough to start mass production on the new line of translating robots.”

Translating robots? I looked at the man, a newfound worry seeping in. “I...see...”

“You don’t believe me do you?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “Oh no! That’s not what I meant--”

“I’m not really supposed to show anyone,” he said. He rolled up the sleeve of his jacket and held his arm in between us, his palm facing up. “But, for some reason, I feel like I can trust you.”

I jumped back when a small compartment on his arm opened to reveal different colored wires intersecting one another, hooked up to processing boards and other things I wasn’t able to identify. If I listened closely, I could hear the slight whirring of the mechanism inside.

“Do you believe me now?” he asked, apparently amused by my reaction.

All I could do was nod in response. “So you’re a...machine?” I asked, trying to wrap my mind around the whole situation. Now matter what I did I couldn’t figure it out, so I pushed the thought into the back of mind for the moment. Despite everything, another curiosity was getting the best of me. “What are you called?”

“Translator robot of extreme attractiveness at your service,” he said, taking a deep sweeping bow.

What an extravagant person -- machine.

As he reached his full height again, he added, “You can call me TREA. Douzo yoroshiku. And what is your name, my dear?”

My...dear? I blushed at the implications of his words. Such a straightforward person -- no, machine, I corrected myself for a second time. Or would he be an it? No matter. Either way, TREA’s straightforwardness was a little much for me to handle, but I didn’t walk away. I would endure it.

“I’m Ueda Misa. Douzo yoroshiku.” I bowed, less theatrically than he had done, one hand over the other in the correct, proper Japanese female way. I thought back to what he had said earlier, about his mission and how he needed help. Were the two somehow related?

“Your mission...” I stopped waiting for him to respond.

He blinked once. “My mission? What about it?”

This time, I couldn’t help but release the smallest of sighs. Hadn’t he been talking about it just moments before? “You said your mission was to see if your translating capabilities were good enough to start mass production on the new line of translating robots. You also said that you wanted help?”

Again, I waited for him to jump in, but he just stared at me blankly.

“Are the two connected or...?”

“Not really,” TREA said. It seemed he finally understood what I was trying to say.  “I just wanted to know if there was someplace that I could spend the night,”

“There are a lot of hotels” I said. I pointed to a hotel less than a block away. “That one isn’t too bad. Or” -- turning around, I pointed to another one, not quite as nice but more affordable -- “that one isn’t too bad either.”

He laughed, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. Somehow the action made me nervous, though I couldn’t quite figure out why. “Is there a place that I can stay in for, you know, free?”

“I’m not really sure, TREA-san,” I said, even though I knew for a fact that there wasn’t any. Now that I thought about it, he should have known that too. Unless--

No. There was no way he would ask that, would he?

“Oh. Well, Misa-chan, then would it be too much to ask if I could spend the night with you and your family?” he asked, completely unabashed.

He had just called me Misa-chan. I met had met him mere minutes ago, and now here he was calling me Misa-chan. How had he survived this long here without learning about titles and formalities?

“Ano...sore wa chotto...” I started, looking off to the side.

“If it’s an issue of money, I’m sure I can figure out a way to pay you back. I may not have money, but there are others things I can do.”

“That’s...not it...”

“Do you not have enough space? You don’t have to worry about that, you know! I don’t take up too much!” he said insistently. “I can just stand in a corner for the night. You won’t even know I’m there.”

“It’s not that space is an issue...” I said, although in a way it kind of was. The apartment I lived in was barely big enough to fit me, Okaa-san, and Eiko.

He frowned. “Is there any other reason then?”

“Maa...” I started, biting my lower lip.

“If there isn’t, I can stay. Right?” he asked hopefully.

I couldn’t bring myself to speak, so I just nodded in response. It seemed this odd translating robot had yet to learn of ‘aimai.’ I thought I had made it very clear with my vague answers that I didn’t want him to stay with us, but no -- it went straight over his head! It was like I had to clearly tell him “no” for him to understand that he couldn’t stay. There was nothing I could about it now though. I was stuck with him.

The walk home was relatively silent, something that I took great pleasure in. He seemed a little uncomfortable with it because he felt the need to try and start a conversation with me about nothing of importance. It was a bit irritating, if I were to be completely honest, but I didn’t tell him so. I just politely responded back to what he was asking. I think it was about how my day went or some other off-the-wall topic. Either way, he was satisfied with my answers.



As we got closer, I started feeling very nervous. I could only begin to imagine what Okaa-san would have to say to me when he was gone and this whole situation was done and over with. I tried not to think about it.

I took out my keep and, unlocking the door to our apartment, stepped inside.

“Tadaima!” I called out, leaving my shoes at the foyer. As I walked into the hallway, I put on my slippers. I looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to do the same. It took him a while, but he finally figured it out, slipping out of the odd black and white boots he was wearing into of the extra pairs of slippers that we had.

“Okaeri nasai, Nee-san,” Eiko said, walking towards me and TREA with wide eyes. She looked up at him, her mouth agape, and asked, “Who’s this weird gaijin that you brought?”

Before I could say anything, TREA knelt down so that he was face-to-face with her. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Ueda Eiko,” she said, bowing in much the same manner I had done earlier, although a bit more sloppily. “Douzo yoroshiku. What’s your name, Oji-san?”

“Translator robot of extreme attractiveness. You can call me TREA. Douzo yoroshiku.”

“TREA-san is weird,” she said, giggling.

“Eiko!” I whispered sternly. I turned to him, a bit embarrassed by my sister’s actions. “Sumimasen, TREA-san.”

“It’s okay,” he said, laughing a bit. “She’s only a child, after all. Say, Eiko-chan, how old are you?”

“Four,” she said, holding up the same number of fingers.

“Eiko,” I said. I could feel the last bit of my patience escaping my grasps, not that I had much to begin with. “Where’s Okaa-san?”

“Okaa-san?” she repeated. “She said she was working late tonight. Don’t you remember, Nee-san?”

“You’re right,” I agreed. I guess that means I would just have to prolong my suffering. Maybe if I was lucky, she would be too tired when she got home and got directly to bed.

“Okaa-san left us dinner,” Eiko said, pointing to the kitchen. “I already ate my food. I couldn't wait! You came home so late!”

I smiled. “That’s okay.” I turned to TREA. “Would you like to join me?”

“You wouldn’t happen to have any cake, would you?”

I blinked a couple of times and then said, “Cake?”

“Yeah, cake. Do you have any?” he repeated.

“I don’t think we do, but I can check,” I said, a little confused.

He shook his head quickly as he followed me into the kitchen. “That’s alright. I don’t really need any food to begin with, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll be fine! Don’t worry about me. You should worry more about yourself,” he said.

Dinner was quick but thankfully less awkward than I thought it would be. For the first few minutes all TREA did was watch me eat and try to talk with me. It was beginning to unnerve me, although I couldn’t blame him. He didn’t really have anything to do otherwise. I was only too thankful when Eiko came over and started talking to him. His attention, which had once been focused on me, was now on her, and I could eat my meal in peace. Once I was finished I washed my plates and placed it in the rack next to the sink to dry.

After that he and Eiko went to the living room while I went to the foyer to retrieve my schoolbag, full of homework just waiting to be done. I suppressed a groan as I joined them.

“Do you have a lot of homework, Nee-san?” Eiko asked.

“It’s not too bad.” Sure, I wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight so that I could finish every last bit of it, but other than that? It was great!

TREA sat on the floor in front of the small stereo system in a corner of the living room. He pushed a couple of buttons and frowned when nothing happened. He looked around the back, probably to check if the machine was plugged in. It was, but it didn’t really matter.

“I’m sorry, TREA-san, but our stereo’s broken.”

“For how long?”

I looked up in thought. “For about a year-and-a-half.”

His face suddenly broke out into a huge smile that worried me. “I figured out how I can pay you back. I’ll fix this for you.”

“Iie, iie!” I said quickly, waving my hand. “That’s alright. You don’t really don’t have to--”

“But I want to,” he said with a tone of finality. He took some tools out of his pocket and, turning the stereo around, started opening the back casing. “There’s nothing you could say to convince me otherwise.”

“Oh.”

“Ne, TREA-san?” Eiko asked as she watched him take the machine apart. “How long have you been in Japan?”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to talk about that, Eiko,” I said firmly, looking up from my homework.

“It’s alright,” he insisted. He turned to her with a smile. “I came here about a week ago. This is my last day in Japan and then I return home.”

“Where is home? America? England?”

I had been wondering the same thing, so I slowed my writing a little to concentrate on his answer. He didn’t say anything for a long time, and for a moment I thought he wasn’t going to answer the question.

“Neither.”

Eiko frowned. “Then where are you from, TREA-san?”

Placing his tools on top of the stereo, he brought his fingers to his lips and winked. “It’s a secret.”

That wasn’t suspicious in the least, I thought to myself. Just who, or what, had I let into our apartment? Still, Eiko didn’t seem to have any problems with his answer, instead giggling in response.

“That should be it,” he said, putting his tool back into his pocket. “It should be working now.”

“That was so fast!” Eiko said, obviously in awe of his talents. I, on the other hand, was a bit more skeptical, but I didn’t say anything.

“Now to see if it works.” He pushed the on button and music started blaring from the speakers, a little louder than I had expected. I jumped at the sudden sound.

Eiko started jumping around excitedly. “It works! It works! TREA-san is amazing!”

“I knew I still had it in me,” he said smugly. It seemed he and humility were not the best of friends.

I looked up from my work and looked at the stereo, my eyebrows furrowed. The volume had stayed the same as when he had first switched on the machine. Granted, it wasn’t that loud, but it was still enough to be considered disruptive to our neighbors.

Turning to him, I said, “I think it would be better if the volume was a little lower.”

“Really?” he asked. “Why’s that?”

“We live in an apartment.”

“Oh!” Surprisingly, it seemed he understood what I meant because he turned the volume down a bit. “Is that better?”

I nodded. “Arigatou gozaimasu, TREA-san.”

“It was nothing,” he said with a small shrug. A moment later, he asked, “It must be inconvenient living in an apartment. You can’t even listen to music as loud as you want to.”

“I haven’t really though about it,” I said.

“I don’t know how you’re able to do it though.”

“I think it’s just a matter of ‘wa.’”

“I know that term!” He stood up and, making his way to the table, sat across from me. “It means ‘harmony,’ right?”

I nodded again. “When there are over one-hundred million people on an island this small, with less than a fifth of the land being livable, you learn to be courteous to those around you. I think it would be very chaotic if you didn’t.”

“I suppose that’s true,” he agreed.

Eiko came bounding towards and chose to sat next to me. She looked at the work I was still doing and, after deciding that it wasn’t interesting enough for her, turned to TREA.

“Ne, TREA-san?” she asked. “What did you do while you were here?”

“Work,” he said with a slight grimace. “I listened to people and made sure I could understand what they were saying as well as made sure they could understand me.”

“Could they?”

“Yep. I’m sure my creator will be most pleased.”

“Sou desu ka,” I said noncommittally. Suddenly he turned to me, looking like he had just remembered something really important.

“There’s something I’ve been a little confused about. I was talking to an exchange student a few days ago. I think her name was Miska.” He smiled. “Hey, that’s almost the same as your name, Misa, just without the ‘k!’”

“Mm,” I said, nodding my head to let him know I was listening. I wasn’t sure what the point of his little interjection was, but I guessed I would soon be finding out. It seemed pointless to try and finish my homework now, with so many interruptions, so I left it off to the side. I could finish it later in my bedroom.

“Anyway, she told me that I was just wasting my time. She said that no matter how well I spoke Japanese, flawless accent and everything, I would always be ‘soto.' ‘Soto’ means ‘outside,’ doesn’t it? But what did she mean by that?”

“You know the term ‘uchi,’ right?” He nodded and I continued with my explanation. “They’re related concepts, part of dichotomy. Either you are part of the ‘in-group,’ the ‘uchi,’ or you are part of the ‘out-group,’ the ‘soto.’ For example, my sister would be considered part of my ‘uchi.’ You, on the other hand, would be ‘soto.’”

“So everyone who isn’t part of your family is part of you ‘soto?’”

“It’s a little more complicated than that. There are many layers to the concept. Depending on the situations, someone could be considered my ‘uchi’ or my ‘soto.’ When I compete against other volleyball teams, the other team is my ‘soto.’ But in a different scenario, like if our players and their players competed on the same team on the international stage, they would suddenly become our ‘uchi’ and the other team we were competing against would be our ‘soto.’ Does that make sense?”

He shook his head, a very perplexed look on his face. “Kind of. Sort of.” He paused. “Not really, but thank you for trying to explain it to.”

“It was nothing.” I looked at the clock on the wall closest to the foyer, my eyes widening as I read the time. I turned to Eiko and said, “You didn’t tell it was on hour past your bedtime! Come on, you need to get to bed.”

She pouted a bit as she stood up, dragging her feet to her room. I grabbed the my schoolbag, stuffing the work I needed to complete before I could go to bed. I frowned, noticing TREA was still sitting at the table. I didn’t to be a bad host, even if I had been unwillingly forced into the role, but I wasn’t really sure what else I could do.

“Do you need anything else?”

He suddenly stood up, taking my hands into his, and smiled.

Wait, wait, wait! What was going on here? I blushed, resisting the urge to pull my hands from his.

After a moment, he said, “Go and do your work. I’ll just stay in the corner and recharge. It’s been a long day.”

“Are...you sure?” I asked, my voice wavering slightly. He needed to let go of my hand and now.

I had to wonder if he had suddenly gained the ability to read minds because he let go of my hands as soon as I thought that. “Yes,” he said.

He made his way to a corner of the room and, after a moment, his head slumped over ever-so-slightly. I walked over to him and was sort of surprised to see that he had turned himself off. I shrugged a bit and went to my bedroom, locking the door behind me.

*

Early the next morning I woke up to the sound of incessantly loud knocking on my door. I groaned, lifting me head from the table. I looked down and panicked. I hadn’t finished everything before I had dozed off last night! I looked at the clock, relieved that I still had a few hours to before school started.

When I got to the door, I was greeted with the sight of a certain translator robot. His face was just too...peppy for my tastes. Pushing this thought aside, I said, “Ohayou gozaimazu, TREA-san.”

“Ohayo, Misa-chan. I know it’s early, but I just wanted to tell you goodbye...and to thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

“It was noting,” I insisted.

“No, you did so much! You didn’t have to let me stay in your home,” he said, I never really wanted him to be in our home in the first place, but I didn’t say anything. “You were even kind enough to explain some of the things that I had trouble understanding.”

His demeanor changed, a frown replacing the bright smile that had been there moments before.  “Even with your help, though, I still feel like I wasn’t completely able to understand everything that I heard.”

“Because you’re not Japanese,” I said softly.

“Huh?”

“It’s nihonjinron. Maybe being a translator robot for other languages is easy, but Japanese is different. So much of our language is tied to culture, and, to truly be able to appreciate our culture, you have to be Japanese. No matter how well you can converse with us, no matter how much you study us or think you understand us you never will -- because you’re not Japanese.”

“I see,” he said. “Well, I won’t give up! It’s my job after all. Anyway, here’s to hoping we’ll meet again!”

Before I was able to say anything, he closed the door to my room. I could hear him walk through the living room and into the foyer. I ran out of my room. I had to at least make sure he got back to where he needed to be. But, before I could able to reach him, the front door slammed shut. When I opened it, I looked to my left and right, but he was nowhere to be found.

It was like he had disappeared out of thin. How strange. If I were into science-fiction, I would think that maybe he had teleported.

I went back into the apartment, wiping a bit of sleep from my eyes, and was surprised to see Okaa-san in the kitchen already making breakfast. Had she been there the whole time? Has she seen or heard TREA leave?

“Ohayo, Misa,” she said.

As I walked to the kitchen to stand beside her, I mumbled, “Ohayo.”

“You look tired. Maybe you should go and get more sleep. You have a few hours before you have to be ready for school.”

I nodded and started heading for my room. I could already hear my bed calling me now. When I was almost at my door, she called out to me, “Oh yes, and Misa?”

“Yes?”

“When you’re fully awake,” she started, “you’re going to need to explain to me why there was an odd gaijin sleeping in the middle of our living room last night.”