AstroBoy Online Forums

“Jaunting”
An Astroboy fan-fiction
By Dan
© Astroboy 2003 Sony Pictures. Character by Osamu Tezuka. Non –profit fan fiction for enjoyment only.

Author’s prologue:

Twenty years ago, I arrived in Japan to my first duty station at Naval Air Facility Atsugi. My father, a retired Master Chief, lamented on me his sadness in the lack of photos he’d collected over his own tour of duty. Most of his best memories were fleeting thoughts of bars in Subic Bay and the raucus nightlife of the Vietnam era “Haunchu” outside the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka. My old man begged me not to pass up a once in a life experience by wasting time and money kissing the neck of a beer bottle.

Into my life came a Second Class Petty Officer named Dave Gibbons. Dave introduced me to Japan on the cheep and the cultural experience 85 percent of U.S. Servicemen in Japan never take part in. “Jaunting”

“Jaunting” was seeing Japan on a vagabond’s existence, a weekend or a full week sojourn where the brave would wear a portable hotel in a big back pack. Armed with a phrase book, a note book, a camera, a stack of American trinkets, the Jaunter had to have the willing ability to get totally and blindly lost among the side streets and back roads of the Kanto Plain. By luck, use of the phrase book and extolling the virtues of replete and honorable manors, the Jaunter would return home wiser and happier than where he departed from.

You got your food from the nearest Seven Eleven, Your coffee from a vending machine and your bed and shower from the local park. How better to see so much of a country where so many of your cohorts denied themselves a great lifetime experience based on a stupid urban legend.

It was fun to ride the national railway. To stay at some youth hostel where you’d enjoy a cool night in a circle passing warm sweet sake. Perhaps another night you’d put together an instant food party with college students from Yokohama in Kamakura or become an umpire at a small school’s baseball game.

Those first years in Japan were an enjoyment, a true emotional delight that dispelled the ridiculous rumors that kept so many Americans attached to their base beer barns.

Sadly, time and events have doomed “Jaunting” and more so damaged the once close relationships Americans have had with their Japanese hosts since the end of the World War II occupation. Beginning in 1993, the U.S. military in Japan began to experience a serious decline in discipline and several high profile criminal acts forced the falling of an iron boot. The climate of overly strict political correctness coupled with an all encompassing shackling of personal freedoms ended “Jaunting” but it’s more than helped the coffers of base bars, beer stores and alcohol rehab programs.

Dave is still around. Retired from the Navy in 2002, he returned to Japan with his wife and works as an electronics technician supervisor for JAL at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. He also teaches English at Yokohama University. Thanks Dave for saving me from a dreary existence with the brainless barracks bums.

Friday Afternoon
Doctor O’Shay’s home
Metro City

Dear Doctor,

I’m going on a jaunt. Please? Unless it’s really bad, unless Mount Fuji is blowing up, unless Zoran has burned the house down, please don’t call me for anything? I want some time alone to myself.

Love….Astro

P.S. I took the digital camera, two beach towels, a pillow and a bag full of Science ministry hat pins. I’ll pay for them later. : )

Zoran eyed the note with a snooty face. “He’s going off on his own?”

“After this month, I wouldn’t blame him to want a little time to himself Zoran.” O’Shay said as he thumbed through a newspaper.

“ Well…at least things will be a little quiet this weekend.” Zoran said as she picked up the remote and turned the television channel to her favorite show. “I won’t have to hear him yelling at me for missing his favorite cartoons.”

“May I remind you Zoran that you do most of the yelling on Saturdays?” O’Shay said.

“Hmph! Well I’m sorry if culture and cooking are more important skills than watching Wile-e-coyote fall off a cliff, not that Astro hasn’t done that a few times already.”

JNR Urakura Station
Metro City

Astro stood below the big railway line sign lightly suckling the tip of a finger while he contemplated the Yen prices on the ticket machine below. “Where to go…where…to go?” He thought to himself. Finally he dropped a 500 Yen coin into the slot and punched for luck.

“Ikibukaro. Then a sub-line to Sebu or Heme?” Astro smiled, nodded his head in self approval and walked with ticket in hand through the turnstile and onto the platform. He could have flown and missed the afternoon assured crush of rush hour, his stuffed school back pack wasn’t going to help matters as it was. The train of course was going to be jammed to the square inch with people, which made for some awkward moments and a lesson in extreme yoga. It wasn’t long before Astro was jammed up amidst the crowded train car he’d stepped into.

“Eeeesh.” He moaned as he craned his head and neck to the rear to avoid nuzzling the back of an old woman in front of him and raised his arms in the most silly ways possible to avoid a sudden hand or elbow from turning some surrounding high school girls into raging tigers. At least one of them felt pity for him judging by the sound of scratching fingers on his head and a few giggles of amusement.

“That’s him alright. Isn’t he cute?” One of the girls said. “Oh come on! He’s just like any kids toy. I could call our robot nanny cute.”

Astro would have turned around to say something had his backpack not enlisted a rude slapping from a salary guy when he did try to move. One of the three girls leaned forwards to tap his shoulder.

“Could I get an autograph? My little sister absolutely adores you.” That drew a lot of giggling from the other passengers.

Astro turned his head. “I would….but I’m sorta stuck.”

The girl took her school note book and hovered it over Astro’s head. “Oh…kay.” He said as he slowly brought a hand up, took the pen that was clipped to the hard cover and signed. “Now…this isn’t some secret contract right? I won’t end up as a pillow keeper?”

The girl pulled her book back, “You’re so cute I might kidnap you. My name’s Sachiko, this is Megumi and Nori. We go to Kanagashi High School.”

Finally a little relief as the train stopped and the moving passengers allowed Astro a little turning room. “I go to Yumuri number 3 Elementary in Metro City.”

Megumi offered a pocky. “Elementary school? Why go to school at all, I think it would be so cool to watch everyone else do the daily trudge to class.”

Astro smirked. “It’s the only way they can keep me from becoming a brat. After sitting five minutes at home and you’ve played every video game in the cabinet? I’d go crazy, major ADD. Besides, that’s where all my friends are.”

Nori just had to ask. “You got a girlfriend?”

Astro chuckled and shifted a foot. “Well….I’m available.”

The girls squealed and laughed. “Don’t worry…” Sachiko said as she touched his nose. “We’ll let you pick her.”

Astro smiled and waved as the three girls got off pinning the Ministry novelty hat pins to their uniforms. “Great! Finally a seat!” He said to himself as he pulled off his backpack and sat with his head resting on his folded arms as he watched the scenery shoot by the window. He was thinking of what to do for the weekend as the train slowly pulled into Ikibukaro Station and the first thing that came to mind?

Soba.

The hut was tucked into a side street across from the train station and the aroma of hot fresh soba permeated through the air and sent a strong waft into Astro’s nostrils. Soon he was sitting on a bar stool sipping loudly from a soup spoon and chewing the vegetable and pasta mix with a slow pleasing rhythm. The hut itself was old, perhaps 30 or so years judging by the weather abuse on the oak planking. Astro was divided between finishing his ramen and snapping a few pictures for his scrapbook. After looking over his digital pictures, Astro walked back into the train station and stood pondering the JNR station map once more…

“Shimbasho….Izuki…….Harachimo….” He dropped a 500 yen coin into the slot and chose Izuki. Thumbing through his map book, Astro sat down waiting for the train and read about his chosen destination.

Izuki town is one of the principle tourist sites in the Fuji five lakes region. Here you will find temples, shrines and dojo dating back to the warring states period. Izuki is quietly nestled among the Great Ayase forest and has many active hot spring baths. Izuki promises a relaxing venue for the most exhausted traveler.

Astro pulled out a smaller book from his backpack and carefully scanned the pages looking for a youth hostel in Izuki and by luck the closest was in the nearby town of Ghibu. Youth hostels were International guest houses for young people under 18, they offered a free one-night stay when space was available to anyone who was a member.

There wasn’t a time in the past four years that hostels weren’t a life saving grace for a beaten up, sometimes overworked little robot. Astro put his books away and drowned his thoughts in the latest Shonen Jump comic book he’d found abandoned in a magazine rack on the train.

He paused for a second or two to look out the window, clearly the crowded skyline of the Kanto Plain had given way to a more pleasing view of passing trees and lightly broken openings where small villages had been settled. He wondered how many of them were robots who’d been forming small communities around here since the Robot Rights Law of two years earlier. He certainly had to find one of the towns on his way around, at least to pick up some gifts to appease his little sisters assured temper for being left behind.

He pulled out his camera again and snapped pictures as things passed by the window. The thought that he might want to live out in these small places made him chuckle. Perhaps after he’d finish high school? Perhaps after a few years the ministry would allow him to live on his own? Perhaps….Then again it would be a sure thing that Atlas wouldn’t tolerate it, more so because he craved attention. It was the red boy bots fault for being such a troublemaker, he needed to grow up. So Astro groaned to himself as the train slowed to a stop.

“We’re not at the station.” Astro thought as he looked around. He grabbed his backpack, wrapped the straps over his shoulders and walked through the cars till he reached the front. He found the driver and the conductor standing outside the forward most door.

“Problems?” He asked the conductor.

“The way ahead has been blocked by a mudslide.” The man replied. “We’ve had a ton of rain over the last week.

Astro slipped down from the car, folded his clothes on his backpack and walked to the front of the engine to scan the hillside. A closer look on the slope made him frown. “Of course you’ll get landslides, they cleared the trees back stumps and all, the dirt has no support.”

Astro thought over the problem and shrugged sadly. “There’s nothing I could do.”

The engineman frowned. “I thought you were the famous Astro of Metro City, the little robot who can do anything to help anyone?”

Astro smiled. “Well….I’m not stupid. If I try to dig that mud away from the tracks, the whole collapse will start again, maybe this time the whole hill goes and takes the train out. How far is it to the station?”

“About a half a mile.” The conductor moaned.
Astro looked back at the train. “It’ll take me forever to get these ten train cars back and forth to the station. My suggestion is you call ahead and have the station send buses to where the train enters town. I’ll move them there and the passengers can get off safely.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t do anything.” The Conductor said.

“About the landslide no, but I wasn’t going to be mean and make these poor people walk to the station. Wouldn’t look good for my reputation.” Astro stood proudly and smiled before the conductor shook his head…

“Ok kid…stop standing around for the news cameras and get us to our destination?”

Izuki

Astro lowered the last of the train cars onto the tracks and crawled out covered in a dirty grime. He started patting and rubbing it away, till he figured out he wasn’t wearing his clothes and the actions were rather pointless. The passengers exchanged their thanks, some gave him a few handkerchiefs to wipe off the mess, one girl gave him a kiss, he signed a few autographs then he retrieved his back pack and clothes.

“Know of any places around here with a shower?” Astro asked the conductor.

“There’s a high school about five blocks that way.” The man said pointing.

Astro stopped by a drink machine as he walked down the narrow street towards the high school. He popped the top on a Maruzen Peach Cobbler can and slowly guzzled a few swallows. The return was instant delight, for a minute or so he stood flicking his tongue along the roof of his mouth as if heaven had washed over. The taste was incredibly delicious, no wonder he was so addicted. Soon he filled the side pockets of his pack with several cans of the Maruzen drink and walked to the high school trying to suck every last drop from the can he was drinking. So silly that he stood in the middle of the street until a loud horn caused him to jump and run past the angry truck driver and into the school ball field.

Good luck after all, the ball field bathroom had a shower. Astro cleaned himself of the grime, washed his towel and dried it out with an arm jet. He took a seat on the wooden bench outside the bath house and skimmed through his guide book. “Hmm… the Ginza here’s an old fashioned 18th century replica with period dressed actors? I could find a tea set for Zoran, she’d like that.”

You've been to Japan haven't you?

Are you a real author? You write good.

Awesome fanfic! Be sure to update soon, cause I'll sure be reading.

I wish I could take lesions. Because I really like making stories too, but the grammar isn't as go, so.

Well I'm not a real author besides writing fan fictions though I'm currently writing something about my Navy career. I have a lot of writing experiance just from my years of service, especially in the later years when I had to write personnel evaluations.

It's not hard to write a story and don't let problems with grammar stop you, try writing your story as if it were a script for an episode, that's an easy way to start.

"dannavy85" wrote:Well I'm not a real author besides writing fan fictions though I'm currently writing something about my Navy career. I have a lot of writing experiance just from my years of service, especially in the later years when I had to write personnel evaluations.

It's not hard to write a story and don't let problems with grammar stop you, try writing your story as if it were a script for an episode, that's an easy way to start.

Have you seen my story yet, if not I’ll show you. And you can tell me what you think

My problem is the grammer part too and spelling. I'm always having to look up how to spell certain words that I know normal people can spell. So, instead of writing a story like a book form, I write my stories(or movies) in a outline form, just so that it is easier to change parts of the story.

"stoogefreaky" wrote:My problem is the grammer part too and spelling. I'm always having to look up how to spell certain words that I know normal people can spell. So, instead of writing a story like a book form, I write my stories(or movies) in a outline form, just so that it is easier to change parts of the story.

Me too I’ve been working on the same story for half a year, I’ve made the cartoons and drew them from scratch.

I'd like to see your story Sparx!