A New Beginning- Chapter One

 Chapter One:
A new beginning

This story started when Anne decided to go to Japan with her children,Mira and Kimi. She had been saving every penny since she started working while continuing her Degree in TESL. Now it was time to leave for Japan. She had applied a course in motor-action training known as Dousa-Hou in Japanese language. It was for her daughter,Mira who was a cerebral palsy child since birth that made her decision a reality. If not maybe she is still living her new life in an old way and nothing would ever change.

It was half past 7 when she and her children arrived at the airport that night. The atmosphere was hectic and packed with Japanese people as well as foreigners like them. Without hesitation, Anne quickly led her children to catch a cab outside the airport. A cab took them to their destination which was near to Tokyo University. There, they lived in an apartment situated beside Tokyo University. It was hard at first because of language barriers but as time flew, Anne and her children had been able to adapt with the life in Japan. Now, life wasn't so hard for as they knew and understand the language as well as the culture of the Japanese. In the mornings, Anne would send Kimi to kindergarten where he had learned his Japanese and communicated with the other children. Whereas, Mira followed Anne to her daily classes because there, both of them learned how to master the training program as well as doing exercises for her daughter. 

When afternoon came, she picked up Kimi from school with Mira of course and all of them went home for lunch. At this point, Anne had learned a lot of Japanese cooking like sushi, shabu- shabu and teppanyaki. But she had to replace meat or chicken with seafood as they cannot eat non- halal food. Although it was awkward at first, but they finally get use to eating seafood and vegetables everyday.

After lunch, Anne would go back to class and left her children with her next-door neighbour for a couple of hours. After her last class for the day, she went back home immediately. If she had assignments with her colleagues, she would be late a few hours more. But she would call her neighbour telling that she was coming home a bit late due to her work. That was her everyday routine ever since she and her children lived in Japan.

When night came, it was time for Anne to relax and take a break from work. As usual, she would put her children to sleep and read bedtime stories to them. If not, she would recite Quran to them as they were Muslims. She had never forgotten who she was and her Malay culture although she had to learn Japanese culture at the same time. Moreover, it was part of herself and her new life that made her wanted to become a better person, mother and student.