Factual Story Assessment

Navigating her way through dark Japanese streets, a girl of merely 15, attempts to find her way home. Home is a term used very loosely. Disregard thoughts of warm, enduring hugs. Eliminate feelings of relief as you step over the threshold. Coming to this home after a day in the real world offers no respite. Home in the sense that Hannah feels, is just an extension of darkness, if not the source. She isn’t abused and she isn’t neglected but she is not where she belongs.

Travelling from Australia on her own, Hannah took a risk that many wouldn’t. So many elements were left up to chance when she decided to go on Student Exchange – language barriers, home stay families and schooling life. If considered as a whole, the trip was a remarkable experience. Only one element could truly be faulted, and unfortunately it was the family of whom Hannah’s care was in the hands.

All seemed fine at the initial meeting. Awkward but friendly greetings in stunted English and Japanese were what Hannah had been expecting and it’s exactly what she got. The initial politeness lasted only a couple of weeks into Hannah’s six month stay. Soon she began noticing trends in the dynamic of the household. Hannah’s position in the pecking order was quickly determined to be at the very bottom. Bullying from her siblings made school life difficult, and lies spun by her host mother added to the difficulties at home. The trip quickly seemed to take the form of a generic fairy tale, but would it end in happily ever after?

After Hannah was welcomed to join a student club that had not extended the same invitation to her ‘sisters’, things quickly spiralled downhill. Meetings were held after school, and Hannah felt it would be a good way to escape everything at home. It was agreed she would be picked up at eight when the meeting finished. For once Hannah had something for which to look forward. The two hour gathering gave her the chance to make friends without patronisation personified (aka, her host sisters) that usually stalked her. On Hannah’s way out, she waved goodbye to her newly made friends as they were picked up before she set out to find her own host parents for a lift home.

It became evident though, that as the last cars drove away the street was eerily empty. There was no one left to pick up Hannah. She thought maybe if she waited for just a little while her ‘mum’ would come around the corner. It was only a matter of time she told herself. Waiting for a couple of minutes quickly turned into waiting for half an hour, and it was downright terrifying to be alone in a foreign country, let alone at night. She didn’t want to ring her house, but wasn’t confident in her own navigating abilities.

Hannah decided to call home but instead of being met with apologies and a story of sincere mistake, she was confronted with anger and frustration that had become a regular occurrence. She was told that nobody would be leaving to pick her up that night and that it was selfish of Hannah to expect such actions. This was followed immediately by a dial tone. After this conversation she went into a state of almost complete panic. Her heartbeat increased, her breath quickened and she felt that if her body underwent any more stress it would simply stop functioning altogether.

She looked around her and tried to shake away the mental blanket she felt covering her brain, making it impossible for her to make any rational decisions. There were three directions Hannah could choose from, and in the dark none of them seemed familiar and certainly none of them seemed welcoming. Standing alone had been scary enough but there had been something of a safety net with the street lighting near the school. Attempting the journey home would no doubt lead to streets of complete darkness.

Hannah knew though that a decision had to be made. She stepped out blindly, using no logic in her choice of direction. The further she walked the less familiar the streets became. The further she walked the more she jumped at the smallest sounds. Japan’s reputation for street safety has always been among the highest in the world, but in her situation Hannah found no comfort in this. She didn’t know who was behind every corner she approached and worse still, she didn’t know whether she was headed towards her home or not.

She turned a corner and uttered a massive sigh of relief when she recognised some of the houses. This wasn’t to say she had found her street, but to see something familiar was the best feeling she’d had since the meeting that afternoon. Hannah’s stride became a little more confident and thoughts of wholesome Japanese families in the houses she passed gave her a bit of backhanded comfort.

She’d lost track of the time she’d been wandering blindly, but she knew it had to have been near two hours. A car rounded the corner and Hannah didn’t really think twice of it. But when the car began to slow and maintain a pace that allowed it to remain behind her, she felt the same panic come over her that had she felt leaving the school. Should she choose a house and run in or should she play it cool until she was actually in danger? The decision was made for her when she wasn’t even given the opportunity to pick a household.

The car sped up slightly and pulled over beside her. The tinted window was wound down, but Hannah didn’t know whether to feel relief or fear when she saw the face inside. A familiar face so contorted with rage gives perhaps the same comfort as a stranger’s. Getting into the car with the host mother from hell, Hannah’s night of fright was at an end but she knew there was months of it still ahead.

At the time of this story Hannah Mossman was a 15 year old exchange student from Tannum Sands, Queensland. She participated in a six month student exchange program to Hiroshima, Japan. She returned home one month early as she was not coping with her homestay family environment. Hannah is now 17 and is studying Bachelor of Secondary Education/Arts majoring in Japanese and Drama at the University of Queensland. She hopes to one day return to Japan for a more pleasant experience.