The Sound Empress: Chapter 1
Brief synopsis: We meet Kari Nakajimi, a young lady with a pet sitting service. While doing some business for a client's cat, she gets a weird can with grooves on it that she is able to play.
It was a beautiful, late spring day in Yokohama, Japan. The city is truly beautiful this time of year, yet busy, as the early morning crowds make their way to work. We follow the day in the life of Kari Nakajimi, who has lived in the city for about 6 years now. She’s a young woman, in her mid-20s, and rents an apartment in the middle of the city. This makes her business, which is a pet sitting service, a hotly requested one. She gets a phone call while she is finishing up her breakfast, which consists of a single egg, some oatmeal and a splash of orange juice. She picks up and states her usual greeting:
“Kari, owner and proprietor of The Kari Hotel, pet sitting service.”
An older woman could be heard in Kari’s ear as the person on the other side of the phone responds to her:
“Hi Kari, I’m Boni. I’ve got a bit of an emergency on my hands. I’m going on vacation to the city of Shanghai to meet up with some of my friends, and I don’t have a person to take care of my black tabby cat, Marcus. I was wondering if you could take care of him for about a week or so, while I am away.”
“Absolutely, Boni. Can you give me the address of your residence, so you can tell me how to take care of the cat in your absence?”
Boni supplies the address to Kari.
“Thanks very much! I’ll be arriving at your residence in about 15 minutes.” she then said, and then hung up.
Kari then placed the soiled dishes in the sink, and then proceeded to exit the apartment.
In about 20 minutes, she made it to Boni’s apartment. It was a black place, not too far from the local fish market. A very distinct salt smell was permeating through the atmosphere. Clearly, a fresh catch of fish and other seafood delicacies must’ve come in. Maybe I could take a look at the fish market after I deal with this client…
I knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door opens unveiling Boni. She was a short, elderly woman that lived alone. She was wearing some hand-sewn clothing which looked really professional. To the left of her was her tabby cat Marcus, who was meowing very loudly as if there were an intruder in her room. I brought my hand to Marcus to pet, so as to calm him down while Boni told me about the food the cat eats, and that he needs to go out on a walk every day, and that he hasn’t gone on his walk today.
“Alright, thank you for telling me about the cat’s needs. I’ll ensure that he’ll get his exercise every day. Now, we need to discuss payment. You said you’d be gone for about a week?”
“Affirm. According to your website it would be 25000 yen, correct?”
“Because of the special needs of the cat, it will be a bit more expensive. 30000 yen.”
“Okay, that seems reasonable.”
Boni went into the other room to get the money for the service. A minute or so later, Boni returned with a good handful of coins. I counted the coins to ensure that the correct money was given. She had.
“Thanks very much,” I proclaimed, “and enjoy your trip to Shanghai!”
“You’re welcome. See you in a week or so,” and then Boni closed the door.
She left on the kitchen table a key to her house, so that I could get in her house. She also left me her cell number, so I could contact her if things go absolutely wrong. I grabbed the key and put it into my skirt pocket. As I was doing that, Marcus was right at the front door, and mewed loudly. Speaking to the cat quietly,
“I’m guessing Boni takes you out for your walk now.”
Marcus meows again, as if in agreement. Then it was clear: I needed to go give the cat a walk. This would be a perfect opportunity to go to the fish market, and find some fresh tuna or salmon, which Marcus really likes. At this point the clock sounded. It was 11 o’clock.
I placed the cat on a leash, and then opened the front door, letting the cat out first. After exiting the residence, I took the key out of my pocket and locked the door. It would be bad of me to leave the door unlocked, so that some crazy person would rob the place. Now, I followed the scent of the fresh fish, which is an easily recognizable smell. In about 5 minutes I made it to the market. And wow, it is packed to the gills with paying customers. How am I supposed to find the right fish for this cat? Well, I didn’t need to ponder for too long, as Marcus bolted through the crowd. I’m running to try to keep up with the cat, bumping into people and apologizing up a storm as I go. Eventually we went down almost to the end of the street, to find a shopkeeper that is only serving a single person. Marcus then jumped onto the counter of fish.
“Marcus! Get down, that fish is not yours!” I screamed. This was enough to get the attention of the shopkeeper, who wasn’t particularly impressed with my conduct:
“My name’s not Marcus.” The shopkeeper said with cross eyes.
“My apologies,” I said, in a much softer tone, “but I was talking to the cat that I am taking care of while a person is away on vacation. He had smelt some good fish being sold here, and I was wondering if I could purchase something from you.”
“Oh! Well you have come to the right place! We have just received a new shipment of albacore, salmon, and bluefish from the boat right over there.” He pointed at the ship where the fish came from. “Now, what kind of fish are you looking for today?”
“That one right there,” I stated, pointing at a nice albacore.
“Good choice!” he proclaimed to me. “Do you want the whole thing, or do you need it cut up into a more manageable chunk for your cat to enjoy?”
“Might as well make it the whole thing. I really do enjoy cooking fish when I can get my hands on them.”
I gave the shopkeeper the necessary coins to pay for the fish. Pretty expensive, considering the size, but I wanted to ensure that the fish I got would be the best. All that running around has made me pretty thirsty, though, and hungry too, although the thirst was more urgent. I could always wait until I got back home to eat, I thought to myself. Being in the market, there should be a restaurant nearby, where I could get a nice refreshing drink. I walked around a bit through the market, this time more courteous than I was when I first entered the market. However, the sheer number of people made it pretty much impossible to see the buildings around. Hence, I needed to get out of the market.
I made a right turn down an alleyway to go to the street just to the north of the street I was on. When I did so, I saw a colorful vending machine right next to the bus stop, on the other side of the street. These were pretty rare to see out in the open, considering that Japan was cracking down on health by making it hard to get carbonated beverages. It looked to be freshly stocked with drink, although from where I was I couldn’t see what was on offer. I decided to pick up my cat and cross the street.
After crossing the street, I could see the machine and the goods contained in it very clearly. However, something seemed off. Yes, you do see the usual place to get your beverage, once you have paid in either bills or coins. But the selection seemed odd: I’ve never heard of any of these brands. Nor do I recall any brands that have music notes as their company logo, or the treble clef. Inspecting the machine, I saw the following text:
In English: Sound Dispenser
In Japanese (English translation provided here): The products in here serve two purposes: one, it contains a delicious beverage for you to enjoy. Two, it has a sound recording that you can play on a phonograph or record player. What might you hear? Buy a bottle or can and find out!
“Hmm…” I said to the cat I’m taking care of, as I reached into my purse and pulled out a crisp, 1000 yen banknote. I put the banknote into the machine. The machine made a beep noise, after the machine confirmed the authenticity of the bill. Now, I contemplated the options available. The last option on the first row, A9, looked the most intriguing. It had a vinyl record on the can, and it had tea in it. I absolutely love tea, no matter the flavor. I pressed A9 on the keypad, which the machine told me was 900 yen. Pressing the “confirm” button on the machine, I awaited the beverage. A few seconds later, my change and drink came out. I took my drink and sat down on the bench right next to the vending machine.
I took a few minutes to savor the drink itself. It was a tea, and it had hints of vanilla and orange in it. Overall, the taste was fine, but nothing special. I’ve had better teas for less money. And of course, nothing beats the taste of a tea with leaves that you picked yourself.
Now, I recalled that the machine said that the products inside had a sound recording on it. But where is it? I shook the can, easily at first, and then more vigorously, to see if something would fall out. Nothing came out. I then looked inside the can. Nothing. Next, I flipped the can upside-down to see if there were any instructions on it. And voila, there were some instructions, written in Japanese in a tiny font:
“On the side of the can are grooves which contain a 30 second sound clip. To play it, first clean the can thoroughly with water. Then drill a hole through the center of the can and mount the can on a cylinder phonograph. Place a needle on the can to hear the sound clip. The needle will run down the grooves, from the top (where you would place your mouth) to the bottom.”
Considering I am a huge audiophile, I have plenty of record players at my house, and I have music in various audio formats, such as laser discs, postcards, reel-to-reel tapes, etc. So, maybe, I could use some of the equipment I have at home to play what is on the can.
I walked briskly with the cat back to my residence, which was about a 20 minute walk from where I was. I placed the fish on the dining room table, and I promised the cat that I would cook the fish after I figured out what was recorded on the can of tea I had.
My house is pretty small, with only the necessities needed for a single person to live in. There was a small kitchen, with an oven and stovetop, a toaster, a microwave, and a fridge. There was a small living room area that doubled as a dining room. Then going down a small hallway, there were three other small rooms. One was the bathroom, one being the bedroom/office, and the last one being a storage room, which is where I kept all of my audio equipment.
I went down the corridor to the storage room and picked out the Edison phonograph which I assembled from a kit. It plays things recorded on wax cylinders, which is the most similar to the can that I have. After I cleaned the can, and used a hand drill to make a hole on the bottom of the can, doing my best to put it through the center of the can, I mounted the can on the phonograph, turned the power on, and placed the needle on the can. A message started to be played:
“If you are hearing this, congratulations! Come to the National Diet Building in Tokyo to claim your reward…”
There was supposedly more to the message, but due to the hole I drilled being a bit uneven, the needle slipped off the can.
“Guess we know where we need to go,” I said to the cat. But there was one problem: I’d never been to Tokyo before, save for one time I went with my parents as a young child. I don’t have any recollection of what we did there. I would therefore need to enlist the help of a friend of mine.