Chapter 3

New Surroundings

Some time later Mary woke up in what looked like some sort of penthouse suite/apartment. "I must have been more jet-lagged than I realised" she thought, "I don't even remember coming back here last night. I hope I didn't drift off during the interview, please say I didn't make a bad first impression". She got out of the King-sized bed she had been sleeping in and went to explore her surroundings. There were three rooms: a bedroom, living room and bathroom. There was no kitchen or even dining room. Mary assumed the building must have a canteen or something to cater for her meals (not that she was complaining about the possible prospect of Japanese food cooked to order whenever she pleased). All in all there were a couple of things which stood out to Mary; firstly every room, including the bathroom had a plasma screen and stereo system built into the wall (the one in the living room must have been at least 48"). Secondly the living room had a drinks machine in the corner which was another extravagance to come as a nice surprise to a girl who had only been in Japan for little over two days. Everything thing was beyond her wildest dreams, she couldn't believe it. The only things which had struck her as odd were the lack of any clock or window anywhere. There was one small skylight in the bedroom but it just seemed to serve to inform Mary that it was night time. Still though, given the choice between a clock in every room or a T.V and sound system, Mary didn't think she was missing out too much.

Walking into the bathroom Mary glanced into the mirror (or should one say a wall which shows you your reflection). She definitely wasn't dressed in the same clothes she had arrived in; all she could think about was how 'pink' she looked dressed up in a little Hello Kitty negligee. In fairness it was quite a cute look, but Mary wasn't one for cute. "Oh well," she reckoned, "I suppose they felt it was best for me to get changed before sleeping and it's not like I brought any clothes with me so I can't complain too much. This is probably just the Japanese girl look; it'll be fine once I get my own clothes back. It just looks so pink." She returned to the living room and sat in a sofa facing the huge Plasma screen thinking this would be an opportune time to sample the delights that Japanese Television had to offer. A remote was lying on the table beside her which she assumed must be for the T.V. It was not however like a normal T.V remote, there were just ten buttons: the numbers 1-3 along the top, two with arrows pointing up and down respectively, a button marked N, one marked P, Buttons marked 'Stop' and 'Go' and finally a red button at the bottom. Slightly perplexed Mary decided to experiment by pushing button one and to her delight the T.V came on.

However, despite the screen clearly being on, there did not seem to a picture just a kind of flickering. Trying to make out what was going on (as well as secretly hoping she hadn't broken it) Mary studied the screen to see if she could make out an image. Suddenly the flickering stopped and words began to write themselves on the screen as a voice narrated:

"Hello Mariko. How are you feeling?"

Slightly taken aback by being confronted by a talking television Mary stuttered. "Err... fine. What's going on?"

"Allow me to explain. You are in an MKDN employee residential apartment. It is designed to give you maximum comfort and pleasure in keeping with the company policy of 'If we make you happy, then you will make MKDN happy'. I am a state of the art computer programme designed to answer any questions you may have, aid you in your employee training and pretty much act as your guide to MKDN. I have also been programmed to respond to the name Sam in order in order to add a friendlier touch to our interaction, although this can be changed if Sam is not to your liking? I have nine preset names: Sam, Luke, Ulrich, Tom, Mike, Adam, Kevin, Ed Rob. Which would you like?"

"Err... Sam is good" Replied Mary, still somewhat bemused by what was happening.

"Then Sam I shall be" The Television replied in what could almost have been interpreted as a flourish. "I am voice activated so if ever you need me just say my name and I will answer, I will always be around. Do you have any questions?"

"How can you do that? You're just a computer"

"I'm state of the art I'll have you know. I am programmed to make your life easier; here at MKDN we have technology that most people think only exists in science fiction. Even your American NASA and CIA are less advanced than we. Please just relax, would you like some tea?"

"Err... no thanks I think I'd like to take a walk round the city, I still haven't done that yet"

Sam sighed, "Mariko, Mariko, Mariko, this will not do. I have told you that my primary function is to teach you Japanese language AND culture. Therefore I need you to treat me like another person; you should already know that it is a great disrespect to turn down the offer of tea. Do you want to offend me?"

"No, sorry. I'm just... I didn't expect this err... Ok then yes I would love some tea thank you"

Mary walked over to the drinks machine in the corner and pushed the button marked tea but nothing happened. She tried again but still nothing. "Sam? The machine seems to be broken."

"Oh I forgot to tell you, for security measures we need to know who is in each of our apartments, we don't want people breaking in. Therefore the machine has been connected to a retinal scanner in the wall above it, if you just look up into the red light as you push the button it should confirm you are eligible to take drinks from this machine. MKDN apologises if this is a nuisance to you."

"Oh, I see. That's no problem" Mary replied, slightly perplexed as to why anybody would go to such lengths to protect company tea supplies. She looked up into the red light Sam had mentioned and pushed the button marked tea again. This time the machine kicked into life and a cup of Japanese tea appeared before her. To her dismay the tea was the same bitter tasting liquid she had drunk in Takahashi-san's office. "Well I suppose I'm gonna have to get used to this stuff" she thought to herself and continued to drink.

Mary sat back down on the sofa and a rush of blood went to her head. "Whoa!" she said, "sat down a bit too quickly there". Still slightly light headed she picked the remote and called out:

"Sam. How does this remote work?"

"It's multi-purpose" Sam replied. "Button one activates me, you use this when it is time for lessons or training and also if you wish to contact building staff for any reasons. Button Two is for the television and three for the radio; you can change channels using the up and down buttons. N and P stand for next and previous which you will need for certain learning programmes along with the stop and go buttons."

"And the red button... ?"

"That is the emergency button; you must only press that in extreme situations. Unnecessary usage of the red button will make MKDN have to punish you. MKDN do not want to punish you we want you to be a good girl and make MKDN happy. So why don't you forget about the red button and watch some television like a good little girl? Maybe you would like some more tea"

Mary was sure that there was something strange about what Sam was saying, but her head was still cloudy. In the end she reasoned that if it was something important she would remember it. So she decided to get herself some more tea and be a good little girl and watch television like MKDN wanted. She looked up into the scanner like before and the tea was poured. She took a sip and returned to the sofa, Once again she seemed to sit down a bit too fast and the blood rushed to her head. She grabbed the remote control and pushed number two. The television flickered and came to life; an attractive young Japanese woman was reading a news report about a seemingly hostile takeover by MKDN of some Singaporean firm, one Abbey Harding was giving a statement about how the takeover would be good news for all involved and that she looked forward to life as part of MKDN. The logo at the top left of the screen read MKDN News, Mary decided to change channels. The next was MKDN Fashion; it seemed the channel was covering a fashion show. The MKDN logo could be seen everywhere even on the outfits. Taking another sip from her tea Mary was amazed at how risqué the style was, everything was so suggestive almost to the point of obscene. It didn't help that the girls on the catwalk would have looked more at home in a men's magazine than a fashion show. It also surprised Mary how none of the models seemed to be Japanese, they were made up to look Japanese (or at least an artist's impression of the Japanese look) but they were definitely Western girls. Mary couldn't understand why a Japanese fashion show would use large breasted foreigners instead of home grown models but in any case this again wasn't her thing so she decided to see what the next channel would bring.