My life changed forever when I had that internship in Japan. I had an internship with a company in Akita. Yes, it's the prefecture - as well as the city. It's the capital. Anyways, I had to spend some time getting over the jet lag in Tokyo, and then went to Akita so I can have that summer internship.

No, I'm not going to be telling you what that company was. Just because I happen to know a little bit of secrets about them and they won't like if I start going telling them, and getting tons of tourists going around trying to find everything out. It's just common courtesy. I'm not even telling you the names of the guys I was working with. You know, corporate secrets, okay?

So for the sake of anonymity, I'll just refer it to it as Mishima-Corp. It was named after the founder's father. That much I learned from Akiko. She was the one who was out looking for an intern of some kind, and she spoke almost perfect English. Kind of amazing, actually. She taught me a little bit of Japanese, but said that I don't exactly have to be fluent, just sort of know enough to get around outside of the workplace. I was going to be living in a small apartment building on the outskirts of Akita, allegedly that's where most of the employees lived anyways.

 For some reason, it seemed really dry around there. Akiko seemed to be constantly giving me static shocks. I didn't know why. She seemed to shock everybody when she was giving things to them or came into contact with them. Everybody got shocked every now and then, but she seemed to get static'd the most. Wait, this isn't relevant is it? Eh. who cares, back to what I was saying.

Anyways, as for where Mishima-Corp is? It's in Akita. That much I'll tell you. However, if you go around asking for where Mishima-Corp is because you read this, then I'll just tell you right now: Don't. You'll get weird looks from the locals, and looking it up on Google or anything else won't bring you anything related to this. Yeah, there are people with the surname Mishima in Akita, but they're not related. Most definitely not. Just don't bother, okay?

My very first day of Mishima-Corp employment was quite the fascinating one. Akiko lead me into the boss's office. He simply went by the name of "Mr. Kan". That wasn't his surname, since after all it was written on a little nameplate on a desk right in front of me, but whatever he wanted. I tried to speak Japanese to him a little bit, unfortunately, I have such an outrageously American accent, and I messed up pronouncing all sorts of key things. I think I said "Hello I am came from America internship" or something else really awkward.

 I thought I messed up massively. I mean, I flew all the way to Japan, and if I got fired from the internship, what the hell could I have done after that? I mean I could have explored for a few days but I didn't have much money, at least until I got paid. (This is a paid internship, by the way.) Mr. Kan was thankfully understanding - a lot more than some of the people who apparently couldn't comprehend the fact that Japanese was a hard language to learn if you were used to speaking English. He actually laughed, then said this.

"Why don't I just speak English to you, so you'll be more comfortable?"

Yeah, that was surprising. He seemed to prefer speaking English to me. So that was quite exciting. One of the interesting things about Mishima-Corp was that they actually closed on the weekends, and had sort of a half day on Friday. Yeah, there were long hours on other days (I still had a 40 hour workweek despite getting a two and a half day weekend.) but hey, that was all fun and good, right? It apparently made it such a good place to work for. Two other people who I was working with, Michiko and Jun, all said that they wouldn't trade their jobs with Mishima-corp for the world. They were all glad to have me here, even though their english wasn't that good.

 Allegedly, speaking English around me was helping them learn English too. According to them, a lot of Japanese schools didn't actually teach you English that well, they just sort of taught you what the words meant and not anything actually important like say, grammar or sentence structure. Some of their English was laughable, but hey, so was my Japanese. I wish I took it in school before signing up for the internship and getting it, so I wouldn't have had much trouble.

So anyways, the first of these two point five day weekends was what changed my life forever. As sort of a way to welcome me to the company, Mr. Kan, Akiko, Michiko, and Jun thought it'd be a good idea to have somewhat of a "Traditional" night on the town. At first, I thought it was simple Engrish - you know, a night on the town where I come from usually means drinking, gambling, partying, and possibly some bow chicka wow wow. So that was a rather surprising thing - I know how conservative people are in Japan.

But Mr. Kan simply reassured me that a night on the town was a little different. They would take me around and show me some of the cool things that Akita has to offer after dark. Again, I would have assumed it to be Engrish again. The first thing they did was take me out to a restaurant. I had already been taken out to one for lunch, but it was a simple conveyor belt sushi place. This was a full blown performance place - you know, Hibachi. I'm not telling you where this was...just also to respect them.

 They all seemed to be quite fond of ordering alcohol. One thing I'll tell you about Akita that IS true? They have a lot of breweries around the prefecture. People in Akita drink the most sake out of every other prefecture. But lemme tell you this about Asian people...they can not hold their alcohol.

At first, I told them that I wasn't really comfortable with drinking, but well, I caved anyways. Mr. Kan seemed to get buzzed after just one small glass of Sake. Akiko and Jun smacked me on the back and told me that I only live once, so I might as well enjoy my night on the town. So yeah, I had some.

Initially, I didn't like it. Sake REALLY burns your mouth. But after a few sips you do get used to it. I don't know what happened next, but we seemed to get really drunk. My memory kind of got a bit hazy. Okay, I'll confess - that's when I learned to drink. Before, I never really drank alcohol. And I think the Sake that they gave me really wasn't the best introduction. Because I got knocked on my ass so hard, my memory is fuzzy. About as fuzzy as my tail.

 So let's see how much I recall. I recall going to that restaurant, getting some sake, then making everybody laugh because of how quick I was to get knocked out by it. I somehow got talked into having some more, or maybe I passed out in somebody's car. That wasn't the only booze I had that night. Then after that, I think we walked into some kind of weird game show or something.

Mind you, I kind of know what happened now, but I'm just telling you this as I remember it. So I walk into this strange game show and I could swear I'm seeing some kind of fox and a raccoon. It's all blurry and fuzzy, but then I start getting puffs of smoke following me. I'm given some more stuff to drink and it's clearly alcohol. (Trust me, I can taste it now, I could taste it then.) I don't know.

So there are some voids in my memory after that. I do remember seeing some furry creatures. I also remember being outside, then taken into some other buildings. I think we sang Karaoke like we sometimes did on Friday nights, but I don't recall that much specific. I was really really drunk - and so was everybody else. Consider this, my large American frame got drunk. And Asians can't handle booze at all - so they were probably even more drunk than I was. Hard to believe I was with people older than me, huh?

 Actually, okay, forget about it - how about instead I just skip to the parts I do remember, instead of speculating what I don't. There were some more flashes I don't entirely remember, but then I woke up with the hangover from hell. I was on the floor of my room, with the fouton next to me. And I felt...really really weird.

So when I woke up, I felt surprisingly warm around my waist. No, I didn't piss the bed - that would have been absolutely humiliating. It felt like I had gone to bed with my shorts on. There weren't really any heaters here, and the ACs were pretty poor, so maybe that's why. There were only two things that were really on my mind at the moment:

1) Dear god, my head is KILLING ME.

2) What in the fuck did I do last night?

Instinctively I reached up and grabbed my burning head. Except I felt quite strange. For one, I managed to poke myself in the face with something sharp, like fingernails. And second of all, I seemed to have something big attached to my face. Something I felt. Finally, I felt strange fuzz. Like I hadn't shaved in three months.

 "Ooooow," I moaned to myself, rubbing over this fuzz, "What in the fuck is up with my face?"

Well, you know what it's like to be hungover? Horrible. I could somehow smell my own morning breath and some of the sweat from that "night on the town". Yuck. You had that weird one where your senses were amplified as if to torment you? Yeah. At some point I was half expecting to be able to hear my own heart beat.

I didn't hear my own heart beat, but I felt it pound. I placed my hand to my chest to feel it. But before I did, I took it away. See, I could expect for my face to be fuzzy - I'm a man, I can get facial hair. But I felt hair around my chest that felt way too thick to be chest hair. Yeah, I had chest hair, but it was around the centre of my chest. This was somehow all over it. I felt over my belly, and identified even more fuzz. What in the hell, did these guys give me some kind of hair growth? Maybe I had somewhat of an allergy to sake and strange amounts of booze.

The light from the rising sun entered the room, going RIGHT INTO MY EYES!! I slammed my eyes shut. I could have sworn from that flash I saw something else. I just dove back into the fouton, only to feel something weird. It felt like I somehow hit my nose and my mouth at the same time. I hopped up with a yelp and grabbed my face with both my hands. That's what kicked the news off that something was wrong.

 See, it felt like my nose and my mouth had swelled a lot. Not just wider, but longer. Almost like a dog's muzzle of some kind. I even felt my own nose..which was much bigger than it was before. I rubbed over it with my finger, feeling a strange mixture of fuzz and this leathery sensation. I put my hand to the side of my head and found...nothing. Only thick hair of some kind. Then I felt my ear twitch.

Yes, my ear. It was weird. My ears, both of them, seem to have moved up to the top of my head. I poked them, feeling them twitch. They didn't feel at all like those ears that we have on the side of our head. They felt more ovular. Yet at the same time there were enough muscles in my head to twitch them. I couldn't move my ears before, but now I could. Except they looked so weird I bet.

"What in the hell?" I asked out loud. I finally opened my eyes again, instinctively screwing them shut when the light of the sun set fire to my eyes. It took several more tries, but I finally opened my eyes. I put my hands to the ground to try and sit up...only to feel an odd pulling sensation around my rear.

 It took several more tries before I managed to sit up, ignoring that pain in my rear. I looked down at myself and nearly gasped. My entire body seemed to have covered in this strange brown and white fur. It was way too thick to be body hair. And for one, I don't think body hair changed in colour that rapidly. AS my eyes adjusted, I could see that my abdomen had turned a white, while the rest of me was brown.

I brought my hand into my view and nearly gasped again. What in the hell did I have last night? LSD or something? This was some really bizarre waking dream. Around my forearms, my hands had turned a rather brown, darker brown than my sides and arms. I opened and closed my hand instinctively, and felt some sensitive skin on my palms, as well as claws digging into my pad.

I finally brought it to my face, accidentally smacking my muzzle with it. It must have been some kind of powerful drug they gave me last night - you can't feel pain in dreams. But I was feeling it. My hands seemed to have carry a bit of sensitive skin, like a paw pad of some kind. At least, that's what I heard it was called later.

 I jumped to my feet, almost losing balance before I managed to stabilize myself. For some reason, I was walking on my toes. Yes, my toes. Or at least, the balls of my feet. I looked to the floor, and spotted a pair of rather canid looking paws standing there, instead of my feet. The other unusual thing I felt was something attached to my ass. Right above my purple boxer shorts (yes, purple) was something like a tail. I found it wagging when I thought about it. I looked around, trying not to lose my balance with my strange paw feet. My tail looked...fluffy. Brown, like the rest of me, but with darker brown or black rings around it, eventually culminating on a black tip to this tail.

I had to sit down. I sat down on my tail so many times, before I found a comfortable position. What in the hell is happening to me? I'm some kind of raccoon. For some reason, I didn't think I was quite a raccoon. After all, my feet had elongated then widened at the base. And my feet seemed to have this same pad as my hands did. Experimentally, I pulled it out and then poked it with a claw. I could feel the claw, but it didn't feel pain. I took a few experimental steps on these strange feet, walking into the bathroom. I turned the light on, and finally saw my reflection in the mirror.

 Right in front of me looked to be some kind of raccoon dog. Wait, Raccoon Dog? Why did I think of myself as a raccoon DOG in specific? All I could think of was that I looked like a raccoon...dog. I tried sounding it out a few times. Raccoon dog. Raccoon dog. Coon. Rack. Racoon dog. I'm a raccoon...dog. But I looked so much like a raccoon of some kind - I even had a black mask around my eyes like a masquerade.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times. I saw a pair of pearly whites - almost flawlessly polished canid teeth. Yet I also had molars, just with larger incisors. Seriously? Dog mouth? I had a dog's face, but a raccoon looking thing. I even poked my pudge a little bit...somehow this looked normal. But I thought it made me look a little fat. I mean, I'm not obese or anything like some of those fat pictures I saw on deviantART or FurAffinity. I pretty much lived off of fried chicken and cheap ramen in college.

"What in the shit," I said, "How is this possible?"

Suddenly, I heard a knocking on the door. Oh not now. No. no. I gritted my teeth and scrambled a bit. I nearly tripped over my still not-fully-unpacked suitcase, sending my nose right into the ground. I had to cover myself up a bit. There was another knocking on the door. I quickly put a shirt over my furry body. That didn't cover up the fact that I looked like a freaking raccoon dog-DAMN IT! RACCOON!

 I then got an idea. I slowly walked to the door and cracked it open a little bit, letting some of the cool air into the apartment I was in. I didn't let them see me - it was still bright and early. And what would Japanese people think if they saw a raccoon dog that walked on two legs like a human?

"Yes?" I asked, "Sorry, I'm a little hung over."

"It is me, Michiko." I heard outside.

"Err...I'm sort of...hung over...can this wait? What do you need?" I asked.

"Do you know you're speaking Japanese right now?" Michiko said.

"Wudge, I'm speaking.." Then I realized something. Michiko didn't speak English this fluently. Yet I could understand what she was saying. Did I just perceive it as English?

"What did I do last night?"

"Open the door," Michiko said, "You...had a little too much to drink. Listen...what are you right now?"

"...I'm the intern?"

"No, what is your species?"

"I'm a raccoon dog," I said. I didn't even notice that I said "Raccoon Dog" instead of human until later.

There was a bit of silence, until the door was opened, right into my muzzle. I fell down on the ground, accidentally crushing my tail.

 "ACK!" I covered my face up, "I-I don't know what happened!" I said.

"It's okay...at least you did not drink Mr. Kan's Ushi Oni sake."

I pulled my hands away and gasped. Instead of Michiko, there seemed to be a rather orange looking vixen standing there, wearing clothes like a human. Just like a fox, she had black "Gloves" and "Socks"...yet I could tell it was her. Even despite the vulpine face looking at me, I could tell it was her. Even despite the fact that there were three tails wagging on the ground instead of one, I could still tell it was her.

"What in the hell?" I asked.

Another face seemed to come into view. Something that looked like Mr. Kan. But wait a moment - Mr. Kan wasn't a bull. And he didn't have several tails.

"Err...we'll have to explain...I am so sorry," Mr. Kan said in a rather deep voice. Somehow, I could tell it was him.

"Why in the hell am I a raccoon dog? I'm supposed to be a raccoon dog! Not a raccoon of some kind!"

"This will be a long story," The larger bull said, stepping plainly into view. I had no idea how many tails this bull had. At least five.

 "You had a tad too much to drink last night," Michiko said, "Jun happened to have offered you some of his and...forget it, it's going to take forever to explain."

"I'll need all the explanations I can get!"


So...to make a long story short (Too late, I've gone maybe seven pages already), I don't know whatever the hell it was that night, but I'm no longer a human. I'm a tanuki. No, I don't have ginormous balls - that's actually an illusion to scare people. How in the hell do you think I'd be able to walk if I had a giant ballsack in the middle of my legs?

So...Youkai are real. And chances are, so are a lot of other mythical creatures. I mean, Mishima-corp was full of them. Mr. Kan is what's called an Ushi Oni. Michiko is a Kitsune. Jun was a Tanuki, just like me, and Akiko is...a weasel type that's called a Raiju. Everybody was so hung over, they don't know specifically what happened. Just that I had to learn to take a human form.

Let's say this...it feels so foreign without a tail. I don't know why, but we did something involving drinking that wound up with me permanently turned into a Tanuki. At least Youkai are shapeshifters. You wouldn't know it by looking at me, but I'm actually a fuzzy raccoon dog with a very huggable fluffy tail. I'm able to shapeshift and create illusions that fool anyone. I can take a leaf off of a tree and do other silly things.

 And this all happened after a night on the town in Akita. Damn good stuff. I love to get drunk, but I'm not like...raping my liver or anything. Magic seems to purge it out easily. Yeah...it's not so bad actually. And that's why I'm not telling you in specific what happened. Partly because I can't remember, and partly because if I did, all sorts of people would be going out to Japan and try to find some of Akita's brewery. And there'd be all sorts of assholes trying to take advantage of the people working at Mishima-Corp.

Just take this to mind: You may not want to be a mythical creature like myself. Even we need to eat, sleep, work, get money, etc. It's not some kind of catch-all end-all thing. And don't go to Akita to find these breweries. Or whatever it is that might transform you. Some people are superstitious for a reason. Not all Youkai are like us. I won't do anything to hurt you or take advantage of you, but there are some Youkai who aren't as friendly. Seriously. Just...don't.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to the liquor store. I'm running low on rum and vodka.