After Eve had fulfilled her spur-of-the-moment fantasy, the trio continued on to Harajuku, this time making their way through a residential area, with houses, an elementary school, a tiny green space, and a small fire station. They stopped at the fire station, an anime-style poster on a bulletin board catching their eyes, with cute, chibi-fied versions of fire fighters hard at work spraying water towards the edge of the paper.

Penny and Eve both took photos of the poster, and an elderly man came up behind them with his hands held behind his back.

Maaya greeted the man in Japanese, and the two briefly spoke. The man then gestured to the station and said something in Japanese, and Maaya turned to Penny and Eve to translate for them.

“I told him you like the poster, and that you’re YouTubers from Canada, and he’s wondering if you’d like to take pictures of the firetrucks. He’s actually the chief of this station!”

“Sure,” Penny and Eve said at the same time.

Maaya relayed their response to the fire chief, and he disappeared into the building, the large shutters scrolling up a moment later.

The firetrucks inside were bright red and totally spotless, as if they were polished by the hour. They were also more rounded than the firetrucks back in Canada, which were sharp rectangles with noticeable dirt and rust.

“They’re so shiny,” Eve said.

The fire chief disappeared behind one of the trucks and returned with a full uniform in his hands, including a classic red fire hat.

“Would you like to wear it?” he asked Penny and Eve in English.

Penny felt a bit awkward about it, but Eve’s enthusiasm won out.

“Yes, of course!” Eve said.

As Eve clumsily went through the effort of putting on the heavy-duty uniform, which was clearly too big for her, the fire chief brought another uniform to Penny. Penny glanced at Eve, who looked like a kid playing dress-up, and then looked back at the second uniform, and was afraid she would disappear inside it.

A younger firefighter appeared from the station’s office, his eyes flicking back and forth between Penny and Eve in some confusion and a lot of amusement.

“They are YouTubers,” the fire chief explained to the firefighter, and then the two spoke together in Japanese.

The firefighter helped Penny put on her uniform, Penny having gotten lost inside it. With both their uniforms on, Penny and Eve posed by the firetrucks, first together and then with the fire chief and firefighter. Maaya took the pictures with everyone’s phones, swapping between them with great speed.

The alarm went off, signalling there was a fire out there that needed putting out, and that these Canadian girls should probably take off the uniforms and get out of the way.

Before they did, however, the firefighter suggested they ride the firetruck out of the station, so they’d have a video of it to share online. Penny and Eve agreed, if only to be agreeable, but the entire time they were secretly hoping that there weren’t people out there burning to death.

The girls hopped off the truck after it pulled out of the station, and the trio waved goodbye to the friendly fire chief and firefighter. They then returned the uniforms and continued on their way.

“People here love to involve foreigners when they have a chance, so they go home with good memories, and tell others about how wonderful Japan is,” Maaya explained as they continued to Harajuku.

“It is wonderful,” Eve said. “I can tell how proud the firefighters are of their jobs.”

Penny gave Eve a slight smile in agreement, then watched as smoke rose in the distance.