Checking in on the hotel on the new Asian colony was fairly easy for the Animalia Ambassadoria crew, but the first order of business would be to coordinate what they would cover and how they were to cover things. There had been some amazement at how fast things had been managed to be constructed, given that the island was only leased to Animalia by Japan over the summer. In pure theory, NOTHING on the island should be as fully furnished as it was. Abby's best guess was that Japan and China had put a lot of effort and resources into the project, especially given that Japan and China both had obvious embassies on the island that faced each other across the main street that covered the island.
"So... what's the plan?" Johan Eecks wondered, "I really didn't see all that much when we landed... outside of the central street, the airport, the two embassies, a sort of "palace" sort of thing, and a recreational facility... which I think is where they have the hot spa type thing... Not much in the way of Animalians..."
"Or people," Courtney added.
Abby nodded as Animalia Ambassadoria sat in the lobby area of the hotel, which had been thankfully built up to Animalian sizes with its fair share of features that would help those that were smaller than larger Animalians like Abby and Samson. It served a good regroup spot to plan out their coverage and who would cover what.
"They do have some houses and other martial arts facilities," Abby commented, "and I think that at present... much of the movement to this colony was arranged for many of those Animalians that came to Animalia from Japan or China... maybe a few of the other Asian countries given the nature of the group that was rescued from pirates... the cult that the Five Elements were from and so on."
"And much of it is probably being set up for tourism," Malice commented, "as nearly every other colony has that element to it."
"Much of the rest will probably go into developing local industries for fishing and so on," Sophie added, "how well that will work is really only be answered by the future... Horizon may establish local offices here to run the distribution of the Animalia Virus to those that come here wishing to convert, but a lot of that is really only going to be answered by what comes in the future."
"And in the meantime the bulk of this episode is to cover the island and show how it will work and provide what can be done for advertising it," Abby commented, "and since it will be dealing primarily with Japan and China, we DON'T want to get into anything that will relate to America's political races. Look into how the local government will function and how it will work with China and Japan... and we don't want to offend either host nation. So, no inquiries into China's human rights record and not demanding apologies from Japan regarding its actions in WW2."
"But hasn't China been one of the nations trying to get Horizon to give them Animalians for their army?" Katherine wondered.
"It has... and to a degree that could be a question to touch on," Roland asked, "but that wouldn't go beyond making sure that China understands that they would have to urge their soldiers to convert and so on."
"And the big thing with Humans and Animalians working together might just be to ask on whether or not the island will be open to human residents as well as Animalians and the measures that will be taken to make human tourists that come here feel safe," Samson added, and the group soon nodded.
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The conference soon set up with a pretty standard dividing up of the members to look out over the entire island. The base idea was to try and put one Animalian Member with a Human member as much as possible, but since the intro shot was to be a shot of the island by air, that really only left that up to Sophie and Roland, as they were Animalia Ambassadoria's best flyers. This left Ronald and Fred to work together on some of the infrastructure layout on the island and how well things would work for travel around the island. The rest had an Animalian with a Human to cover the various aspects that they wanted to cover.
Abby and Courtney took the role of covering directly with what would be the colony's government, and made their way up to the palace type building. It had a clearly oriental flair and sat at the end of the central street on the island with the embassies for China and Japan nearby and facing each other. The two looked to the two embassies and then made their way inside, where they found Ami waiting for them in the entry way.
"Hello, I am to assume you're wishing to see that things will work out in running the colony?" Ami asked with a small smile and approached. She shook Abby's hand first and then paused as Courtney passed the camera to Abby and then shook hands with Courtney.
"Among certain things," Courtney commented, "particularly some of the rumors that the colony will work like some kind of card game."
Ami gave a full laugh at that, "Much of the idea for the names came from the game, but the way the government function will be very much like how Animalia itself runs. With a mayor and a city council, all of which will be elected offices. Much of the rest is limited to names and so on. Come with me and I will show you how things are drawn up."
They walked along as Ami lead them. Abby made sure to look around the rooms and hallways as they walked along, and noted that the plaques on the doors and other areas were marked in both Japanese and Chinese characters rather than in the Latin Alphabet as the other colonies were. It was something that would be critical for the tourist areas, but as they'd walked there from the hotel, they'd noted that the posted street signs were posted in Japanese, Chinese, and in English. In that she figured it would likely do fairly well there. There was also some amazement at how ornate many things looked.
"You live here?" Courtney wondered.
"In a small apartment at the rear," Ami answered, "Most of the rest of the "palace" is set up to house all the elements of the colony government. The administrative branch and the appropriately needed bureaucrats, the city council, the police headquarters, and the judges offices. When my term ends, I'd be expected to move out."
"So the palace look is mostly for show then?" Abby asked curiously.
"Yes," Ami smiled, "as tourists to Japan are always intrigued by the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and tourists in China are intrigued by things like Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing. This, I think was set up create that same sort of imagery, though since the colony is only just opening up... I can't say on how successful it will be."
They were then lead into a conference room where Ami had a large poster set up that showed and overall map of the island and saw that it was evenly divided into equal sizes and in ways that would be completely clear. Each sector was then marked and labeled with an animal from the Chinese Zodiac.
"As you can see, the wards or sections... or however you wish to organize the sections of the colony have been arranged to be of equal size and land area," Ami spoke, "and got their name from the Animalian species in that area. It just so happened that each one happened to be a representative of the Chinese Zodiac, and that's the reason for the name for each zone."
"But everyone who ultimately comes here will be free to live anywhere on the island, right?" Courtney asked.
"Of course," Ami nodded, "In fact many of the Humans working for Horizon and in connection with the hospital center hear on the island have taken to living in some of the various zones on the island. Some of it... I think is to get some open views of the ocean and maybe experiment with the soil."
"With the soil?" Abby wondered.
"Well... I've been told that because the island was once had an active volcano that the soil could be rather rich in nutrients. I'd think that there are some ideas for small gardens and so forth," Ami answered, "Hopefully things work out well and we can have a small farming community that can help feed the herbivores and the livestock that will feed the carnivores... but that is still going to be something that will to be seen later."
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Sarah and Julie Jenkins were welcomed calmly to the hospital on the island. They found, to their great surprise that most of the staff were not only Human but Asian. Thankfully they had the benefit of an interpreter who had been there on hand to help them and had tagged along. It would help as Julie set their camera up on a tripod in a section of the lobby as the hospital manager stood by near a set of plants that was there to serve as some decoration.
"Hello, I'm Sarah and this is Julie, and we're here with Animalia Ambassadoria," Sarah began, "We'd like to ask a few questions on the hospital and its staff and what you're ready for."
The hospital manager nodded and listed to the translator and then answered in Japanese, "I am Yumi Nonaka, and I would be happy to answer your questions."
"Many of the staff appear to be humans," Julie wondered, "do they plan to live hear? Work with the Animalians? Or are they under requirements to become Animalians?"
That drew a glance from Sarah as the translator translated the question.
"I'm not aware of any requirement to become an Animalian, and to my knowledge, all of us volunteered to come here," Yumi answered with a small smile, "and a few of us have also treated a small number of Animalians that have been living in Japan prior to the establishment of this colony. In this we've all been together and we look forward to working together."
"Well, that does sound good," Sarah said with a wag of her tail.
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And for the most part, the interviews went fairly well. It generally left the colony heavily dependent on tourism if it was to have success and that there would need to be a lot of development in in other industries for long term stability. But, things generally did look good and that the new colony had a good chance for a good start. The hospital had stocks of various medicines, including the vaccine to prevent the Animalia Virus becoming a disease in and of itself.
The biggest surprises that Animalia Ambassadoria found at the new colony was in the surprising amount of cooperation between Japan and China over the colony. Both still wanted their own exclusive colonies in Tokyo and Beijing respectively, and there did seem to be some long term ideas for establishing just that. But both the embassies for Japan and China seemed to be at least open to a certain amount of cooperation between the two countries. Much of it related to the running of the colony and its development, but given the lack of real trust that been there between Japan and China on nearly everything else for years, it seemed like good news.