Food was served soon after and the bowl of steaming gravy was in the middle while Kagome served up the three bowls of the noddle for each of us."Itadakimasu" as I received the bowl of noodle that Kagome handed to me. I scooped the gravy and poured into Mrs Kuwahara"s bowl before I proceed to pour it into Kagome"s and then into mine. I used the chopsticks and slowly mixed the contents in the small bowl and let it soak in the steaming gravy for a while. I held the bowl in my left hands and use my right to stuff the noddle in my mouth.
I was choked with emotions while I was eating with them and how I used to cherish the moment when I used to sit together for a meal with my mother.
*Cough" *Cough* I faked my cough as I fight back my tears from falling. "NO! Do not cry in front of them!" I screamed aloud in my head. "Are you alright Kenzo-Khun?" as Mrs Kuwahara while handed me a piece of tissue. I placed the bowl on the table and took the tissue that she offered.
"I am alright. Maybe the garnishing had entered the wrong way." I replied as a tear rolled down the sides of my eye; streaming down my face. At least that"s what it"s called good acting. Hiding behind a choked throat for the tears.
"Ah, Kenzo-sama should eat slowly next time. It seems you like to throw everything down your throat without munching them." Kagome said while glancing up from her bowl while slurping her noodles.
"Hmm... Hmm..." that"s all I could reply right now. After the simple dinner, I helped d Kagome to clear the dishes into the sink and went about to wash them. Kagome stood beside me and helped me to rinse them and placed them back on the dish rack.
Mrs Kuwahara was on the phone in the dining hall when she glanced up at the backs of us. "How wonderful it is for having a man to be around the house, especially for my little flower, Kagome-Chan" she wondered and suddenly a blush came to her face and she turned away immediately. "But he is still a student, how could he..."
I excused myself from the duo, thanking them for the dinner and went to take my satchel. Somehow I knew that all tenants were staying on the second level of the building and I slowly went up to the stairs. Upon reaching a door with my name on it, (luckily the landlady managed to do this, if not I would be able to avoid the embarra.s.sment of entering the wrong room.) I took my keys out and turned it into the k.n.o.b.
I entered the room and was partially bright as the shoji or paper layered sliding wooden window was facing the west side I closed the door and slid open the window letting in more light as well as to ventilate.
The room was kept clean and simple. A tatami mat covered the floor. Two pillows were laid against the wall. A low table with a few of my writing materials and books were arranged neatly. The room was pretty basic, amenities were shared with the other tenants and there was a small pail at the entrance of the door with my daily necessities inside such as toothpaste, toothbrush, a bar of body soap and two bottles of shampoo and conditioner.
Enveloped by silence and the rushing of memories brought upon by having dinner with the family, emotions rushed back to me once again. I missed my mum. If ever that this Leap had gone back to the place and time when my mother was alive, I am pretty sure that I will spend every single moment with her or better still, trade my life with her when the time comes. Sigh...
The memories of me coming home from work, she would religiously make a teapot of coffee and we used to sit by the verandah and chat till very late at night. We would talk about her life experiences before and after her marriage, the life in the laid back village, the times during the world war and how she struggled to raise up kids. Sigh.....
As I thought of all these, I felt a certain tightness in my chest and I am unable to stop the rush flow of tears that I had kept bottled inside. Streams of hot tears rained down and fell onto my dace, white, yellow and green snot gradually drip from my nostrils and some ended up in my mouth. It kinda tastes saltish! The snot managed to mess up my face as I wiped them using the back of my hand.
Eeeewwwww...Disgusting Director made me do this! It seems tears and snot are common practice when one"s cry in a j.a.panese anime or short story. Eeeewwwww...
I kneeled forward and bawled loudly until I fell asleep in that position. I awoke several hours later still in that fetal position and looked around and found that it was already dead in the middle of the night. I hope my bawling didn"t disturb the other tenants as the walls were like paper-thin between one another.
I sat up and checked my face using the small mirror on the low table and find that tears had stained my face and not mentioning the snot that had dried and began to form a kind of crystalline on my face. I quickly changed my school uniform into a pair of blue shorts and a white t-shirt, dumped the soiled clothes in the laundry basket and took a small face towel with me.
I gingerly opened the door of my room slowly and nearly tiptoed to the shared bathroom at the end of the hallway. Luckily no one was using it so I slipped off my sandals and changed to the one inside the bathroom. I washed up my face and wiped off the tear stains and snot carefully.
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Afterwards, I left the bathroom, slipped on my sandals and walked to my room. I placed the slipper outside and walked barefooted inside and once again I studied the room carefully.
As the rent was cheap basically there"s no attached bathroom as well as a small kitchenette to prepare food inside. It was a basic tenancy type only bedroom except for a few electrical outlets to install a desk fan, a small bar fridge, a hairdryer as well as a laptop and an electric kettle. Basic and minimalistic.
I plopped on to the tatami mat and hugged one of the pillows while the other was placed below my head. I was wondering how come I could think about my late mother in this serial at all. Maybe because I was born as an orphan and had somehow relied on Mrs Kuwahara to provide me with lodging and food.
It"s quite a mystery and I decided to unravel it during my stay here. At the meantime, I decided I can"t hurt the feelings of Kagome and her mother nor disappoint them in any way.
Soon I was heavy with sleep and closed my eyes and in a short while I dozed off. I was awakened some hours later by the ringing of a bicycle bell downstairs and I opened up my eyes and peered through the window. A lady in a white and blue uniform was on her bicycle making rounds of delivering fresh milk to the customers. She looked up and waved, "Good morning, would you like to buy some milk?" I answered positively and grabbed my coin purse and headed downstairs.
Meiji was the common household brand in j.a.pan for milk. Earlier I had checked my small bar fridge and it only contained some plain water and some other chocolate snacks so I decided to get a carton of milk. It costs me ¥270 yen with the inclusive of delivery charges. Otherwise, it would cost me ¥240 at the Maxivalu Shimizu Yasaka Shop.
When I was about to head for the stairs, I b.u.mped into Kagome. She was wearing a pair of bunny slippers, and a pair of matching pyjamas which depicts Pikachu having some battles with other Pokemon.
Her hair was not tied into a ponytail but was let down around her slender shoulders. Her ample b.r.e.a.s.t.s were straining under her shirt and her pants was a knee-length. Overall even if she had just woken up or had just freshened up; to me she looked perfect in any way.
"Ohaiyou Kagome" I greeted her and watched her blush a little and greeted me back. I bounded up the stairs before saying that I would be down for breakfast. I smiled to myself as I made my way to the room and had a look like I had seen an angel which humming, "Walking in the Rain" by Xj.a.pan.
I placed the milk in the bar fridge, took my large towel and bounded to the bathroom with my small bucket of toiletries. Seeing Kagome alone could simply lift my spirits multifold. Being the first one to use the bathroom once again, I quickly stripped and jumped straight to the shower and turned the tap head after adjusting the red and blue tap k.n.o.bs.
Right after the shower I changed into a clean shirt and long black pants and bounded off again like a rabbit to the ground floor. I greeted Mrs Kuwahara who was boiling water to make either hot tea or coffee in the kitchen and asked what"s the activities for the whole of Sunday.
In my experience, one of the best ways to get a feel for a city has a stroll around it on a Sunday. The pace is slower, you"ll see people doing what they would, shopping, eating out, enjoying the day with families, friends, couples...
None of the daily grinds, none of the hurries, everyone is out and about at leisure. In short, Sundays generally paint a different view of a city from what you"d find in the tourist guides –or in the movies, indeed.
Mrs Kuwahara had planned that we spend the day outdoors since its a glorious morning and it"s a Sunday where almost everyone is out and about. "So where are we heading to Kuwaharsan?" I inquiries with a bright twinkle of my eye. "It"s a secret..." laughed Mrs Kuwahara as she poured hot water into a porcelain kettle with tea leaves sitting in it. "Want some tea or perhaps coffee?" she asked as she sauntered to the cabinet and took a sachet of AGF brand Blendy Cafe Latory Rich Royal Milk Tea and another sachet of AGF brand Blendy Cafe Latory Rich Caramel Macchiato and pa.s.sed it to me.
"Which one does Kagome loves to drink?" I asked innocently and suddenly remembered I should rephrase the question to avoid raising suspicion. I should have asked "Which one does Kagome prefers instead of loves to drink" but luckily Mrs Kuwahara didn"t notice it much as she pointed out, "Kagome-Chan loves to drink the milk tea instead," and arranged for two cups in front of me.
I tore open the sachet and poured it"s contents inside the cup before adding hot water from the whistling kettle and placed a stirrer with honey-coated tip. Likewise, I did the same for mine too.
A short while later Kagome emerged from her bedroom dressed up in a cute little red knee-length dress with lace frills at her shoulder, end of her sleeves and at her waist. She stood there with matching red shoes and white stockings. She held a small clutch bag with straps made of yellow coloured metal chain. Overall she was simply dressed but is a knock out gorgeous girl. I can"t help myself ogling at her with dropping jaws.
Mrs Kuwahara can"t help but reached out to push my chin up and closed my jaw and laughing lightly!
"You look gorgeous Kagome!" I almost shouted my words out as I admired the unblemished beauty that exuded from her. "You don"t look too bad yourself, Kenzo.." she finally said after she fumbled and straightened her dress as if finding any faults after I admired at her a tad bit too long.
Mrs Kuwahara looked longingly at the two of us and ordered us to sit and have our drinks first at the dining area. She too had long prepared herself for the Sunday"s trip by wearing a knee-length blue one-piece overcoat with an oversized belt buckle that accentuates her well-contoured shapely figure.
"Are we going to walk or take a ride in a taxi?" asked Kagome as she looked down at her flat platform shoes. If she was wearing heels definitely she would not be able to walk too long as it would be uncomfortable after some time.
"Of course we going to take a taxi, Kagome. The place we are going would be a 10minutes ride from here. Don"t forget to bring your mobile phone to snap some pictures afterwards." Mrs Kuwahara advised to Kagome.
I later learned that the Kuwahara family does this Sunday"s trip almost every week, going to 2 or more different places. Only last week they had gone to Shimizukiyomigata Park Sports Center, where there"s a facility for swimming and volleyball. A park with a barbecue pit was outside with a scenic line of trees against the background.
After spending some time there they headed to the boat ramp at Yokosuna to watch tourists heading for a trip near Mount Fuji while eating street food that the vendors had set up there till the evening before they head home.
Today itinerary would be the Chibi Maruko Chan Land, a type of propped up cartoons setup in a real-world kind of stage in Irifunecho with an amus.e.m.e.nt park outdoors. If the weather is fine and not too hazy at sea, they planned to take a public ferry ride close to Mount Fuji from the Shimizu Harbor Bay Cruise.
The cruise operates from 1130am—3 pm. If time permits they would be planning to visit the Verkehr Shimizu Port Terminal Museum where models of wind-powered sail ships and junks were on display right till the modern times of sea fleet.
It is good to enhance one"s hands-on experience in the maritime history of Shimizu.
So off we go for our little adventure...cutting back on my part-time work at the Sports Shop to spend time with the family.