Tsuki! - Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The next day, Hannah and Toshihiro explored the touristy area around the hotspring for most of the day, and Hannah decided that she loved this unique little town.

Hannah spotted a group of older people dancing the steps to actual slow dances to some instrumental music. Hannah pointed to them excitedly, and tugged Toshihiro closer to the group. Please?

Toshihiro suppressed a groan, and followed Hannah to them. “Hello,” he greeted the group.

Hannah swept her hand to indicate the entire group, pointed to Toshihiro, and motioned dancing.

“Hana wants to know if any of you could teach me how to dance,” Toshihiro explained.

“Sure thing!” A spry elderly lady volunteered. She took Toshihiro by the hand, and led him through the basic steps. The lady’s partner offered his hand to Hannah, and she nodded happily. The two of them merrily danced through the dance that was playing until another man tapped on his shoulder, and switched partners.

Hannah laughed as she danced a dance with every man in the group, and saw each one of the women take a turn teaching Toshihiro how to dance. Once Toshihiro had practiced the basic steps a few times, he found that it was actually easier than he thought it would be.

After a while, the women told Toshihiro that he could dance well enough for the occasional semi-formal party. They gave him permission to dance with his girl.

Toshihiro held his hand out for Hannah, who accepted it graciously, and the two of them began to dance to the cheers of the group. Toshihiro found it ridiculously easy to dance with Hannah; all he had to do was get lost in her eyes, and let his body go through the steps.

Hannah and Toshihiro danced and danced and danced; the group of older people kept one eye on them as they resumed their own dancing, sighing as they remembered what new love felt like. They danced so long that they ended up missing dinnertime at the hotspring inn.

They were still wrapped up in each other, dancing, when the sun started to set. The sound of clapping and good-natured ribbing finally caught their attention, and they turned to find the college students watching them.

“Oh, how sweet, he learned to dance for her!”

“And just look at how that gorgeous sunset frames them as if planned!”

Toshihiro looked towards the sun, and inhaled in awe. The sunset really is gorgeous!

Hannah looked where Toshihiro was looking, and was so happy she had remembered to bring her camera. She took a picture of the sunset, then tossed her camera to Saki. Next, Hannah led Toshihiro in another dance, and smiled as she heard Saki taking pictures of them dancing in front of the sunset.

Saki took several pictures, and decided to look at the camera. “Wow! This is a really expensive camera!” She looked through the pictures on the memory card, and gasped as she discovered the one of Darla sucking on Toshihiro. “Oh my!”

Toshihiro looked at Saki, and cleared his throat. “I think you should probably give that camera back now.”

Saki blushed, and nodded.

Toya chuckled. “You probably missed dinner at the inn as well, huh?”

Toshihiro looked at his watch. “I guess we did.”

“How about we show you this delicious little sushi place we found?” Toya offered.

Toshihiro mimed eating, and tilted his head to the side in a question. Are you hungry? Do you want to go get something to eat?

Hannah nodded enthusiastically, and turned to wave at the group of elders. They all wished her a wonderful evening, and waved cheerfully. The six of them made their way to the sushi place, and Toshihiro blushed as he heard the elderly ladies gossip about them.

“Oh, they sure were gorgeous! I can’t believe I got to dance with such a gorgeous young man!”

“Did you see the way they looked at each other?”

“Such love!”

Toshihiro pulled Hannah's hand through his arm, and she snuggled closer to him.

At the restaurant, they sat comfortably around a low Japanese table just perfect in size for the six of them, and a waiter came to ask them what they wanted to drink.

Toshihiro looked at Hannah thoughtfully, trying to figure out what she would most likely want to drink. He tapped Hannah, and pretended to drink something.

Hannah wondered what they would have – other than water – that she would like. She squeezed her hands alternately, as if milking a cow.

Toshihiro looked at the waiter. “Do you have milk?”

The waiter nodded, and the rest of them ordered from the selection of alcoholic beverages, except Toshihiro, who preferred water. As for food, Toshihiro decided to get a selection of things he thought Hannah might like, and then share them with her.

Soon, the waiter returned with their drinks, and handed them out to everyone. When it came to Hannah, he showed her the options when it came to milk. There were a couple of cartons of various percentages of reduced fat milk, and then there was a pitcher of milk that the waiter informed Hannah came from the owner of the restaurant’s very own cows.

Hannah couldn’t understand him, of course, but she immediately pointed at the pitcher, figuring that if nothing else, it was bound to be fresher than the milk in the cartons. Hannah looked around at all of the food that the rest of the patrons were eating, and wondered what kind of restaurant this was. Her first thought had been sushi, because there was a lot of sushi rolls in sight, but as she looked more closely, she discovered a wide variety of entrees, quite a few of which had some type of dairy in them, such as butter or cream, and she grinned.

The college students had all ordered sushi, and Hannah ate off of Toshihiro’s plate eagerly, as it all tasted so good, but she really wanted some of the soup she saw one patron eating that looked like it might be a clam chowder. She tugged on the waiter’s arm as he walked by, and pointed to the soup.

The waiter gave Hannah a curious look, and Toshihiro said. “She wants to know what kind of soup that is.”

The waiter smiled, and explained, “It’s a creamy fish soup. It is made using fish stock as a base, loaded with chunks of various fish from the local lake, seasoned to perfection, and garnished generously with cream from the owner’s cows.”

Toshihiro wondered how to explain this to Hannah, but Hannah held up her hand. I don’t care what it is; I want some! Hannah pointed to the soup, and then pointed to the table directly in front of her.

“She’ll have some, thank you.”

The waiter returned with a bowl of the soup in practically no time at all, and Hannah clapped happily. She scooped some up with a spoon, and blew on it to cool it; then she tasted it.

Mmm, delicious, but it’s missing one thing… She looked around, and noticed a dish of butter on another customer’s table. She pointed it out to the waiter, who nodded, and brought her a small dish of butter, “Made from the cream from our owners cows.”

Toshihiro chuckled. “She doesn’t speak Japanese, but I think she approves anyway.”

The waiter’s face lit up in comprehension, “Oh!”

Meanwhile, Hannah tasted the butter for salt content, noticed it to be salt free cultured butter, and grinned. She scooped quite a bit of it into her soup, and then tasted it. “Ah! Heaven!” She moaned in pleasure at the delicious taste.

The waiter smiled, and went to tell the owner about the unusual American beauty. The owner came out to meet Hannah, since she could speak English. She introduced herself to the rest of the table first, and then turned to Hannah.

“I am Atashi Motoko. But you may call me Motoko-chan if you like. I hear that you are pleased with the milk, cream, and butter from my cows.”

Hannah smiled brilliantly at the owner. “Hi, nice to meet you. I am Hannah, and you may call me Hannah. I didn’t really know these products came from your own cows, but yes, I am pleased with them. I can tell that they must have access to some quality pasture.”

“Oh yes, the pastures around here are very excellent indeed. Are you a farmer come to visit Japan?”

“No, I am just very enthusiastic about good quality food, and I really love dairy. I have been sitting here wondering how to ask if your restaurant made ice cream; I have been craving it terribly since I got pregnant,” Hannah explained.

“You’re pregnant! Well in that case, I’ll get you some of the ice cream I made just yesterday. What flavors do you like?” Motoko asked.

“I’m not picky, I’ll eat any flavor you’ve got, though, I’m not very fond of chocolate,” Hannah replied.

“You’re not! Such a shame; I love chocolate!” Motoko then went on to explain the different ice creams she had made, and Hannah secretly admired the owner’s wide face, and beautiful bone structure. She was slightly taller than most Japanese women.

Soon, Hannah and Motoko were chatting away like they had known each other forever, and Hannah discovered that Motoko also made various cheeses. Hannah ordered several of her favorite varieties of cheese.

After everyone had finished eating their meal, Motoko slipped away for a few moments to fetch ice cream for Hannah, and to tell the waiter to pack up Hannah’s order of cheese.

While Motoko was gone, Toshihiro handed Hannah the dual language guidebook, and pointed to the hiking up the mountainside entry. Hannah nodded her head enthusiastically, and smiled at her husband.

Toshihiro pointed to Saki and Hikari, and indicated that it would be the four of them. Hannah nodded at the two girls, and noticed that Hikari looked pale, like she was afraid. Hannah wondered if Hikari would come up with an excuse not to go tomorrow after all.

Motoko returned with Hannah’s ice cream, and Hannah squealed happily, throwing her arms around Motoko in a grateful hug. Hannah immediately began to eat the ice cream as if it planned to melt any second now.

“Hey, why does she get ice cream when it’s not on the menu?” Saki demanded.

Motoko looked at her in amusement. “Because, she’s pregnant.”

The waiter came with Hannah’s package of cheeses, and the bill for the dinner. The students had explained how they had each wanted their own bill, so the waiter had wrung up the table as one, as was the normal, and then the bill went on to be split up as they had requested.

Hannah automatically held her hand out for the bill, and didn’t even bother to look at it as she pulled out her visa card, and handed both back to the waiter. He shrugged, and went to run her card.

The other occupants of the table looked at each other in alarm. “Did Hana-san just pay for the entire table?”

Toshihiro shrugged.

Motoko chuckled, and turned to Hannah. “Your friends all seem a bit concerned about your casual payment of the bill.”

Hannah shrugged. “Well, why shouldn’t I? I can afford it.”

Motoko translated to the others, and they gave Hannah confused looks. They hadn’t realized that Hannah thought of them as such good friends yet that she was willing to pay for their dinner.

The waiter returned, and handed Hannah her card, and the receipt to sign. Hannah signed it, and put the card back in her purse. She then dug out a somewhat big coin purse full of yen that she had decided to carry on hand for times like this. She’d had Yume explain to her the rough conversion between yen and dollars, and she chose a yen amount that would roughly equal fifteen dollars.

Hannah figured that with six people to wait on, and how well the waiter had done his job, fifteen dollars was a reasonable amount to tip. She then handed the waiter the receipt, and the tip. The waiter put his hands together, and bowed slightly.

“Arigatou!”

Hannah smiled, and waved him away.

Motoko tilted her head to the side, and smiled at Hannah. “I’ll bet you don’t have a yukata for this weekend’s festival. How would you like me to help you shop for one tomorrow?”

“I have plans tomorrow, but the next day should work… What’s a yukata?” Hannah asked.

“A yukata is like a kimono, but it is lighter, and only one layer,” Motoko explained.

“Oh… sounds interesting,” Hannah replied honestly.

Toshihiro looked confused. “What about a yukata?”

Motoko explained that she was taking Hannah to shop for a yukata the day after tomorrow, and the thought of Hannah in a yukata made Toshihiro blush for some reason. There was nothing indecent about a yukata, but still, the image made him blush in anticipation.

The college students thanked the owner for the delicious food, and the six of them left.

Go To Chapter 15