Izumi in the Other Side of her World

CHAPTER 13 - A START AND FINISH OF TWO FRIENDSHIPS EACH

November 25 – CHILLING @ HOME IN SHIBUYA

   
    Matsuri went out again for something, or the same thing. She wrote it down on another post-it note. I slept pretty late again. Alexa and Jill messaged me that the end of my trip is near. They ask me how I feel so far. I answer: "I feel better now here." I honestly wish they could just come here and I don't have to leave. I could ditch my flight and visa. "But in the simplest term, it is actually good adventure." I made a sandwich for me and Matsuri for breakfast. She left hard boiled eggs in a plastic container, and she has lettuce and tomato slices in the mini fridge. And vegan sausage patties in the freezer. I don't know if she had breakfast. But I'll make her one just in case. I just hope it will look and taste delicious in the most-part. As the tomatoes are already sliced, I slice the hard boiled eggs, pick the lettuce, and have the vegan patties defrosted. The kitchen is quite small as one hallway, but very doable, as everything is just around the corner. Even the bathrooms.

   I have learned how to cook for years from my mom, as well as I'm just making a sandwich. I toast the four bread slices in Matsuri's toaster oven, as well as heat up water because I want to make tea. As the vegan patties defrost, I have them fried sizzling on a pan, and I really love the sound of sizzling vegetable oil, and the sound of the vent on. I'm amazed it has the fish grill under the stove. Unfortunately I'm not cooking fish. Assembling the sandwich, as well as sift the pepper and put the Japanese mayonnaise. I'm clean and neat as I can to making the toasty sandwiches for both of us. Although I would wonder where she is going every morning all of a sudden. So far, I think I did very well with the sandwich. It smells very nice and pleasing.

    Matsuri came back and was amazed with my sandwiches. I know she is hungry as she did skip breakfast. Moaning over it, and I laugh. We both say our "Itadakimasu." And it tastes really good. I think I did a good job, deserving a pat on the shoulder. Matsuri asks: "Did you use the vegan sausage patties? Wow. I wasn't ready but my parents bought it for me, and they need me to eat it because it's expensive and it's good. From the expensive supermarket. They taste good."

   "I've had it before, and to me, they taste better than real meat actually. So what are we doing today?" I ask. "Aren't you tired?" Matsuri asks back. I start hesitating. "I want to take a break here at home, and chill. I'm actually tired." She explains. And honestly, that's reasonable. I think I'll have to take a break as well. Good call actually.

   So what did we do? Share each other's secrets and general interests more. Anime and streaming them, music and jamming them, video games in which we play in Matsuri's Switch. Backgrounds, thoughts, not too interesting to hear, but something really fun between the two of us. (^^)

   One day, Matsuri's fridge of drinks and chips turned empty. She says that she forgot her weekly grocery shopping is today. So she has me assigned for a new challenge. Try going down south to Shibuya and go grocery shopping there. I wanna bet it's still good call for me to go alone. Honestly, stepping out onto the roads does feel scary. 

   I do have to use Google maps for this one. Shibuya is quite strange. And the whole city area in now a lost utopia. I wouldn't know much about grocery shopping, and I shake doing so once again. Our neighborhood area is in front of Bunkamura-Dori, and the good grocery shops are around Dogenzaka-Dori. They honestly seem far, but it's reasonable. So, Matsuri's list consists of Calpis, canned coffee, yogurt drinks, Panko bread, frozen Katsudon, beef, cheese filling, Japanese mayonnaise, tonkatsu sauce, spam, instant noodles, and chips. I'm not that brave about Japanese grocery shopping much. But I start walking in, shaking it off. Until this I want to keep a secret, but I found Miyajima and Tanaka, beside me at the dairy section, or whatever they call it.

  Yes, I could recognize them as city girls often out. I remember them wearing the same things a day earlier, and you can identify two of them together surely; if you know them enough. Miyajima pointed me out and they both waved a bit. As I stared at her and she stared back. I had to use my broken bit of Japanese and hand signals in order to communicate with Miyajima well. But surprisingly, Miyajima knows a little bit of English. She does speak so; knowing I am foreigner.