The Moonwalkers

De-stressing

Our Sunday was almost completely ruined. Well, almost. It was quickly saved after lunch, when Charlene whisked us off to the mall where we watched a movie and shopped till we starved. We had our second lunch / early dinner at some sushi restaurant, where a conveyor belt took food all around the entire shop so that every table could have a glimpse and take whatever they pleased.
"What's this thing again?" Chris asked as he downed his plate of unagi sushi.
"Eel," I said as I grabbed the container of pickled ginger. "Do you like it?"
"It's good," Chris shrugged, his plate now empty. He then casually reached for a plate of salmon mentai sushi. "Then what's this?"
"Sushi," I simply said as I put a generous helping of ginger on my plate before passing the jar to Charlene.
"Yeah, but what's in it?" Chris pestered again.
I sighed. "It's salmon. What other fish has flesh that orange? Also, Chris, please read up on Japanese food before you come here again."
"Why bother?" Mom piped up, eating her awabi sushi. "Everything's good here."
I smirked at her. "Are you aware that you just ate raw sea snail?"
Mom looked at me in surprise. "Sea snail?! Gross!"
"Well, it's not gross if it's tasty, right?" I shrugged, picking up my ebi sushi. "Besides, how are sea snails gross when we literally have alligator meat in the freezer back at home?"
"Good point," Charlene agreed. "Anyway, where's that Takoyaki we ordered?"
"Should be on its way," I carefully dipped my sushi in soy sauce. "The gyoza and karaage haven't arrived either."
Our order arrived a few minutes later, right when I downed a plateful of tamago maki. I still had some room for the dumplings and octopus balls, my appetite refreshed just by the delicious smell.
But I couldn't eat yet since it was still too hot, the insides of the Takoyaki scorching my mouth. The gyoza wasn't so bad, though.
I grabbed a small plate with three colourful balls of daifuku while the Takoyaki cooled. Each of them were of a different colour, definitely stuffed with a different filling. I just don't know what each colour signifies yet.
"You guys should get some, this is a type of sweet," I said, motioning towards the plate I just put down in front of me. "A kind of Wagashi, a dessert."
I ate the first one, which turned out to be stuffed with the usual azuki paste. It was really good, and the rest took a helping when a few more came again. I really wanted to save the other two for later but still wanted to take some time since my Takoyaki was still seething in front of me. I gave it a blow before going back to my daifuku, still slowly nibbling on my first one.
The Takoyaki soon cooled off so I ended up eating that first, pushing my daifuku aside. I could just feel Chris eyeing them and turned to him.
"Are you gonna eat that?" Chris asked, motioning his chin towards the small ceramic plate I pushed away.
I glared at him. "I'm saving it for later."
"Oh..." Chris frowned in disappointment. But then his face quickly changed when another batch of daifuku came our way. He grabbed another plate of it and stopped bothering me.
Maybe that's something that I should be doing now too. After all, the Takoyaki was still far too hot...
"What's in this again?" Chris asked when he inhaled his three mochi one after another. "The black one, I mean. Is it chocolate? Sure tastes like it."
"I think it's something else," Charlene remarked, picking up her last daifuku with her chopsticks. "The texture is different, more nutty."
"It's sesame," Mom pointed out. "This is really good."
Everyone was going for seconds, including me at this point. The Takoyaki was really good, topped with bonito flakes. I practically licked my plate clean, as well-mannered as possible, and then went to tackle my second plate of daifuku.
"We should come here more often," Chris remarked. "Japanese food is surprisingly really good."
I grinned. "It is. Can we takeaway some tonkatsu?"
"I was thinking that too, actually," Charlene grinned. "And karaage..."
She said this, completely ignoring the uneaten deep-fried chicken right in front of her.
"What about that one?" Mom pointed out what I was thinking.
"Oh, this?" Charlene smirked. "We eat this now."
"Can we take away this stuff too?" Chris gestured towards his third helping of mochi. "It's really good..."
I snorted. "At this point, we just buy our dinner here too."
"No way, too long more for that," Chris shook his head. "I'll need something else then."
I couldn't help but actually agree with him.

I slumped onto the couch and sighed. This was one tiring day, both in a good way and in a bad way. I did not plan on meeting Charles this weekend, but at least I had Japanese food. Speaking of food, there was exotic alligator meat in the freezer too... what are we supposed to do with that?
"Shall we have a barbecue?" Mom called, exiting the kitchen. "The alligator is really tempting..."
I sat up in surprise. "Now? A barbecue now?!"
"Why not?" Chris piped up beside me, grinning.
I groaned. "Pass. We just got back. It's been a long day, I just wanna take a nap now."
"Come on..." Chris urged as he poked me in the neck, his finger eventually travelling up to my ear to tickle it.
"Stop that!" I scowled and pushed his hand away. But I sighed. "Fine. When you wanna do it?"
"How about tonight?" Mom smirked. "In the backyard?"
"As werewolves?" Chris added with a grin.
That does sound nice.
"If we're being werewolves, might as well eat the meat raw," Charlene piped up, descending the stairs with a smile.
Mom turned to her with a sideways smirk. "Raw meat doesn't have the sweet barbecue taste."
Charlene nodded thoughtfully. "That's true too. And a werewolf barbecue party does sound nice..."
"It does," I nodded, trying to keep my mouth from watering. "I just ate, a lot, but all this talk is making me hungry again."
"Just be patient, drink some water," Mom said. "You can't eat more, your stomach would explode from eating any more than we already did..."
"Yeah, that's what I've been thinking too," I agreed with a nod. "Anyway, I wanna go play some games up in my room. The new controller you guys got me is really good."
With that, I waved at them and went up to my room.