A daughter of a family owned Ryokan is deeply interested at the black american guest...
Two young women deeply bowed to the another batch of guests on their family owned Ryokan in Toyama prefecture, It was built in 1976 to cater local and foreign guests. Kaede and Karin are the twin grandaughters of Yamada family.
It was easy to know who’s who. Karin has glasses, while Kaede doesn’t. Karin loves reading, Kaede is into dancing. Karin doesn’t like horror, Kaede is obssesed to it. Even tried to dress and act as a zombie to prank Karin.
Kaede and Karin lead the guests to their rooms, the rooms also have traditional japanese vibes. It has futon bed, shoji screens and low table. Yamada family are strict about cleanliness. Making sure that the rooms for their guests are clean and tidy.
They eyed on each guests. A Romanian woman, South Korean female vloggers, Taiwanese traveler man, British male youtuber. But Kaede had her eyes on a black American man who’s taller than her.
The guests went to their rooms, Kaede lingered a bit longer staring at the door where an american man named Damien is staying for three days.
“Kae-chan? Dōshita no?” Karin was confused seeing her sister looking at the closed shoji screens.
“Nandemonai, Rin-chan.” Kaede walked ahead, leaving the confused sister following behind as they walked towards to the kitchen to help cook meals for their guests.
Damien sighed in relief as he sat at the edge of the futon bed. He dropped his backpack on the floor. He looked around the room and pleased at how clean and tidy it is. He heard that the rooms are soundproofed, so he doesn’t have to worry about the noise.
“Finally. Some damn peace and quiet is all I wanted.” He lay down on the bed but a Yukata that was hanging on a rack beside the bed caught his attention.
This is Damien’s first time visiting Japan. Traditional outfits like Kimono and Yukata are one of the interesting things he researched so far. Damien knows that it is required to wear a Yukata in an Ryokan. He gets off from the bed and carefully pulled the Yukata from the rack. His thumb brushing at the delicate bamboo and dragon design, feeling it’s cotton that was meant for comfortable use.
He takes off his shirt and swiftly wore the Yukata. He gave it a satisfied nod. “This is nice.” Damien grabbed his phone and opens the camera app.
“Imma take some selfies and send it to them. Bet those fuckers will feel jealous.” He starts taking selfies and his friends responded with usual teasing. One of his friends asked him if there’s a cute girl to bang.
Damien responded that he saw cute girls but he doesn’t have a plan to bang them right away. They called him loser and he responded a middle finger emoji.
“These porn rotted fuckers.” Damien puts his phone on the table and he takes a careful sip of a steaming green tea. He let a satisfied hum as he take more sips. His friends called him gay for preferring tea over to beer. Damien prefers to live in a healthy lifestyle because he saw his father suffered the consequences of alcohol and cigarette.
Damien took a nap and hours later, his alarm went off. It was almost dinner time. He grabbed his phone and when he opens the shoji screen, Damien encountered Kaede who’s going to tell the guests to come out for the dinner.
Damien and Kaede looked at each other for seconds. Kaede looked at the Yukata he wore and she smiled when she tries to fix his Yukata to make it look neat.
“Uhhh.. Arigato?” Damien studied basic japanese to survive his three day stay but his thick american accent and awkwardness makes her chuckle.
She bowed at him then walked ahead. Damien was just speechless on how pretty Kaede is. He swore that he just found the most beautiful japanese woman. The dimples when she smiled and chuckled is a cherry on top.
Damien followed behind her like a moth to the fire but still maintained respectful distance.
The dinner was just immaculate. A flame grilled tonkatsu, sliced sashimi, seasoned rice, miso soup and a bowl of berries.
Damien was glad that they provide spoon and fork incase the guests doesn’t know how to use chopsticks. He ate his dinner slowly, he likes to cherish his meals.
Meanwhile, Kaede is watching him from afar. She saw how he eat his meal. She was amazed on how Damien takes his time to eat. She usually see guests who takes numerous photos of their meal before eating then leaving leftovers.
But Damien is different. He just eat his meal without taking photos of it. When Kaede saw Damien emptied his bowl of miso soup but wanted a refill. Kaede finds herself walking across him without thinking it first.
“Oh, I need-” Damien stops when he saw Kaede was already refilling his bowl. “Arigato.” Again with his thick accent but now with a slight confidence. Kaede bowed and walked away. He couldn’t see it but Kaede was smiling ear to ear.
When it’s time for the onsen. Damien knows the basic onsen etiquette. He takes a bath first before going to the onsen. Yamada’s Ryokan has two onsens for men and women.
There, he take his time to relax with the british and the taiwanese. They talked about their trip in Japan, their life and work. Damien stayed behind when the two men decided to retreat to their rooms.