Chapter 257 – Meeting (6)
“Eh, then, are you coming to Kabukicho today?”
“Yes. Somehow it happened. Sorry. My father said he wanted to go to Kabukicho once, so I couldn’t stop him.”
“If my father is like that, I can’t help it. That’s right. I’ll call my uncle first. I’ll write down the address of the store, so please stay away from that area.”
I was excited to see my father getting dressed. Seeing his normally hard-faced father dressed with a faint smile on his face, he couldn’t help but say no. I couldn’t turn away from my mother’s gaze, which looked at her father with a really frowning face.
Indeed, can I stop my father from wandering around Kabukicho? [Okama Bar] Will be open in the evening anyway, so if you leave early, you can pass safely without encountering anyone. I looked at my father, who urged me to leave quickly, and told Ichie.
“I will try.”
****
Kabukicho. The so-called Pleasure Street was bustling with people even in broad daylight. The upper floors of the streets, where all the lights on the golden and scarlet signboards had been extinguished, had a desolate aura as if breathing had died, but if you widened your gaze a little, you could see at a glance the busy people from lunchtime.
We stood at the entrance of Kabuki-cho and looked around once, while my father was standing in front of a river bridge crossing the main street, holding a camera and taking pictures here and there. Flyers and business cards proving yesterday’s fun were scattered like pollen on the floor, and in a small boarding house in every corner, women who worked the night were smoking cigarettes with their tired faces open.
“Where are you going?”
“Uh? Stand in front of me for now. I should take a picture.”
My father was a man who loved to take pictures. I stood in front of the entrance, making a V-sign with his mother, not getting an answer to the question of where we were going. With a click, the images of the buildings lined up in a straight line behind us were firmly embedded in the film.
My father waved the camera with a satisfied expression, then stepped forward and looked at his phone as if he wanted to hurry up. I asked.
“Father. So where are you going?”
“I heard there’s a place called Robot Restaurant right in front of here.”
“A robot restaurant? Are you having lunch there?”
“No, I’ll have lunch at the restaurant my father mentioned, look around the streets, and go around 3 o’clock.”
“Ah, is that a sake-don restaurant or something?”
“A father’s friend’s daughter is on a working holiday in Japan? She did that and came back, and she told me about all the amazing things here.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“Okay. So, let’s go to the restaurant first.”
My father took out his phone and looked around, looking for a restaurant. When I tried to help my father a little, he stubbornly refused my help and started moving in search of a restaurant. Although the topography is not complicated, it was not difficult to find a store with just one navigation map in a busy downtown street with signboards.
The father scratched his head and looked around, then clicked his tongue and snooped over his head. Before we knew it, we were in a row of shops with complicated names, but since no one spoke Japanese, we couldn’t tell exactly where we were. I asked.
“Father. Are you all here?”
“No, no, no. Wait and see therefore…”
Dad clicked his tongue and looked at his phone again. I stepped away from my father and called Ichie. Ichie answered my phone right away and asked.
“Supremacy. Are you enjoying Kabukicho? There’s a place that’s good at sake-don, so go there.”
I couldn’t be this happy to see the sake-don I heard from my father. I asked Ichie in a low voice so that my father could not hear.
“Sakedon? I was looking for that store, but I got lost. Could he possibly know where he should go?”
“Soo Hyun-sang. Where are you now? Please call a shop near you. The shop on the side where Soo Hyun-sang looks.”
I hurriedly looked around at her words. There was a large parking lot, and in front of it was an adult store.
“A parking lot and an adult product store…”
“Go straight from there, turn right at the next alley, and go straight again.”
As soon as Ichie heard that, he presented the route neatly like a navigation system. Blinking my eyes, I asked for the route again, and Ichie, fearing that I would get confused, explained in more detail that I could go that way as a standard when looking at an “Adult goods store.”
“Ah, thank you. It helped me a lot.”
“Call me if you have any difficulties.”
“Yes. In a sense. Thank you.”
I hung up the phone and went to my father. My father was still struggling with his cell phone. I said to my father
“Father. There was a sign with a picture of a salmon over there.”
My father threw his head up and looked around as soon as I got off the rhyme.
“What? Where?”
“I think I saw it at an adult store over there. How about going over there for now?”
“Uh, yeah, over there?”
After saying that, my father checked the cell phone location search once again.
“Ah! Okay. There! There! Follow me! Follow me!”
Go straight in the direction of the adult store, then turn right at the next alley. And go straight again. My father found the sake-don shop without hesitation, as if he had received the information directly from Ichie. People were standing in line in front of the shabby store. We were the 5th customer by store number. Seeing the people in line, my father said with a satisfied look:
“Oh, look at how many people there are.”
“Iknow, right.”
The mother nodded his head in as much surprise as his father’s admiration. I also waited for our turn quickly, watching the people filling the narrow store.
*****
The longer the waiting time, the more enchanting the time to eat. When Japanese soy sauce with wasabi is lightly sprinkled on top of fatty and savory salmon, and a spoonful of seasoned rice and onion are added together, the crunchy flesh in the mouth entangles with the crispy onion, exuding a unique flavor.
“Ugh.”
Her father was busy moving the spoon, saying it was amazing, and her mother took a picture of her salmon bowl placed in front of her with her phone camera. My father looked at me eagerly eating the salmon bowl and asked.
“How are you? Is it delicious?”
“Ah yes. Is it so delicious?”
“Didn’t you do well to come as your father said?”
My father had a proud face. Dad always did. He has a very strong ego, and he is a man who will always do what he chooses to do. And, he was like a child who rejoiced more than anyone else when his choice was proven right. I saw my father’s excited face, and he nodded his head in a better mood.
The salmon donburi was really delicious. Seeing the two of us smiling harmoniously, my mother smiled and began to eat the sake-don, holding the spoon tightly.
“Owner. Doesn’t the food taste good?”
My father asked me with an excited face, but when my mother hesitated a little, he asked me with a worried face. My mother shook her head and began to eat deliciously like my father and I.
*****
After eating, it was time to go to the [Robot restaurant] My father had mentioned. The road to the robot restaurant had signboards hanging here and there, and it was easy to find because there were a lot of people coming and going. Even though it wasn’t opening time yet, I saw people gathered in front of me and told my father.
“Father. Aren’t you supposed to buy a ticket?”
“Oh my gosh. I bought all the tickets for this too. I asked a kid who worked there, and he bought all the tickets for the three of us.”
“Oh, are these tickets expensive? Aren’t you overdoing it?”
“What is there to be embarrassed about? I also traveled to Japan. You have to see it to be famous.”
What the hell is Robot Restaurant so famous for? At my father’s recommendation, I secretly searched for [Robot Restaurant] On my cell phone.
“Oh…”
As soon as I hit the robot restaurant, I spit out an exclamation when I saw the smooth-bodied robots. After the opening of the Gate Era, hyper-technical robots with all kinds of Gate energy and scientific technology were dancing, singing, and performing.
“Wow, something like this?”
I looked back at my father. My father was looking at me with a satisfied face. I asked my father
“Father. Did you like this one? You always hated robots and stuff like that, because they’re children’s toys. When I was young, when I asked to buy a robot toy, he just said that I had no money or no.”
My father grinned at me and patted me on the back. My father kept looking at me, but when he opened his mouth, he avoided my gaze.
“I came because you like it. Hey. Have you grown old and hated robots now?”
I opened my mouth slightly at those words, then turned my head away. Suddenly, I couldn’t meet my father’s eyes. Looking to the side, my mother was holding my hand tightly. The father said
“Since you’re old and don’t talk, I don’t know what you like. So I brought them to this place that young people like.”
“Haha…”
I laughed. Because I felt like crying if I didn’t laugh.
