Another Yarn    Part 1

Back from the bath, we sit on the balcony enjoying the view of the sun setting over the hills to the west while sipping a glass of Jacob's Creek Shiraz. It's cool up here in the mountains. At 7 pm on the dot our Okami summons us to dinner. We head down to the restaurant. The okami is the same giggling woman from the afternoon. We sit on the tatami and our okami runs backwards and forwards bringing all sorts of little appetising dishes to us.

There is green tea tofu, namako (marinated sea slug), a beautiful creamy potato soup, asari bata (pippies cooked in butter and garlic), cold soba, Miso soup, sashimi of hairtail, tai (schnapper), hirame (flounder) and sazai (turbot shell). All the dishes are small and superb. Our Okami giggles every time I open my mouth and say something. Fair dinkum. The main course is like boulliabaise (not sure about spelling) but with a Japanese flavour. It contains crab, balmain bugs, asari (pippies), potato, tomato and fugu (Toady fish). All the vegetables are locally grown. They have a rich earthy taste, not like the insipid vegies you buy in the supermarket.

Volcanic soil is great. Not at all mindful of the fact that if the chef made a mistake and incorrectly dissected the fugu, I could be dead in 3 minutes, I gulp it down. Fugu is delicious. Okami brings dessert. Mango Pudding. She is still giggling at me. Every time I say something. Why ? I decide to call her 'giggling gertie' and tell her "from now I will call you 'giggling gertie'". This sends her into paroxysms of giggliness. She is tabulating our drink bill. Suddenly the cap of her pen flies off, hitting me in the forehead and landing in my lap. She bends down, looking into my crotch for her pen cap. This is getting weird. She is the Super Giggling Weird Psycho Okami from hell. For a moment, I think she is going to put her hand in there to try and find it. I ruffle the folds of my yukata and it falls out onto the tatami from whence she retrieves it.

Dinner over, we head to the bath. This time we have a pre-arranged 'family bath'. Totsuko and I can bathe together in a private open air bath. Through the canopy of trees we can see a million stars, most unlike the view from our suburban home. We don't talk, we just sit and bathe and take it in, a cool mountain breeze rustling through the trees the only sound.

Back in our room, I decide to lock the door to keep Giggling Gertie out. Too late, as I reach out to lock the door, suddenly she is there. Apparently 9.30pm is a perfectly good time for her to polish my well worn RM Williams boots. I tell her it's not necessary, but it's no good. She won't go away. She never goes away..

Eventually she does go away. I lock the door and put a wedge under it. We are alone. Lights off. On the balcony. Stars everywhere. We share another glass of Aussie Red and talk and ........

......in the morning, stirring from our tatami laid futons, what do we do ? Go for a bath, what else ?

Refreshed from our bath we head for breakfast. Japanese Style breakfast. Lots of little interesting dishes. Giggling Gertie is serving us. Does she ever rest. She runs backwards and forwards, tofu, gohan, misu soup, some funny little white bait fishy things, natto (ohhh mmmmyyyy ggooodddd), green tea soba (yummy), tamagoyaki, grilled/dried fish. Fruit salad and coffee to finish it off.

After all that food, we decide to go for a walk. We go a different route from the day before without a map we wing it. Down a side street, we find a trail through the forest which we take. There is a boardwalk and suddenly forest gives way to a natural clearing. A field of Japanese azaleas and ferns. It's quite stunning. We stumble upon a dilapidated 13th century shrine. At the end of the walk is a drink vending machine. Incongruity ?? Well, we are thirsty. The day is warming up. We get a bottle of ice cold tea and sit looking at this...

Patrick Quinlan
May 2005