133 5.22 More Ideas of An Entrepeneur Than A Battousai

The next morning, the moment the rooster began to crow to signal the break of dawn, Hiko-sama and I awoke at the same time. I went to the bathroom to check on its water level and decided to let the tap trickle.

Instead of using the Kamehameha, I used the Fire Release instead because I don't know how is the effect of using Kamehameha induced water over a long period. I then gathered Psi energy spheres and drop twice into it.

"Sensei, you can take your shower first. Let me prepare breakfast and heat up the sweet potatoes and bananas that I had steamed last night." I called out to Hiko-sama and he walked into the bathroom in his yakata. Soon I heard water splashing as well as part singing and humming.

I lifted the lid of the steamer and saw the banana skin was still yellow and had not turned completely brown when steamed. I fired up the stone stove and refilled the water in the steamer. I stoke some firewood in the stove and started a fairly large fire to boil the water in the steamer. I covered the steamer snugly and went about to touch up on the housekeeping in Hiko-sama's house.

"Whoo...! That was refreshing. My body felt light and I don't feel slight sleepiness at all! Kid, it's your turn now..." Hiko-sama exclaimed loudly as he stepped out from the bath and tippy-toed back to his room.

Before I reach the bathroom, I stoked more firewood and added water in the steamer and proceeded to shower. Another idea sparked when I was showering because there was no soap to be found in the bathroom except for the hard yellowish one used for the laundry. I wondered how to make soap and make it available for the general public to use.

I searched my memory bank and discovered making soap would need perfume. Since I was attached to the Philippines in my other life and was in Isabela Livelihood Centre, where I learnt how to make soaps and shampoos.

There are two kinds of oil that have to be used. Coconut oil and olive oil. Then I may need lye that would prove hazardous if handled carelessly. Perfume would be added as well as colouring. That's it, simple as I had regained back its memory. Same product as the yellow laundry soap but where could I find these items.

This would be my next project in mind. So first things first, the metal hangers and the portable washing machine would be the first entry in the Patents and Trademarks Department. I would love to churn out ideas but then, too many too fast would make us an easy target for annihilation. So I would need to buy some sketchbooks and proper writing tools, to begin with.

I left the bathroom and I could smell steamed bananas that were ready to be eaten. I lifted the steamer and I removed the firewood and dropped it into a bucket of water just beneath the stone stove. This way, the firewood could be reused again after drying it in the sun for a while bit.

I wore my gi with my hakama and tabi after I had served breakfast for both of us. We had our breakfast out in the terrace as there were not much space as Hiko-sama had moved all the 12 jars of sake there. I peeled the steaming skin of the banana and used a chopstick to stuff it in my mouth. The taste was so sweet that I had a jawlock and kept blowing the heat from my mouth.

Hiko-sama was doing the same thing too. It seemed these little comfort food had not been tasted for a long time. He was closing his eyes as the savoury sweet natural steamed banana salivate in his mouth and he took his time to munch on it.

"Oishi! Simply delicious...! Its been so long since I had eaten steamed bananas that I almost have forgotten how it tastes like!"

"There's so much we can do with bananas, Sensei. We can make glutinous cakes and place a slice of banana inside it. Then steam using banana leaves. Or we can deep fry them in a batter and eaten them crispy and hot for afternoon tea."

"Yes, normally once these type of bananas are ripe, they would eat it by its own. Unlike the other yellowish ones, these bananas could be made into delicacies for afternoon teas. That I agree to it."

After we had finished 2 bananas each, we had a sweet potato next. The skin was paper thin and the flesh was purplish and it tasted just right.

"Steamed sweet potato can be eaten with a pinch of salt or sweet caramel too... Hmm, this is just like the baked ones but much better because it costs nearly nothing."

"I am glad you liked them, Sensei. I see what I had in mind if we were to make afternoon snacks. Even we can make yakiniku if you wish, but the process would be a hassle as there's a lot of ingredients I may need to find though."

"Arch... Don't worry about that yakiniku. We can buy off straight from the yatai. Don't hassle too much for our supper, kid. So after I'm gone to the Governmental District, do you need anything else? You are going to register as a resident of Kitakata, am I right?"

"That's right, Sensei. After you show me the place, then I'm going to scout the business district and the trading district before I proceed to Hide-sama's house to perform my obligations. Could you get more weapon parts for us? I intend to make some more hangers today and keep them in store first."

"Sure thing, kid. I could borrow a hand cart and carry off those useless weapon parts strewn all over the duelling ground. No one wants them and the repairs would weaken the weapons. Might as well we turn it to something useful, right? I find the hangers extremely useful. My clothes are constantly aired rather than sitting folded on the floor."

"I am glad you liked it, Sensei. Alright, time to go to the Governmental District. You need to show me where I should register myself."

Upon saying that, I cleared the breakfast and brought it to the kitchenette and closed the door after me. I slipped on my only pair of zori and intended to get another pair, a few pairs of gi and yakata and some more tabi.

As we walked past the trading and business district, I made a mental note on which shops I'm going to visit later on my way back before going to Hide-sama's house for cleaning.

Hiko-sama showed me the building where I need to open up a bank account in the governmental district. It was a large three storey stone building and there were 2 armed guards guarding the entrance. There was a tower clock that worked on the weight and pendulum system in the middle of the district and it showed slightly over 7 am.

"That's the registrar's building over there. You can head down there and register yourself under Hiko Seijuro's household. Just mention that you are my nephew. Nothing to it, register as a new resident won't take much. They will issue you with an ID within the hour, depending on the number of people in the queue there."

"I am going to head to the draftsman's place to get this drawing into a blueprint and then I would head to the Patent and Trademarks department. Be seeing you at the house later for lunch, OK?"

As soon as Hiko-sama had said that he went to another adjacent building to have someone create a blueprint on the portable washing machine.

I then headed to the registrar's office and went inside. There was no one in line and I was the first. I told the registrar what I wanted and was asked to fill a form which requires my name, date of birth, gender, and my affiliation and relationship plus marital status. After completing it, I handed it back to the registrar and the registration was at the cost of 2 coppers for administrative charges. I paid up and was told to wait in the waiting area.

After waiting for around 15 minutes, I heard my name being called and I went to the registrar. I was handed an ID with all the details that I had filled up earlier in the form. It was on a piece of palm-sized ID and it was protected with some sort of waterproof resin, that acts like a lamination during that time. I checked the ID before thanking the person that everything was in order and left.

With the ID in hand, I had officially become a resident of Kitakata. I walked back alone and reached the business district. I looked around and noticed that this would be the place to conduct exports to other towns and villages. The stone buildings looked neither splendour nor plain and every building was marked with a bright sign over their main entrance, stating their nature of business. Basically, these district controls the trading district in their prices and stock level et cetera.

There were signs on the buildings that stated their core of business such as ores and minerals, semi-precious and precious stones, spices and herbs, raw leather and furs, local commodities like sugar and salt, grains, livestock, lacquerware and sake.

The interesting little village that would prove to be a boom in the next half century or so.

I passed the trading district which also serves as the local marketplace. The trading buildings were arranged in such a way when looked from a bird's eye view, it would form a sort of cluster around the square.

The marketplace was just right smack in the middle of the square and that mainly was set up by the plebs and commoners to sell their wares with makeshift stalls and colourful tarpaulin. That's where the real bargain was, and its made up with a crazy myriad of stalls, even Hiko-sama didn't want to enter that area.

The trading district was selling similar wares but at a higher price, so basically there are two categories of people who gained a certain stature when shopping for their daily needs or like the textile shop we had entered to purchase my gi the other day. It is like as if to say in short; the upper and lower class of people.

Hmm, I didn't know that classification exists in this era. Nevertheless, I would prefer to shop at the marketplace instead and despite the wetness on the floors and the hustle of people milling around, I won't mind being there as long as my coin pouch was held tightly in my hands rather than being hung loose on my obi.

I went to the local produce and saw what I needed. I bought 6 raw corns complete with the ears and all and paid only 4 coppers for that. The seller placed them in a paper bag and I left that place.

Soon I entered the clothes section of the marketplace and the floor was dry this time. I asked the seller how much for 4 pairs of my size of the gi and I was told it only cost 20 coppers which is equivalent to 2 silvers. Instead, I bought another 2 gi and 2 yakata for 2 silvers.

Next, I walked over to the ladies' part of the marketplace and was looking around if there's such thing as soap. When the seller asked what I wanted, I said I wanted to buy body soap for my mother. She said that there was none here and its too expensive and only available in the trading houses. I asked how much it would cost and she told me it's about 2 silvers for a bar of soap.

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"Hmm, if we could make soap and sells at the cost of copper coins, I am sure 10,000 of the residents here would buy it. Even if I could manufacture and sell it for 2 coppers, the profit would be at 20,000 coppers or 10,000 silvers or 5,000 gold coins according to the conversion rates." I thought to myself as the money-making scheme as well as the mass production of body soap, even at the least price would be very affordable.

I asked the shopkeeper if she sells any perfume and said that item was also available in the trading houses under women's luxury items. Hmm, I think I should get back to my drawing board pretty soon.

I sat down at one of the stone benches in the trading district and began to search my memory banks on how to make perfume from fresh products like jasmine, lavender, lilac and roses. Finally, I've got it, the simplest form to make perfume from fresh flowers.

All I need is a glass bowl filled with water. Then the flowers would be cleaned and free from impurities and placed on a cloth then overlapped with another cloth. Then the water is heated slowly as the steam would extract the flower's scent and drip into the bowl.

As the water evaporates, the residue of concentrated flower Essense would be produced and a colourless and odourless oil would be added to make a type of dab on perfume. But in the case for making flower-scented soap, the concentrated Essense should do it.

"Wow! Another innovative idea to add to this century! Can't wait to draft out on a sketch pad." I thought as I stood up and walked to a shop selling stationeries. There was a sketch pad costing 5 coppers for a stack of 10 pieces, and it's quite expensive at that time.

There were no pen or pencil during that era, and the writing tools were of reed pens or feathered quills with their individual ink pot. I had used the Reed pen while at the registrar and bought the same fine tipped ends instead and a bottle of black ink. At least there's a start to writing or drawing something useful instead of using paper bags instead.

I walked back to Hiko-sama's house first and dropped off the items I had bought before heading to Hide-sama's House to perform my duties.

It was close to Miroku-sama's house and before I entered I said a greeting. Hearing no answer I knew the house was empty and I entered. I planned out how to start cleaning and began my tasks.

I took a break during midday by looking at the shadow cast by the clothesline and went back home and Hiko-sama was already waiting to have lunch together with me. I saw in his hands, that he was holding to a scroll of some sort and this means he had made a blueprint as well as made it to the Patents and trademarks department. There was a handcart that was filled like a small hill with parts of broken weapons. This was ideal to make the hangers in mass production.

"I've got the blueprint ready and had it endorsed by the Patent and Trademarks, Himura. Here in my hands is the official Seijuro Tumbler and once we can start to manufacture one, we'd be on our way to earn money."

I smiled as I reached for the blueprint. It was drawn using onion skin translucent paper and a seal was made at the bottom right of the diagram by the Patents and Trademarks Department. Its an official product of Seijuro Tumbler and no one could copy this.

"Firstly, we need to find the resources to make this and calculate the base cost. Then add in the labour for making each piece. So from there, we are able to calculate the base cost. We make it affordable for everyone to own this in their household."

"We should have a department to answer to the maintenance of the machine as well so this works out as a long term investment. Replacing worn out parts et cetera as well as their future wages."

"Wah ehhhh... You really think of everything in your head right now eh, kid?! No wonder the first time I met you, I can see a lot of potential in you and decided to bring you into my household instead of the Mayor's."

I had another stroke of genius coming in and a light bulb appeared on top of my head.

Ding!

"Or we could open a laundrette here in the plot of land and open a business. What we could do was employ someone to be a laundry person and all he or she could do was to operate the Seijuro Tumbler and paid daily wages. We could employ part-timers and pay them by the hour. And you could be the boss that controls the incoming and outgoing of laundry and sales."

"Haa... Haa... Haa... From being a Samurai I became a boss of a trade? Very interesting indeed! Very interesting...! I never thought I would retire and become a tradesman."

"This is one of my ideas because we would control the trade and market. We could make it as a standard laundry service that goes by weight and simple bookkeeping to ensure records of the customers and their costs would be reflected in the books."

"Well, in that case, let's manufacture one and see how it performs then. I'm very interested in this contraption and I will take note of the manufacturing costs so in the future if we would sell it in the open market, we could advertise in the marketplace and make residents here to place their orders based on first come first served basis."

"That's right, Sensei. I agree with you. Let's have lunch first, I have yet to finish up Hide-sama's house and after that, we discuss something else instead that would be a hit with the ladies."

Hiko-sama's eyes widened at the thought of another business proposal even though Seijuro Tumbler is in the midst floating in the air still.

"OK, I can't wait to hear about this next proposal or ideas of yours. Since Kitakata was made up of 35% women as part of the population, it should be able to cater to about 3,500 residents here alone."

I nodded as we began to open the bento boxes and dug into its glorious servings.