70 CH70: Plans

So I am the perfect traveller.'"

- Anonymous

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Delilah was browsing through her social media account, looking very awe at the foods being photographed and the many beautiful scenes taken by the people she followed. It has always been one of her dreams to go to Japan and explore the country. Most specifically the animes, the culture and of course, foods.

She sighed inwardly as she scrolled through the pages. She doesn't know why she likes to torture herself looking at these.

Aubree was walking past her cubicle when she noticed the distracted Delilah, slumping over her table. She chuckled lightly as she changed directions and knocked softly on Delilah's cubicle wall. "What's wrong, D?" she asked.

Delilah looked up and saw Aubree standing behind her, with folders in her arms, smiling down at her. She sighed again. "Nothing. I'm just bored," she replied sadly, fiddling with her phone.

"All done with your work?" Aubree asked.

Delilah stared pointedly at the wall clock and back at Aubree. "It's five minutes to four-thirty. You think I would want to do my work right now?" she said sarcastically. She then leaned back to show her computer which had already shutdown. "Even my computer is switched off already."

She whirled around in her seat and whined out loud, "I want to go travel!"

"Travel?" Aubree repeated. Then she suddenly remembered something. She rummaged through the papers in her folder and then when she found what she was looking for, she said, "Ah! Found it!"

She handed the flyer to Delilah, who accepted it with a confused look on her face. "What's this?"

Aubree just silently pointed at the flyer, discreetly telling her to read.

Delilah frowned as she read the flyer. It was a flyer for travelling, showcasing a list of countries, flights and price. Then Delilah cringed when she saw it was for a tour. "I don't really like touring. It's too restrictive and I like to explore it on my own."

Aubree rolled her eyes. "You can just not pick the tour option, you know. And just buy the return ticket," she suggested, pointing at one area of the flyer.

Delilah tapped her finger against her chin, thinking.

Aubree shrugged. "Think about it. Besides, you still have a lot of day offs in your hands," she advised. She then left her cubicle with a wave.

Looking a bit absent-minded, Delilah just sat there and kept thinking to herself. It was then she realized that everyone on her floor had already left their cubicle and was heading straight for the exit. She quickly packed her things and followed suit.

Outside, she immediately went into her car and switched on the ignition. Before she drove off, she texted her cousins, saying that she was about to leave the parking lot. She then turned on her GPS navigation app and keyed in the name of the restaurant.

Soon after, she was on the road, following the direction of the GPS and when she finally arrived at the restaurant, she saw her two cousins already waiting in front of the restaurant. The restaurant itself wasn't that big, taking up only one shop area. The windows in front of the restaurant were long, from the top to the ground. It was covered with dark grey blinds, shutting itself from outside. The door itself was a frosted full glass door with leaves decoration.

The two girls waved at her when Delilah drove past them to get to the designated parking lot. After she parked her car, she immediately went straight to them.

"Hey, been waiting long?" she asked them.

The two women shook their heads. "Nah, we just got here a few minutes ago," Farah replied as she opened the door.

After she opened the door, they were greeted with the expression, 'irasshaimase', which means 'Welcome, please come in.'. The waiters and waitresses were dressed in a white clean shirt and black pants with a short black apron with pockets. The atmosphere inside gave out vibes of a Japanese feeling, where classical Japanese music was being played in the background, a sushi conveyor belt in the middle of the restaurant, reaching out to each end of the restaurant and sushi chefs were in the middle, making the sushi. There were also many Japanese ornaments and decorations adorning the walls and the ceilings.

One of the waitresses immediately came forwards and asked them for how many people. Farah answered three and the waitress instantly guided them to an empty table.

Both Shay and Farah sat next to each other and across Delilah. Delilah took their handbags to place them on the empty chair beside her.

Once the three women made themselves comfortable, the waitress handed each of them a menu and quietly walked away. But before she left, she told them to press the call button on the wireless call device which was on the table, once they were ready to make their orders. The three women thanked her and began to discuss what they wanted to eat.

Delilah loves salmon and has been craving for it. So she had decided to order salmon don [1] and sake [2] with mayonnaise. Farah also chose to order the same thing without the sake, whereas Shay ordered the unagi [3] don with a salmon temaki [4]. After the three had placed their orders, they fell into a comfortable conversation, keeping each other updated, talking about their parents and laughing.

At some point, Delilah was looking at one of the paintings hanging on the wall, looking very much distracted.

"What's with you?" asked Shay as she turned her head to Delilah.

"Nothing. I just missed travelling," she replied ruefully.

Farah also glanced at the picture Delilah was looking at and said, "Hmm. Japan, huh?"

"I've never been there."

"Me too."

"Me three."

The three of them then looked at each other and grinned.

"Do you still have some days off left?"

"Haven't taken any off days since the past two months."

"I haven't taken any THIS year."

Delilah smiled mischievously as she propped her chin on her palm, looking at them. "Heard there's a promo for flights at one of the travel agencies."

"Shall we?" Shay grinned.

"We shall."

The three of them then laughed. They then began to plan where they wanted to go. As they talked more about their plans, they realized that it would be better if they bought the tickets first and then decided on the places to go. For now, they can just search for whatever places of interest that attracted them.

While they were talking, their food arrived. The waitress carefully placed their food in front of the three women and when she was done, she gave a little bow and said that she hoped they would enjoy their meal. The three women thanked her and began eating.

Delilah started first with her salmon don. She took a piece of the salmon, using her chopsticks and took a bite. She liked the fact that the salmon does not have that fishy smell, which tells her that this was a good salmon. It tasted a bit buttery and fatty as she chewed on it. It literally just melts in her mouth. She then took a bit of wasabi and placed it on top of her salmon and scooped it together with the rice. The rice was a bit sticky and mildly sweet. Together with the salmon and the wasabi, it added another kick to it with the flavour of the horseradish taste due to the latter.

The three women continued their talk while having their meals. It has been a while since the three of them met up with each other so they had plenty of things to talk about. And added with the possibility of going on a trip together, their talks prolong much longer.

With the love for food and travelling, of course, that does describe a perfect traveller, don't you think so?

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[1] 'Don' literally means "bowl" in Japanese.

[2] cooked salmon known as 'sake' but usually pronounced as 'sha-keh'.

[3] grilled eel

[4] temaki means "hand roll" in Japanese