From a small Okinawan restaurant near Jomyoji Temple, you can hear the sound of the sanshin(stringed instrument) followed by the applause of several people.
"I've been praised so much, maybe I should drink more."
"Mr. Maa, shouldn't you just leave it at that?"
Masao, a regular customer, has been looking forward to showing off his sanshin, which he has learned by himself, while drinking awamori(okinawan sake) after retirement. Although the repertoire is few, he was able to respond to each customer's request because it was generally limiteded. Shima Uta, Nada Sosou, Tinsagu no Hana, Asadoya Yunta... After the song is finished, they will feel as if they are in Okinawa just by plucking the strings after having a glass in his mouth. The store manager also welcomed Masao's visit.
"Maa-san, you're drinking more than usual today. It's not good to drink too much."
"Hey, I've been drinking it for decades, so I know my limits. If I was served such delicious sukudofu(smallfish pickles and tofu), wouldn't I go back several times?"
“Is that my fault? If I put out another special one, I'm sure you'll drink until morning"
"What's my favorite?"
Masao repeats the prelude to "Nineteen-old's Spring" and questions the store manager.
“Don’t be like that broken jukebox. it's a nuisance to the customer"
"Then tell me!"
"I can't help it... this is it"
Masao was already so drunk that he couldn't even read what was on the TV in the store, but he could tell just by looking at his silhouette. Irabu. The official name is Erabu sea snake. A pitch-black sea snake is dried while still coiled up. It is a luxury item eaten by the royal court for its nourishment and tonicity.
"Hey, Irabu-chan, you're here! I never thought I'd meet you in Kamakura. Hurry up and feed me!"
"I thought so, and I made one soup."
When the store manager opened the lid of the pot, an unimaginable fragrance spread throughout the store. Masao showed the bowls that were first served to the customers at the two tables in the store.
"Wow~, stop it, stop it"
"You seem to have energy, so why don't you try eating it?"
"Skin like a brand-name wallet."
After enjoying the mixed reactions, Masao took a sip,
“Hmmm, delicious, another cup of awamori!”
After that, the excitement was like an Irabu soup festival.
"yeah?"
Masao was completely asleep. He remembers leaving the store, but he wakes up in a strange place, neither at home nor on the street. He can't open his eyes much because he's drunk, but even if he manages to open them, he can tell that it's already dawn. The joints of his body were so painful that he could not move them, so he thought he would stay like this for a while.
"I've crossed the limit. It's Irabu's fault. With that kind of look, that scent, and that deliciousness, no one can stop me. Damn it... But what is this smell? It's sweet and a little tangy. It's like... I was in Okinawa just now, but now it feels like I'm in a foreign country."
In his daze, he tried to think of a way out of the situation, but his brain wouldn't work either. He managed to open his unopened eyes a little more and looked a little to the side within the range where his head could move. There is something that cuts out the night sky at dawn in a mysterious way.
"What is that point? Two triangles stretched into the sky. Did I see something like that?"
With a little more effort, Masao opened his eyes and saw that it was the roof. But as far as Masao knows, he's never seen a landscape with two conical roofs like this.
"If I remember correctly, there was something like this in the countryside of Italy. It had a name like Berobero, but there's no way it's in such a place..."
A new caramel-like scent begins to overlap with the scent of cinnamon.
“No matter how I think about it, this scent in such a scenery, isn’t it a foreign country?”
The more he tried to think, the more headaches he had, and the more he got drunk, the more he lost consciousness.
"I can't go to Italy in one night."
"No, I can't go wrong. I went to Alberobello. No doubt, the shape of that roof. I looked it up, what was that roof? And then Italy. I wonder, too. I had an appletart there. The cinnamon works well and the surface is crispy with caramel, and it's delicious."
"So, when you woke up, you was sleeping on the futon at home..."
"My wife was angry."
"That's right. Don't go home in the morning and say something that doesn't make sense."
"She told you to lie about it, too. Well, the first thing I woke up was the Kamakura police, and my wife came to pick me up and put me to sleep on the futon."
"How did you go to the police?"
"I don't remember that."
Conversation with the store manager tends to get cut off today, and I can hear the two girls at the back table talking.
"The cake over there is really delicious, isn't it? It's peach this season, but the standard apple tart that's available all year round is the best."
The two men reacted strongly to those words.
"Oh yeah, cinnamon works and tastes like an adult."
Masao tilts his head toward the store manager.
“Maa-san, cinnamon is Nikki.”
Masao gave a big nod.
"But well, that space is nice too. It feels like I'm in a foreign country... What country is that feeling?"
"What are you talking about, that's Alberobello, it's Italian!"
Hearing that far, Masao couldn't help but turn around from the counter,
"Where is that cake shop?"
While the two girls were on guard against the sudden incident,
"It's in the back of Omachi."
"It's like a hideout, just down a small alley from the main road."
Masao took out a map on his smartphone and had him point out the location. The store manager also came out of the kitchen curiously and looked at the screen. Looking at the place pointed to, the two old men nodded slightly,
"Maa-san, how often did you pass through the Shakado tunnel while drunk?"
"Indeed, my whole body hurts here and there. I managed to get over that fence somehow."
The girl knows very well that she is raised in Kamakura,
"Eh, the cut through the Shakado hall became impassable a long time ago, didn't it?"
"When I was childhood, I could pass through. It's true that if you go through that passage from this shop, it's quick to reach that cake shop, isn't it?"
The manager is half dumbfounded
"Maa-san, you can't drink today."
Saying that, he returned to the kitchen.
"I just remembered that I was laying down and smelling that Nikki, and a big black snake was crawling next to my face and I passed out."
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