We entered the shopping street after walking for around five minutes. It was basically a covered street between two rows of shophouses that reminded me a little of Chinatown in Singapore except the buildings were more modern. There were cafes, boutiques, pharmacies, fast food outlets, convenience stores and even a bookstore or two along the same street. This street also intersected another street that appeared to be more of a market street selling fresh produce. We could probably do our grocery shopping there later. Meanwhile, I was going to browse every single shop that looked interesting. I did apologise to Masa in advance in case I took too long, but he just shrugged and looked resigned. Hmm...well, it was true that birders had to be patient when looking for birds.

My parents had given me some cash to pay for my food and souvenirs, so I made sure to buy some stuff back for them too. I ended up buying a pair of cool-looking black leather gloves and a woollen pageboy-styled cap, plus a nice blue scarf for my mum. Obviously I was thinking of Shyi'eld when I bought those, since I couldn't possibly use them in Malaysia or during the summer here. I didn't know what to get for my dad, so I just bought him some salted senbei. I bought a large packet of assorted snacks for the mansion staff too. Masa told me that Kagawa was famous for its Sanuki udon, so I bought several packets of the stuff. Maybe we could also cook it in Shyi'eld instead of instant noodles for a change.

As we shopped, it was soon lunchtime and Masa kindly treated me to okonomiyaki, the Japanese pizza-like pancake, at a restaurant. It was the kind where you could cook your own if you wanted, but he ordered it to be cooked for us anyway. The process took awhile, but was fun to watch, and it didn't look too difficult either. Naturally, it was delicious. Maybe I could even try cooking some for my parents when I was back in Malaysia. I would certainly need the sauces for it which would be much more expensive in Malaysia.

With that in mind, we went on a little bit of a shopping spree at the market street. I wanted to try cooking Japanese curry and miso soup too, so Masa showed me where the easy-to-cook stuff was sold. To my surprise, we even managed to find sago and grated coconut, which were the ingredients of the dessert I was planning to make. I had only cooked it once before with my mum, so I hoped I could still remember the steps. If not, there was always Google. I doubted there would be any gula melaka, or Melaka sugar, but that could be replaced with normal brown sugar.

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We were almost done with our shopping when I suddenly saw Masa tense up in my peripheral vision. He gave me a quick gesture that was our signal for me to keep my distance and I promptly did so almost automatically. We had been fighting side by side long enough to trust that each other could handle their own opponent. Even if I didn't know what kind of adversary he had to handle in a grocery store. A feisty cabbage, perhaps?

I hid myself behind a shelf of canned food and peeked at Masa from a safe distance of at least twenty metres. He stood in the vegetable section facing down a small group of high school girls and a familiar-looking boy. Oh, so not an ornery okra then. Jokes aside, they were wearing the uniform of his school, so they could be his classmates. Maybe even the same classmates he ran away from just now. Oh no, he was completely outnumbered! I should rush to help him!

On the other hand, my presence would probably complicate things, so I pretended not to know him and gazed instead at the cans in front of me with great interest. I did strain my ears a little to try to listen to what they were saying. There was a girl with a high-pitched voice that really carried, so I had no problem hearing every single word she said. Apparently they were trying to interrogate Masa about the "strange girl" he had been with. Masa was doing a good job playing dumb and giving monosyllabic answers, but they didn't seem to get the hint. Huh. And here I thought the Japanese were so good at reading the room. Maybe it only happened in business situations?

Anyway, they finally got bored of grilling him and left the store. Phew. Masa continued looking at vegetables until he was sure they had left before coming over to where I was. "Sorry about my nosy classmates," he said, although he certainly didn't have to apologise on their behalf.

I shook my head and replied, "Nah, it was interesting to hear them talk. Young people use a lot of slang and short forms, don't they? I could barely understand what they said." I gave him a wry smile. "I mean, reading it in light novels is one thing, but hearing it being spoken without a dictionary to look up the words is pretty hard."

"Some of the terms are obscure to me too," he admitted. "I usually just pretend I know what they're talking about and then look the words up on the Internet when I can be bothered to."

We just smiled at each other for a moment, then Masa looked at the basket he held. "Is there anything else you want to get? My mom asked me to stock up on some more curry roux since we were here."

"Hmm, I think I'm about done here," I said as I glanced around, then added, "Oh wait, let me grab a few of those konnyaku jellies. I love the ones with fruit in them!"

"Yeah, I like those too," said Masa with a grin, taking a few himself.