"This is Hiromi's room," said Taka as he opened the door and set down my luggage beside it. "She's studying overseas in England, so she won't be back for a while. You can use it as long as you like," he added with a wink.

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, so I just thanked him and nodded. "The bathroom is at the end of the corridor and my room's next door, followed by Masa's. The last one is the master bedroom." Taka pointed out the doors as he spoke. "You can just relax for now. My mom will call us when it's time for dinner."

With that, he returned to his room and I sat down on the bed to look around. The room was painted a light yellow and only had a bed, wardrobe and study table with an attached bookshelf. There were no stuffed toys one would expect from a girl's room or signs of anything that could be related to her hobbies, not even a single shoujo manga. In fact, one might be hard pressed to tell that this was a girl's room if it weren't for the flowery curtains and female clothing in the wardrobe.

Huh. No wonder Masa had been so surprised when he saw my room. No, wait, that could have been because of the anime posters instead... Anyway, now that we were safely here, I messaged my parents to inform them and then made a list of the places I hoped to visit while I was here. I didn't plan on travelling too far away, but I wanted to see Masa's school, a shopping street and maybe an amusement park if there were any nearby. It was a dream of mine to see the typical date locations in Japan, and it would be even better accompanied by a handsome boy!

Me, shallow? Of course, need you ask? Anyway, I was determined to enjoy this trip if it was the last thing I did! Er...I hoped that didn't raise some sort of flag...

We had dinner together with Taka and Masa's parents after that, and they politely enjoyed the desserts I bought. The dinner consisted of curry rice with chicken karaage and a simple vegetable salad, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It tasted somewhat like the food in Japanese restaurants back in Malaysia or Singapore, but had the added indescribable flavour of home-cooking. I also finally met Mr Tanaka, who was quiet like his second son. His mom and Taka talked enough for the both of them though, so it was a lively family dinner on the whole.

They asked about my plans and gave me suggestions about where to go and at what time of the day to avoid the crowds. I was certainly glad of that, since I had enough of squeezing through crowds in Singapore. We decided to visit Masa's school and the shopping street tomorrow, followed by the amusement park on the next day. That would leave several more days, but I was going to leave them free in case I saw any other places I wanted to visit. I would probably use the last day for stocking up on food and souvenir shopping.

Thankfully it was summer here and I didn't have to wear thick clothing. The heat reduced some of the magic of visiting a temperate country, but I didn't really mind since I could probably visit any time in the future. Er, as long as Masa was with me, that is. I wasn't sure if I would know which bus to take to come here. And who knows, maybe once we explored more of Shyi'eld we might find more portals to other parts of the world. Being able to visit any part of the world for free was certainly an intriguing idea, and being able to level up while travelling was fun too.

So far, apart from the convenience of packing light, I hadn't really felt any other benefit of levelling up my so-called skills here. Feyril mentioned that the physical aspect of levelling up would be useful here, but naturally, we hadn't met with any life-threatening situations as yet. Having more stamina was a plus, but that could be the result of simple exercise. I hadn't dared to try using magic here since a typical person was supposed to only have enough macli for one spell in a macli-less environment.

While I was lost in my thoughts as usual, the Tanaka family had finished their dinner and were starting to clean up. It was Taka's turn to do the dishes, but since Masa hadn't been back for a while, the latter took over the job. I also volunteered to help, despite the others insisting that I was a guest and shouldn't have to do the chores. They finally relented and compromised by letting me take out the rubbish, which didn't sound very appealing at first. Fortunately, it was nicely packaged in transparent plastic bags. I took the chance to add the rubbish I had accumulated to the pile. After that, it was a simple matter of setting it outside at a designated spot for the rubbish collectors.

Taka kindly showed me the spot, but he also asked me questions about how I got acquainted with Masa, where we went in Malaysia and so on. I gave vague answers whenever I could, since we hadn't really discussed details to this extent. By the time everything was done, I was so relieved to go back to my borrowed room that it must have shown on my face. Taka gave me a wry smile and merely said I should rest since I looked tired. I gladly took him up on his offer.

I went to take a shower before I turned in for the night. The Japanese might be fond of their hot baths, but I was definitely not used to it. Besides, it was summer and soaking in a hot bath in such hot weather didn't make sense to me. I emerged from the bathroom so quickly that I surprised Masa on the way to his room. "You're done already?" he asked in Japanese.

"Ah, yes. I didn't use the bath, so you can go ahead and use it," I told him. "Good night."

He looked nonplussed, but replied, "Right, thanks for telling me. Good night to you too."