The tempura has just been fried, they bring it to the table and I sprinkle the green salt on top of it.  The taste is amazing, the crunchiness of the tempura perfectly accentuated by the salt.

The meal is amazing, every aspect of it a search for perfection, the grilled fish, the sushi, the crab cocktail, the almond cream topped with honeydew,… it’s the pinnacle of someone’s search for the absolute.  This is in many ways the most perfect meal I have ever had.  I have eaten at more expensive restaurants but never have this many people paid this much attention to my meal.

We are at a ryokan in Nikko, it is my honeymoon.  I am wearing a yukata and was soaking in a hotspring an hour before this dinner.  I remember watching Anthony Bourdain having a similar meal in Japan, I remember thinking that was a meal I would never have. I am glad I was wrong.

Japan is a bit strange for a honeymoon destination, but it is perfect for us.  We considered a beach or a cruise and outside of a Greece where a good friend of mine lives beaches just weren’t that interesting for our honeymoon.  Many of my recently married friends have gone on to beaches for their honeymoon, the more they are willing to spend the more exotic the beach becomes, the whiter and softer the sand, the more attentive to your every wish the staff.  In Japan no on really cares that it’s our honeymoon, heck it’s a challenge to communicate what we want sometimes.  But with that price comes a reward, the amazingly diverse food, the fun toys, the wacky clothes.

This might not be the most luxurious honeymoon we could have planned but it is the funnest one.  Yesterday on our way to visit some ancient temples we got sidetracked by a 6 story building.  To call it a toy store would give  entirely wrong impression, it contained rack after rack, floor after floor of interesting and intricate little things.  Small robots designed to run away from sound and try to hide away from you, tiny puzzled that you put together with tweezers, shiny bouncing balls that do weird things when you bounce them,…. And of course we did make it to the temples eventually, we donated a few hundred yen to some deity and enjoyed a cup of iced green tea.

Nikko is a gorgeous destination, most people spend only a day here visit the temples and then head on to other more popular places.  We did the tourist thing today and visited the major temples, the next 3 days are unplanned and we probably will spend them walking around and trying the local restaurants and bakeries.

My cell phone doesn’t work in Japan, there is no internet in the hotel, I am really enjoying being cut off from work.  I can see work and life gathering up like a wave that’s going to come crashing down on me in September.  I am ignoring it much like a swimmer paddling in the surf.  I can’t do much to change the wave’s path so I am going to relax now and take it easy and order another batch of fresh tempura.

Bob waited, he could hear his heart beat, each beat loud as a drum stroke in the sudden silence of the room.  Finally the old penguin broke and spoke first.

“This is too much we can buy a cheaper model”

Bob didn’t blink an eye, this might have been the biggest deal of the quarter but you couldn’t have told anything by Bob’s demeanor.  Crystal smooth Bob rolled with the flow.

“Of course you could, there are always cheaper alternatives, you could build your own traps”

The news story lay silent between them, a polar bear had broken through the defenses of a small town further north by the time they had gotten the place under control again they had lost 34 penguins.  Bob didn’t need to say this, cheaper alternatives spelled it out easily enough at the same time implying that the old penguin’s town couldn’t afford the latest technology which they both knew wasn’t true.

“What about the smaller model, couldn’t one of the smaller models do as good a job ? “

A smile twitched behind Bob’s face yearning to break into his face, Bob locked it down.  The deal was done they were simply arguing about price now.

Bob nodded towards his engineer who started to speak a bit too rapidly for Bob’s taste but that was engineers for you.  All tech and no polish.

“Well based on the population and ice composition here we could go with the JR423 but that will leave you open to air assault and heat seekers.  With those vectors open you can expect a loss of 23% per year,  we could tweak the command module but even that’s not going to get you more than 1-2%, the last upgrade optimized the circuits pretty well, to get 99.995% coverage you the XW2000, it has the flack counter strike built in…”

Bob cut in smoothly, it was Joes first week on the job and he still had a lot to learn, the deal was done and Bob was going to cut him some slack but there was no need to spend more time than they had to.

“That’s 4 winters for 4500 bars of compressed shrimp, plus whatever amo and tranining you’ll need”

“You’ll include the training for free ?”

Bob nodded reluctantly, let the old penguin think he had gotten something for free, the training didn’t matter that much most of the system was automated, the profit on the amo would more than cover the cost of sending Joe out for a few days to shoot at decoy polar bears.

The belt buckle clipped in with a solid metal click and Bob relaxed into the plush first class seat on the hypersled, it would be another 8 hours before they got back home.  The warm kiss of high quality whisky bit through his throat.  He didn’t realize how stressed he had been throughout the call, sales conditioning had locked the stress and worry away during the call and now that they were done it was time to pay the price.

“Do you think it was fair to charge them that much ?”

Bob looked back towards Joe uncomprehendingly.  Then his brain replayed the words back.

“Do I  Think It’s Fair ?”  Bob repeated the question softly but Joe flinched back from the look in Bob’s eyes.

“Do you want to be right or rich Joe ?”  Bob stared straight into Joe’s eyes until the other looked away.

“It’s a simple question Joe, which one do you want more ?”

“sorry man, just making conversation”  Joe looked at his feet and stayed silent.

Bob finished his whisky in one gulp and looked back at Joe.

“ You can give him 200 rounds free, when you are up there training them if it makes you feel better.  But lock it down, you are in sales now.”

The rest of the flight was devoid of conversation.