Yamaoka glared at the meal that had been placed in front of him. He had been sent to Paris with Kurita, to write an article on the growing Japanese restaurant scene in the city. He had tried everything from outstanding, to mediocre, to downright disgusting takes on the cuisine of his home country.
Yamaoka was very happy that he had been allowed to bring his wife Kurita along. Ohara, their boss at the Tozai News, had made the choice simple. Either Yamaoka fly business class alone, or he could bring his sweetheart along but fly economy. While Yamaoka had briefly contemplated the wide seats, lounges and gourmet wines and desserts served to Air France's higher paying guests, he knew there really was no choice in the matter, and so the pair had snuggled into the back of the plane and dined on mushy omelets with salty bits of ham of questionable origin, and sipped headache inducing white wine from plastic cups.
It wasn't that Yamaoka didn't appreciate the attempt by some of the great chefs in France to create French influenced Japanese cuisine. He was also impressed by the numerous chefs there, who did their best to create an authentic Japanese experience with the ingredients available to them. Yamaoka glared at his chicken katsu curry with rice, pickled vegetables and miso soup because he was anxious about his visit to Paris soon coming to an end.
Yamaoka enjoyed the occasional visit to a French restaurant in Tokyo. The cuisine wasn't the kind he would normally opt to eat every day, but during his brief five day visit to the City of Light, he wanted nothing more than to immerse himself with gusto into the traditional local cuisine. It was his first time outside East Asia. Although he had enjoyed some ham, cheese and croissants at his hotel's breakfast buffet, he was obligated to otherwise eat only Japanese food for the duration of his trip.
Tomii had stuck his tongue out at Yamaoka when he had complained about not being allowed to combine his trip to Paris with a little vacation time. "If you want to vacation in Paris, why not fly there with your own money and pay for your own hotels?" Tomii had cried.
"That's not the point!" Yamaoka had shouted back. "Anyway I have to fly to Paris. Once the business there ends, I'll pay for my own hotel. I just want to spend three extra days there on my own!"
Tomii was Yamaoka's superior at Tozai News. Although Tomii was all around a good guy and a great friend, he could overdo it with his chiding remarks. In the end, Ohara had decided that Yamaoka and Kurita would have to return right after their tour of Parisian Japanese restaurants ended, because it otherwise wouldn't be fair to the other employees at the paper, and besides, Yamaoka needed to get busy finishing his article and getting it through with the editors.
Yamaoka was picking at his plate of curry, dreaming of heaping mountains of escargot, Lobster Thermidor and strawberry savarin, when suddenly a familiar, totally unexpected and totally unwelcome face appeared at the restaurant's front door.