“You’ve made it so far, in this strange and wonderful journey, and yet here you stand at the threshold of your village. A gate of spirits, the torii, to pass through out of respect, into the trees you know well, the stream and the onsen – a multi-levelled setting of naturally-heated mineral pools. You stop at the hot springs to rest your mind and body and grasp at some peace to give thanks for your safety in the natural world.”
Many plates were then laid out, different colours, shapes, sizes. Some rugged and unfinished, others finely tuned and elaborately pigmented.
“Gohan, Ko no mono, Tome-wan. These next three courses involve the senses intimately,” he motioned, “Your resurrection as a new man, fed by your fresh experiences and the nature around you. The old and the new entwined deep within.”
I peered at the small offerings, each painstaking in their plating. Sitting delicately atop perfectly thin wisps of nori was a single baby squid, splayed out as if in chase, a subtle fold of rice with ink seeping ever slowly throughout. A clear dashi broth with cumulous miso clouds building up from the depths beneath.
A rainbow of pickled baby vegetables. The fragrances collided, flickering up and around my face.
I ate bite after bite from each plate. The thick umami followed by citric-sweet saffron, chased further by salty-fat, and over again. Aira spoke slowly now, watching me carefully.
“At this point in your journey you feel some relief in your learnings, but it is here that you must be most aware. You are not alone. You have not triumphed. There is a curse upon you, somebody and some thing has committed itself to you indefinitely. To use you as a vessel for further evils. This is your kikkyo.”
An excerpt from somewhere deep within The Sushi Prophecies