Tottori

Michiko was bored. She could not, in fact, remember when she had last been so bored.

She had been at Kanto Camera's rustic beach cottage for five days and had finished the supply of books and magazines she had brought with her the day before.

She had sunned on the beach, explored the coast, been tutored by Mrs. Itoh in how to make dumplings and by Mrs. Matsumoto in how to make tekkamaki, a roll of raw tuna and rice wrapped smoothly in a silky sheet of black seaweed called nori.

During that time, Michiko had also endured a visit by Mrs. Itoh's daughter with her three children and one by Mrs. Matsumoto's daughter with two. The older women's attitude towards her was that, as she would be married and a young mother herself before too long, she should be interested in the details of teething, ear infections, and the merits of various disposable diapers, which the women discussed inexhaustibly among themselves. She was not sure how she would last until Sunday, when the party planned to return to Tokyo.