Today’s finally the day for the field trip of Love Consultation Club. We’ll be gone for three days two nights straight. I’ve packed my stuff one night prior so I don’t have to rush. After eating breakfast, I check my things for the final time.

   ‘Remember to come home the moment you’re done with your part-time job or tennis practice. If something happened, just ask for help, okay? Amano, Uekawa-san, whoever.’ I tell Miiko before I head out.

   ‘Got it, onii-chan.’

   ‘Do you want any souvenir?’

   ‘No, thank you. Have a safe trip.’

   ‘I doubt I’ll have one, but thanks anyway.’

   While pulling my luggage bag, I leave my apartment and head for Jindai, since that’s the place we agreed to meet up. I’m the earliest to arrive, and only Shimada-sensei is standing right next to the school gate and a silver van. As opposed to her usual suits, right now she’s wearing light and casual outfit suitable for summer.

   ‘Good morning, sensei.’ I greet her. ‘Are we going to kidnap someone?’

   She rolls her eyes in annoyance.

   ‘Good morning, Bandou-kun. Why is that the first thing you ask?’ she asks back.

   ‘Because you got a silver van, and kidnappers generally use a silver van?’

   ‘Just put your luggage bag inside the trunk and wait for the others.’

   ‘Roger that.’

   Futaki arrives next. Unlike my large luggage bag, hers is a medium-sized handheld bag.

   ‘Good morning, Bandou-senpai. Good morning, Shimada-sensei.’ she greets us politely.

   ‘Good morning Futaki-san.’

   ‘Morning Futaki. You ready for the boring trip?’

   ‘Come on, Bandou-kun. You shouldn’t say that when the trip hasn’t even begin yet!’ sensei chides me.

   ‘Well I’ve looked through the schedule, and I find it boring.’

   ‘Myself, on the other hand, is kind of excited. I’ve never been to Odaiba, and I find the arrangement Shimada-sensei made quite well thought-out.’ Futaki tells me.

   Sensei does her best to hold back her tears.

   ‘You’re such a kind girl, Futaki-san. If only I was assigned to be your homeroom teacher…’ she sniffles.

   Her expression changed from touched to exasperation when she looks at me.

   ‘Instead, I have to be in charge of you. Two years in a row.’ she mumbles.

   ‘I for one, am happy that I got you for my homeroom teacher again, sensei.’

   ‘Don’t say things that you don’t mean, Bandou-kun.’

   ‘Was I that obvious? I really have to polish up my acting skills.’

   Suzu, as usual, arrives by getting a ride from Serizawa-san in the usual black, expensive car. Suzu comes out wearing casual clothes and pulling a luggage bag of her own. She yawns as she waves at us.

   ‘Good morning everyone~.’ Suzu says in a voice that’s even more laid-back than usual.

   ‘Morning, Suzu. You look even sleepier than usual. Did you spent the whole night play games or something?’ I ask.

   ‘I sure did~. I’m leaving my precious consoles for three whole days, after all~. I have to have a last minute fun-time with them~.’ she replies.

   ‘Why do I have a feeling that you have at least one portable console inside that luggage bag of yours?’

   Suzu averts her eyes and tries but fails to whistle. Honestly, I don’t blame her. I also brought my Sw*tch with me to pass my boredom.

   ‘Please take care of my ojou-sama for me.’ Serizawa-san says as he bows to us.

   ‘We definitely will.’ sensei assures him.

   Nagano arrives while being out of breath.

   ‘I’m sorry for being late!’ she apologizes.

   I notice that she has some bags under her eyes.

   ‘Let me guess. You were so excited about the trip you couldn’t sleep.’ I predict.

   ‘I can’t help it, okay? It’s been a while since I went on a field trip.’

   ‘Sure, sure. By the way, where’s Nitta? She sure is taking her time.’

   ‘Nitta-san has a live scheduled today, so she will only be joining us on the second day onwards.’ sensei informs me.

   ‘Say sensei. Can we forget about this trip and go to that live of hers instead?’

   ‘Of course not. Everything has already been paid for. We’ll be wasting the money if we cancel the trip.’

   ‘Aww. What a bummer.’

   ‘Now come on. Let’s get inside the van.’

   ‘Roger that.’

   I help the girls to load their bags to the trunk of the van before going inside the car myself. The trip from Tokyo to Odaiba takes a mere fifteen minutes, so the journey won’t be that torturing. I’m sitting at the seat right next to sensei’s, with the girls all sitting at the back.

   Odaiba is a city near the ocean. I would definitely have refused to come here if it was fall or winter since it would be freezing more than ever. Thankfully, it’s summer right now.

   According to the schedule sensei gave us, our lodging throughout the field trip is Odaiba Tokyo Ooedo-onsen Monogatari, a ryokan which is built next to a hot spring. Its full name is a real mouthful, so I’ll just be referring to it as Ooedo. Once we arrive, the female receptionist gives us a warm welcome.

   ‘Welcome. I hope all of you will enjoy your stay while you’re here. You can just leave your luggage here. Our staffs will bring them to your rooms later.’ she tells us.

   ‘Thank you. May we go see our rooms?’ sensei asks her.

   ‘Certainly. Right this way.’

   Sensei has booked three rooms for all of us. We’ll be sharing them among us 2-3-1, with me obviously occupying one whole room all by myself. The rooms are medium-sized with paper doors, a long rectangular table, tatami mats, a cupboard, a small safe and no beds. Size aside, all of them have a sweet view of the ocean. You can take a good look at it while standing at the balcony.

   ‘The meals are served at 8 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon and 8 in the evening. As for the hot spring, it is open daily from 8 in the morning to 10 in the evening. Please keep these in mind on your stay.’ the female receptionist informs us.

   ‘Please arrange it so that the our meals will be delivered to this room.’ sensei requests while pointing at a room we’re standing in front of.

   ‘Understood. I’ll make the arrangement at once.’

   ‘Do we really have to eat together?’ I ask in dismay.

   ‘Come on, Bandou-kun. Food tastes better when you eat it with someone else. You of all people should know that, working inside a kitchen and all.’

   I give up. It’s not like there’s anything that could change her mind at this point.

   ‘So, who’s going to be the unlucky one to share a room with sensei?’ I ask once the receptionist has left.

   ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ sensei demands.

   ‘I can’t imagine a student would be happy to share a room with her teacher instead of her friends.’

   Futaki raises up her hand.

   ‘I don’t mind sharing a room with sensei.’ she volunteers.

   Sensei sniffles. ‘You’re such an angel, Futaki-san.’

   ‘Looks like we’ll be sharing a room with Nitta-san once she’s here.’ Nagano says to Suzu.

   ‘I don’t really care~. As long as there’s a place for me to sleep, I’m a happy girl~.’

   ‘They don’t have beds here, you know? Are you sure you can sleep on futons?’ I ask the rich girl.

   ‘There’s a first time for everything~.’

   Sensei looks at the time from her phone.

   ‘There’s still some time left until lunch. What shall we do until then?’ she asks.

   ‘We sleep.’ Suzu and I say in unison.

   ‘Can the two of you be more serious? We’re in a field trip, you know?’ Nagano chides.

   ‘I can’t help it that I’m sleepy.’

   ‘Me too~. I think I can just sleep the day away~.’

   ‘Well don’t!’

   ‘I guess it’s fine to take a short break. The seminar is tomorrow, so we can take it slow for now.’ sensei says.

   And so, it’s time to choose the rooms, although there’s no difference between one room from the next. Sensei and Futaki are sleeping inside the room where the meal will be served, Nagano and Suzu (and Nitta starting tomorrow) got a room between theirs and mine.

   After my luggage has arrived, I put it on a corner of a room. I hen lay out the given futon and lie down on it. I stay that way until someone knocks on my door.

   ‘It’s time for lunch, Bandou-senpai.’ I hear Futaki’s voice coming from the other side of the door.

   I get up slowly and open the door. Sure enough, it’s Futaki.

   ‘Thanks for coming here to tell me that lunch is ready, Futaki.’ I tell her.

   ‘You’re welcome, senpai.’

   We go to the room she has to share with sensei. Everyone is already there, even Suzu who still looks kind of sleepy. And so is our lunch.

   ‘You really ought to wake up by yourself, Bandou-kun.’ sensei chides.

   ‘Sorry, sensei. When I think of the thing we’ll be doing in this field trip, I just lose all motivation. When that happened, all I want to do is sleep.’

   ‘Yup yup, I totally get that~.’ Suzu agrees.

   ‘Just, sit down.’

   For lunch, each of us gets a plate of assorted sashimi, a bowl of rice, a small plate of takuan pickles, a bowl of miso soup, and a plate of fruits. There’s also a cup of hot tea next to our meal.

   I pick up a piece of salmon sashimi and eat it. Yup, it’s very fresh. I guess having the ocean near you has its perks.

   I notice that Suzu had been chewing something for a while.

   ‘You don’t have to chew for so long, you know.’ I tell her.

   ‘I can’t help it. This octopus is difficult to be chewed~.’ she says with a slightly muffled voice.

   ‘Just wash it down with some tea.’

   She takes my advise and sips some tea.

   ‘Phew, I thought that was going to take forever~.’

   ‘Your teeth must be really weak if you can’t even chew apart a piece of sliced octopus.’

   ‘Not true~! Just try one for yourself! They’re really hard to chew~!’

   I take a piece of octopus of my own and chew it. I manage to tear it apart with my teeth after five chews.

   ‘Yup, your teeth are weak.’ I conclude.

   ‘Oh well, I guess it can’t be helped. Can I exchange all my octopuses with some of your other sashimi, Takkun~?’

   ‘Sure.’

   We eat our lunch in peace after that. After we’re done eating, sensei goes out to call the staffs so that all the empty plates and used cutleries can be retrieved.

   ‘Well, now that our stomach has been filled, let’s head out.’ she tells us after she’s back.

   ‘Our first stop is Miraikan, right sensei?’ Futaki asks to confirm.

   ‘That’s right.’

   The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, more commonly known as Miraikan, showcases science and technology stuff as its name suggests. On a side note, Miraikan literally means future museum. It’s the closest to Ooedo, which is why it’s our first stop.

   The museum is a large building with six storeys. The tickets for adults are 630 yen per ticket, while children up to 18 years old have to pay 210 yen. This is part of the field trip, so we didn’t have to fork out the money ourselves. Since it’s the summer holidays right now, there are quite a lot of people lining up just to go in. We waited almost an hour just to reach the ticket counter. I’m just glad that we’re not here while wearing our uniforms.

   Imagine my surprise when sensei actually paid for an adult’s ticket.

   ‘Wow, sensei. You’re actually acting your age?’ I ask her.

   ‘What’s that supposed to mean? Even I’m not daring enough to commit fraud, you know?’

   She suddenly has a hopeful look.

   ‘Do I really look that young?’ she asks.

   ‘Nope. You look old.’

   I quickly go inside before she can strangle me.

   The interior of the museum is much spacious compared when looking from the outside. It’s crowded with people, but not so much until we can’t even move. I don’t remember much from the trip since it was kind of boring. I remember seeing an Asimo, a robot made by Honda. I also remember seeing some seismometers that responds to vibrations. I don’t know how they work, but you could supposedly detect earthquakes with it. They even have records of recent incidents of earthquakes around Japan.

   ‘Can any of you swim?’ I asked the girls and my teacher.

   ‘A little bit.’ Nagano answered.

   ‘Nope~.’ Suzu told me.

   ‘Yes I can.’ Futaki said to me.

   ‘I was so good in swimming I won medals.’ sensei replied. ‘Where did that came from?’

   ‘I was just thinking that if there’s an earthquake, a tsunami is most likely to follow. Anywhere near the sea is one of the first places to get it.’

   ‘Ever the pessimistic one, aren’t you?’

   ‘Please call me realistic. Things like this happen, you know?’

   Unfortunately, I was being too loud. A kid around the age of 7 overheard me.

   ‘Is this place going to flood, mommy?’ she asks her mother in a wobbly voice.

   ‘Don’t worry, dear. I’m sure it will never happen.’

   ‘Look what you did! You’ve frightened her!’ sensei chides me in a soft voice.

   ‘I didn’t mean to.’

   Sensei immediately squat down so she’s on eye level with the girl.

   ‘No need to worry, okay? That onii-chan was just joking. Your mommy is right. This place will never flood.’ she assures her in a soothing voice.

   ‘Promise?’

   ‘Promise.’

   After making sure the little girl isn’t worried anymore, we immediately leave the place and head to another floor. Even I would feel bad about fear mongering a small child. I just hope she won’t get any nightmares about her drowning.

   We spent a total of two hours in there. As I said, i don’t remember much.

   ‘As per our schedule, we’re heading to Hachitama next.’ sensei says while we’re heading for the car park where she left her van.

   Hachitama refers to a spherical-shaped observatory room located at the top floor of Fuji Television Headquarters Building. The general public are allowed to head up there and get a view of the entire Tokyo, provided they pay a fee.

   ‘Is it okay if we visit a shrine that’s nearby first, sensei?’ Nagano requests.

   ‘You mean the Aqua City Shrine, right? Of course we can.’

   ‘Thank you, sensei.’

   Now, when they said shrine, I was expecting a building at the very minimum. Turns out this shrine doesn’t even have that. There’s a torii at the entrance, a tiny altar called Kamidana, two stone statues next to either side of the altar and some red fences. Those are about it. Still, a shrine is a shrine. No person alive is foolish enough to disrespect a holy sanctuary like this one. We did a proper prayer and leave. To be honest, I was half-expecting another mysterious voice to talk inside my head and grant me a wish. No such luck this time.

   Since the television station is right opposite the shrine, we just walk there. We actually met a few celebrities on our way to the observatory, but we didn’t stop and ask them for autographs since it would be rude. The observatory is nothing special since we’re only here to look at some scenery. Even so, the girls (minus Suzu, of course) and sensei insist on staying here for quite some time since they want to take lots of pictures. After the agonizing photo session is finally over, we leave the television station and head back to the van.

   Next stop, Madame Tussauds, a wax museum. We walked around the entire place just looking at wax figures based on real life celebrities. This is even less exciting than the time I spent at the observatory, if that’s even possible. For me, if you want to look at celebrities, you should go meet them in person instead of staring at counterfeit ones made of wax. The only good thing about those figures is that they don’t smell.

   It’s almost 6 by the time we’re outside the wax museum. We don’t have any more place to go for today, so we head back to the ryokan so that we could take a bath at the hot spring right before our dinner. At least, that was the plan for Nagano and sensei until they saw some ping pong tables. They were very eager to have a go. The rest of us don’t share their enthusiasm, however.

   ‘Are you sure you don’t want to join us?’ Nagano asks us. ‘We’re in a ryokan, you know? And ryokan means ping pong.’

   ‘Exactly. It’s good to move your body around.’ sensei encourages.

   ‘The two of you have fun. My idea of exercise is jogging and martial art training, not this.’ I tell them.

   ‘I want to sleep for a bit before we eat dinner.’ Suzu says while yawning.

   ‘I love to join, but I don’t know how to play it, so I’ll just be in the way.’ Futaki refuses politely.

   ‘Looks like it’s just us, sensei.’ Nagano says to sensei.

   ‘Seems that way. Well, let’s have a good match!’

   While the two of them are going to start a match, the three of us go back to our room. We pass by the hot spring on our way, and I decide to head in.

   ‘You girls head back first. I’ll go in and take a quick bath.’ I tell the girls.

   ‘I’ll join you, senpai.’ Futaki tells me.

   ‘...I beg your pardon?’

   She blushes furiously at her blunder.

   ‘W-W-W-W-What I meant to say is that I’ll be joining you at the other side! At the women’s bath!’ she quickly explains while having metaphorical smoke coming out of her head.

   ‘A-Ah, I see. Yup, that makes more sense.’

   ‘The two of you go ahead~. If you need me, I’ll be in my room~.’ Suzu tells us.

   The hot spring is an open-air style bath. Thankfully, I’m the only one inside. I don’t fancy seeing other naked males. I start by splashing some of the spring water on my body with a wooden bucket so that my body is used to the temperature and cleansed from dirty substances that could contaminate the spring water. Next, I slowly head inside the hot spring. It’s hot, but it’s not hot until it scalds my skin. For those of you who’re wondering, yes. This is my first time inside a hot spring.

   ‘How’s the hot spring, senpai?’ I hear Futaki asking from beyond the bamboo fences.

   ‘It’s good. And the best thing is I got this side all to myself.’

   ‘Oh, you too? Looks like we’re having this entire place all to ourselves.’

   ‘Looks like it.’

   I was planning to count until 100 before I get out, but it would seem that the weather has other plans. I hear thunder rumbling right on top of me. Looks like a storm is coming.

   I hear some vigorous splashing coming from the women’s bath. Since Futaki said it’s only her there, she’s the one that’s hurrying to get out.

   ‘Futaki, don’t run inside the bath!’ I warn her.

   Unfortunately, it’s no use. I hear the door being slammed open and shut like she’s in a real hurry. I got out and leave in a slower speed. After patting myself dry with a towel, I change back to my old clothes.

   I go outside and happen to see Futaki dashing out the entrance to the women’s bath. I quickly grasp her shoulders with my arms. I notice that her entire face is pale, and she can’t stop trembling.

   ‘Calm down, Futaki!’ I tell her. ‘Take a few deep breaths!’

   She obliges and sure enough, her trembling stops after inhaling and exhaling for a few times.

   ‘Are you okay? Why did you rush out? That was dangerous, you know?’ I ask her in a concerned tone.

   ‘I’m, I’m really sorry senpai.’

   ‘Let’s sit down somewhere first. Then we’ll talk.’

   We found ourselves a wooden bench and sit down.

   ‘I’ve always had been afraid of thunder and lightning, you see.’ she confesses. ‘Every I hear them rumbling in the distance, I just can’t control myself and freak out.’

   ‘I see.’

   ‘I’m really sorry for showing you my unsightly side.’

   ‘There’s no need to apologize. Everyone is afraid of something. No need to feel ashamed about it. Just be more careful when you’re evacuating, okay?’

   She chuckles all of a sudden. Even though she’s still wearing her glasses, her hair has been let down, so she looks prettier than usual. Any normal guy would have fallen in love with her after seeing her pretty laugh.

   ‘What’s so funny?’ I ask.

   ‘I’m sorry. It’s just that I wasn’t expecting you to comfort me, what with your usual sarcastic and mean antics. No offence.’

   I shrug. ‘None taken. Come on, let’s go back to our room.’

   ‘Yes, senpai.’

   It rained heavily for two hours after this conversation. We could only take baths after the rain has stopped. It was kind of suffering since Nagano and sensei was sweating from their ping pong matches.