Dango is Tasty

Dango.

The little bean-paste filled balls of goodness on a stick.

Sky has always liked cooking, and yet, he hasn't ever made dango before. Well, even though dango isn't exactly food, he really wanted to try making it by himself.

He remembered eating dango once before when he was 12, and even though some people might say he was being dramatic about how good dango is, he wouldn't change his mind about how he described its taste and texture.

"It's sweet... and squishy! But it's a good squishy, like a... uhm... like a gummy bear!! But not the same as a gummy bear... all I can say is that it's a very unique dessert."


That's what Sky had said to his friend the first time he had dango. He had it a few other times, but the first time seemed to leave an impression on him, whether he was overreacting or not.

Either way, when Sky turned 21, he decided he wanted to go to Japan and see the sakura and try dango again, as well as make it himself. His friends said "but you can just go to the store and buy some here", but he said he wanted to go to Japan so he could have a more "immersive experience", as he called it.
"I already know Japanese, so it's not a problem," he said with a grin.

So, he bought his tickets, packed his stuff, etc etc, and at around 3AM the next morning, got up to go to the airport. It was pretty packed by 5AM, but that was when his flight was ready, so he went on the plane, it took off, flew for around 13 hours (during the flight, he watched airplane movies and ate and stuff), and when he finally got to Japan, he went to his hotel and slept until the next day (it was around 11PM, and he was tired).

The next day, Sky woke up at 10AM. "*yaaawn* Goooood morning, hotel!" He said, excited.

After having his hotel breakfast (a waffle and some of those circle sausages), he got ready to go out to his first destination: Akihabara.

He may have gone to make Dango, but he wanted to see as much of Japan as he could afford without getting into even a little bit of debt. So, in Akihabara, he went to an arcade as his first stop.

'Woah, this place is packed!' He thought to himself as he made his way through to a game he liked.
It was called "Tower of Revenge", and it was a fighting game based on an anime by the same name. The plot was that a rich billionaire lost a game of chess to the main character's father, and because of that, the billionaire ambushed the main character's father and stole all his money. To get revenge, the main character and some other underdogs(the other playable characters in the game) rebel and fight against the billionaire.
Sky played a couple rounds, and when he got bored, he decided to go back to his hotel and look up some dango recipes. After all, it was the reason he went to Japan in the first place!

After finding one, he realized that he couldn't make dango in a hotel, because he didn't have a stove. So, because he was in the area, and had a Japanese friend he decided to message his friend on LINE and ask if he could use their kitchen to make some dango. Here's how the conversation went:

Cloudy_22(Sky): Hey, how are you?

X_TR3M3(his friend, Sora): Good, you? :)

Cloudy_22(Sky): Good :D Btw, can I come by your place today? I wanna try and make dango :)

X_TR3M3(Sora): Sure, you know where I live, so it's fine :)

Cloudy_22(Sky): Ok, be there in 25

So, Sky went to his friend Sora's apartment to make dango.
"I've made dango once before," Sora said, "but it was a long time ago."
"That's fine!" Sky said. "I have a recipe here on my phone, so we'll figure it out."

It took a little while, but they figured out how to make dango. And when they ate it, it tasted really good!
"So good!" Sky said after swallowing his first bite.
It tasted almost the same as the first time he had dango, he thought. But of course, it couldn't be exactly the same, since it was a different time, with different dango.

Once they finished the dango, the two of them went to the park to see the sakura. The trees were really big and pretty, and there were a lot of people outside at the time.

'Woaah,' Sky thougt to himself. 'The sakura are much prettier than I thought!'

As much as he preferred black, the soft pink petals were very pretty, and clashed in a good way with the blue sky.

The weather was 27⁰C, but it didn't really matter, since Sky and Sora had dango and the sakura. And when they got bored of seeing sakura, Sora went back home, and Sky went back to his hotel.

(Back at the hotel...)

"Hehe, this show is so funny," Sky said to himself while watching TV. The show was a prank show, and the prank was a fake wall.
The person who was getting pranked, a well-known singer called Amia, was walking down a hall and stopped in front of said wall. She looked around for a door, since it looked like a dead end, and she had been told to go to a waiting room down that hall for an interview.
"Will Amia figure it out?" The TV guy said. "Or will she be late?"

The next day, Sky decided to go buy the anime version of the fighting game to see the whole story, since he had only heard of it.
After having lunch, he took his wallet and went to an anime store in Akihabara and bought all 5 seasons of the anime, and luckily, they only amounted to around 50 USD in total(around 5000¥).

On the last day of his stay in Japan, Sky watched the first 3 episodes of the anime.
In them, he learned that the evil billionaire, called Mr. Dream-atic, had lost his fortune to the main character's father in the backstory of the anime.
Sky also learned later in the series (that he continued watching in America) that the main character's best friends, Kei and Akai, both used to work for the billionaire!

'How could they??' Sky thought when he found out. 'And I trusted them!'

But then, it was shown that the two friends didn't like what the billionaire was doing, so they decided to help the main character, who's name was Ryo, to get revenge.

'Mmmm, I guess their OK, then,' Sky thought when he saw that part of the anime. 'They only worked for Dream-atic so they could stay safe from his radar, after all.'

And, when he went back to America, he made some more dango for himself and his family (his mom, dad, and younger brother).

And that's all that happened for Sky, the American with a Japanese friend, who went all the way to Japan just to make dango and see the sakura. The end!