I slept soundly through the night. When I woke up, it was almost dawn. I could hear the sounds of the wild animals greeting the first light of the day, and I started to see the silhouettes of my surroundings. Then I felt a pair of soft lips lightly caressing my ears.

“My love,” Koharu whispered. “It’s almost dawn. Will you make love to me one more time? I have waited for so long,” she asked.

And we tenderly started to make love again. Only this time, I got to fully enjoy the sight of her wonderful body. As I pulled the blanket away from her, the morning light allowed me to admire her flawless skin, and her perfect, youthful figure aroused me instantly. We made love much longer than the night before because I wanted to actively experience every single moment and take in all of this sheer joy until its intensity almost made my heart explode. After the intimate session, I felt sheer bliss just being with her as she held me tight.

The late morning sun shone through the window, outlining her beautiful body. I thought about what had transpired since last night but the only word that could describe this woman sleeping next to me was angelic. I started to feel a little scared that all of this would turn out to be only a dream.

“It’s getting late, shall we get dressed and join the other soon? Otherwise your parents might be unhappy with us,” I told Koharu, who was holding me tight.

“It’s alright. I’ve told them we’re having a second love-making session this morning,” she said softly.

“You told your parents … that?” I asked, incredulously.

“Yes”, she replied, as if that was the most normal thing in the world.

I knew that it was quite late in the morning, and Koharu’s parents would have already been up for a while, so I slowly got up and dressed. I tiptoed down the corridor and when I arrived at the main room, I saw Yoshida sitting at the dining table and Zuda preparing breakfast.

“Good morning. Did you have a good sleep?” Zuda greeted me first.

“Good … morning. Yes, I … I did,” I stuttered, feeling so embarrassed that I could hardly speak.

“Good morning, Yoshida,” I said.

“How are you and my daughter?” he turned to me with a smile on his lips.

“Uhh … I… uhh,” I didn’t know what to say. To be honest, that question should have been reserved for close friends to banter and tease among each other, not to be personally interrogated by the father of the girl whom I had just slept with.

“It was … good,” I said hesitantly, not sure how I should express my true feelings.

“Only good …?” Zuda repeated, while Yoshida’s smile widened to almost a laugh. I felt that Yoshida understood my shyness very well.

“Uh … no. Actually, she was absolutely amazing,” I quickly corrected myself and blushing at the same time. It would take a while for me to adjust to the open-minded attitude that people had towards discussing and having sex here.

This was probably the most embarrassing moment in my life. I didn’t know what to say. I put on a forced smile, and quickly walked past Zuda to sit at the table with Yoshida. I couldn’t let today’s conversation dominate on this topic, so I quickly thought of something else to talk about.

“Is this the only Japanese house in this world?” I asked Yoshida, trying to change the subject.

“Uh …” I could tell that Yoshida wasn’t prepared for that question, so he was silent for a little while.

“As far as I know, there are two of them. The other one is more of a mixed style but mine is the original Japanese design,” he responded, while touching his temples with his fingers as he was sending out a telepathic thought.

“Does it mean that there were only two Japanese who ever came here?” I continued asking to keep the conversation on that topic going.

“Throughout history, many Japanese have come to this world. But most of them built their house similar to the local style, but not incorporating the Japanese design. My father was a builder and I learned how to build a house from him,” Yoshida answered while pouring me tea.

“Did the Japanese also bring the tea culture here?” I continued to ask.

“I don’t think so. People here always drank tea. And the tea here tastes great, you won’t find one like it back in our world. Here, have a sip.”

I carefully lifted the clay cup to my nose, smelled the tea, and started sipping it slowly. As my teacup drew closer to my nose, I could smell the flowery aroma of wild blossoms. When my tongue made contact with the tea, I could taste the rich smoothness that only a carefully crafted beverage could produce. I was surprised as this was only a simple and light, clear tea.

“The smell and taste are remarkable. I’m not a tea person, but I do notice the difference. If I could have tasted tea like this on Earth, I would definitely be addicted to tea, not to coffee,” I said.

“This is one of several hundred varieties of tea here. I have yet to try all of them. If a tea connoisseur from Japan would come to visit us here, it would be paradise for him.” Yoshida said.

“Why do people like tea so much?” I asked, prompting the conversation further.

“Apart from offering different flavors, every leaf also has different unique properties. Actually, we can brew tea from almost all kinds of leaves, but majority of them don’t taste so good. Some are too bitter or acidic, or too sour, depending on their individual characteristic. Some need to be specially processed to bring out the full taste and aroma,” Yoshida explained.

“All these properties are pre-programmed by someone. The most obvious example is when people on Gaia get sick, we would treat them with herbs. People knowledgeable in this field would select leaves with specific healing properties that effectively battle these sicknesses. Each variety of herb is specifically good to treat one or two kinds of illnesses, and when combined with another type of herb, the blended recipe can heal other types of sickness,” he went on.

“Actually, I shouldn’t call it a treatment or cure. Rather, it’s an adjustment of the body so that certain organs can function properly again.”

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence? Maybe these herbal leaves already have these properties, and we only recently discovered their healing properties?” I stated my opinion.

“This is no coincidence. One day, you’ll be able to explain this yourself,” Yoshida said.

“Alright,” I agreed.

We kept talking for a long while, when Koharu walked out from the bedroom. In that moment, I felt very awkward and shy again.

“It’s time for breakfast, my dear,” said Zuda.

“Good morning Mom, good morning Dad,” Koharu greeted them.

“How was it, dear?” Zuda started, when Koharu came to the table.

“It was such a wonderful experience, Mom.” As soon as Koharu had said that, I had the feeling that there was more to come.

“Mom, Dad … when you told me about sex and said that it’s the ultimate pleasure, I really couldn’t imagine it. I had never thought it would be such a wonderful experience.”

“Thank you so much, Tim, for giving me this incredible experience,” she said turning to me. The sparkle in her eyes and her happiness told me that she had really experienced it for the first time.

“Especially when Tim showered my whole body with his kisses, mom, that was a very different kind of feeling which I have never experienced before in my life. Very different from the kisses that I get from you and Dad. Even though it wasn’t the ultimate sensation of our lovemaking, but it was still so special and so arousing that I had to scream like never before in my life!” She described everything in such details to her parents that I felt terribly embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to hide myself under the table.

“And then during our actual intercourse, I felt an ecstasy beyond words. All my senses were activated and fully receptive. It felt as if there was this light radiating from inside of me. It was like energy circulating all over my body with incredible speed, until it had generated enough heat to make me ooze with perspiration all over my skin, despite the cold weather,” she continued describing our intimate session passionately.

“Did you experience it as well this way, Tim?” she turned to ask me.

“Ye … yes,” I replied with a somewhat forced smile, as I hadn’t expected her to go into so much analysis.

I caught a glimpse of Zuda’s face. She seemed delighted to hear about her daughter’s experience, even as Koharu was sharing everything about our intimate lovemaking.

“I’m so happy that you’re happy, my dear. Thank you, Tim, for making my daughter so happy,” Zuda said, turning to me.

“Now come sit, breakfast is ready,” she said and started to serve hot soup.

Everyone looked especially happy that morning, except me. I still felt very uncomfortable with the conversation and could only bring up a few forced smiles. I was still very puzzled by the behaviour and attitude of the people here, despite the many new things I had learnt. It seemed I would need more time to adjust.