"Oh, it kind of is," Ling agreed, using his own silken sleeve to sop up the mess he'd made despite Kanji's paper towels-- which Ling had never seen the like of. "But in other ways it's a lot less stuffy! You have to get away from the nobility. I used to sneak out of the palace in disguise," he admitted, with a crooked, rogueish smile. "In the people's markets there's shouting, clanging, fish flopping in your face, dogs wandering around trying to get a bite to eat, and more people than you'd ever see in that shopping building they have here." Ling didn't like the mall, and that was no secret. He'd nearly been arrested there not once, but three times!

"You have to push your way through and yell loud if you want some service. And the vegetables are way more fresh. And when you walk by the noodle stands or the steam trays-- the aroma you can smell! The chubby-cheeked babies with mangoes on a stick... the beautiful wrinkly smiles on the old grannies making dumplings....." Ling sighed deeply, his eyes getting misty as he remembered people he'd seen on his secret jaunts. His people.

"Do you have that in your country, Kanji?" he asked, straightening and placing his chin in his hands. "That kind of feeling? The kind of place where you feel like everything is so much more real."