uzla29 
In my opinion, when you say “a story,” it covers “how the story is told to people.” If you are reading a story, through what kind of media (hardcover book? magazine? kindle?) makes a lot of difference in how/what you feel, doesn’t it?
I met Fusa for our monthly lunch meeting. As we waited in the line for the reservation (making reservations is one of my jobs) at a restaurant in Ginza, Fusa was randomly flipping the menu at least 50 times to distract his hunger.
When the house’s signature French Toast showed, he suddenly but very naturally and quietly let out a giggle. I am too much a curious person to leave people who chuckle out of nowhere. So I asked him what was so funny.
And here is the story he told me (preserved the original almost 100%)
You are probably wondering why I laughed looking at this photo of French Toast.
(clearing his throat) The other day, I was making hot cocoa (hot chocolate.) I like hot cocoa. Oh, by the way, I recently bought a classy small red milk pan at NITORI. Anyways, I wanted to make 2 or 3 cups so I put the pan full of soy milk over a fire.
“Let’s work for 10 minutes.” I told myself and went back to my computer. Not exaggerating, I have a bunch to do and am an earnest worker, my concentration let the soymilk slip my mind… 20 minutes have passed when I suddenly thought of the essential ingredient for my cocoa and opened the door to my kitchen.
Alien’s nest.
I quickly realized that the soy milk that formed scum made about 60 big explosions. Milk everywhere. My brand new fancy pot was completely covered by fermented milk, for your information, its color wasn’t red anymore – totally black.
You can easily imagine what kind of disaster heated protein could represent. I really thought that my kitchen was taken by some aliens.
But who is going to clean this mess? ……me, myself. Who else?
It’s gonna smell – everyone knows what the consequences would be if you decide not to face the fact. (yes, from those bitter memories from elementary school…)
I took out a damp towel and started cleaning, crying deep inside about losing two things at once: 1 – chance to enjoy my hot cocoa. 2 – my new fancy milk pan!
As I lightly put the cloth over the alien’s nest, the fabric quickly started absorbing the milk. I let the cloth absorb the milk. I watch. I keep standing and observing the mechanism of water suction.
“This is one of the phases of making French Toast!”
I didn’t use a piece of cloth as a substitute for a slice of bread but I felt like I was back in 4th grade when I made a French Toast for the very first time by myself.
End of story. This is why I giggled looking at French Toast on the menu.
Isn’t it amazing? I should point out that It didn’t take even 3 seconds between his giggle and when he started telling me this story. This means as he saw the menu, all these memories and recalling action happened in his head and at the same time he was writing the scenario for story telling.
I don’t even know which part of his story was the punch line. Yet, with one single motif (this time it was an image of French Toast on the menu) I was able to imagine the alien’s nest and also to have a chance to confirm the French Toast making process.
Storytelling is a skill. Even if your story didn’t include a huge scale incident or superheroes, you can really entertain listeners with methods and schemes. That could be structure, vocabulary, order, facial/vocal expression etc……
Horikoshi Trading loves talking. The world is full of story subjects. We look forward to communicating and collaborating with you!
Sato Tajima – November 18, 2021