The way this show uses silence is genuinely so beautiful to me. It allows everything apart from the atmosphere and the soundtrack to take over the viewer, leaving these massive gaps in direct communication to let us just bathe in the everyday reality of the characters we see on our screens. Aside from just general praise for the season/series thus far, despite us being introduced to a character who's really unappealing for me, I love the focus on Ikuro this episode. He's clearly this show's version of a main character, almost a proxy for the audience since he feels like an anomaly in the context of this hotel - a being too kind to exist alongside everyone else, and yet he fits in inexplicably. We have our episodely plot of helping out a guest, the story of which is truly just a sweet one with nothing really to hide and dissect, which is why the Ikuro focus helps to tie everything together and his conflicts with Kirihara add the friction that would otherwise be missing. Currently, this is shaping up to be one of my favourite things to air this season.