Ride on Time

Chapter 3

"Oi!" Shri groaned and opened his eyes, seeing his sister towering over him. "Shri, come lah!"
"What you want?" Shri moaned. "Let me sleep lah..."
He turned away from her and covered his head with the blanket to go back to sleep. To his dismay, Shruti started pulling the blanket off.
"What you want?" Shri groaned, pulling the blanket off to see her.
"Let's go to town!" Shruti grinned.
"Why you calling me then?" Shri yawned, sitting up. "Go yourself lah."
"But you're the one that knows your way around here!" Shruti pointed out.
Shri looked at her in surprise. "Who said? I also like you, right? Tourist, first time here. How am I supposed to know my way around?"
"Yeah, but still!" Shruti grinned. "Get ready, we're going out."
"Ma coming ah?" Shri asked, scratching his neck.
"No, just us," Shruti smirked. "Go lah! Go get ready."
Shri frowned and reached for his digital watch on the nightstand to see what time it was. To his surprise, it was seven.
"Idiot, seven o'clock only!" Shri scowled at his sister. "Why so early?"
"It's eight here lah," Shruti smirked. "Your watch still showing Malaysia time."
Shri sighed and shooed her away. He reached for his glasses on the nightstand and put them on with a frown before making his way to the bathroom.

"Are you sure you know the way?" Shruti asked when Shri kept frowning at the map.
Shri glared at her. "I told you, right? I'm just as clueless about this place as you are."
"Great..." Shruti sighed. "Why did I believe you knew your way around?"
"Because you stupid," Shri smirked. "I'm a tourist like you also, right? How am I supposed to know my way around here?"
Shruti sighed and snatched the map from him. They ended up going to a convenience store to get a snack and ask for directions.
"Where to buy flower hair pin?" Shruti asked the cashier as he scanned the stuff.
The cashier looked at her, confused.
"You really want one?" Shri asked in sister in surprise.
"Yep," Shruti smirked.
Shri sighed. "Kanzashi? Where to buy?"
The cashier understood and started saying something the siblings couldn't understand. Shri stopped him and handed him the map instead. The cashier understood and drew the directions on it. The Malaysians thanked him and left the shop.
"I can't believe you actually want a kanzashi..." Shri smirked, clapping his sister's back slightly. "You want to be geisha ah?"
Shruti frowned. "It just looks pretty. Nice what?"
Shri chuckled and tried to decipher the directions drawn on the map.
They passed a music store and Shri ended up pulling his sister in to get some music instead.
"Hey, where you going?" Shruti scowled. "What for you wanna come here?"
"I wanna buy CD," Shri grinned, pulling her in.
He asked if they had Mariya Takeuchi's Request album. Of course they did. The shopkeeper spoke fairly good English too.
"What else do you recommend?" Shri asked, much to Shruti's surprise.
"Since when do you listen to Japanese songs?!" Shruti gasped in a low voice.
"Since I started listening to Japanese radio," Shri shortly said before turning to the man behind the counter.
The shopkeeper nodded and went to the back room before returning with a CD case. He inserted it into a player and waited as the song started.
It was the Ride on Time album by Tatsuro Yamashita. The first song was Someday.
"This album is much older, released in 1980," the shopkeeper explained. "The one by Takeuchi Mariya was released seven years later."
"Oh..." Shri nodded, looking at the CD case. "Tatsu Yamashita? I think I've heard this name somewhere. The singer of Sparkle, right? I think I heard it on the radio recently."
"Yes, that's the one," the shopkeeper nodded. "Yamashita Tatsuro. He's actually Takeuchi Mariya's husband and her composer too."
"Oh, I didn't know," Shri said, fascinated.
"Who's Takuchi Mariya?" Shruti cut in suddenly.
Shri just frowned and showed her the CD case for the Request album. Shruti muttered an 'oh' and nodded.
"Yes, this is also his song," the shopkeeper pointed at the large speakers that played a calming song. Tatsuro's voice was clear, singing a slow tune. "That's his latest song, Magic Touch. It's actually a rerelease from an album released back in 1993."
"What else songs are there in this CD?" Shri asked, frowning at the music player on the counter.
The shopkeeper read the back of the case and hit the next button, changing the song. "This one's Daydream."
Shri and Shruti silently listened. Shri found the song rather nice while Shruti didn't see what was so special about it.
"What else?" Shri asked, interested.
The shopkeeper changed the song again and a drum beat came, with sound similar to a car engine revving, in the background. The electric guitar riff that came next clearly showed that it was a rock song.
"SILENT SCREAMER!" were the first words uttered in the song.
Shri especially liked the bass in the song.
"I think I'll take it," Shri chuckled, taking his money out to pay. "How much for both?"
He paid for both and left the store, grinning.
"Can we go buy the kanzashi now?" Shruti frowned.
"You know, you like a small girl now?" Shri sighed. "Are you really twenty?"
"No, I ten years old only," Shruti haughtily shook her head. "Come lah! The shop might close."
They finally arrived at the souvenir store that the convenience store guy mentioned and went in.
Shruti's eyes widened in awe when she saw all the kimono and accessories arranged throughout the store. She made a beeline for the kanzashi, choosing one after another.
"Shruti, it might be expensive," Shri warned. "Don't take too many."
Shruti just nodded and continued choosing. Shri shrugged and decided to look around the store too. A nice blue haori caught his eye. He figured that it doesn't really have to be worn with a kimono, and could be worn casually too.
So he decided to buy it.
Shruti, not only taking a kanzashi, decided to buy a yukata too.
"You also buy one lah!" Shruti told her brother. "I think I saw men's one that side."
So she dragged her brother to the other section and showed him the yukatas on display.
"Take one lah!" Shruti suggested.
She even helped him choose.
"Can we change into them?" Shruti asked the shopkeeper.
She just pointed in the direction of the fitting rooms after dealing with the payment.
Soon, the siblings were walking the streets of Higashiyama, dressed in yukatas and grinning.
"I thought you always made fun of me for liking Japan so much?" Shri asked his sister as they walked, eating the onigiri that they bought from the convenience store. "Now, you itself wearing yukata, with kanzashi some more."
"Fine," Shruti chuckled. "But do I look good?"
"Yeah, you do," Shri admitted. "That kanzashi is really nice too."
"Thanks!" Shruti grinned, patting the dangling pink hairpin that she wore on her bun.
They walked down the sidewalk in the direction of their hotel.
"Wanna go back or should we look around a bit more?" Shri asked, looking in the window of a boutique as they passed.
"Let's look around a bit," Shruti suggested. "Boring lah, sitting in the hotel whole day."
"You don't have any books?" Shri asked in surprise. Shruti frowned, shaking her head. "What did you bring, then?"
"I brought two books, but I finished both," Shruti sighed. "So I don't have anything else to do."
"Let's go shopping, then," Shri smirked, bringing her towards another shop. "Let's ask for directions to the nearest bookstore."

As you can see, I'm a fan of Tatsuro Yamashita and Mariya Takeuchi's songs. I actually didn't know they were actually married and yeah, they're my favourite singers.

This is the cover for Ride on Time. My mom thinks he looks and sounds like a Japanese version of Modern Talking lol. Well, this album was released in 1980 while Modern Talking only entered the chat in '85 so...
But yeah she couldn't stop laughing when I put Daydream on tv, this was the thumbnail, so I ended up changing the song to Yume no Tsuzuki.

This is the cover for the Request album released in 1987. This is also the thumbnail for the song Yume no Tsuzuki, actually. I like how even the two stories connect.🤣🤣