Ride on Time

Chapter 23

This time, Misao patiently waited in front of Yumemite Apartments for Shri to come down. She wasn't sure if he had remembered the plan that they made the night before but she only hoped that he did.
Sure enough, he showed up, wearing sunglasses since the morning sun was especially bright that day.
"Shri!" Misao called as soon as she saw him.
"You waited for me?" Shri asked in surprise.
"Of course," Misao chuckled. "You expect to just wander around and bump into me like always?"
Shri grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. He noticed the pretty pink dress she was wearing and decided to change the subject. "That dress looks really nice on you."
Misao smiled, twirling her dress slightly. "Thanks. You look great too, with your sunglasses. Like Rajinikanth."
Shri looked at her in surprise. "Tha- Thank you. You actually know Rajini?"
"Of course I do," Misao smirked. "Who doesn't?"
"I'm surprised that Tamil movies are really famous here," Shri remarked with a grin. "I've sometimes seen Japanese dramas on tv. The songs aren't so popular there, mostly from anime which is dubbed into Malay, but I heard more on the radio here and decided to get some CDs the other day with Shruti."
"You really like Japanese songs, don't you?" Misao smiled. "Anyway, what do you wanna do first?"
"Wanna have breakfast?" Shri asked. "I don't know about you, but all I had was a glass of milk."
"Well, I came her straight without having anything," Misao chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah, I'm hungry too... let's go."
They made their way towards the cafe and had a nice breakfast of pancakes. Shri saw how happy Misao looked as she ate her breakfast and decided to get a picture of her.
"Say cheese, Misao!" Shri grinned.
Misao smiled and looked at the lens of the camera, placing her hands on the table in front her, one on top of the other. Shri snapped the picture, momentarily blinding her with the flash.
And that was the last picture he took before his film ran out. He had a long day ahead of him, one that he planned to get as many pictures as he could to cherish them.
"Nuts, my film ran out," Shri snorted, putting the camera down in front of him. He pulled out an extra film canister from his crossbody bag and started replacing the film in his camera.
Misao smirked and pulled out a camera of her own to take a candid picture of him painstakingly reload his camera. She started laughing at the startled Shri when he looked up in surprise, not knowing what just happened, and took another picture of him like that.
"Did you just take a picture of me?" Shri asked.
Misao shrugged. "Maybe? Maybe two?"
"You did," Shri sighed. "And I wasn't even ready."
"That's the point of a candid shot, Shri."
"Misao!"
"What, you're not the only one making memories here."
Shri sighed and went back to his camera, carefully loading the film into it. As soon as he was done, he snapped a picture of her while she was spooning some of the her breakfast into her mouth. Misao jumped and Shri quickly snapped another photo of her like that.
"Shri!" Misao groaned. "Is this revenge?"
"At least I have a good photo of you too," Shri pointed out. "You took a candid picture of me, then another one when I was blur. Unfair, if you ask me."
Misao sighed and picked her camera back up. "Okay, fine. Smile for me."
Shri decided to do a pose by smirking slightly and making a peace sign with his hand, holding it up in front of his chest with his palm facing in. Misao thought he looked really good and snapped a picture. Instantly, Shri took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes.
"Okay, I can't see anything now," Shri said, blinking his eyes. "Too many flashes in one sitting."
Misao snorted. "Same. Let's finish eating first."

Right after breakfast, the two of them wandered around Higashiyama, admiring the beautiful gardens and snacking at one or two of the stalls.
"Where should we go?" Shri asked. "You're the local here."
"I'm not actually a local here, my hometown is Tokyo," Misao explained. "Hey, we should go there some day."
"The next time I visit," Shri grinned. "How about New Year? You guys celebrate Shogatsu, right?"
"Uh yeah..." Misao nodded. "Sure, I'm sure my parents would like that too. When can I visit your place, though?"
"There isn't any special festivals early next year for us besides Pongal and Thaipusam, and neither of those involve having guests.
"What's that?" Misao asked, curious.
"Pongal is basically harvest festival but we celebrate it in the city as well," Shri explained as he walked. "We would do prayers, go to the temple, and be vegetarian for the day. Thaipusam is the day when Lord Murugan receives his... golden spear. You know it, right? I think it appears in some Tamil movies."
"I do," Misao smiled. "Saw it in a book. There's a big temple in Malaysia, right? The Batu Caves temple?"
"Ah yes," Shri nodded proudly. "That's the most iconic temple for Thaipusam. Very crowded, you can barely walk! But we do get free food and drinks all over the place. But it's fine on normal days. A very nice temple."
Misao nodded, trying to picture everything. "I see... I wish I can go to Malaysia one day..."
"And I wish I can stay here," Shri sighed. "It's really nice here."
"Yeah, I have to agree to that," Misao chuckled.
They then decided to go for a hike at the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine.
"How long of a hike is it?" Shri asked as he walked up the path under one torii gate after another.
"About two to three hours," Misao shrugged.
"Ah?!" Shri gasped. "So far ah?"
"Yes," Misao chuckled. "This is the first time I'm going myself. Wonder how it's gonna be."
They stopped at the smaller shrines along the way as they went up. Shri really enjoyed, especially since he not only got to see the beautiful scenery but also got to learn a thing or two. He made notes of everything in his little notebook, meaning to add as much detail as he can to the book he's planning to write.
"Oh, this place is nice!" Misao said, stopping at a miniature version of the torii gate. "Can you help me take a picture here?"
"Only if you help me take one for me too," Shri smirked, shaking his camera.
Misao chuckled and handed her camera to him before standing by the mini torii, smiling. Shri snapped a picture with her camera, then did so with his too.
"I'm keeping this for remembrance," Shri grinned, waving his camera.
Misao laughed and came over. He handed the cameras to her and posed by the shrine too. Misao took a picture of him with his camera then hers too.
"For keepsake," Misao said, handing Shri's Canon back to him. "Let's continue our way up."
So they went up and finally reached the main shrine of Fushimi Inari Taisha. Shri was awed by the amazing architecture and at the same time felt calmed by the distinctly sacred atmosphere. They decided to rest there for a while, give a small offering, and take some pictures of the gardens before making their way back down.

I'm not very sure if JPOP music could be found in music stores in Malaysia back in the 90s since my mom couldn't give proper details about it. She says she hardly ever visited the music store since her dad was the one who would usually do the music shopping, buying English and Tamil song cassettes.
Also, I found some Japanese posters of Tamil movies lol

The movie is titled Muthu and that's Rajinikanth, the girl is Meena, and this movie is available in Netflix as of now if you wanna check it out. I heard that this movie was a really big hit in Japan, back in 1998. But as I said, Tamil movies were already pretty big before that, in the 80s to 90s according to an article I found online. I'm not sure if it's true that Tamil movies were a hit in Japan in the 80s itself but I know that Muthu was the first and biggest hit for an Indian movie there. It was renamed as Muthu: Odoru Maharaja in the Japanese version that translates to Muthu the Dancing Maharaja. I think I've mentioned this movie before, as a poster in Misao's room. I'm not really sure if other Tamil movies were available back then but I just added a few. Let's just say that Misao had her sources. 😂😂

Ejaman or Yajaman, also starred by Rajinikanth and Meena. Same actors.

And this is Darbar. This one's a little new, released back in 2020. I got to watch this one in the theatre, enjoying it all the while lol.
There's actually a lot more but I'm just showing you these since I've mentioned Rajinikanth lots in this book. Also, I find it pretty impressive that Tamil movies actually have a pretty big fan base in Japan.

Also, as I'm editing this chapter, I've been seeing lots of Rajinikanth on tv, I'm not sure why. First it was some old movie songs, a lot of them, then some old movie that I don't even know, and now there's Chandramukhi on tv. Honestly... this is my favourite movie lol. Then there was Padyappa too...