Ride on Time

Chapter 4

"Didn't they say we had to go right?" Shruti frowned, looking at the map with her brother.
"But this feller telling go straight," Shri added with a frown. "How to go?"
Shruti rolled her eyes. "You asking me as if I know."
The siblings frowned at the map, then at each other.
"How ah?" They ended up saying together, then sighing.
"Where are we? Don't know..." Shri sighed. "How to go back to hotel? Also don't know. Like this means how?!"
Shruti frowned and looked up from the map, looking around the streets. She gasped when she found a directory.
"Shri, got map here!" Shruti exclaimed, looking at it.
But to her dismay, Yumemite wasn't displayed on said map.
"What to do?" Shruti asked desperately.
"What's the nearest landmark?" Shri frowned thoughtfully.
That's when he remembered the Shirakawa Canals. He frowned at the map and found it.
To his dismay, it was a very far walk.
"I think we should go to the canal lah," Shri frowned. "From there, I know how to go back."
Shruti sighed at the walking distance but agreed to go anyway.
"Can we still go to a bookshop?" Shruti sighed. "Boring lah! No book also to read. You okay lah, you got book to write. I where can write?"
"I also boring to write all the time lah," Shri admitted. "No idea for new story some more. For now lah. I wanna read too."
They looked at each shop they passed, seeing if it was a bookstore. They were both dressed in long yukatas too, and the sun was starting to kick in.
"You know what," Shri finally said. "Let's ask a random person one more time for the way to a bookshop."
He stopped a young woman, who looked about his age, and tried his best at speaking in Japanese. It was a miserable failure.
"Umm... I can speak English," the girl chuckled, playing with the dangling strands of her red kanzashi. "Where do you wanna go?"
Shruti stepped forward. "Is there a bookstore nearby?"
The woman smiled at Shri. "Your sister?"
"Yeah," Shri chuckled.
"Looks just like you," the young lady smiled. "Anyway, I'm actually headed to the bookstore too. I'll lead you to it."
They decided to follow her to the bookstore, hoping that she could be trusted.
Well, she eventually brought them to a shop named Yume no Shoten.
"This is it," the young woman chuckled.
"Thank you," the siblings bowed, rather exaggeratedly low.
"Do they have English books?" Shri asked. "Japanese books translated to English?"
The young woman nodded. "Yes, they do. That's why I'm here too."
Shri bowed again. "Thanks, ma'am."
"It's okay," the young lady smiled. "It's funny how we keep meeting again, though."
Shri looked at her in surprise, trying to recognise her. Shruti frowned at him, her eyes narrowing to slits.
"Do I know you?" Shri ended up asking. "You seem familiar, but I'm not too sure..."
The girl smiled, playing with her kanzashi again. "We met at Ryōtei Okiya a few days ago. I'm guessing you can't recognise me now because I'm not wearing oshiroi..."
The word 'oshiroi' made Shri gasped, finally realising who she was. "Are you the geisha from that party?"
"Yes, I am," she smiled. "Did you fix your necklace?"
Shri shook his head. "No... we couldn't find a goldsmith around here..."
"I know a place that could do that," the young woman suggested. "By the way, nice yukata."
"Thanks!" Shri grinned. "We're wearing it correctly, right?"
The young woman nodded. "Yes, you both are. I really like your kanzashi, girl."
Shruti couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, Ms."
"You can call me Misao," the girl chuckled. "I think it's about time we get acquainted."
So they ended up shopping for books. Misao even helped by recommending certain books for them to read. They ended up overspending before following her to the goldsmith.
"Do you have the pendant with you?" Misao asked Shri.
"Yeah, it's in my wallet," Shri nodded. "I'm still wearing the chain."
Misao brought them to the goldsmith and led them in. They agreed to fix the necklace within an hour.
"Is there some place we can go in the meantime?" Shruti frowned. "I don't wanna sit here for one hour."
Misao decided to bring them to a nearby cafe.
"Is it your day off?" Shri asked.
"It is," Misao answered. "I decided to hang around town and came across you guys. By the way, you guys didn't tell me your names."
"I'm Shri," Shri introduced. "This is my sister Shruti."
"Darn, that's a little hard to pronounce," Misao chuckled nervously. "Wait let me try. It's Shuri? And Shuruti?"
Shruti wanted to laugh but decided against it. After all, she found it a little hard to pronounce Misao's name too.
"I guess that works," Shruti ended up saying. "By the way, how did you meet my brother?"
Shri frowned at her but didn't say anything.
"Well, I was walking down the Shirakawa bridge the other day when a tourist started harassing me," Misao explained, rubbing a finger against the mole below her eye. "Your brother stood up for me. Imagine my surprise when I saw him again at the party that night."
"You did this much without me knowing?" Shruti asked in surprised. "Oi!"
"Shruti, even I forgot," Shri rolled his eyes. "Just be happy I helped her. Otherwise, she wouldn't be helping us now, right?"
"That's right, I don't usually speak to strangers outside clients," Misao chuckled. "Especially if they seem creepy."
Shruti frowned for a moment. "But what do you do if your client ends up being a creep?"
"I try to remain professional, if not I try to leave," Misao admitted. "So far, nothing like that has happened. But I know it would."
They had a light meal and decided to go to a nearby shop before going back to the goldsmith. Shri's necklace was already ready by then.
"You better put that under your shirt," Shruti warned. "Especially since you're so clumsy."
Shri frowned but followed since she was still right.
"How do we get back to Yumemite Apartment Suites?" Shri asked as they walked out of the shop. "We sorta lost our way after loitering around here..."
Misao chuckled. "I'll bring you there."
"I don't think that would be necessary," Shri insisted. "Just tell us the direction."
"No, it's fine, my house is near that place too," Misao smiled. "I'd have to pass Yumemite eventually."
So they followed her and behold, she led them right to the hotel.
"Thank you," the siblings bowed.
"It's fine, really," Misao chuckled and bowed too. "It's really nice to see tourists liking our culture."
They thanked her again and entered the premise.
"I feel like we should've done something for her," Shri said when they entered the lift to go up to their suite. "What do you think?"
Shruti shrugged. "I don't know. She's the one who found your necklace, right? Then she helped us today, brought us to goldsmith all. What you wanna do?"
Shri shrugged. "I'm not even sure if we'll even meet her again."
"Oh come on, you already saw her like three times already," Shruti smirked. "Sure you don't like her?"
Shri turned away in embarrassment, glad that his face can't turn red like the characters from cartoons and books.
"Eeeei!" Shruti smirked again.
"Let's just go back..." Shri sighed. "Don't go and tell Ma or Pa that I'm flirting with a Japanese girl, okay? Because it's not true."
"Yeah, sure sure," Shruti smirked. "Anyway, what do you think we'll eat for lunch?"
"You just ate so much, right?" Shri pointed out. "We bought so much on our way back too."
"Oh come on, that one not enough," Shruti grinned.
Shri sighed. "Later we go out to eat something, okay?"
"Can we try Gyūdon?" Shruti asked eagerly, remembering that she read it in a restaurant's menu.
Shri frowned. "It's beef..."
"Oh..." Shruti's eyes widened. "Never mind, then..."
"No, we can still eat other types of Donburi, though. Maybe we can try Butadon or Oyakodon or even Tamagodon. These are all Donburi like Gyūdon, but not beef."
Shruti blinked twice. "Eh?!"
Shri sighed. "Butadon means pork bowl, Oyakodon is chicken and egg, basically means parent and child bowl. Tamagodon is egg bowl. You know, like Tamagotchi?"
"Oh..." Shruti nodded understandingly. "Wait, so tamago means egg ah?"
"Yeah."
"Good to know..."
They entered the apartment suite and found that their mother had already bought something for lunch. Shridhar was at work so they just ate without him.

Alright, you may notice some beef against... beef. It's because Indians, especially Hindus, can't eat beef. It's restricted. But pork is acceptable since there is no restriction against it, just that not everyone can eat it. I think it depends on the person since I heard that pigs are sometimes sacrificed to god in temples during the Ugadi Festival, Telugu New Year, and the fat is heated and scattered across rice fields to not only fertilise the soil but to also ward off evil spirits and black magic. This is something new to me since usually it's just goats and chickens that are sacrificed in temples. But it makes sense too since my grandmother says this too and always suggests eating pork if we get nightmares or have a certain enemy that seems so sus that they seem to be capable of causing a threat to us. She believes that if someone does black magic against you, it might haunt you in the form of dreams. So if we get such dreams, my grandmother always advices us to consume pork.
Not that I'm trying to be disrespectful towards anyone, but this is what my family believes and I have done my research to proof this. There are certain Hindus who can't eat pork and this is the reason why it isn't usually served in Indian restaurants, rather at Chinese restaurants.