‘No, you didn’t,’ replied Jun.
‘Hello Mr and Mrs Yoshino, how nice to see you both again. If there’s anything I can do for you while you’re in Kyoto, please let me know,’ said Mrs Kurokawa to Haruka’s parents.
Haruka had forgotten that Jun’s mother had a superior and haughty voice. As she spoke to them, she looked upon Haruka and her parents with suspicion. Haruka’s mother, who was usually very perceptive, seemed to be completely unaware of her tone and manner. Haruka thought that it was a little embarrassing to watch her mother trying to ingratiate herself with Mrs Kurokawa.
As they left the hotel, Jun’s mother turned to Haruka, looking her up and down from head to toe.
‘Really, young lady, your Hermés scarf and your Louis Vuitton handbag are lovely, but that’s not an appropriate colour to be wearing at this time of the year. Who wears a long cream coat in this weather? Anyone can see that they’re only going to get filthy. Maybe you and your mother could shop for something nicer now you’re in Kyoto,’ Mrs Kurokawa said to her imperiously.
Haruka looked down at her soft brown suede leather boots, co-ordinated with her beige jeans and the new Junko Shimada long cream belted coat that Yuriko had given her. Mrs Kurokawa was dressed entirely in black silk, angora and cashmere, and Haruka wanted to tell her that she looked like she was about to attend a funeral. Instead, she forced out the sweetest smile that she could manage. She wondered why she was receiving this treatment from her future mother-in-law.
‘Shall we go to the Ryan-ji Temple now? I’d have driven you myself, but the Mercedes is being serviced,’ Mrs Kurokawa announced.
The pretentious tone in her voice did concern Haruka a little, but she told herself that when we they all got to know each other a little better, she would see a warmer and kinder side to her personality.
The stop for the bus to the Ryan-ji Temple was opposite the Okura Hotel, and it wasn’t long before their bus arrived. Jun stood beside Haruka on the way to the temple, but in the bus he said very little. Haruka was surprised by his lack of affection.
‘You’re looking well, Haruka. I’ve missed you,’ Jun finally whispered to her.
‘Why are you whispering, Jun?’ Haruka asked, becoming more and more confused by his behaviour.
‘I have a sore throat,’ he replied. ‘I think I’ve caught a cold. Don’t get too close to me, or you might catch it.’
‘You poor thing,’ Haruka replied. ‘I hope you feel a bit better as the day goes on.’
Maybe I have nothing to worry about. Jun was probably acting strangely because he wasn’t feeling very well, Haruka thought to herself.
‘You know, Haruka, I think you should change your hairstyle,’ Jun said to her, a little louder this time. ‘Your hair would look so much better if you dyed it a lighter colour.’
‘Do you think so?’ Haruka replied, not sure whether he was paying her a compliment or being critical. She reassured herself that his suggestions and the way he teased her so often were due to the growing closeness between them and not because he was being unkind again.
‘I do like my hair this colour,’ she continued.
‘Ultimately, it’s your choice, but I must still insist that it would look better lighter. I know a great hairdresser in Kyoto who could do it for you,’ said Jun.
‘I’ll think about it,’ Haruka replied.
She noticed that her mother had been watching them and she gave her a look as if to ask what was wrong. Haruka just dropped her head and looked at her feet. Jun looked out the window and said nothing for the rest of the bus trip.
‘Look, here’s our stop. Come on, let’s get off the bus,’ Haruka said to Jun. He held back to wait for his mother and Haruka stepped off the bus with her parents. She was a little taken aback by Jun’s unfriendliness.
At the remarkable rock garden of the Ryan-ji Temple, renowned for its quintessential portrayal of Zen art, Haruka found another good reason to be grateful for joining her parents on this trip. The sightseeing was so lovely for them to share as a family. It was the first time she had seen the fifteen rocks resting in a sea of perfectly swept light grey gravel and like the many other visitors who looked at this 15th century masterpiece, Haruka was overwhelmed by its sense of calm and happiness. She imagined the large rocks representing the mountains and the moss surrounding them to be the land that stretched from the foot of the hills to the sea. To her, the gravel represented the ocean that swept in waves around the land and undulated peacefully until it met another stretch of land or another world. She wondered if all those sitting around her had entirely different interpretations of this formidable piece of landscape art.
Everyone felt spiritually enriched as they silently gazed over the garden and after reading the inscription on the stone washed basin in the tearoom – “I learn only to be contented” – they felt that they came away with a better appreciation of the Zen philosophy.
Unfortunately, discontent was not far away upon their return to the hotel. In the lobby, Haruka and her mother were talking to Jun’s mother Mrs Kurokawa about visiting Nijo Castle the following day, and Haruka’s mother offered Mrs Kurokawa their home phone number in fune. She watched her mother searching for a pen to write down the number, but Mrs Kurokawa was quicker to take out a pen of her own. It looked like her father’s missing black and silver Mont Blanc pen – it even had the same scratch on the lid!
Haruka and her mother looked at the pen and then back at each other. Their mouths were wide open with disbelief. Haruka realised her mother recognised the pen that Haruka’s father had supposedly misplaced during Jun’s visit to their home in fune months ago.
‘What a … what a … beautiful pen,’ Haruka’s mother stuttered, trying to regain her composure. The vein in her forehead was throbbing.
‘Oh yes, it is,’ replied Mrs Kurokawa. ‘Junichiro gave it to me for my birthday last week. Unfortunately, he scratched the lid when he was wrapping it.’
‘Jun gave it to you for your birthday,’ cried Haruka’s mother in despair, her face now the colour of rice paper. ‘How nice of him,’ she managed to say.
Haruka could see by the look on her face that she wanted to snatch back the pen that rightfully belonged to them, but her mother was much too polite to do that.
‘Yes, Mrs Yoshino,’ replied Mrs Kurokawa. Why she continued to spit out their surname whenever she pronounced it, Haruka did not know. ‘He’s a wonderful son, and I will soon have a terrific daughter-in-law,’ Mrs Kurokawa continued. ‘He’s just asked a gorgeous girl called Sakurako to marry him. Her father is the general manager of a huge textile company. They’ll make a lovely couple and her family will obviously be an excellent business connection.’
Haruka and her mother were absolutely flabbergasted. They couldn’t believe what Mrs Kurokawa had just said. Haruka noticed huge tears beginning to well up in her mother’s eyes.
‘Is that right?’ her mother exclaimed, patting her face with her handkerchief.
Turning, Mrs Kurokawa looked at Haruka with great pity etched across her face and said in a snobbish voice, ‘I hope that you find a nice husband. You’re not getting any younger, are you, Haruka? Maybe a factory worker or someone that has a Pachinko gambling business … that would suit you very well wouldn’t it?’ Looking back at Haruka’s mother, she continued, ‘Mrs Yoshino, your husband looks like he enjoys a bit of Pachinko gambling. Am I right?’
Luckily, Haruka’s mother refused to lower herself to Mrs Kurokawa’s level by responding with a catty remark. She just shook her head in disbelief. If Mrs Kurokawa had wanted to humiliate and degrade them, she’d certainly achieved that, but Haruka’s mother was not the type to be rude, especially to a lady that they’d only met a couple of times.
Jun walked over to join them, oblivious to what had just happened and to the words that had burst forth from his mother’s cruel mouth.
‘How about dinner tonight, Haruka?’ he asked with an annoying confidence.
Haruka looked at him blankly a
nd nodded towards his mother holding the Mont Blanc pen. He saw the pen, made the connection, and realising he’d been discovered as a thief, turned to hurry away, making some excuse about dropping his keys earlier or something to that effect. Haruka strode up to him and reached his side as he paused at the flower arrangement in the centre of the lobby.
‘I need to talk to you, Jun. Your mother just told us that you’re planning to marry a girl called Sakurako. So why have you been taking me out, continuously complimenting me and leading me and my mother to believe that you were going to ask me to marry you?’ she demanded to know.
‘Marry you? When did I ever mention marriage to you?’ he replied. He looked down at Haruka, quite amused at her presumption that he was going to propose to her.
‘Well … um….’ Haruka was trying to think fast, but she was too furious to think logically. ‘Um … Yuriko saw the engagement ring you bought in Ginza and we’ve just thought for quite a while now that … um….’
‘And you thought the ring was for you, did you?’ said Jun, laughing at Haruka’s mistake.
‘Of course I did,’ she replied. ‘Well, we were dating quite seriously … you even took me out for kaiseki-ryri in Ginza. You don’t take friends to a restaurant that expensive unless you’re dating. You had Yuriko, my mother and I all convinced that you were my boyfriend, and we all thought it was serious,’ she said. Haruka pulled out the Tiffany & Co. heart pendant from under her scarf. ‘And what about this romantic gift you bought me?’
‘I didn’t actually buy those,’ he replied.
‘Did you steal them?’ she asked him.
‘No … the pendants I gave you and your mother belonged to my sister and she never actually wore them, so she said I could take them and give them to you as presents – and since they were still in their original boxes….’
‘And the scarves?’ said Haruka, pointing to her Hermés scarf.
‘I bought those,’ he replied. ‘Listen, Haruka, I have to tell you that I get bored, and that’s the reason I took you out a few times,’ Jun said to her, more gently this time as he watched tears fall down her cheeks. ‘I think you’re nice and very pretty, but it was never going to be serious.’
‘Well you could have mentioned Sakurako,’ Haruka hissed back at him, spitting out each word. She turned away from him and stormed back to her parents’ side, wishing she’d never met Jun.
Haruka’s mother had taken out the handkerchief again that she’d handed to her that morning and was dabbing her cheeks as she stood with her father away from the others. Haruka went up to her and put her hand on her shoulder.
‘Haruka, I think a bug has flown into my eye – could you have a look at it in the bathroom with me, please?’ she said to her. They turned adroitly and made for the ladies room, arm in arm – mortified and humiliated by this turn of events.
In the bathroom, Haruka’s mother let her tears flow naturally. Haruka didn’t shed any more tears, as she was now more angry than upset. As she held her mother’s shoulders, it occurred to her that she was more concerned about the Kurokawa family upsetting her mother than her questionable relationship with Jun. Damn that family, she thought to herself.
‘I’m sorry, Haruka,’ her mother said to her. ‘I should never have organised this trip to Kyoto.’
‘It’s not your fault, it’s mine,’ Haruka replied. ‘When Yuriko told me about the engagement ring, I should have realised it wasn’t for me.’
‘No, Haruka,’ said her mother firmly. ‘It’s all Jun’s fault. He encouraged both you and me to believe he was really interested in you again. He even invited us to Kyoto. Do you remember that all those months ago when you came back from your date with Takashi?’
‘Yes,’ Haruka replied. She was now thinking of Takashi and how wonderful he’d been through this whole ordeal.
‘I think you should call Takashi as soon as we get back to fune,’ said her mother, as though she was reading her daughter’s mind.
They left the ladies’ room and Haruka and her mother joined her father at the elevator.
‘We’ll meet at seven p.m. for dinner, Haruka,’ her mother said with the voice of a mouse as they made their way to the seventh floor.
Haruka noticed her father comforting her mother as they walked to their room.
‘With all the nice people in Kyoto, why did we have to meet up again with the Kurokawas?’ Haruka’s mother said to her father.
‘You did have a lovely time at the Ryan-ji Temple though, didn’t you?’ he said to her.
Mrs Makimoto, Haruka and her parents all dined in the Gion district that evening. Haruka thought that it was nice to have a break from Jun and his mother. After dinner, the sight of a Maiko apprentice geisha amused Haruka’s father. They stopped to watch her from a distance. She was dressed in a blue silk kimono. Delicate flowers fell from her ornate hairstyle at her collar. The nape of her neck was provocatively exposed. She briefly turned in their direction before stepping into a waiting taxi, giving them a faint glimpse of her ethereal floating world.
The next day, Haruka was pleased to hear that Jun would not be joining them for their last morning in Kyoto. She was so proud of her mother, who walked with her head high, keeping her distance from Mrs Kurokawa as they wandered through Nijo Castle, the official residence of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu. Haruka stood by her side and took many charming photos of her mother and her father together. They posed in front of the surrounding gardens and the stonework that beautifully complemented this splendid building. Haruka learnt from her father that it had been built in the early Edo period of the 17th century.
The whole morning, Mrs Kurokawa stayed by her sister’s side, whispering and laughing in the most annoying way.
Later, after returning to the hotel, Haruka tried to call Takashi in Tokyo on her mobile. Again, he did not answer. She even tried calling him from the hotel’s landline, but to no avail. His mobile was off, and she could only hope that Yuriko had managed to meet up with him and that Jun’s name had not been mentioned.
Their train bound for Tokyo was leaving at two p.m. They arrived at the station in good time at one fifteen p.m. Haruka excused herself as they entered the waiting room and made her way to the ladies’ toilet.
Pushing open the door of the ladies’ room, she noticed all the cubicles were vacant. She rushed into the toilet on the far end, pulling three or four tissues from her Louis Vuitton handbag, and sat sobbing uncontrollably. Haruka allowed all the hurt, embarrassment and anger to gush out of her, and she kept this up for a solid five minutes. She was upset about losing her job in Kyoto and about Jun’s lies and the way he used her because he was so “bored” with his life, but most of all she was upset for her parents who’d wasted a lot of money coming to Kyoto, only to be completely humiliated and degraded by the Kurokawa family.
Finally, feeling a bit better after getting that out of her system, Haruka composed herself, flushed the toilet out of habit, and opened the door. A very well-dressed middle-aged woman in a fur hat that matched the fur collar on her camel cashmere coat had entered the ladies’ room and her reflection in the mirror opposite bounced back at Haruka. She was frowning at Haruka’s dishevelled face. Admittedly, Haruka knew she looked awful, even a bit spooky. Haruka managed a wonky smile back at her, straightened her shoulders and retrieved another tissue from her designer bag.
Wetting the corner of the tissue, Haruka wiped away the black mascara running down her strained face. She reapplied her lashes with her Lancôme mascara and brightened her lips with a Chanel lipstick. To finish, she brushed on lashings of her Touche Éclat highlighter to disguise the dark circles under her puffy eyes. Pleased with her mini makeover, Haruka forced out a bright smile and standing tall, she left the judgemental lady and made her way back to her parents, determined not to be emotional.
Yuriko’s mother had decided to rush around buying small cakes and other souvenirs before they departed from Kyoto station. While Mrs Makimoto was deciding between red bean-paste cake
s and green tea sweets, Haruka’s mother asked her daughter various questions in the waiting room underneath the platforms about Takashi.
‘How old is that boy Takashi now?’ she asked.
‘Twenty-one years old, Mother,’ replied Haruka.
‘And he’s nearly finished at university, hasn’t he?’
‘Yes, Mother.’
‘He’s such an honest boy. No pretence. Just a really kind and honest person, isn’t he, Haruka?’
‘Yes,’ she replied.
‘I like his values, Haruka. He’s not the type of boy that’s always trying to impress his friends, is he?’
‘No, Mother – he has a mind of his own.’
‘You do get along really well, don’t you? What are his parents like, Haruka?’
‘Yes, we get along well. I only met his parents once when I was at university, but they’re very nice.’
‘Does he drink a lot?’
‘No, Mother.’
‘But he smokes?’
‘Yes, but Father smokes as well, doesn’t he?’
Haruka’s mother looked lovingly at her husband and her voice softened, ‘Takashi was always there for you when your father was ill, wasn’t he? You must invite him over more often, Haruka.’
‘Yes, Mother,’ she replied. ‘Although he’s not really wealthy, he should get a good job after university.’
‘Don’t worry about that, Haruka,’ said her mother. ‘After this weekend, I’ve had just as much as I can take of wealthy, pretentious people. We’ll manage somehow.’
Haruka sighed with relief. Although she was embarrassed that they’d all fallen so easily for Jun’s pretentious ways, it was because of him she could see that Takashi’s kindness was so much better for her than Jun’s false charms. Her only worry was that it might be too late. She had to hope that Takashi still felt the same way about her. She thought that he may very well have dubious feelings towards her now that he’d learned that she’d been to Kyoto, even if Yuriko hadn’t spoken one word about Jun.
Tokyo Hearts: A Japanese Love Story Page 16
