Memories we share.

Takurō arrived ten minutes earlier at their meeting spot next to a big shopping street in Dōtonbori. It had been a while since he last visited this place, but it was still as crowded as he remembered. One look at his phone, another one up.

Through the crowds, he saw a pair of eyes focused on him. She gave him a kind smile and he returned an even more enthusiastic one. She was carrying a backpack over both her shoulders and a camera dangled around her neck. “You’re trying to impress me, or why so early, yah?” she asked.

“Hey Ashiya-san.” He laughed dryly. “Well, the other train would’ve arrived too late, y’know.”

She nodded. “I see.”

“You’re equipped quite well already, f’sure. Shall I carry something for you?”

“Uh, thanks, but not necessary.” She adjusted the straps from her backpack. “Shall we go?”

“A’ight.”

The two slowly walked on into the roofed shopping street. Several colorful and flashing signs blinked everywhere. Takurō saw shops for sweets, ramen restaurants, small thrift shop and at the side, there even was a karaoke box.

His gaze also fell on Ashiya. She walked beside him, watching to evade all the countless people that were here despite it still being quite early in the morning.

She wore a high-waisted skinny jeans and a loose, white tank top—a very deliberate outfit, as it seemed. “You … uh, look great, by the way,” he said.

She replied with a slightly weary side gaze. “T-thanks.”

It had been just yesterday that she invited him to show him more about her analog photography. The camera she carried now was almost twice as big as the one from the day before.

“By the way times two, I read the screenplay you sent me.”

Takurō straightened out his spine. Was this the part where he’d got his thrashing—the scathing review she had announced already? “You … did?”

“I … wouldn’t have thought you’d have such a romantic side, yeah,” she said. “For me it was a little bit too much sometimes, especially the kissing scene in front of everyone. But you’re plotting and your work with visuals is hella creative. It almost read like a novel, f’sure.”

He looked at her a little surprised. “You … read it completely already?”

She shrugged. “Yeah … anything wrong with that? Were just around fifty pages, ‘ight?”

“No … I’m just … impressed.” He exhaled.

She chuckled.

“Are we heading somewhere specific?”

“I always wanted to photograph the Dōtonbori canal.” She turned at him. “I really love bridges, y’know.”

“Then a canal should be the right choice for you.”

They walked a few minutes further, until they left the shopping street and came into an open area, that was bustling with people.

Ashiya led Takurō towards a small, wooden bridge, that spanned across the tiny canal. They took a set of stairs to reach the promenade close to the water, where they had more space for themselves.

When Ashiya put down her backpack, he noticed another wave of excitement wash over him. Takurō would finally learn how to see the world through Ashiya’s eyes. He would learn how she framed her subjects, selected the suitable brightness settings, came up with ideas on what to draw on top of the image.

She pulled her camera out of the protective case. “That’s my granddad’s old film camera,” she said presenting the big device. The small camera from yesterday had been made of a lot more plastic, but this one looked much sturdier, with several metal parts. “It’s all mechanical, so we have to adjust all the settings on our own, now.”

She opened her backpack and pulled out a small box with film rolls inside it. “This camera uses 35mm film, yah. We first have to load it. It’s important to not pull out too much, though. Every part of film that gets exposed to light will not be usable anymore, y’know.”

She explained the process, routinely loaded the film into the camera and closed the lid.

“Would you build up the tripod?” she asked and handed him a dark bag.

Takurō took and opened it. “Since when are you doing all this?”

She huffed with a grin. “Actually, I can’t remember.” She opened another compartment in her bag, that held an assortment of different lenses. “Since I was really small, I often went out with my granddad. We would take the camera and only get back home, once we filled a roll of film, y’know.”

She smiled and pulled out one lens to attach it to the front of the camera. “But I have to admit, we didn’t really care as much about shooting great images back then. Sometimes, there were just one or two, who weren’t jittered or blurred.”

“And because you’ve began loving photography so much, he gifted you his camera, ‘ight?” He placed the now unfolded tripod on the ground.

She turned back at Takurō. “No, he … died during my first year in middle school. That’s why I got his camera.”

He lowered his gaze. “Oh …”

She breathed in, and then out. “People die … that’s a sad truth and all we can do is to learn accepting it, y’know.” She mounted the camera onto the tripod.

“But sometimes we also have to accept that we can’t.”

Ashiya stopped and looked at Takurō. She tried reading his expression to find out where these words were coming from, but he remained silent.

She turned back at her camera and began looking through the viewfinder to adjust the framing. “It was right after he died, that I began painting on top of my photographs the way you know it. It felt like I had only tried capturing the real world and ignored the most important part within me, y’know.”

She stepped away and pointed Takurō to the camera, so he would take a look himself. “It was like his loss jolted me awake and I had no other choice but to let the chaos in my head bleed out into my artworks.”

“What do you mean … within you?” He looked through the viewfinder himself. She had selected a nice framing of the bridge and a part of the small canal below. There was still a lot of space around the image.

“As artists we are not the screen that captures reality. We’re the lens that distorts it—bends and diffracts it to make it pass through the shutter and perfectly burn its way into the film of our respective medium.”

Takurō moved his head back from the viewfinder, to find Ashiya rummaging through her backpack.

She pulled out another more modern device. “I think you might not be that different from me back then.” She scratched her head. “I mean … I really enjoyed your screenplay, but at some parts it was too flawless, y’know? The most characteristic lenses have scratches, blurs, and imperfections in their light output.”

He scanned her eyes. Takurō did not fully understand what her words meant, but somehow, he felt them. He had to find a way to preserve his own, unique voice … but what was even unique about him?

“Don’t worry … Takurō-kun,” Ashiya said with a coy grin. “We’ll figure this out. One step at a time. Promise!”

He looked at her still surprised about her calling him by his first name but mustered a smile as well. “Thanks so much … Akimi-chan!”

The day rushed past them much faster than Takurō would have imagined. They went to several different locations and made photos of countless interesting or mundane subjects of the modern cityscape.

To not overwhelm Takurō, Akimi left it at the basics. She explained, how she framed the shots and approached each new one. Takurō tried his hands at it as well and in no time, they found themselves eating lunch in a small Ramen Restaurant, chatting about whatever came to their minds.

The second half of the day, however, had already been reserved for another activity: Since Akimi agreed to show Takurō her photography, he still owed her a few recommendations for new movies … and as it happened, a certain cinema was just another train ride away …