Review of Yasashii Jikan 優しい時間 Episode 3

Ep 3: Hatsu Yuki (First Snow)

The beginning of a day in Mori no Tokei would be Master having breakfast in front of Megumi's photo. That day, one of the regulars bring along his relative from Tokyo, Mikako who is a widow and moved to Furano recently. The other regulars are discussing Mikako with great enthusiasm as she's quite pretty.

In the afternoon, Azusa happens to bump into her ex-teacher, Matsuda who she was seeing previously. She gets very flustered and rushes out of Mori no Tokei to look for Takuro. Azusa's elder sister, Riri explains to Master that Matsuda and Azusa were involved when she was in school but he is already married. Their relationship became a scandal in school so Azusa was bullied by her classmates while Matsuda walked out on her. Thus, Azusa stopped going to school and was suicidal for a long period of time.

Azusa waits for Takuro to come home and the two have steamboat for dinner. Takuro finds out more on Azusa's past where her father died, her mother eloped with another man, her brother-in-law also left her sister. Coupled with the unhappy relationship with Matsuda (Takuro is unaware of this), these events made Azusa very sensitive and prone to emotional outbursts. Takuro deliberately asks Azusa about his father and how he is. He is disturbed when he hears Azusa describing Master as a quiet and lonely man.

At night, Tomoko comes to Mori no Tokei in a drunken state and starts rambling to Master about her ex-husband who has just passed away. She scolds Master about his pining for Megumi thus neglecting Takuro in the process and tells him that she will let them meet. Master is surprised by this and asks Tomoko about Takuro's whereabouts but she lies to him that she doesn't know. Master remembers the time when he went to Kita Tokei to learn the ropes of running the coffee house business and Takuro came to look for him amid a snow storm. However, Master treated Takuro very coldly and said that he doesn't want to meet him again since they have severed all ties with each other. Ever since that encounter, Master has never heard from Takuro again.

Mikako comes to Mori no Tokei again and the regulars start speculating that she's here to see Master when she keeps talking to her. In actual fact, she is drawn to Mori no Tokei because of its practice of letting the customers grind the coffee beans themselves. Mikako's late husband did this every night so she comes to Mori no Tokei to relive her past memories. This brings Master to remember Megumi's suggestion to introduce this practice even though he was sceptical of the customers' response at that time.

Matsuda comes to look for Azusa to apologize for what he did but Master tells him not to appear again as his apology is only meant to make himself feel better and would not do Azusa any good.

That night, Takuro's teacher, Rokusuke is preparing dinner with his wife because his son is coming home with his wife for the first time. Seeing how happy their family gets along, Takuro is reminded of the conversation between him and his father after the funeral. Master had then told Takuro that he was heading to Furano and would no longer come back to Tokyo. He asked Takuro what he planned to do and the latter replied that he wants to live alone since he had always been alone all the while. Master was shocked and angry at Takuro's words since it meant that even though his parents were around all the time, Takuro had felt that he was living alone. Since Master was overseas most of the time, he felt that Takuro was unhappy about this and said that since he thought of his father in this way, he would give Takuro a sum of money and that would mark the end of their relationship. Actually, Takuro didn't mean that he wanted to sever all ties with his father but rather he knew that the pain that he had caused with his mother's death would be a indellible mark in their relationship. By living apart, he hopes to reduce the pain his father feels since he wouldn't be reminded of the fact that Takuro caused the accident if he was out of sight. Nevertheless, due to this conversation and the subsequent attempt to salvage their relationship with that visit to Furano which had failed, Takuro doesn't dare to appear in front of Master anymore even though they both miss each other.

Takuro decides to go to Furano to see his father on the sly and is almost discovered by him. Seeing his father again after a long period of time and yet not being able to speak to him, Takuro is overwhelmed by sadness and cries as he runs in the forest trail as the first snow falls on Furano...

In this episode, we find out more on why Master and Takuro's relationship got into such a state. Of course, both of them are unable to face each other because of the fact the Megumi's death was caused by Takuro but another major factor was the conversation which transpired between them before Master left for Furano. If Master had listened to Takuro's explanation, if only Takuro didn't say that he has been alone all this time as if blaming his father for him feeling lonely and joining a gang, everything could have turned out differently on hindsight but of course, they don't have the ability to turn back time and change the situation. It was so sad to see Takuro feeling envious of family warmth when he longs to see his dad and is so afraid of making him upset and can only look at him from afar. And they had a second chance to change things but Master's cold attitude towards Takuro who had made the effort to come to Furano and dyed his hair black made it difficult for them to be on speaking terms again.

Besides the explanation on Master and Takuro's relationship, we also find out why Azusa is behaving the way she is. Because of her family background and being betrayed by the first man she loved, Azusa seems to distrust everyone and cannot stand any criticism or problems she face. That's why she has these emotional outbursts every now and then whenever she encounters unhappy stuff. Well, I still cannot reconcile this with the fact that she has a habit of smashing (or rather breaking?) plates...