maiko-san

Last year my ringing ear got worse. Two reasons. Firstly I was about to work for Goethe Institute as a gardener last April. I tenatively stayed at the spooky house for two nights. But my sister's illness was always on my mind. I couldn't sleep a wink at night . At the last minute I declined to sign a contract. I was very nervous. Secondly I got sick and tired of hearing the same words from my sister who has Alzheimer's. She's so irritable that she drives me crazy. I don't want to care about her anymore. Then gradually  my psychosomatic disease relapsed. I tried desperately to find a solution to fittness. That reminded me of a club for "Life Discovery". As a matter of fact I signed up for the club for one year 10 years ago. There was a monthly meeting. 15-20 psychosomatically ridden patients got together, We talked about our individual symptoms each other and exchanged experiences. Doctors were somehow forbidden to attend the meeting. Among patients ...

I make it a point of going to a supermarket "Koyo" every morning right after breakfast. When I'm done with shopping, next I drop in a coffee shop "Doutor" for a cup of coffee. That is the happiest moment in my daily life because I can read German books over the coffee. Last Friday I went into the coffee shop as usual after buying apples, Natto and an instant coffee bottle at the supermarket. First of all I put my shopping plastic bag on the table to get a conveniet place. Then I ordered an iced coffee at the counter. All of a sudden I wanted to go to men's room. I knocked the door frantically. Unfortunately it was occupied by someone. I was still waiting in the doorway to the toilette, because I was impatient. At last a gentelman in a dark-blue suit came out. I said, "Sorry!" But he ignored me and said nothing. He was in the least an aminable chap. He seemed to be in a hurry. That's why he gave me the cold shoulder. When I got out of the men...

In 1964 my father retired from Tokyo University. He decided to rebuild a new house in Koenji. We moved to a house-designer's house in Shibuya and stayed there from September until April in 1965. The designer's house was near Shibuya Station. Unlike fancy image of Shibuya, it was located in the middle of the low residential area, that is, a couple of blocks away from Meiji-Street(Ring  Road 5). If I go to the intersection on the Meiji-Street, I would see an off-track betting place for horse racing on my left side. On Sundays and holidays the betting center was full of people. Our new address goes like this. Shibuya-ku Golden King［金王）Town 1-2-3 bla bla... On the 1st of January we received many New Year's cards. My father got as many as 300 cards. Among them I found an interesting one. The postcard was wrongly addressed like Shibuya-ku Golden Ball　［金玉） Town 1-2-3 bla bla...In Japanese Golden Ball means a cock. This joke made my mother and me laugh aloud. I commuted from Sh...

On the 21st of December one German couple and 10 other Japanese took part in a discussion. The topic was all of a sudden changed. The former topic was about "What do we expect the new German Goverment?" We were supposed to talk about the German Prime Minister Merkels new policies, such as Euro crisis, energy turnaround and its dipolomatic relations with other European countries. The new topic: "Coffee and Tea around the World." First of all the discussion leader breifly touched on the history of coffee beans. In the ancient Arabian countries coffee beans were used as medicine to prevent from sleeping. Probably it's due to the religeious reasons. They have the custome to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. During this period they have to go through a fast time. In other words they have to pray for God day and night without eating. They'd have to stay up until wee hours in the morning. I am afraid I don't know if this story is true or not. But anyway coffee wa...

On the 20th of August I went to see my sister in Tokyo. I was supposed to taker her to the hospital the next day. In the evening my sister took me out for dinner in a restarant near the station. On the way to the restaurant I was surprised to see my sister's shoulders tilted on one end. In other words, the position of her left shoulder is higher than the other one. Moreover I noticed she walked rather slowly. After dinner we we went her home. She was busy filling out applying forms for the French newsweekly magazine, "Le Mond". To my surprise she had already written three letters and addresses on the envelopes. Now she's confused which one is the correct one to be sent to the newspaper company. She asked me a lot of questions and what should she do about it. Since it was written in French words, I didn't know what to do, either. Meanwhile she started asking me the same questions over and over, "Like this? Like this? Like this?" I was getting sick and ti...

"Why don't young Japanese women want to marry earlier these days?" That was the lastet topic about which I was supposed to discuss at Japan-Germany-Speaking-Club. Unfortunately I coudn't take part in the meeting, because I was under the weather. In my opinion, there are three reasons for this trend. 1. Younger women earn money these days. So they are on their own to some extent. 2. They want to marry a man who is willing to share housework. 3. They yearn for the marriage, as long as they can find a good man. Then what is the definition of "good man"? 1.They must be taller guys 2. They must be good lookers. 3. They graduate from a prestigious university. 4. They earn a bunch of money. 5. They shoud show concern about women. Incidentlly 40-50 year old single women always have a date. It doesn't matter whether he' s married or not. I obtained the information from a 70-year-old woman named Mrs. Ishibashi who presides over "Harry Potter ...

Early in November I visited the museum in Kyoto University to see my grandfather's exhibition of calligraphy. As it was early in the morning, the display room was not crowded. Thanks Heaven! I could enjoy watching his various calligraphy, "Haiku", "Tanka" and a long letter to his deciple by the name of Tanabe Gen. At first professor Tanabe belonged to Kyoto School Sect which my grandfather founded. Gradually he drifted apart and in the end criticised my grandfather's way of thinking. My grandfather wrote to him about an Austrian philosopher Husserl. I felt sad since I could not read his writings. It's all Greek to me. However two writings made a good impression upon me. First of all, I was taken aback when I saw "Ken-kon Itteki" (乾坤 一擲)which is literally translated, "sink or swim" He quoted it from an old great Chinese poet, Kanyu(韓諭). It means that "Let's throw the dice! Let's try it no matter what the results would ...