maiko-san

On the 7th of August I met my friend by the name of Hidenori-kun in a coffee shop nearby. The purpose is that we read aloud each other a book entitled "A Dairy of a young Girl" in German. First of all I gave him a present (two bottles of sweet Sake ie."Mirin" manufactured in Oita Prefecture). It was actually a present from my wife My wife got it from a relative of the famous popular singer named Komoro Tetsuya. She felt sorry for him that he came all the way from Takatsuki-shi to Osaka city  to meet an old chap like me. Immediately Hidenori-kun checked with the singer's name on his I-Phone. He seemed to be honored to get the present from such a legendary singer.'s relative. On top of that my wife spoke highly of the meeting which is held every three months. We are eager to learn German together. When I got down to business, Hidenori-kun took out I-Pad from his backpack. He had written down his translation part on this new gadget. On the contrary I ha

My 78-year-old sister lives in Tokyo alone. For years she suffers from dementia. Last summer a care manager decided to raise my sister's nursing care level Grade 2 to Grade 3, as she was getting more and more senile. The big hospital doctor suggested that it was about time she go into a nursing home. But my sister wouldn't to listen to him. She always says that she wants to die in her apartment. Meanwhile a clinic doctor nearby took over the job of the the doctor at the big hospital. Now she prescribes medicine for my sister. It was nice of her to dispatch a nurse from Home-Visit-Nursing Station. Nonetheless my sister could not go see a clinic doctor alone. So I asked a lawyer to be a guardian of my sister. I exchanged a contract with him. Then he applied  for the guardianship at the court. The judge admitted. Now her fortune and property are in the hands of the lawyer. Earlier this month my wife visited my sister and talked with a caregiver. Then they went to see  the cl

Last Friday my wife rushed to my room with a credit card company's accounts. She thrust them into my hand. It was about an amount of about 60,000 Yen which a software company named "Adobe Creative Cloud" charged to her. She said angrily, "You must have seen a pay-porn-site in internet." I paled at the sight of her fierce face. I answered, "Not that I know of. Oh come on, honey, in the first place I haven't got a credit card. You know that well. Maybe you should ask our daughter about it." But my wife was adamant, "My daughter wouldn't do a thing like this." I got on the internet and checked out on "Adobe something" It was an application of photography. I thought to myself that it had something to do with my daughter's work. Meanwhile my wife answered the credit company that she knew nothing of the bill. So she wouldn't pay for the amount. If they didn't accept her, she would definitely change her credit ca

You know I make it a point of go shopping to the supermarket, "Koyo" every morning. I usually take home a 2 liter plastic tea bottle, vegetable, fish, fruits, even toilette paper, tissue paper. For the most part I end up holding too many things with my both hands. One day a kind old man, who was shopping in the supermarket said to me, "Oh, boy! Shall we take you home by taxi?" I replied to him politely, "Thank you. But I can handle it. Moreover I'm going to a coffee shop now." When I was home, I told my wife about this incident. She said, "Those were the Watanabes who live on the 13th floor in the condo. The husband was the former executive of Sanwa Bank He suffers from cancer. His former wife died 10 years ago. Now he lives with his second wife." Earlier in June I walked back to my condo after I ran an errand for the family. Then I met an elderly woman in the elevator. All of a sudden she asked me, "How's your wife doing?"

I'm supposed to take part in Japan-German-society to discuss about " Old Communication Means & New Communications Means" next month. I have written key words for this theme. Today I'd like to focus on an old telephone and a new cell phone. First, a black rotary dial telephone in my childhood. Our house was equipped with this telephone when I was a pupil at elementary school. For the most part my father used the phone. Especially before the proffessors' meeting he talked with his fellow professors for a long time. He wanted to discuss about agenda with them beforehand and how to persuade other professors of different opinions. My mother was angry at him, because she was unable to call her sister in Kyoto. I remember vividly our telephone number, that is 311-8114. The former user was a Japanese chess champion, Mr. Masuda. We received phone calls from his acquaintances frequently. They'd say, "Is this Mr. Masuda's residence?" I was on the p

Last Saturday I took part in a discussion at Japanese-German Society. The theme is about "My favorite German words." First of all I talked about "on the move" or "under way" .In German they say "unterwegs." When I was a pupil at elementary school, I was always on the move especially after school. I didn't come back directly home. I visited my friends. For my father stayed almost every day at home and read difficult books and wrote a manuscript for philosophical and ethical magazines. Our family members were not allowed to make any noises. I remember I had to whisper to my mother. I was sick and tired of this custom in my house. I preferred to be with my friends, playing sword-fighting, slingshots and hide and seek. Next I talked about destiny. In German they say "Schicksal". Destiny means fate, what must happen and cannot be changed or controlled. Man can't escape from his destiny. I am going to give you an example. W

Last week my wife read an article in the newspaper on my grandfather's rented house in Kyoto. The old house will be broken down soon. The photo's image was different from the house in Tanaka Asukai-cho which I visited with my mother in my childhood. As a matter of fact the house was bigger than I imagined. I was absorbed further in the article. I noticed the address of the house was different from Asukai-cho. It's located in Tanaka Yanagi-machi. The inside of the house can be seen on the homepage of Kyoto University for which Professor Hayashi is responsible. Immediately I wrote email to Professor Hayashi, as my wife wanted to see the house passionately. In the course of email exchanges with him I got to know he studies Nishida's philosophy. His ten- year- older wife was also a student at Tokyo University and knew of my elder sister. I asked him whether my wife and my daughter could drop in the house and see it. It was kind of him to let the owner of the house kn

In 1996 I was in Atlanta, Georgia to attend World Sales Meeting. I was with other member of a Japanese -American joint venture, named Teijin Amoco. I met with not only American counterparts but also Amoco sales person from all over the world, such as the UK, France, Germany,Singapore and Hong Kong. The obnoxious part of the meeting was that we Japanse salesperson hat to give a speech in front of the formidable Americans. The conference started on Monday and ended on Thursday. I gave a speech in English one way or another. When I was done with the speech, i was so relieved. Over the weekend the Japanese members were allowed to stay in Los Angeles. My American counterpart, Richard Sullivan, asked, "Kaneko-san, so you're catching a red-eye flight?" I didn't know what the red-eye flight meant. It was nice of him to explain to me, it was a flight taken at night. If you took a red-eye flight from New York to Los Angeles, it would take about 6 hours. and  the possibility

Once a year I make it point of taking a blood test at a clinic in front of Minoo Station. The doctor graduated from Shinshu University and stayed in California for one year. So we have lots of things in common. The topic is always about learning English and German. I feel at home when I talk with him. On the contrary I hate to go to a clinic for a physical check-up (free of charge) in Kita-ku. When an unfamiliar doctor takes my blood pressure, I feel nervous. As a result my blood pressure skyrockets. Moreover I am always anxious about the results. due to my overreacting sensitiveness I dwell on the results forever. Anyway last Tuesday I went to the clinic near Minoo Station. As I had to attend the Harry Potter Club starting at 10 am, I left home at 7:40. When I got on the JR train at Sakuranomiya, I encountered a rush-hour. For years I haven't experienced the rush-hour. But I could manage it, because Osaka is only two stations away from Sakuranomiya. I arrived at the clinic at 9:

Today I'd like to introduce to you my old house in Koenji, Tokyo. I lived in a house with a garden when I was a pupil at Seikei Elementary School. In the Edo era aTokugawa General went on a hawk hunting to Koenji Temple from the shogunate headquarters. Now I'd like to show you some photos. The first picture shows  a balcony of the house, I'm sure you can see Hibachi, Shoji (a sliding door with white thin paper), Tatami and Fusuma (a sliding door with thicker various colored paper) behind the balcony. Everything is made of paper and wood. That is a typical Japanese house, presumably constructed before the 2nd War. For better or worse, Koenji avoided US air raids during the war. The neighbors on one side were Usui Yoshimi, who was a literature commentator and on the other side  a graveyard. In Koenji there are many temples where various trees stand. All kinds of birds came to them. I enjoyed hearing Japanese bush warbiers chirping especially in spring. Now I am going t

Last Friday I woke up at 4:00 in the morning. I wondered why I was awake so early in the morning..  I took a sleeping tablet before I hit the hay. Immediately my ears started ringing ferociously. For a change I went out to the park nearby. First of all i sat on the bench in front of Okawa river. I met two cats, white and black. I took a picture of only a white cat. Because it was Friday the 13th. If I took a picture of a black cat, I thought unfortunate things would fall on me. Then i heard birds up in the trees chirping. I saw a couple of boats floating on the river. Everything is peaceful. I was hungry and went to Seven Eleven, convenience store which run 24 hours a day. I bought some curry-bread. Out of Seven Eleven I saw an older man walking backwards. A year ago I met him and talked with him a little bit. But not enough time. He had go to riverside to practice gymnastics with his friends. This time I approached him and said, "Good morning! " He said he is 76 -year -o

On the early morning o the 1st of May my wife and my daughter went to see a movie entitled "Family life is hard for Men" directed by Yoji Yamada. The movie is about a family-life in suburbs in Tokyo where a wife declared her husband, "All I want is to divorce you!" when her husband asks her, What do you want for your next birthday?" For men it's a horrible movie. As for me I had an appointment to meet my friend named Hidenori at 11:00 am. He's in early 40's and works for the Osaka Government office. We got to know each other when we went to German school together. He came to the designated coffee shop all the way from Takatsuki. As usual we started reading aloud and translating a German book entitled "Dairy of a Young Girl"or "Tagebuch der Anne Frank".It was the 8th meeting since this book-reading-get-together started in 2014. It lasted 3 and a half hours. For sometimes we got stuck in translating in Japanese because of the

In early May 2008 I had a rash all over my body. I searched a dermatologist near my apartment. As a matter of fact I found the one in a building next to Mitsubishi Bank. I climbed up a staircase and checked the dermatologist from outside. Something sniffs. I thought they'd charge an outrageous doctor's fee. Back to the apartment I mulled over what I should do about my rash. I remembered that I had a contact list in Harry Potter Club. Mrs. Murakami must know the doctor I wanted. I picked up my cellphone and called her. It was kind of her to tell me the doctor's name. I got on the internet and checked the doctor. Good he lives in my neighborhood.After that I went over the map closely. Alas, he turned out to be an eye doctor. I was totally at a loss. I clapped my hands. I forgot the most important man with whom I often went to a Karaoke Bar, that is, Mr. Shimazu. I gave a ring to Mr. Shimazu. He told me that he didn't know a dermatologist. But his advice was that I s

About this theme I talked with ten elderly participants at Japan-German-Society last Saturday. Unfortunately Dorothea Goda couldn't come, because she had to escort her husband to the hospital. Rumor has it that he had a relapse. Actually he suffered from prostate cancer two years ago. I was surrounded by two women, a mature woman on my left and a young woman on my right. Therefore I was a little bit nervous. My heard pounded like crazy. You know I'm a shy guy. Let me introduce to you what was discussed at the meeting. First of all the mature woman named Frau Ikawa, who majored in the German language at Sofia University, practices Tai-Chi. She used to have a knee pain. But She is getting over it. Secondly an 83-year-old man from Shikoku Island. At a breakfast table he used honey instead of spreading butter on the toast, he eats salad, fruits and yogurt. The trick here is that he doesn't eat ham and eggs and sausages. As for lunch he eats Sanuki Noodle, his hometown mea

I lived in Minoo from September 2006 until February 2010. I went to Goethe Institute in Bentencho by train. When I had a free time I dropped in my favorite coffee shop on the Minoo shopping arcade. One day I took a look at a pamphlet, "Minoo Mail." I said to myself, "Hmmm, Harry Poitter Club. Not bad That sounds interesting.!" In January 2007, I jumped into the club. At that time we were reading the fourth book of Harry Potter series. !Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" It was the first time I met Mrs. Murakami. I'm sorry, I have a dim memory of her, as she is a reserved woman. All I remember is that Mr. Shimazu always asked Mrs. Ishibashi a lot of questions about Harry's behavior and Hermionie's reactions. Did Harry fall in love with Hermionie? When it comes to an intimate relaltionship between them, Mr. Shimazu and Mrs. iIhibashi started arguing. For the former is for Harry and the latter is for Hermionie. At last Mrs.Murakami had a say and t

Mr. Tani is a 64-year-old executive director of Yomiuri newspaper. He lives with his wife on the 13th floor of the same condo where I live. He was born in Mie Prefecture and graduated from Kyoto University. He allegedly majored in French Literature. Up until today he suffered from lung cancer twice. Nevertheless he ran up the corporate ladder to the vice president. Looks like he's a go-getter. My daughter happened to work at the society department where Mr. Tani presided. As the Japanese office room is open without partitions, they had a small talk for example about the weather, the recent society incidents and my family. All of a sudden Mr. Tani brought up the subject of philosophy, because he studied Sartre, Rousouer and Gluckman, all ot them French philosophers. My daughter didn't know what he was talking about. After she considered for a moment, she took the plunge. She confided in that she was a great-grand-child of Nishida Kitaro. Mr. Tani was aghast. He said, "Na

At the end of this month my daughter is going to India. It's a four-day-trip. She will fly with ANA from Itami Airport via Narita Airport to New Delhi. She's already booked a hotel there. She's on a sightseeing trip with her business counterpart. The moment I heard India, I thought it was a dangerous country. It has a possibility that her handbag, passport and belongings will be stolen, as there are many robbers in the country. Well, I'm not allowed to get in detail what she is actually going to do out there.She won't deliberately let me know her schedule. She only asked me to lend her my digital camera, I said, "Sure, but can you lend me your IC recorder?" She said, "No problem. That's a deal." I was on the top of the world, because for one thing I could record my own voice into the recorder while I read a German book aloud." I'll be able to brush up on my German pronunciation. Besides I could look into her photos secretly, wh

Last Thrusday I went to Karaoke Bar by the name of ("Cote Dazur") after this lesson was over. I reserved a Karaoke room for one hour. I sung four songs in German and five songs in English. The following is the list of songs I sung. 1. "99 Luftballons" by Nena                                       ("99 Airships") 2. "Sie liebt dich" by Beatles                                      ("She loves you") 3. "Komm zu mir deine Hand" by Beatles                     ("I wanna hold your hand") 4. "Wo sind die Blumen geblieben?" by Kingstone Trio     ("Where have all the flowers gone?") 5. "GI Blues" by Presley 6. "Jailhouse Rock" by Presley 7. "Yesterday once more" by Carpenters 8. "Only Yesterday" by Carpenters 9. "Touch me when you dance with me" by Carpenters Except the song "99 Luftballons" all the lyrics were subtitled in English on

On the 6th of March I picked up Hidechen at the Imperial Hotel. Every two months we read the book of Anne Frank together. Hidechen is a 40- year- old something guy with whom I learned German at Goethe Institute. Immediately we sat at a table in a UCC coffee shop. The meeting last four solid hours. Actually it started at 11:00 and ended at 3:00 in the afternoon. I was taken aback when I saw him "equipped" with a Smartphone, I- Phone and tablet. He doesn't use a notebook like me. He installed WORD on the tablet and wrote German sentences and Japanese sentences on the gadget. It seemed he had a lot of knoledge on these communication tools. It's all Greek to me. When Hidechen wanted to take a break and went into the men's room, my wife and my 37 -year -old daughter appeared out of thin air. As soon as she saw me, she just smiled at me and went away. They are gone. Oh shit! I could have introduced Hidechen to them. After Hidechen and I were done with reading the

Today I'd like to introduce to you my Skype friend. He's an enjoyable 64-year-old American named Sullivan. Last Sunday he started chatting with me. Immediately he called me. I was surprised that he phoned me, because we have been always chatting. It's been 7 years since I heard his voice last time. Four years ago he suffered from prostate cancer. That's a shame. Just a couple of months ago he divorced his wife. He now lives with his son, Johnny. He called his wife a bitch. So I surmise that there must have been obnoxious struggles between him and his ex-wife. when he made up mind to separate. . He explained to me, the bitch means a mean, cold and nasty woman. That reminds him of Hilary Clinton.. Is Bill Clinton pussy- whipped? So am I. Then we started talking about American presidential candidates. Donald Trump is eccentric..He is a businessman, not a politician. Asshole! What is commendable about Sullivan is his volunteering spirit. As soon as he overcame the disea

In my family there are four computers. My daughter has the latest operating system, Windows 10. I envy her because her computer runs smoothly. But I can't help it. She uses her computer for her office work, too. As for me I have three computers in my room, an 8 -year- old desktop with windows Vista , Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional. All of them run slowly. According to Microsoft it would be better to use only Vista, because they stopped supplying Windows Update for Windows XP in 2014. The problem of the Windows Vista is that all of my family uses it. My daughter has no printer in her room. She sometimes sends G-mail to Vista and gets copies. My wife likes surfing her favorite websites, i.e. opera singers, Shirasu Jiro's blog and so on. Once a week she orders me to fill out the form of Kitchen Ale, a delivery company, for buying food, vegetables and rice. Otherwise she uses neither WORD nor EXCEL. So, I use WORD for this  English lessons material and

In November 1975 I flew to Europe with my wife on a package tour. There were also 5-6 newly-wed honeymoon couples. on board. First we landed in Vienna. Immediately my wife bought a fur coat. Fur clothing was in fashion in those days. She looked great in that fur coat. I thought she was an actress. When I looked around, I was surprised to see a woman who was one of our tour members. She wore the same fur coat as my wife's. I surmised that fashion forces human beings to follow the same new trend. Looks like they competed for attention. Both of them looked gorgeous against the background of the coldest weather in Europe. In Paris my wife was big into brand bags like Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Hermes. We took a taxi. My wife showed the driver a clipping from a Japanese fashion magazine, "Ann Ann &Non Non" I doubted he could understand our destination, because it was all written in Japanese. He just nodded and answered "Si! Si!" Soon we arrived at the Louis V

Recently I have worn out my favorite sports shoes. I bought it more than ten years ago. Moreover I wear them every morning when I go to the supermarket. The brand name is "Asics" manufactured by Onitsuka. I like the shoemaker, Onitsuka, because I once visited its factory in Taiwan in the 70s. When it rained, water soaked through the rift in the toe part. Sometimes I applied glue to the small openings and fixed it. My wife said, "It's about time you bought new ones." I agreed with her. I went to a shoe-store near Minami-Morimach Station.The rumor has it, that the shoe store sells the cheapest shoes in Osaka. A young employee greeted me cheerfully. He said, "We're on a clearance sale". I glimpsed at white sports shoes and asked him for the price. He said, "Two thousand Yen on the dot." I thought,"Not bad" and tried them on. It was too tight for me. I looked around the other ones. Unfortunately there were casual shoes for wom

Last Thursday I met an Indonesian group at the cross-section in front of City Hall. The group consisted of about 10 people, most of them were men. I asked a friendly-looking young woman who wore a scarf. I hesitated for the moment, because the Germans criticize Islamic people who wear a scarf. Moreover I haven't spoken to  foreigners in English for years. But I took the plunge. I said to her, "Excuse me.Where are you from?" She answered,"From Indonesia." I replied, "Great!" The purpose of their visiting Japan was to learn an excellent Japanese railway system. They had already stayed one week. They were going to stay another one week. I said, "It's a shame that you Indonesians adopted Bullet Train ( "Shinkansen") system from China at the last minute." She said, "Sorry, I know that Japan is better when it comes to building a railway. That's why we are here." I was surprised to hear such humble words. It seemed th

In written English,the ending - ed forms the past tense of regular verbs. However, in spoken English, the - ed ending can have three different pronunciations. It can sound like t (as in stopped); it can sound like (d) (as in lived) or it can sound like (id) (as in loaded). Excercise A : The ending - ed sounds like (t) when the last sound in the present tense verb is voiceless. The sounds (p), (k), (f), (s), (sh) (as in wash), and (tsch) (as in watch) are voiceless. Examples: talk ed cross ed laugh ed Read the following words and sentences aloud. Be sure to pronounce the -ed in the past. 1. look ed 2. miss ed 3, stopp ed 4, pick ed 5. wish ed 6. Mom bak ed a pie 7. He finish ed early. 8. Tara stopp ed singing. (sample sentence) On the 11th of January I was waiting for Hidechen at the shuttle bus station by Imperial Hotel. I look ed at  my watch. He was 10 minutes late. But I finally pick ed him up. I was glad to see him again. The moment I saw him, he apologiz

In December I sent almost 30 New year Cards to my relatives, former colleagues, bosses and school friends. Most of them are living far away from Osaka. Since writing New Years Cards each year is getting kind of formality, I find it a little sick and tired. Therefore I made up my mind to skip them at the age of 70. Three years to go. So I wrote this time rather politely in favor of receivers' taste. For instance, Tanaka-kun, my best friend at elementary school. "Please take a good picture and upload it on Facebook and let me enjoy it." Mr. Takahashi, my former boss at Teijin. "Come to think of it, you were the coolest boss and best boss I reported to." Ms.Muto, a female employee at Teijin and used to sit beside me in the office. "The reason I take part in English Class is to prevent me from getting senile." I wrote all the cards with my hand on the front side and the flip side as well. On the 1st of January I receive 10 New Year Cards. I was