maiko-san

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 ...

From time to time I chat with an American by the name of William Anderson over Skype. Our conversation goes like this. I say, "Hello, Bill. How are you doing this evening?" He says, "Good morning. I am making coffee and still yawning. It's cool and beautiful there." He likes talking about his family and his work. His wife named Peggy goes to House Depot nearby to complement Bill's salary. Bill is 63 years old. He works for Illustration and Graphic Company. He has some fun projects to do at work and he's looking forward to digging into them. He has a 20-year-old son, who always plays a Japanese game "Pokemon" and "Cosplay" with his friends in the garage. His son seems to be the apple of Bill's eye. He asked me, "How's your German Learning going?" I told him that I have been a bit dissapointed at Germany, because they don't want to tell from the bottom of their hearts how they feel about the Holocaust. They deli...

Angela Merkel celebrated a landslide victory with her Christian Democratic Union having fallen short of an outright parliamentary majority. The scale of truimph is due to the collapse of the Free Democratic Party, which has supported CSU/CDU coaltion ever since the end of the Second World War. Now FDP has no qualificattion to represent the Bundestag. On top of that Merkel had merely stand back and watch opposition parties' suicide.They eat each other and paid the price for failure to come grip with reality. What is new to us, is that the advent of  a party, AfD (Alternative for Germany) which popped up last April. It is interesting to know that one of their policies is to get back to the old currency of Mark instead of EURO. Do the Germans really want to walk out on EURO? Rumor has it, that the EURO crisis would be solved if the Germans took up Mark. For dibillitating countries like France, Greece and Ireland could discount the value of EURO and have competitive exporting capabili...

When the days are getting shorter, it's time for robust soup, roast meat and inflammable cakes. Especially  we crave for strong aroma, intensive vegetables and various fruits. If you are a vegitarian, it's likely you would end up eating red beets, cabbage und pumpkings. We enjoy eating autumn food every which way. It'a a shame I can't tell you autumn recipe because I can not cook. So I'd like to tell you about typical autuman fruits in Japan. They are pears, kaki and grapes. The best of all I like the red- yellow kaki . Kaki -tress grow only in China, Korea and Japan.When I was a kid, I used to climb up a kaki -tree in the garden and reaped kaki for my family. It's usual that people peel a kaki before they eat. But I love eating kaki with  the peel. Since kaki's upper part of the peel contains lots of nutritious fibrestuff, sweet and juicy substance, it's good for digestion. Kaki is also a season word for Japanese Haiku. I'm going to qu...