maiko-san

As I worked for Teijin Amoco in Tokyo, we Japanese received Christmas cards early in December from America. It was a little bit surprising because Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December. I took it for granted that I could write gradually Christmas cards in the middle of December. But I was really glad to see colorful Christmas cards with Santa Claus and white snow. In the course of time I retired from the company. Then I went to Goethe-Insitute and took the course of Mrs Rohde, a German teacher. She often taught us how to write postcards in German during the lesson. So I gave it a try to write a Christmas card to her. Immediately she sent me a beautiful Christmas card, too. Unlike the flashy American Christmas card, it is a reserved and thoughtful. I like the German way. After that we even exchanged New Year's cards, too. Regarding New year's cards I write to about 30 people that is my former colleagues, my former boss and my best friends at a university. Ma...

(Indtroduction) Recently Islamic terrorists are on the rise again in Paris. I was in Paris almost 40 years ago when I went on a honeymoon trip there. At that time everything was new to me, Eifel Tower, Luvre Museum,  Lui Vuitton handbags and beautiful French belles and all. It's a shame that Paris is now in a state of chaos. But I believe the struggle between the Islamic world and the European's Christian world is impossible. Because the Europeans went on a crusade to Jerusalem about 1000 years ago and killed many Muslems. This incident reminds me of my own experience that is dangerours, sad, uncomfortable and very scary. (Body) On March 1995, I escaped from Tokyo Metropolitan Subway which was splashed with sarin (poisnous substance) by the religous terrorist group named Aum Shinri-kyo-Religion. I was waiting for a subway train at Kasumigaseki donwntown Tokyo on my way to work. I waited for a long time. But the train never pulled in. Meanwhile the pl...

On the 3rd of November I invited Hidenori to a cafe near my house. We read together a German book entitled "The Dairy of a Young Girl." We took a  style of Harry Potter Club. First, Hidenori read and translated his assigned pages, and then I read my part and translated into Japanese. It's been almost a year since this book-reading club started. What's special about the last meeting was that I prepared a Japanese version of the dairy published by Bunshun Paperbacks. Usually my direct translation is choppy, but Hidenori understands what I wanted to say. Sometimes we are stuck with the difficult German grammatical usages. As a last resort we relied on the Japanese version for reference. It was helpful but it took solid three hours to finish the meeting. We started at 11 am and ended at 2 pm. After the meeting I took him down to a bread-coffee shop on the first floor. As Hidenori comes all the way from Takatsuki, I bought him lunch. We ate spaghetti. It was good. ...

One one Sunday evening Mrs. Braun called me. She used to be my German teacher at Goethe  Institute. Now she's retired and lives with her Japanese husband in Arashiyama, Kyoto. Since I did't expect that she called me up so sudden, I couldn't speak German well. I just wrote down key words such as an exhibition, Japanese dance, "Suita" Theater and the next Sunday. I got on the internet immediately and checked out on the key words. Presumbably Mrs Braun is willing to invite my wife to her Japanese dance performance at Suita Culture Center. Then I told my wife what Mrs. Braun was up to. My wife was glad to hear the invitation. The next morning I practiced a telephone call in German by reading a textbook entitled,"The successful telephone conversation in German". Then I called Mrs. Braun. Up front she said, "Guten Morgen!" But after that she started speaking Japanese. I was a little bit disappointed, though. I told her that my wife was going to s...

Oka-chin was one my best friends at Seikei School. He was kind of a swarthy good-looking boy. As a matter of fact he wanted to look like Troy Donahue, an American movie actor who starred in "Surf Side Six." I once visited his house in Kichijoji. Oka-chin said, "Hey Kinko (my nickname), you're always welcome. But don't wear an Aloha shirt when you come to see me." At that time Aloha shirts were in fashion, but only Yakusa wore them. His mother was an amicable person who came from Shizuoka Prefecture. Oka-chin often said that people in Shizuoka are good-natured because of the warm weather throughout the year. His father's profession was related with management of movie theaters. Thanks to Oka-chin he took me to various movie theaters in Tokyo. I was able to see a lot of movies for free. Firstly, we hanged around in the neighborhood of Shinjuku 3 Chome near Isetan Department Store. Then we went to see the movie entitled "Chushingura（忠臣蔵）". Se...

Our condo was built in 2000 and it's time for maintenance. For the last three months the condo is being renovated. They put up iron poles around the condo to hold a gondola that goes up to as high as the 30th floor. I often bump into workmen with a helmet in the elevator and in the corridor. Sometimes one of the three elevators are used exclusively by them. That's a shame. They painted the walls near the elevators and hanged a sign, "Just painted!" I hate this unpleasant smell. It stinks a lot for a while. They used the gondola to climb up to the 20th floor where I live. The tiles on the balcony have been already removed. Soon they will conduct water-proof painting on the surface of the balcony. It'll take more 2 months before the whole job is done. I'm nervous when the gondola is going up and down. To protect privacy my wife and my daughter strictly lock their windows and draw their curtains. As for me it never bothers me watching the workmen hangrin...

Her name is Natasha Koba, who is happily married to her husband with her son. We started exchanging email in 2002 when she lived in a city by the name of Novosibirsk, in the Siberian district. She is a dentist. Once she sent me a couple of her pictures .She was sitting on the bank by the river. She was surrounded by a lot of beautiful flowers on the plateau field that stretched as far as the eye could see. I have never seen such a big land. She looked chubby but intelligent. In return I sent her my family's pictures. At that time I worked for Teijin Medical in Saitama. Since I didn't get along with other young medical representative, I was no longer a saleman. I was only responsible for machine's maintenance. It was a dull and toilsome job because every day I visited a couple of patients' home to check oxgeon concentrater machine. To kill the time I wrote her email twice or three times a week. Suddenly my wife visited me from Osaka. As usual I got email from Natasha o...