Exclusive Feast

 

 Yakudoshi, unlucky age, is a Japanese traditional way of thinking. All 42-year-old males might be unlucky. To avoid bad luck, people in Yakudoshi are recommended to contribute to society. Some people visit shrines and pray. Some people do charity activities. Of course, some people don’t care. There are some feasts organized by Yakudoshi people in some areas.

 My hometown has a traditionally special feast for Yakudoshi. I took part in the feast when I was 42 years old.

 When I was working for the feast, a friend of mine complained about the feast. His hometown is a different place. He came to my hometown after he grew up. He wanted to participate in the feast in my hometown. But the members refused him.

 I didn’t say anything. But I couldn’t understand why they refused him.

 Our feast was actually just one day cleaning up the shrine and one day giving people alcohol and snacks. Everyone should participate.

 The main event of our Yakudoshi was receiving a ritual for purification in the shrine on January 1. Most events were finished at that time. After that, we had a farewell party.

 All members were childhood friends. But we were all adults. We talked and reacted as decent adults until that time. At that party, we had alcohol.

 We started calling each other stupid nicknames again, which we all used to do when we were children. We started the childish games we all used to play, like pro wrestling, as if we traveled to the old days through a time machine. It was almost a dream. I enjoyed it. It might be the essence of this feast.

 But we should not embarrass people from other towns. If there was such a person, we had to act as decent adults.

 Sorry, people from other towns, our feast is exclusive. We want to drink alcohol with childhood friends in an exclusive situation. If you want to enjoy this kind of feast, please produce it in your hometown.

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Picture by masakuniterui

 

The Guard in Osaka

 Osaka is the second city in Japan. I had lived there for six years. I love Osaka.

 One of my early days in Osaka, I was looking for the Washington hotel. In those day, no one had smart phone. If you lost your way, you needed to ask the people around there.

 I asked the people there. But that was near from Shin-Osaka station for the Shinkansen. Unfortunately, most of people around Shin-Osaka station were travelers. They said “I am not a local person here”. So, I couldn’t find where it is. I walked around. I found a guard. I thought “he is working here as a guard. He might be a local person here”. Then I asked him. He answered.

“It is difficult to say.”

 I couldn’t understand. I asked him again.

“I am talking about the Washington hotel. It might be a huge building. Is that located some complex place?”

He pointed out the building in his back and spoke.

“This is the Washington hotel.”

 He was a guard for the Washington hotel. I was already there. It might be difficult to point it out to me.

 If you watch TV in Japan, you will watch many comedians from Osaka. Generally, people in Osaka love humor. This is one of reasons I love Osaka.

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Picture by Mon-chan

Miserable Sick Cat

 

If you have a pet, sometimes you need to go to a veterinary clinic.

             One day I visited such a clinic with my cat. I was sitting in the waiting room. Then a miserable sick cat was taken by the owner. The cat looked like it might have vomited blood. The area around its mouth was bloody red. It might have also had sick eyes. The upper side of its face was unnaturally blue.

I was really worried about the cat. If my cat had the same disease, could I still love my cat?

Then the nurses in the veterinary clinic looked at the cat and laughed. I was shocked. How could they laugh at the miserable sick cat?

The cat’s owner said, “I put makeup on her.”

The red around her mouth was lipstick. The blue around her eyes was eyeshadow. I felt relieved. There was no miserable sick cat.

 

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Relaxing Atmosphere

 

A friend of mine is a designer, but he was a chef in a French restaurant when he was young. I thought he had a unique career.

It might have been difficult for him to become a French chef. He might have studied for a long time. He might have spent so much time and effort. Why did he quit such a great job? One day I asked him this question.

He answered, “As a French chef, I needed to work on holidays. I hated it.”

I said, “But a chef can rest on weekdays. On weekdays, there are not many people at resorts. You could enjoy resorts without crowds.”

He answered, “That was the part I hated most. I can’t relax at a resort without crowds.”

I finally get the idea. There are many people at resorts on holidays, but having a lot of people at these resorts can be relaxing.

I have had experience as a stage actor. If an actor got nervous, the other actors started to feel nervous. Nervousness might be infectious. On the other hand, relaxation might also be infectious. If you go to resorts on holidays, you can mingle with many relaxed people. You might feel relaxed.

Dear theatrical friends, I know it is difficult for you to have days off on holidays. If you can, please have a day off on a holiday. Please visit a resort. There might be many people who might infect you with their relaxation.

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Wandering Intermediate Learner

I am studying foreign languages. I have heard the term “wandering intermediate learner.” This means that intermediate learners often have a difficult time learning.

If you start to study a foreign language, it is easy to find a textbook for beginners. It is also easy to find a classroom for beginners. In general, it is easy to start. However, for intermediate learners, the learning process suddenly becomes difficult. Most bookstores don’t have enough textbooks for intermediate learners. You can buy a foreign book from a foreign country, but if you can read the foreign book without a dictionary, then you are not an intermediate learner; you are an advanced learner.

If you are lucky, then you can find a textbook for intermediate learners. If the textbook is very interesting, then you are super lucky. In most cases, this does not happen. Most intermediate learners might have different fields of interest. If the textbook writer wrote material that is interesting to you, then the book might be interesting to you. If the writer wrote about topics that you are not interested in, then the book might be boring.

I have taken the TOEFL many times. It’s a test for students who want to study at a university in the United States. In my time, I was sure there was a test writer who was really interested in desert animals. In the TOEFL, there were many stories about desert animals. Of course, I was not interested in this. I was not so lucky.

It is difficult to find a class for intermediate learners. I think the most difficult part of such a class is that there are too many classmates at different levels in the class. Some students are almost beginners, while others are almost advanced learners. It is very difficult to study in the same classroom.

I recommend taking one-on-one classes. You can have a teacher for yourself, but this might be expensive. Furthermore, it might be bad if you and the teacher don’t work well together. Overseas study is another good idea, but it is more expensive. You have to leave your family and friends for a while. It might be difficult for some people.

Another difficulty for intermediate learners is maintaining motivation. Beginners start to learn because they have extra time and effort. They can easily feel themselves developing, and they have many opportunities to find the best results.

Intermediate learners have a long way to go to become advanced learners. They don’t have enough self-development opportunities. This might be because of the competition, the memorizing speed, and the forgetting speed. Some friends who start studying together might quit. If you temporarily quit studying, it is easy for you to forget everything.

An old Chinese saying goes, “Persons get old easily, and it is difficult to learn.” I am talking about studying a foreign language, but one can say the same thing about other fields. It is easy to begin, but it is difficult to continue.

I can say just one thing. If you keep studying, you might be an intermediate learner who can become an advanced learner.

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A Night in Shanghai

 

 

In the 1990s, before my mother had Alzheimer’s disease, one of my mother’s friends built a factory in Shanghai. My mother was invited to the opening ceremony of the factory. I went with her.

After the ceremony, I was free to do whatever I wanted. In Japan, there are many movies and songs about Shanghai. I thought it was a wonderful place. Roaming around a wonderful city might be great! I thought. I started to walk from the hotel.

As soon as I came out of the hotel, many people looked at me and said in Japanese, “Watch! Watch! DVD! DVD!”

I was surrounded by sellers. I thought they could tell I was a Japanese traveler because I had come from a hotel. If I had mingled with the crowd, no one could have guessed that I was a Japanese traveler.

Then I started to run, but when I stopped at a different block of the town, more sellers screamed at me in Japanese, “Watch! Watch!” or “DVD! DVD!”

I couldn’t escape from the sellers. I couldn’t roam around the city. I returned to the hotel. How can these sellers tell that I am Japanese? I thought.

A few years later, I started to study Chinese. I asked my Chinese teacher about the incident.

She answered, “It’s because of your clothes and motions.”

These days, there are many people from China in Japan, but I can’t tell who’s Japanese and who’s Chinese based on their clothes and motions. If a person starts to speak in Chinese, then I can tell that the person is Chinese. Can people really guess others’ nationalities based on their clothes and motions?

I live in the Aichi prefecture in Japan. I have met a person who insisted that she could tell between people from the west or east side of Aichi. I find it hard to believe that.

I talked with a man who had traveled to India for a few months. His story went like this. In the beginning of his trip, people in India treated him as a Japanese traveler. He ate the local food, wore local clothes, and talked with local people. He really mingled with the people in India. At the end of his trip, people at the hotel or airport didn’t believe that he was Japanese.

If I could, I would want to travel with a long-range plan.

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Preaching

 

My grandfather was from Toyohashi. His grave is there. My mother lost him when she was in the first grade. The grave had a lot of meaning for her. When she was healthy, we often visited the grave.

 

Usually, we also visited the Buddhist temple. The priest served us green tea. And he would engage in Buddhist preaching.

 

But his preaching was very tedious. I am sure he didn’t have a sense of how to preach. I almost started to hate Buddhism.

 

But the green tea that he poured was extremely delicious. I was always surprised by the taste of the tea.

 

Toyohashi is near Shizuoka. Green tea is a well-known product in Shizuoka. The priest could even get good tea leaves at an economical price.

 

He always poured tea in front of us. So, I bought green tea in Shizuoka, and I poured it in the same way as he did. But it didn’t have the same taste. Is that difference because of Buddhist magic?

 

I used to visit the grave and the temple with my mother. My motivation was to drink the tea. At the time, I wished the preaching was more interesting.

 

Now, the priest has passed away. I can’t taste the tea forever. Looking back on it, I miss the tedious preaching, too.

 

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