僥倖

君のこゑに我揺蕩う

君の言葉に我揺蕩う

去りがたし喋喋喃喃

離れがたしこの僥倖

I Tried Using Telepathy

I know I'm writing about quite an odd topic today. I was busy these days so I'm broken now.

Even if I want to tell something to an English speaker, what I can say is less than half of what I really want to. It's too inconvenient to speak English. This inconvenience has been maintaining my motivation for studying English, but what I want to tell is so much that I'm gradually getting tired of it these days. Then I hit upon a good idea!

If I could use telepathy, I woudn't need English!

My best friend Google told me how to use telepathy. Thanks to the recent technology, we can find out a lot of things and odd things on the internet nowadays. 

According to that website, it's easy to send and receive telepathy. Australia's indigenous, Aborigines used to use it to tell about hunting to their family from far away. It also said what we should do to use it;

1 imagine the face of the person whom you want to tell something

2 speak clearly in your mind

3 if the receiver is calm, the person could receive your telepathy

        Ehhhh?!   Really?!

I doubted this, but I tried sending it by way of experiment.

Then! I heard something saying, "Okay" clearly in my mind. The next day, I got a call from that person at 10 pm, which is the exact time I had hoped for!! Was it just a coincidence?

However, since she was an English speaker, I had to speak English after all. I mistook the means for the end.

As you know, I'm broken so I hope you can laugh this fantastic topic.

Love Sick Causes True Sick?!

When I felt some pain in my stomach, I thought it's because of my unrequited love. When I think about something too much, I feel pain there on rare occasions. That's why I thought it's because of this hopeless love that I've been thinking about recently. 

After a while I felt sick and got a fever. Then my cousin who came to my home to help me move said, "It is not because of that. It is because of the old cake you ate."

Gah!   That's possilbe! 

Usually, I don't hesitate to eat foods that are a little past expiration, but since I was a bit busy, my immune system was weakened so it might be food poisoning or something. I thought I was a sensitive person, but I might have been wrong. The symptoms which I've had until now might also have been food poisoning or something. In such a terrible condition, I had to move to a new apartment. And now I have to unpack! Heeeelp meeee!

Tokyo

phew... everything in Tokyo changes rapidly like this video.

いとわびし

人知れぬ

思ひのみこそ

わびしけれ

我がなげきをば

我のみぞ知る

想うひとに気持ちを知ってもらえないのはつらいものです

自分の嘆きは自分にしか分かりません

Could You Give Me Your Mouth, Not Hands?

 

I usually buy several boxes of water at a time. I especially like regular Perrier, but the last time I ordered lemon flavored Perrier by mistake! When I realised that my order was wrong on the confirmation page, I tried to go back to the previous page, but I clicked the "Buy" button instead. T_T  It was too late. On that web site, once you order something, you can't cancel it. If it were lime water, it would have been better than the lemon one. I willed my finger to click another button, but it was being silly. 

The box under the lemon's one is regular Perrier. I don't like lemon Perrier... I will have to force myself to drink it for a while. I wish it will be gone soon. 

I'm crazy about water, so my refrigerator at home is full with various types of water bottles. Now I realised that the water bottles in my fridge are very international.

The green bottle, Sanpellegrino is from Italy.
Evian is from France.
Chateldon is also France. This water is quite costly!
Voss is from Norway.

How Amazing My Workplace is!

Since two of my students were absent from my lesson, I had two hours free time on Thursday. When I was about to go to a cafe to kill time, I heard a beautiful piano melody coming from the room next to mine, so I decided to stay and listen instead.

The person who was playing the piano is one of my colleagues and the pianist who broke my piano at home the other day. Probably, her students were also absent. I sometimes go to her room to pass time, but yesterday I felt like listening to her play the piano. I read a translated book which was written by a French author while I was thinking that this music may be one of Schumann's pieces.

I realised how amazing my workplace is!

I can read a beautiful Japanese book and listen to beautiful music there. Live performance is much better than CD even if there is a wall between us. I tried to ignore the poor piano melody which was coming from the opposite room and listen to her piano playing. If I was in the same room as the pianist, I couldn't concentrate on reading the book so this distance was comfortable for me.

"Would you like to use a larger room with the grand piano?" The school staff sometimes suggest this kindly because my speciality is not the piano and I use a small room with an upright piano, but even so, I wanted to stay there to listen and so declined her suggestion.

The pianist was playing the piano very carefully so I was wondering if she had a concert coming up soon.
I had a very happy time. ^^

Liberté

Sur mes cahiers d'écolier

Sur mon pupitre et les arbres

Sur le sable sur la neige

J'écris ton nom

Sur toutes les pages lues

Sur toutes les pages blanches

Pierre sang papier ou cendre

J'écris ton nom

Sur les images dorées

Sur les armes des guerriers

Sur la couronne des rois

J'écris ton nom

Sur la jungle et le désert

Sur les nids sur les genêts

Sur l'écho de mon enfance

J'écris ton nom

Sur les merveilles des nuits

Sur le pain blanc des journées

Sur les saisons fiancées

J'écris ton nom

Sur tous mes chiffons d'azur

Sur l'étang soleil moisi

Sur le lac lune vivante

J'écris ton nom

Sur les champs sur l'horizon

Sur les ailes des oiseaux

Et sur le moulin des ombres

J'écris ton nom

Sur chaque bouffée d'aurore

Sur la mer sur les bateaux

Sur la montagne démente

J'écris ton nom

Sur la mousse des nuages

Sur les sueurs de l'orage

Sur la pluie épaisse et fade

J'écris ton nom

Sur les formes scintillantes

Sur les cloches des couleurs

Sur la vérité physique

J'écris ton nom

Sur les sentiers éveillés

Sur les routes déployées

Sur les places qui débordent

J'écris ton nom

Sur la lampe qui s'allume

Sur la lampe qui s'éteint

Sur mes maisons réunis

J'écris ton nom

Sur le fruit coupé en deux

Dur miroir et de ma chambre

Sur mon lit coquille vide

J'écris ton nom

Sur mon chien gourmand et tendre

Sur ses oreilles dressées

Sur sa patte maladroite

J'écris ton nom

Sur le tremplin de ma porte

Sur les objets familiers

Sur le flot du feu béni

J'écris ton nom

Sur toute chair accordée

Sur le front de mes amis

Sur chaque main qui se tend

J'écris ton nom

Sur la vitre des surprises

Sur les lèvres attentives

Bien au-dessus du silence

J'écris ton nom

Sur mes refuges détruits

Sur mes phares écroulés

Sur les murs de mon ennui

J'écris ton nom

Sur l'absence sans désir

Sur la solitude nue

Sur les marches de la mort

J'écris ton nom

Sur la santé revenue

Sur le risque disparu

Sur l'espoir sans souvenir

J'écris ton nom

Et par le pouvoir d'un mot

Je recommence ma vie

Je suis né pour te connaître

Pour te nommer

C'est mon mémo français. :)

Kiss Me Here

I got a message from 浮き雲 living in England the other day. :) Her name reminded me of Tokyo Jihen's guitarist because his name is also 浮雲. Although her name may not have anything to do with that guitarist at all. Another friend wrote about the singer of the group on his blog. These things made me recall their songs. 

I'll paste one of my favorite songs of theirs here. The singer wrote this song, "koko de kisu shite" which means "kiss me here" when she was a teen and it was released in 1999, but I think it is not old-fashioned still now. Actually, this singer also has a solo career.
I translated its lyrics. If you need them, please refer below.

Enjoy it!

Kiss me here
I never be able to give up on you
So never say good bye and kiss me once again
I would never shed tears in front of you
Meaning that this is to fit for you who are anarchism
The person who can put handcuffs on you like today's Sid Viciou is only me

Don't go anywhere else
I hate being alone without you
I'm seeing only you
Kiss me here right now

I know that you are looking at other girls wearing other school uniforms
Don't you feel a stinging pain around back of your head with my eyes?
I'm not kind of beautiful or gorgeous types women, but look at me

Don’t go
Plumb my ideology any time
I love your long eyelash, delicate big hands and everything
There is no one like you anywhere
I'm seeing only you
Kiss me here right now

Don't go
I hate being alone without you
I'm seeing only you
Kiss me here right now
I feel so nice 'cause you are with me now
It is certain I love you so much baby
I'll never be able to give up on you
So never say good bye and kiss me once again

My favorite place ☆

I like book stores which have huge amounts of books!

in Paris

New York Public library

While I was writing this entry, I tried to search interesting book stores and found this site.

Have fun if you like book stores!

http://www.miragebookmark.ch/most-interesting-bookstores.htm

Death and Life

The other day my close friend safely gave birth to a baby girl. Since I just had a death in my family two months ago, I was so moved by the new life that on the way home, I almost cried.  I never imagined that I would see death and life at the almost same time. It was a really beautiful day.

By the way, in Japan, if a family member dies, the family can't celebrate the coming New Year to get into mourning. According to Japanese culture, I can't send a New Year's card to my friends this year, but I'd like to keep in touch with them so I'm wondering if it's possible to send Christmas cards instead of a New Years's card. Yeah, I probably can!


I miss my friends!
I miss my special someone!


I might have exaggerated today's title compared to this topic.
Thank you for reading this gloomy topic. I'm okay.

I just felt like writing something like this today.

The Things That I Want to Forget Are Unforgettable Things

How can I forget about it?

I've been thinking about my biggest concern for seven months. 

I'm wondering if I can ever forget about it

I want to cure myself of this heartache!

神無月って・・・

神無月って神がいない月じゃん！と今日ふと思った。

なんか不吉・・・でしょ？

気になる由来は、こちら↓

「水無月」と同じく「の」を意味する格助詞。つまり「神の月」。

とか、10月に神々が出雲大社に集まり諸国にいなくなるため「神無月」になったとか、諸説色々。

英語で書くつもりだったけど、

どうしても神無月に間に合わせたくて今日は日本語で。

これも言葉の勉強だから、たまにはいいのです。

そして今日はハロウィンでしたね。

ってかハロウィンって何だっけ？収穫祭だったっけ？

イギリス人に聞いたら、

「アメリカ発祥のお祭りだからよく分からないけど、

楽しいからパーティーするんだ～」

だって。ま、いいけど・・・

で、やっぱり気になってこれも調べたところ、

「ヨーロッパを起源とする民族行事で・・・」 

おいおい！アメリカじゃないじゃん！ 

本当の国際人は、自国のことを海外に説明できる人らしいよ。

本当の国際人になるため、日本を勉強しよう思った瞬間でした。

あ、書いている間に霜月に。しまった・・・

Ah,,,,

我が命の

全けむ限り

忘れめや

いや日に異には

思ひ増すとも

私がこの世に生きている限り、あの方を忘れる事があるでしょうか。

日増しにますます恋しさの募ってゆく事はあっても。

au secours.....

Pourquoi ce sentiment de solitude ?

J'en ai plein le dos moi-même. 

Je suis trop intelligent. 

Je sus tout. 

Il n'y a avait pas besoin de ça. 

Today’s Feeling

I feel like operating an excavators. However, I can’t do that. 

Next to my apartment is under the construction so there are some excavators there. 

It seems so much fun if it was not a job!

This is a side note, they are building my new apartment :)

The Toilet Season Has Finished

It's the beginning of the fall season I like. Yay!

Every time when I went out or opened the window, I smelled a fragrant olive this season. It is not so bad, but the smell is too strong for me and like a toilet fragrance. So I feel that the toilet season began at this time every year.

I can't see its trees anywhere around my house, but I can smell its fragrance. You can imagine how strong the smell is, can't you?

Last week, it rained a few days so the flowers of the fragrant olive have fallen. That's why I don't smell it any more!

The toilet season was supposed to finish, but I bought some hair cream a few days ago and it smells like a toilet fragrance. -_-...

My head smelled like a toilet all day yesterday. Unless I throw it away, the toilet season will start again.

Fatigue

People tend to want to eat sweet foods when they are mentally fatigued. On the other hand, people tend to want to eat salty foods when they are physically fatigued.

Does this description fit you?

I want both now. Meaning that I'm exhausted. 

As I wrote here before, these days I can’t sleep well because of my concern. 

Nightmare!

そうですね、確かに。。。

いつかふたりになるためのひとり

やがてひとりになるためのふたり

The Conversation That Shows How Bad My situation Was

Since I got a voice mail from my boss, I called him back.
The following is our conversation.

Me: Hello. I listened to your voice mail now.
Boss: I have a favor to ask you.
Me: Are you driving? I’ll call you later.
Boss: That’s okay. I can keep talking. I want you to do some extra work this weekend blah blah blah...
Me: Ugh... again? Then I’ll...

I then heard the sound of a crash.

Boss: Aaaahhhhh!!!!

Me: Hello? Hello? Hellooooo?
Boss: ..................



Oh, shoot!!    (ﾟ□ﾟ;)!!!!!

After a few hours I got a call from him. As I had imagined, he got into a car accident. I was really worried about him until his call because I thought I might have killed him. I felt that those few hours lasted quite longer than the actual amount of time that passed.

He was in a road junction of highways, but the car in front of him couldn’t join it and stopped, so he hit the car. Usually, nobody stops there!
Both drivers were uninjured. After hearing that, I felt greatly relieved. However, both cars were obviously damaged. He said that the car accident was not my fault, and he can cover the expense with his insurance, but I’m still feeling some responsibility. Ahhhh, I have to meet him tomorrow. I don’t know how I can face him. Next time, even if someone says while driving, “I can keep talking”, I won’t talk!!

I’m glad if you also learned something from reading this entry.

My Recent Odd Behaviour

I haven't sleep well recently because my brain is full of concern. So I'm often half-asleep, especially in the morning.

One morning, I found myself standing in the bathroom holding dishes. I realised that when I was taking dishes for breakfast back, I had passed by the kitchen and gone to the bathroom. After washing the dishes, I was trying to pour water into rubber gloves. Probably, I was still in a dream.

One evening, when I returned home after drinking with my friends, I tried to send an email saying "I really like you" to my special someone. How stupid I am! I had decided that I would never tell him that. This is a long, sad story...

Anyway, deciding never to tell my "special someone" that I like him seems odder than any of the other actions I described, right?

The Painting That I Shed Tears

One of my favorite painter is Klimt because his works include a lot of Japanese elements I like, so when I went to NY, I went to Neue gallery, which also has a delicious restaurant. :p However, the painting that I shed tears was not Klimt’s one. At last I saw a moving painting in a Metropolitan museum.

I stood there motionless while I looked at Claude Monet’s “Ice Floes” and I tried hard to hold back my tears. Honestly, I had not been moved by paintings before that day. The next moment a curator said, "We are closing soon." I was looking at the same painting until the museum closed! No way!

Until then, I didn't know why his works are so popular and privately, I had been thinking with no confidence that Monet had bad sight because almost his works are vague colors.

I didn’t know why I was moved so much. Now I looked at the picture on the internet, but I couldn’t feel anything. The real thing has power which we can’t see.

Peut-on rire de tout?

Oui?   Non?

Je dois terminer une dissertation ce soir.

空虚

我が恋は 

 むなしき空に 

 満ちぬらし 

 思ひやれども 

 行く方もなし

私の恋は むなしい空に満ちているようです

いくらあなたを恋しく思っても 

思いのやり場はありません

あなたの心は他の色で染まっているのです

Impure Motives

How do you keep your motivation for studying someting?

Unfortunately, my motivation for English is from a bitter experience from the past. On the other hand, one of my friends who studies Japanese has a beautiful motive. He can't smoothly communicate with his special someone in Japanese, so he studies Japanese very hard. Recently, his Japanese ability is getting better rapidly.

Our motives are very different and I think that my motives are impure. Compared to him, my motive is so trifling that it doesn't deserve to write here.

I wonder if my studying is making rapid progress when I have a special someone who speaks English.... It can be!

The power of love is terrific.

Strange and Instructive? English Sentences I Learned

When studying English, I sometimes find strange or interesting sentences.

The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.
The more I realize I don’t know, the more I want to learn.

Albert Einstein

The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.
The more I realize I don’t know, the more I keep away from my desk.

Ari


From my text book:
1) I was abducted and assimilated by aliens.
2) Condemning her husband’s laziness, she considered punitive measures.
3) The child was so violent that it took four adults to constrain her.

These sentences have no practical use, but I regretfully memorize only such sentences easily. I told a native English speaker that I memorize a lot strange words. He was surprised at one of the words and said this was his second time ever to hear that word in his life. The word is so terrible that I can’t write it here.

Someone said this: you can’t concentrate on a topic unless you stop paying attention to grammar and can speak languages unconsciously. Capability of doing two things at the same times: singing a song while taking a shower, talking about something while driving, is based on unconsciousness. The most important thing to produce this “unconsciousness” is repetition.

Oh, by writing this entry I memorized the sentences perfectly, so I may be able to use them unconsciously on a planet somewhere if I’m abducted by aliens!

遥かなる・・・

夕暮れは　

雲のはたてに　

ものぞ思ふ　

あまつそらなる　

人をこふとて

夕暮れになると 雲の果てを眺めて  物思いにふける 

空高く  手の届かないところにいる 

君を想って

今日は台風     籠の中の蟻

au secours.....

j'ai sommeil

Confession

Last week, I went out for dinner with two colleagues after the job.
We were talking about some mishaps at school. The school I work at had some problems this summer. 

First of all, one of colleagues sent some teacher’s schedule to every students by her mistakes. I guess the number of the students was about 300. Actually, the computer has such a program. When the school needs to notify some information to students, it is supposed to be sent easily. The person who sent the message felt very sorry and said, 

“I wondered what the button was for and clicked...” 

I couldn’t believe that she clicked before confirming what the button was for, but I understood her urge.

Secondly, some computers didn’t work for a while, and office workers couldn’t find its cause. After a while, those were restored and are still working smoothly. The school had problems on a computer this summer. Then, one of two said, 

“I’m not sure, but I guess the cause of the second problem was me. I was in a very bad situation at that time, but I managed to fix it up.” 

According to him, one day he couldn’t finish his job in a day and took out the computer to his house. The day after he took it out, the accident happened. That’s why the computer spread some virus to others. Meaning that he looked at obscene sites. A general rule at the school, taking out a computer is not allowed. Another woman and I were lost for words, but after all we laughed and were saying “stupid!” 

 
Although it was not a big deal because those computers don’t have an important information except student’s addresses.” Even though it was such a topic, he always talks about everything fluently as if he has seen a normal movie. Our conviction that the cause was him was confirmed. Of course we will never expose his secret. Probably :)

目に見えぬ色

色なしと

人や見るらむ

昔より

深き心に

染めてしものを

これには色がないとあなたは見るでしょうか、

本当は昔から深く思う気持ちで染められているのです

染められていない生地とともにこの歌を贈るなんて、粋ですね

凹凸 are KANJI!!

Unbelievable!

I had been thinking 凹凸 were a kind of world common sign such as ♀♂, but last week I learned that those are Kanji!


凹凸 read : OU TOTSU means : Irregularity, Rough, Ruggedness...

If it was in reverse 凸凹, you can call it DEKOBOKO, which has the same meaning as 凹凸, but this reverse way of reading and writing are not proper. I guess that it's used more in conversation. 

Japanese people sometimes use it and it is a very common word. Perhaps, many of them use it as a sign like what I did. 

Do they look like kanji to you?

They didn't look like it to me!

音なしの滝

思ひせく

心の内の滝なれや

落つとは見れど

音のきこえぬ

想いいを抑えている私の心の滝なのでしょうか

流れ落ちる水は見えるけれども

音は聞えません

そのように恋心を声に出さず抑えているのです

こんなの苦行にちがいない

Where Are Pokemon?

The other day, I saw a painted airplane at the airport and it reminded me of this topic.
Look at the above picture!

A few years ago, I got on an airplane called “Pokemon Jet” which has Pokemon painted on the outside of it.

Do you know what Pokemon are? They are characters from a popular anime in Japan. When I was waiting to board, I saw a very cute boy who looked like he was around four years old. He seemed so excited to get on it. I guess his parents booked the airplane for him since he likes Pokemon. After getting on the airplane, he was looking for Pokemon and asked his mother,

“Where are Pokemon?” 

“I’m sorry Pokemon are not here ahhh...... well........... because they are outside!”

His mother said to him. He started crying his heart out while saying,

“There are no POKEMOOOOON!!!”

The characters are just painted on the airplane so there weren’t decorations of them on the inside at the time. I think he actually thought he would see Pokemon on the airplane. His mother and a flight attendant gave some Pokemon goods to him and they managed to make him calm down. He was cute!!

I envy kids a little because even if I want to cry loudly, I can’t cry like that. It seems good for an adult’s mental health too to cry loudly sometimes, doesn’t it?

On a side note, I didn’t know “Pokemon” is the abbreviation of “pocket monsters” up until recently. This seems like common sense in Japan. ahaha ^^;

Putting on Weight?

Before the concert started, one of the orchestra members said,

“I may be putting on weight because I am very uncomfortable in this dress.” 

When we changed clothes after the concert, she said, 

“Aww, I was wearing a dress over trousers. I forgot to take them off. I never noticed this at all up until now. Ah, that’s why I felt more sick rather than uncomfortable during the concert.”

Nobody noticed that until she said so, but when I looked at her carefully, her lower part’s silhouette was definitely unusual. There is typically one person who does something interesting at the work place, right? I wonder how she could not have noticed!

混沌

暗雲立ち込むる

雷雨の空は

さながら

わがこゝろのごとし

いつの日か この空は 晴れわたるのだろうか・・・

Being Too Beautiful is Banned?!

The ASA, which stands for the Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom, has banned the cosmetic company, Lancom, from placing this advertisement with Julia Roberts in any magazines in the UK because it no longer reflected reality.

According to the ASA’s regulation, when they doubt advertisements, the companies advertising it have to submit previous photo and the retouched one to avoid misleading. However, Lancom has signed a contract with Julia’s company saying that they will never show her “before retouching” photo. That’s why they couldn’t submit the photo and were accused by the ASA.

Lancom admitted that they retouched the photo, but they insisted it has an effect on skin because they launched this new foundation after they examined skin for 10 years to make it perfect. One of the ASA’s members said, “Julia is beautiful so they don’t need to retouch her photo. I’d like the advertisement company to notice this reality.” If so, I wondered why they doubted the photo??

Even if the ASA could see the previous photo, how can they mark off a boundary?

“She is beautiful so this ad makes sense.” Or, “Compared to the ad’s photo, she is not that beautiful.”

I don’t know which answer is misleading. If the previous photo was already this beautiful, it might mean the product’s effect on the skin was minimal; if it was not this beautiful, then the effect would be more noticeable.

The decision to give or not give Lancom the permission on publishing this photo must have been difficult because the ASA members had no way of knowing if Julia’s beautiful appearance in the photo was really due to the foundation. These days, most advertisements are retouched so I don’t think anyone thinks that photos from ads are real, especially if it relates to cosmetics. 

I just wanted to write a comical entry and didn’t want to sound like a critic, but this entry may be criticism because of my English... Anyway, I think the media are biased and don't trust. 

迷走

かきくらす

心の闇にまどひにき

夢うつつとは

世人さだめよ

真っ暗になる心の闇に迷ってしまったのです

夢か現実かは、世間の人が定めればよい

人を疑うのはしんどい

しんどいから疑うのを止めました

あ～2年間も信じてたのに

真実の行方はいづこへ

j'adore

j'adore j'adore

こんなことでまた笑えるかな…

The Violin Which Lost its Way

Musicians insure musical instruments against accidental damage. My friend’s violin was stolen while she was in New York. She was devastated. Three months later, her violin was found in China. She flew to China immediately so she could take her violin back in its original condition. The expenses were covered by her insurance. Musical instruments have a serial number, so it’s difficult to resell them illegally. Even though lost things are found somewhere, we can hardly ever take them back in their original condition, so this was a rare case.

Another friend left her flute on a bullet train, but her flute was found at the terminal which was 500km away from the station where she got on it.
How safe Japan is! or maybe she was just lucky!

Incidentally, I don't insure my musical instrument to save money! hehe ^^;

後悔

ある時は 

ありのすさびに

語らはで

恋しきものと 

別れてぞ知る

遠く離れて、あるいは死別して、

初めてその人に心ひかれていたことに気が付く

なんでもっと優しくできなかったんだろう、

素直になれなかったんだろう・・・

後悔の嵐。

Declaration of Love

My friend’s blog reminded me of this topic.

An Asian man and I were class mates in university. One day, he invited me to a dinner to consult me about something. The consultation was that he had fallen in love with his Japanese frined, but she had a boyfriend, so he didn’t know what he should do. There was little likelihood of getting close to her. The graduation day was close at hand, so he might not have a chance to tell his love to her. I gave some advice and I was thinking that it’s wonderful to love someone deeply while listening to him talking. When he saw me home, he asked if he could do a rehearsal of telling his love with me. I agreed. I had not imagined that he would rehearse so seriously though. He held my hands, looked at my eyes and said:


I really want to be with you.
You are over 30, so you have to have a baby soon.
I think your boyfriend will leave from you in near future.
I would never leave you.
I would never hurt you....blah blah blah.....

What a poor guy! At this point, I thought in my mind that he said "he would never hurt you," but he has hurt her feelings already. Roughly speaking, his story was like that. I couldn’t believe my ears. His talking didn’t make sense because it was full of mistakes. Of course, I pointed out his mistakes, but he never changed his style. Assuming her answer was so easy that I didn’t need to  ask him about it.

I didn't understand at all why he told about her age and her physical things. It is the worst love phrase that I've ever heard of.

I wonder he found a girlfriend. He lives in Europe now. Next month I’m going to Europe so I’m wondering if I should contact him or not.

揺蕩う

わりなくも

寝ても覚めても

恋しきか

心をいづち

やらば忘れむ

That Was my Sweet Delusion

When I was a junior high school student, I sometimes talked with my friend about how I would like to be proposed to by my special someone in the future. My friend liked cellists and hoped that a cellist would play a song by Bach as a proposal for her. I thought that might be nice. If I were her, I wanted my future special someone to play Brahms’s Intermezzo.

I guess we were kind of weird teens.

When I was talking about my favorite music with a pianist during break time at work yesterday, he started playing Brahms’s Intermezzo while saying “I like this piece.” Ohhhhh! His playing reminded me of my school life. However, it would have been more romantic if he is single and he was much younger.

My sweet delusion was a mere delusion. However, that was nice because if shows that music connects us beyond our age. This music has a romantic story which was written for Brahms’s love interest. 

Oh My Goodness!!

Since I recently got some really bad news, I've been depressed, but at last, I got a little good news from my friend yesterday. My friend told me that her child, who is a nine year old girl, dreams of becoming me! Yay!!

I've been feeling depressed so please forgive me screaming it here! I don't know why she thinks so, but those words coming from a little kid made me very happy. Thinking back now, every time I meet her, she praises me. Even though she says good things about me, I always just say “thank you.” I didn’t doubt her words, but this was a bad habit of mine. I sometimes feel that people just try to flatter me, so I can't trust their normal compliments. That's why I'm not good at praising people. While writing this entry, I recalled a proverb maybe I have written before here.

Kind words can be short and easy to say, but their echoes are truly endless.
Mother Teresa

I want to try to say good things honestly from now on. Words, like the ones she said to me, can be helpful to people.

What I See?

Some of my friends sometimes tell me, "You often see really interesting or odd people in the street." Yes, actually I often see various types of people as I have written about that before here.

When I was in a public restroom in Paris, two girls were putting on a makeup. Then, one of them said to me,


"Could you apply sunscreen on my back?"


"Ehhhh?! Why me? Why not your friend? Again?"


I told myself that. To tell the truth, I had the same experience in London last year. At that time, they looked like delinquent girls so I obliged to their request without complaining. This time they didn't look like that, but I thought applying something on a stranger's body may not be unusual thing in Europe. Although, I didn't have enough abilities in French to talk back to her. That's why I applied it on her back even though the upper body was almost naked.


After I got back to Japan, I told this story to my British friend.
He said, "I don't think that is normal. You met an unusual person again!!"

Is there anyone who has ever applied sunscreen on a stranger's back in a restroom?

I'm guessing that the answer is NO!

Imperfect Match

"I've loved you for so long. I will never forget you. I have been regretting that I didn't give you the rose bouquet that you wanted. I want roses to bloom again and then I want to give the rose bouquet to you."


This is a part of the lyrics from a French song called "À la claire fontaine."

I saw the movie "The Painted Veil." This French song was used in the scene where the main character died. I cried a lot because I knew the meaning of the lyrics. 

After seeing the movie, I told a French friend that the song was beautiful. However, he said the song  is for kids in France and it doesn't relate to death.

"Ehhhhh!?"

That scene and the song were a perfect match. Moreover, those lyrics are for kids? What a surprise!

Encounters During a Trip

When I go abroad by myself, I often encounter various types of people.

I thought I was used to using Paris' public transportation so I was supposed to read a book at a bookstore until a limousine bus left for the airport. After a while, I realized that I read books for too long! It was too late to go back to the hotel I stayed at by using subways. I asked where the taxi stand was at the information desk. She tried to call a taxi for me, but since I didn't have time to wait, I declined her offer.

That was a bad idea.....

There were no taxis at the taxi stand. Even though I found a taxi in a street, it already had passengers. After trying to get a taxi for 10 minutes, I gradually grew impatient. I was loudly hailing a taxi on the opposite lane. Then a fashionable old lady watching me caught a taxi and called me from a short distance, "Madam, you can take this cab!" My behavior must have stood out because it was a high status residential area. Thanks to that lady, I was able to catch the bus at the very last minute.

When I was in a trouble at the station in Paris, a French lady helped me. After we had a conversation, she gave me her business card. She runs her own French restaurant and invited me. A few days later, I went there. It was a very nice restaurant and the food was very tasty!

That's why I like travelling by myself!!

物思ひ

宵の間に 

 

いでて入りぬる 

 三日月の 

 われて物思ふ 

 ころにもあるかな

宵の間に現れて早く沈む三日月の姿のように、

心が割れてしまったような気持ちで物思いにふけるこの頃です

Soooooo Stupid!!!!

I lost my file which had some important music sheets somewhere.

I'm looking for it and am calling to as many places as I cam remember, but I've still not found it. There is no way to find it so I searched "how to look for something I lost" on the internet. In the end, I found a lot of incantations for that.


"Try looking for it while saying …..#+$*%!?&!~..... blah, blah, blah........"

Most of them are really meaningless except for one. The good information I found was that when people looking for something, people tend to look for it anti-clockwise direction in their house. How about trying to look for it in a clockwise direction?

If I lost something in my home, that may make sense. When you lose something in your house, for example a key or something, how about doing that?

Could you tell me if you did that and whether it worked or not? 

My late German teacher wrote a lot of things on those music sheets. Even if I bought the same music sheets, I can't recall everything he wrote on them and can't ask him. If anyone knows how to look for something lost, could you tell me? I really really need that!!

Last month, I forgot to go to work and this month, I lost the music sheet file. -_- How stupid I am!

I hope it is because of this hot weather. 

春雨

春雨の花の

枝より流れ来ば　

なほこそ濡れめ

香もやうつると

春雨が花の枝から滴るのならもっと濡れましょう、

花の香が移るかもしれませんゆえ

こんなことをさらっと詩にできたら素敵かも

食材を連想させてしまうけど、今日のタイトルは「春雨」

Some restrictions in UAE

I got back to Japan from my trip to Europe and UAE last Sunday. It was quite hot, about 40 degrees to 50 degrees in UAE. Even more troubling, the humidity was very high so when I went out of buildings, my sunglasses were always fogging up. I had some problems there, but since I met my friend, I had really good time. She made some plans for me and took me to a lot of sightseeing spots.

I'm not interested in skyscrapers or the modern city Dubai. The most interesting spot was Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, which is the third biggest mosque in the world. There was the beggest Persian carpet in the world on the floor. What luxury!

Usually non Muslim people can't enter the mosque, but if women cover their whole body with the local black costume, which is called Abaya, they also can enter. That was an amazing experience.

I know kissing and hugging are not allowed in public spaces in the Muslim countries. I actually sometimes saw the people were being warned because of it, but I didn't know that touching the Koran is not allowed. That's why a security guard warned me. After that I knew....that was something they frowned upon.

If I'm not mistaken, an unwed couple was arrested in UAE last year because a single man and a single woman staying in the same room together is not allowed.

I found a shop selling pork in Dubai. This shop's pork is processed in a special way, which is called Halal. This shop must be dear to foreigners.

I leaned a lot from this trip. The most important thing was that it was easy to empty my wallet in UAE.

GUCCI

Do You Want to See How Crowded Tokyo is?

I often see a lot of foreign tourists taking pictures of the corossing in Shibuya, central Tokyo. When I went there last week, I thought I would like to show that crossing to people who have never been to Japan before. I think this is the most crowded crossing in the world. Every time I go to this area, I get fed up with all the people. Anybody who visited there would also think the same way as me.

This video’s title is “where is the water?” After watching this, do you think you can live in Tokyo?

How unusual that situation is!
It looks like a cereal bowl, isn't it?

It Seemed Like Teleportation! #2

I have used an airplane once a month until quite recently. When I went to Osaka, I got on the airplane as usual. While the airplane was waiting for its turn to takeoff, I quickly fell asleep because of fatigue. After a while, I woke up from the pleasant sleep when the airplane was moving on the land. It felt like I had been sleeping for a long time, but the airplane had not made takeoff yet. Then I heard the announcement of a flight attendant.

“We have now arrived at Itami/Osaka airport. We’ll.........”

Huh? No way!!!!!

I didn’t notice the airplane making a takeoff and a landing at all. I was surprised at my deep sleep. The chair back had been at a right angle throughout. It seemed like teleportation.

When I went to Europe in April, I didn’t notice the airplane takeoff. I was awakened by a meal service. Of course, when returning to Japan, it was similar. I may be compatible with an airplane.

声

はつかりの　

 

はつかにこゑを　

ききしより　

なかぞらにのみ　

ものを思ふかな

あなたの声をほんのわずかに聞いた あの日から 

私の心は宙に浮いてしまったように 

物思いにふけるばかりです

たとえ少しだとしても

またあなたの声が聞けますように

I Forgot to Go to Work

One day in the afternoon, I got a lot of calls from the company I work for. I ignored them as usual. When I don't want to think especially about the job, I often turn off my cell phone or ignore the job's phone calls on my day off. What is worse, my cell phone doesn’t have voice mail. The number of calls was not the usual, so I called my boss back. His voice was very upset and he seemed to be in a rush. At this point, I started recalling something. The following is our conversation;

boss: I called you so many times!! Where are you?
me: I’m home. Why?
boss: Why didn’t you get my call? Anyway, you have your job today!!!
me: Really? It’s strange because it is Monday today. ---- Actually, Monday is my day off.
boss: You have an irregular schedule today. I told you last month!!


My face completely turned white at the news. 

 ….......(ﾟロﾟ；)..........!!!


me: Oh, no.... I forgot to go.
boss: Can you get there before the party starts?
me: No, I can't. I will be late.
boss: I see. Even if you are late, you have to go! I'll call you again.

He hung up the phone with big noise to show his anger. I tried to hurry, but I stopped because it would take two hours to get there from my home. We are supposed to come to the work place one hour and a half before the performance to avoid being late. I got a call to confirm where I was. It meant I’ve already been late. I was supposed to play some music pieces with a pianist at a hotel banquet. This was the request from the host of the party. My boss couldn’t find another flute player, and he made a violinist, who lives close to that hotel, go. The violinist arrived there just before the party started. They managed to play during the big confusion. 

It may be the first time in my career that I apologized so hard. I was in a very hot water, but everthing worked out thanks to my boss’s quite good excuse to the party’s host. Since it is a long story, I won’t write it here. The company is discussing the time allotted for assembling, as to whether it should be scheduled earlier or not, because of me. I hope they never change anything. If they do that, the colleagues would blame me. T_T

Holding the party on a Monday afternoon is very rare, isn’t it?

出逢い

逢ふことの　

絶えてしなくは　

なかなかに　

人をも身をも　

恨みざらまし

いっそ会うということがまったくなかったならば、

かえってつれない人だとあなたを恨むことも、

わが身の辛さを嘆くとこもなくてよかっただろうに。

What To Do Before Dying

You might expect that this entry is gloomy from this title, but it is not serious so I will be glad if you can read it easily.



“To love someone deeply is to ensure that the loved one can live a wonderful life by himself without me.”



A certain Japanese writer wrote this phrase. After reading it, I thought I really want my partner to have a happy life even if I can’t be with him. The reason may be a little strange, but I started teaching my boyfriend to cool. I don’t know why, but these days I am trying to live for today.

During teaching, cooking reminded me of what my mother said quite a long time ago. She said that she wanted to teach me the family’s recipe. She thought she could not die before verifying that I can cook by myself. She always worried about my diet control because I was not good at cooking when I was a kid. That was all she wanted to do before dying. I clearly remember I started talking about this topic with her and it was a little gloomy. On the other hand, since I felt how much she loves me, I was happy. Although I’m not a child, she still worries about my diet the same as before because I am a light eater. After that, I noticed I have the same thoughts as her. I’m not dying, but I actually do that. I am just like a chip off the old block.


What would you do if you had only two months to live?

A Sunflower In The Eye

Look at the above picture!

Can you see the sunflower?

This is a picture of a Japanese actress’s eye.
She is multiethnic. I think that is nice.
For people who have blue eyes, is it common to have eyes like her?

An Illusion

I watched an interesting TV program the other day. I'm writing this entry to share it with people who is interested in the trick art and illusion.

Have you ever heard of "Best Illusion of the Year Contest"?

The winner of the contest in 2010 was a Japanese person.
This video is about his work, which led him to win.

He was aiming to win this year too, but he lost.

Best Illusion of the Year Contest:

http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com/

Don’t Make Me Laugh!

During the salon concert in Opera Garnier in Paris, one of the audience members who sat behind me sneezed loudly. He seemed to try to stop it, but he couldn’t and he finally started sneezing to the music, as if is was a part of the music, when the music was played loudly. That day’s program was kind of contemporary music. That’s why his sneezing convincingly.

Even though I tried to explain that situation, I couldn’t tell about it well and it must be boring for readers, but it was really interesting. I was making a desperate attempt to stop my laughing, but the person sitting next to me couldn’t control himself and kept laughing. We had completely the giggles.

After a while, he couldn’t be there and left. Afterwards, I was able to concentrate to the music. I thought these days, the quality of audience in Garnier is getting worse, especially when it is a salon concert. Sneezing is unavoidable, but clearing the throat or snoring is not acceptable. If an audience member sleep during the concert, they should sleep without snoring.

Half of the audience dressed up with a gorgeous dress exposing their back widely. On the other hand, people wearing T-shirt and sneakers sat next such dressed up people. That scene was a motley combination. This also made me laugh.

こころもとなし

あひ見まく

ほしは数なく

ありながら

人につきなみ

惑ひこそすれ

The Surprise Party That Backfired

The other day, I was to meet one of my friends. On my way to see her, I recalled that her birthday had already passed. Of course at that time I had not prepared her present yet. I managed to figure out how to make up for it. While waiting for the train, I booked a restaurant for dinner and explained to them what I wanted to do there.

After meeting my friend, we went to some galleries and really enjoyed the art works. Then I casually took her to the restaurant. When we arrived, I said, “I AM ARI. I have a reservation for dinner at eight.”

I told my name to the restaurant assistant and meant that a birthday girl is the other one.
When the waiter served a dessert plate, I said, “ta-da! Happy birthday!”

At that moment, I noticed that the dessert plate with the words “Bon Anniversaire” written, which means happy birthday, was mine, not hers. I said, “Oh..... I’m so sorry.”

I wanted to avoid this mistake so I said my name clearly at the front. I wondered why they served the birthday plate to the person who booked the restaurant, but she laughed and was surprised at my plan and seemed happy so I hope it turned out all right.

雨

きみいづこ　

むなしき空に　

さみだれふりて　

ゆかしき人を　

いとおもふ

---------------

古語って好きかも。