La Collina

at Omihachiman

 


 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flowers at Dusk

Image
They say, in Japan, that cherry blossoms, the sakura, is the symbol of the joyful moment and the transience, which is associated with Buddhistic influence. The flowers in full bloom come suddenly and fall soon. It is epitomized as " mono no aware ". Cherry blossoms also can be the symbol of sadness. Ichiyo Higuchi depicted the saddest scene with falling flowers in her first novella, 'Flowers at Dusk' . Flowers at Dusk (Yamizakura) by Ichiyo Higuchi, 1892. Ryonosuke is 22 years old and Chiyo is 16 years old. They grew up together as childhood friends. At dusk on the Day of the Martial Guardian in February, they go out to enjoy browsing at community events. Chiyo clings to Ryonosuke's arm as they stroll along. And then her girlfriends see them and tease, "You two certainly look friendly! What are you up to?" Since this happened, Chiyo has become aware of yearning for him. However, Ryonosuke hasn't noticed her love. Chiyo gets sick. She s...
Read more

Writing English

Image
Four months have passed since I started this blog. At first, I wondered if I was able to write correct English. I managed to write all posts in English, but my English hasn't improved yet. The usages of articles and prepositions of English are particularly difficult for many Japanese, which, in many cases, come from Japanese language structure. This picture was taken by my younger daughter in Shanghai. Although this Japanese is a little funny, this might be better than my English. Writing English is frustrating for me. On the other hand, I feel, in a sense, an indefinable freedom as if I was liberated from Japanese language and culture that I grew up in for a long time when I write my blog in English.
Read more

The Shadow of the Wind

Image
“The Shadow of the Wind” is a novel by a Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The original version was written in Spanish. This book was published in 2001, and has been translated into more than forty languages, has been published in more than fifty countries and has sold over 12 million copies worldwide (by the author's website). I read the English version of this book. In 1945, in Barcelona under the Franco regime remaining wounds of the Spanish Civil War, a ten-year-old Daniel Sempere was taken to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books by his father. At the place Daniel was interested in a book, “The Shadow of the Wind”, and the author Julian Carax. He read soon the book and was impressed strongly. Daniel meets Clara who is blind and twenty-one-year-old beautiful woman and know the works of Julian very much, takes a romantic interest in her. One evening, he meets a faceless man, Lain Courbert, in the dark who is a devil in “The Shadow of the Wind”. The strange man asks Danie...
Read more