My trivial thinking

Today, my daughter is going to guide me to some tourist spots in London. The meeting spot is Piccadilly Circus at noon. I left the hotel a little earlier. Many visitors had already headed for the entrance of Natural History Museum. I made a side trip to the South Kensington tube station. The area in front of the station is beautiful and comfortable. Exhibition Road looks like a pedestrian road. As the Science Museum was not so crowded, I went into the museum. After that, I walked along the edge of Hyde Park to the east. It took much time to enjoy seeing the exhibits of the Science Museum. I gave up to go to the Hyde Park Corner station and took a underground train at Knightsbridge. Natural History Museum South Kensington Station Science Museum Exhibition Road at Hyde Park  I was able to find my daughter soon in front of the Eros statue at Piccadilly Circus. First of all, we went to a restaurant near there to had lunch. In London, it's time for break...

I arrived at Heathrow Airport in the afternoon on April 3rd. I was able to find my daughter soon at the arrival lobby. We headed for the Hotel at Gloucester Road. The scenery from my train window tells me that I am in London now. But I strangely felt like that this was not the first visit and the scenery was familiar for me. I checked in at the hotel and dumped my 65L rucksack. We went to Piccadilly Circus to buy a SIM card of my tablet at a Vodafone shop. But the shop had already closed for the day. Since my daughter had a work, she walked away. I had a plenty of time and walked to Hyde Park to feel the air in London. Soon it began to rain and I didn't think the rain would stop soon, I took a train at Hyde Park Corner to Gloucester Road. I noticed I had no money, so I changed 3,000 yen that was all I had then to pound at a currency exchange shop in front of the underground train station. I bought some food and wine for dinner at Tesco soon. Queen's Gate High S...

Memories of a Geisha published in 1997 is a story of a geisha who was born in a poor fishing village in northern Kyoto around the end of Taisyo Period. The author is Arthur Golden who had studied Japanese art history. That's why this book was researched much and depicted well about Japanese life and Japanese culture. I was able to read this without any feeling of strangeness. A couple of years ago, I've been asked about a geisha from a foreign young woman. Since she frequently told me "geisha, geisha...", I said to her coldly, "I'm not interested in a geisha and maybe most Japanese haven't met or talked with any geisha. It's something in the past." At that time, I haven't read this book yet. So I misunderstood that she mentioned an old book or something that was written by a foreigner in Meiji Period. When I read this book, I fully understood that the book she mentioned was this "Memories of a Geisha". I guess she has also wa...

Spring has come. It was too hot yesterday. Since I had done my work sooner than I assumed at Yodoyabashi in Osaka City, I had a plenty of time until afternoon meeting. I bought a light lunch bag and tea at a convenience store, and went to Nakanoshima.  What a beautiful day!

景雲飛, written by my wife. It means "Joyous clouds wave in the sky."

I've been very busy since the middle of August. I have to get up early in the morning and I have to be late at night in my office. So I can't go anywhere except in business, I also can't read books and post any article in this blog these days. My younger daughter who is living in London seems to be busy, too. The other day she took days off and went to Germany to enjoy Christmas markets in Bremen and Hamburg.

'An Artist of the Floating World' is Kazuo Ishiguro's second novel published in 1986, was short listed for the Man Booker Prize. But his next novel was awarded the Man Booker Prize in 1989. In this book he depicted a Japanese of postwar Japan again as well as 'A Pale View of Hills'. Masuji Ono is a retired Japanese painter. The situation is somewhere in postwar Japan around 1948. He knows the reason of the failures of the marriage negotiation of Noriko, his younger daughter, is caused by his past. Setsuko, his elder daughter, also points out the same thing to him. He looks back his young and training life, about his old teachers and colleagues, his own pupils. We readers begin to realize that his recollection is slightly different from others view. What is Ono's past? It seems that Ono was the follower of the war as one of the artists of the war propaganda. Ishiguro, of cause, doesn't mention of Ono's past so much. Ono confesses his past and apol...