Best Scenes of 2006 --Vol.4: Paris (2)

What I like about museums overseas is that in general we are allowed to take pictures. As I encountered this painting at Musée d'Orsay, I remembered seeing it as a university senior when it came to Tokyo. And it's a very sweet memory....

Best Scenes of 2006 --Vol.3: Paris (1)

I paid the third visit to Paris this past June...and encountered some of the most wonderful things that have ever happened to me. For one thing, it was sunny for the first time. This is a cafe where my all-time favorite painter Modigliani used to go.

Best Scenes of 2006 --Vol.2: Key West

I like a movie entitled "Up Close & Personal." It's a story about a veteran TV producer in Miami (Robert Redford) and a cub reporter/anchor (Michele Phifer.) The producer spots her journalistic talent, and raised her into a real professional. When she decided to take her offer from a head hunter to become an anchor in Philadelphia, the two found they love each other, and go driving in Key West to make a good memory.....

It was such a beautiful scene, so I was moved to see it with my own eyes in June. En route to Japan from the business trip in St. Kitts, I stopped over and hit the road. As my dear friend from grad school Julie, who teaches at a university in Miami, invites me to come see her again, I'll definitely do!

Best Scenes of 2006 --Vol.1: St. Kitts

It's getting so autumn...there will be Christmas decorations in town soon! Going ahead of them, I'd like to slowly review best scenes of the year, and share them with you.

The first one is this...from St. Kitts in the Caribbean in June. I mean, I went there on business and worked like crazy.....!!

Lost In Translation

I take an interpretation class on Wednesday. Today's material was a press conference of former PM Koizumi. The teacher played the tape, and there came a famous line....he said "The closer Japan-U.S. relationship is, the better Japan's relationship with China, Korea, other Asian countries, and the international community at large will be."

Are there any problems in this sentence? I don't think so.

It was November 2005, and I remember that there was a huge discussion regarding his comment. Some argued that he said as long as Japan-U.S. relationship is fine, Japan's relationship with China and Korea will be just OK." Some others even claimed that he said as far as Japan-U.S. relationship is close, that will automatically make Japan-China and Japan-Korea relationship good."

That's not what he said at all. I wondered how this spin occurred.......

Country Music

Last night, I went to a country music concert. That was sort of work-related, and I was asked to invite my contacts. Abe-san, a long-time colleague who is a TV producer and now runs a production company, came with his family and employee.

It was the first time to see him for the past several years, but he said to me as he opened his mouth, "You haven't changed at all!"

Wow, that was nice, so was the concert. The group called "Horseshoe Road" came all the way from Oklahoma, and they were fantastic.

I thought country music is so much better to listen live, as opposed to radio or CD. The gap between live and radio or CD is much wider than in classical or pop. The live concert was conveying sort of dust, simple life, and wide open space in the Midwest all at the same time.

Well, it was a very enjoyable night.

Dentist

“I hate her voice. It’s like the sound of the dentist.....hmmmm......” Not to mention my colleague’s comment, most people imagine a dentist as something not too pleasant.

In fact, that’s not a case at all for my current dentist. It's just so pleasant and comfortable. At every corner of the clinic, you can see his senstive effort to make a cozy and comfortable atmosphere. First of all, the waiting room’s magazines are always the latest editions. My most favorite part is a TV monitor in front of the patient’s chair (see picture.) The monitor displays tropical oceans, cherry blossoms, and today it was water falls.

The exquisite presentation is for everyone – adult and children. I once went to another dentist who was making a similar effort, but it was all for small children, like stuffed animals all over. Probably he didn't think adults are afraid of dentists, just like children are. But Dr. Okoshi, my current dentist, is considerate enough to understand that in fact adults don’t like dentists either.

Anyway, because of the cozy atomosphere, it’s actually my favorite time to go to the dentist. And you know what, Dr. Okoshi is probably the best dentist in terms of his sheer technique as a dentist as well.

I’m so lucky to have Dr. Okoshi in my neighborhood.

Modigliani

My all-time favorite painter is Amedeo Modigliani – since I was 15. At high school, we were allowed to choose one art class from three subject areas: calligraphy, music and arts. Within the arts class, we were asked to choose one concentration: pottery, design and oil painting.

I chose the arts class, and oil painting concentration. I had sort of mastered calligraphy already (I took regular calligraphy lessons since a third grader, plus got the best award as a middle school student, so that was sort of enough for me), and listened to pop and classical music like crazy at home, and wanted to try my hands on some new field.

That hit the jackpot. The arts teacher told us to tell him our own most favorite artist, so he can teach us how to paint pictures like them. I chose Modigiliani, because his pictures, especially those which he painted a little girl, exhibited his own subjective sense of beauty. I frantically imitated his pictures, and sort of applied his way to my own painting of the Yamashia Park in Yokohama Port.

My teacher gave me a grade of 9, out of 10. I decided to take it as a perfect score, as I didn’t think I could possibly paint a perfect picture.

When I visited the school after graduation, Mr. Ohe, the arts teacher, said to me, “Do you still paint pictures?” I said, “Well, I’m busy with college, part-time jobs and all that, so......" He continued, “Why didn’t you go to an art university?” I said, “I really thought it was a great choice, but I gathered it would help me to study English and Chinese to get a job.”

“Paint a picture. That’s fantastic because you’re the queen of the whole world while you’re painting a picture. You can do whatever you like on your canvas,” he replied.

The words gave a lasting impression.

I found today is the last day of a special Modigliani exhibition at Bunkamura in downtown Tokyo. I have just visited it, but unfortunately my most favorite piece was not there. They said that it's owned by a private citizen, and nobody knows who s/he is, and even where the person lives.

Well, but it's somewhere, and continues to give me good imagination......

Gloriously Complicated

At a lecture by a British expert which I attended yesterday, he showed an intricate graphic in a PowerPoint slide and said, “This is gloriously complicated, but actually very useful to see the status of.......”

Gloriously complicated...wow. Having been exposed to American English in day-to-day work, the words sounded so fresh to me. Somehow, I felt Americans won’t make this kind of word choice. The British speaker also said, “Utterly amazing” and concluded by saying “Thank you very much, indeed.” Again, I don’t think Americans would usually add “indeed”.

I wondered what makes this word choice difference...?

Officially Fall/Winter

This morning, a vending machine from which I always buy a canned coffee started to offer hot coffee, too.

That is a sign of official start of fall/winter – in Japan. I haven’t seen vending machines that sell hot canned coffee/tea in other countries. It’s my little pleasure that I drink a canned coffee or tea while on the escalator of the railway station.

At a reception where I was invited this past April, then PM Koizumi gave a remark that Japanese have traditionally found joys in day-to-day little changes, quoting an old verse that said “My pleasure is to find blooming flowers in the morning that were still buds the previous day.”

That also reminds me of the last episode of Season Four of Sex and the City – the scene that Carrie needs a blanket for the first time in a long time. I actually love this late fall/winter season.

Freude am Fahren

Freude am Fahren (Joy in driving)...a famous catch phrase of an automobile company in Europe.

Yes, I love driving. The moment I start the car, lower the side brake; fill the gas by myself, which we usually cannot do in Japan, and the sound of stopping filling when the tank got full.

I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE every one of these moments.

My all-time favorite writer Francoise Sagan wrote, "There are no places that make me feel more friendship to my company than in a car." Not sure this French-Japanese-English translation is correct, but this would probably be because of the tiny wonderland that a car can create.

It's not even a taxi. It must be a car.....