10/20/2006

Kazusa Girl


Two girls hired for our ISH booth's coffee couter were so cute.

Especially Mika was cuter on the inside. Finding that the 5-day medical event was not so busy - rather boring - she casually studied her old world atlas at the counter when no visitor was around, saying that she wanted to enjoy a bit of "where are you from" talk with those medical professionals, 2/3 of whom were from abroad.

Impressed, I asked her where she was from then, and she pointed at Kazusa, far west side of Nagasaki, excitedly adding how beautiful the place was with sea and mountains and all.

Now the place has become one of my "want to visit at least once in my life" places.


私: 加津佐 って初めて聞いた。いいトコそう!
彼女: そうなんです~。島原鉄道の最終地で結構有名なんですよぅ~

というわけで 
つい一緒に地図を見させてもらいました。

地図って、そこらの雑誌よりずっと楽しいと私は思う。



8/21/2006

Sunny Side Down


7 stitches on the forehead
+ 4 books (essays)
+ 3 liters of icy cold tomato juice
+ 2 sq. meters of the outside world looking upside-down

= My 2006 Obon summer holidays


(do people still say "sunny side up" eggs??
just wondering)


五月蝿かった ・・・ 「八月蝉」かった

8/03/2006

Nicci mo Satchmo


I'm stuck
Can't move a step forward

So I sing,
"You say tomato..."


「二進も三進も」って
これもラテンぽくない? ない?

こんなこと言ってる場合じゃないんですけど

7/30/2006

Ichi-ca Bacci-ca


I think I'll give it "one or eight"
take a chance
not too hard but
in a junko-ish manner

イチカバチカ ってラテンな響きだから
訳さなくても通じそうじゃない?
通じないかな・・・

などと 月曜の朝から考えている


7/06/2006

Rhapsody in Blue


Sorting out old project documents,
my eyes instinctively caught
his blue-ink, hand-written comments
on a draft paper.
It was so artistic
I just couldn't throw it away


[手書き文字]

ザザっとしてて、けどトメ・ハネのメリハリはある大きめの強い字が好きで

具体的には 姉の字と あと

「裏窓」の
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER?"
あれ、彼の直筆ですよね? 

・・・ジミー、なぜそこまで素敵。


6/06/2006

Enjoy the Show!









Yes I did!



...So how did you know it's my "words of wisdom" that I secretly say to myself every time something important is coming, either fun or serious, like a big meeting: I breathe in and go, "Okay Junko, enjoy the show!" or "Showtime, lady!"

I know it's just ridiculous. But at least for me it works.

5/17/2006

Sweet as Honeysuckles



It occurred to me all of a sudden
that I'd go to an aromatherapy salon near my place.

I'm not going to go into detail here about how dreamy the 2-hour experience there was, but just one thing:

I was admiring the honeysuckles I'd seen at the salon entrance while savoring after-massage tea and a cookie.*

(*mixed herbal tea & "macrobiotic" naturally sweetened oat & fruit cookie made with soy milk, if you must know)

Then I was leaving, and the masseuse came out with me - with scissors in her hand - and casually but carefully chopped some branches off for me!

How sweet it smelt... and she was.


[うれしいを つぎつぎと (Kirin)]

初めて訪れたのに、ハニーサックルまで頂いて。

右上: ひねくれて撮ってみました
が 本当はこんな感じです ->
BBC Gardening


5/06/2006

My Favorite Mistakes


4/21 Fri, 22:30

A friend of my father passed away on Thursday, one day after they played golf together.

J: "…So where is his funeral held at?"

T: "Sanda. Sanda, that's where he lives."

He's such a clumsy talker, plots far from intriguing, with no punch lines.

But "lives." The usage of the present tense instead of the past one? That mistake, which was obviously unintentional, made me feel so bitter and proud of his sincerity at the same time.



死について書くのは苦手ですが。

純: 「お葬式、どこであるの?」
隆: 「三田や。 三田に住んでるんや」とぽつり。 
切ない時制。

4/10/2006

Rorschach Test


My house. Going up the stairs,
I point at the wooden wall.

"Can you see a pattern here?

I grew up thinking it looks like a rabbit sitting up."



この歳になっても
ウサギさんや、と一瞬立ち止まってしまうのは
まだ心が清い証拠かしら?
(ということにしとこう)

3/27/2006

Can I Keep It?


I had my breast lump removed on 3/6.

One of the exciting moments was when Dr. Kosaka let me see the lump freshly taken out of my breast while I was still lying on bed. I really regret that I didn't casually ask this penetrating-eyed gorgeous doctor if I could keep the 2-inch-long rubbery mass; it looked like a well-made prop for a SF movie or something, worth collecting maybe.

p.s. the lump turned out to be "good" benign tumor, i.e. neither a cancer nor a mass that is negative yet mushrooms out-of-handedly. But I'll perform a monthly breast self exam, and would seriously recommend women do so.



意外だったのが手術台のライト。

(蓮の種を逆さにしたみたいなの と言ったらいいでしょうか)
あのライトの表面が凹凸で、意外でした。

「平滑なライトの表面が仰向けの患者の姿を映しだし、
局所麻酔の本人の目には、手術中の様子がありありと...」
を想像しワクワクしていたのです。(変態?)

なのに、凹凸表面だとライブ映像とてモザイク以下、
「オークルが突如真っ赤に変わった」程度しか分かりませんでした。

...とこんな事言っていられるのも
結果がよかったからにほかならないなのですが
真面目な話、セルフチェックは大切だと思います。


2/21/2006

You know what I love?


You know this MAD TV's "you know what I hate" guy with a towel wrapped around his waist? I just loved him. So here goes mine (but I'm not half naked) ...

J: You know what I hate?!

Audience: Yeah?!

J: The Dentist! Ah, I just hate the dentist... Because you never know, when you get seated and keep your mouth open, if you should keep your eyes open or closed! Yeah!

[Meiji anti-cavity Xylish gum (with my graffito) & Lotte's legendary Coffee Gum)

2/07/2006

Snow Country



Isn't it amazing
how
just 2 cm thick of snow
can make a difference
to Tokyo?







窓で区切られた灰色の空から大きい牡丹雪がほうっとこちらへ浮かび流れて来る。なんだか静かなうそのようだった。島村は寝足りぬ虚しさでながめていた。
--- 川端康成 「雪国」

1/15/2006

Sunday Morning


"Sunday morning
San-yo's rolling..."
(where
Maroon 5 originally sings
"Rain is falling")















日曜朝といえば
「初音湯」のコインランドリー。

「ランドリー?! 昭和だね。」
と驚く人が多いのですが
自分の中では日常。 (になってしまいました)


この前日は嵐で
おや、ランドリー入口の排水溝にも
いろんな葉っぱが。

「ふきよせ」
というお菓子を思い出してしまい。