電子書籍

10月31日（土）晴一時雨

太宰治生誕100年なので今年はさくらんぼを沢山食べて、青空文庫で太宰作品を再読。PCで読める電子書籍は手軽でいいけど、机の前でしか読書ができません。読書はベッドに限ります。読み疲れた時にそのまま眠り込むのが読書の醍醐味。♪読書、読書で半年暮らす、あとの半年寝て暮らす。アマゾンから電子読書機のキンドルが発売されていますが、日本語本のダウンロードはできません。来年こそ重い本を日本から運ばなくても済むことを期待。ちなみに今年は松本清張も生誕100年です。

アマゾン

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Electronic books
Sat. October 31 : fine occasionally rainy

As this is the year of a centenary of Osam Dazai’s birth, I have eaten many cherries and reread his books I downloaded from Blue Sky Library. Although electronic books you can read on PC are quite handy, I have to read them in front of my desk. Reading is the best in bed. It’s the real pleasure that you can fall a sleep whenever you feel tired of reading. ♪I spend half a year enjoying reading, reading and spend rest of the year enjoy sleeping. Amazon has released the reading machine, Kindle but it has no function of downloading Japanese books. I hope I will not need to carry heavy books from Japan next year. By the way, it’s also a centenary of Seicho Matsumoto’s birth.

Amazon

本は重い

10月30日（金）曇一時雨

日本で買った「カラマーゾフの兄弟（原卓也・訳）」を６日がかりで読みました。面白いけど限りなく重い本。上、中、下の文庫本3冊で2400円、重量は1kg。露文フリークの友人は30回以上読んでいるそうですが、僕は2回でもう結構です。オペラと露文は肩が凝ります。「１Ｑ８４」は2日で悠々読破。上、下2冊のハードカバーで3600円、重量は1kg。村上作品も小説、翻訳物ともに一通り目を通しています。たとえノーベル文学賞を受賞しても再読することはないでしょう。

ノーベル賞

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Books are heavy
Fri. .October 30 : cloudy occasionally rainy

I finished the books of “Karamazov Brothers” bought in Japan within 6 days. They are interesting but endlessly heavy books. They are 3 paperbacks and $31 totally. The weight is 1kg. A friend of mine who is a Russian literature freak has read them more than 30 times but twice is just enough for me. Operas and Russian literature make my shoulders stiff. I easily finished the books of “1Q84” within 2 days. They are 2 hardcover books and $50. The weight is 1kg. I have read almost all the novels and translations of Murakami’s works. But I will never read them again , even if he won the Novel Prize.

Novel Prize

アイーダ秘話

10月29日（木）曇時々雨

アイーダは古代エジプトの捕虜になったエチオピアの王女。指揮官を慕う両国の王女の三角関係が主たるテーマ。オペラが作られた背景には興味深い事実が・・・。①スエズ運河の開通を記念してエジプトの注文で作られた、②神殿の真下から抱き合う男女のミイラが発見されたことにヒントを得て原作が考古学者の手で作られた、③不倫に悩んでいた作曲家ベルディーの心情を吐露した作品。ディズニーは②を強調して国境を越えた永遠の愛を讃える物語に脚色しています。

スエズ運河

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3 secret stories of Aida
Thu. October 29 : cloudy occasionally rainy

Aida was the Ethiopian princess who was captured by ancient Egypt. The main theme of this story is the love triangle among the commander and the princess of each country. There are interesting facts behind the making process of the opera: ①The opera was ordered by Egypt for the commemoration of the opening of Suez Canal. ②The original was written by an archeologist who discovered two mammies of male and female embracing each other just under the temple and got a hint. ③The opera is the work that expresses the composer, Verdy’s feelings who was bothered by his adultery. Disney emphasizes on ② and dramatized the original into the new story that praises eternal love beyond the border.

Suez Canal

アイーダ

10月28日（水）曇一時雨

日本で購入した2本のＤＶＤ，ソフィア・ローレン主演のオペラ映画「アイーダ」と横綱パバロッティーのミラノ・スカラ座の「アイーダ」を鑑賞。絢爛豪華な舞台は四季とは雲泥の差。日本語の字幕が入っていてもオペラは疲れます。オペラや交響曲で僕は耐えることを学びました。「美女と野獣」、「ライオンキング」に続くディズニー・ミュージカルの第3弾「アイーダ」はブロードウエイでヒット中。「ドリーム・ガールズ」の歌手ビヨンセ主演で映画化も企画中とか。

ライオンキング

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Aida
Wed. October 28 : cloudy occasionally rainy

I saw 2 DVDs that I bought in Japan; an opera film “Aida” with Sophia Loren as the leading actress and a recording of La Scala Milan “Aida” with giant Pavarotti. The dazzling glamour stage is completely deferent from Shiki. Although there are Japanese subtitles operas exhaust me. I learned to endure from operas and symphonies. Disney’s third musical “Aida” after “Beauty and the Beast” and “Lion King” is now making a big hit at Broad Way. Its cinematization has been on project with Beyonce, the singer and the main character of “Dream Girls”.

Lion King

鳥の巣

10月27日（火）快晴

スーパーマーケットの駐車場の椰子の木に花が咲き、その花にオナガテリカラスモドキが巣を作っています。集団生活を好む習性があるので、どの椰子の木も巣が満載。椰子の実のように見えますが、これはココナツの木ではありません。時々幼鳥が巣穴から顔を出して、イソギンチャクで遊ぶニモみたいです。帰宅して「ニモを捜せ」と「崖の上のポニョ」をＤＶＤで鑑賞。ニモもポニョも「自然を大切に」と訴えています。

オナガテリカラスモドキ

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Bird nest
Tue. October 27 : fine

The palm trees at the car park of the supermarket have bloomed and Metallic Starlings have built their nests on the flowers. As they have a habit of having group lives every tree is full of their nests. They look like coconuts but they are not coconut trees. Sometimes baby birds show their faces from the entrance and they look like Nimos playing with actinia. After coming home I saw DVDs, “Finding Nimo” and “Ponyo on the Cliff”. Nimo and Ponyo both appeal that “Preserve our nature”.

Metallic Starlings

弦楽三重奏

10月26日（月）快晴

週末にシティーで映画「毛沢東の最後のバレーダンサー」を見ました。ストーリーは陳腐ですが、プロが踊っているのでバレーのシーンは見ごたえがありました。バレーの舞台は10年ほど前にボレロを見たきり。映画館を出たらガジュマルの大木の下で3人の子供たちが弦楽器を弾いていました。あまり上手ではありませんが、足元の帽子に$2入れました。お祭や週末のフリー・マーケットで未来の楽士をよく見かけます。交響曲の演奏も5年前にシドニーのオペラハウスで聴いたきりです。

踊る宗教

蝶々夫人

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A string trio
Mon. October 26 : fine

We saw a film, ”Mao’s Last Dancer” in City last weekend. The story is corny but the dancing scenes are worth seeing because actual professional ballet dancers are acting in the film. The ballet stage I last saw, “Bolero” was 10 years ago. When we came out of the theater we saw a string trio of little children playing under the banyan tree. Although their performance was not very good, we threw a $2 coin into the hat on the street. We often see immature musicians playing at the festival sites or the weekend free markets. I last heard symphony 5 years ago at Sydney Opera House.

dancing religious group

Madam Butterfly

中国の型梨地蔵

10月25日（日）快晴

僕は生まれ故郷のむつ市に12年、巣鴨に16年、再度むつ市に6年、十和田に21年、シドニーに6年、ケアンズに2年住みました。巣鴨の地蔵通りの名物は塩団子、福々饅頭、たい焼き、ヤツメウナギ。ヤツメウナギはビタミンＡを多量に含み、昔から鳥目の薬として珍重。八つ目屋・西村の蒲焼は800円。たい焼き屋・飛安の重くて大きなたい焼きは90円。巣鴨と全く関係ありませんが、中国の篤農家が辛苦8年の末今年発売した型破りの型梨地蔵は50元（670円）。愛知のカクメロも形無し。

巣鴨のたい焼き

愛知のカクメロ

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Jizo pear statue in China
Sun. September 25 : fine

I lived for 12 years in Mutsu-city, my hometown, 16 years in Sugamo, another 6 years in Mutsu-city, 21 years in Towada-city, 6 years in Sydney and 2 years in Cairns. Sugamo Jizo Street is famous for salty dumplings, hot bean-jam bans, fish-shaped pancakes with bean-jam filling and lamperns. Lamperns contain a lot of vitamin A and they were prized as the medicine for night blindness. The broiled lampern of 8 eyes Nishimura is $11. The heavy and large fish-shaped pancake of Tobiyasu is $1.20. There is no connection to Sugamo, but the surprising Jizo pear statue that was produced by some efficient Chinese farmer after 8 year endeavor and first sold this year is $9. The cubic melons from Aichi prefecture are completely discredited.

fish-shaped pancake in Sugamo

cubic melons from Aichi prefecture

巣鴨のとげ抜き地蔵

10月24日（土）快晴

義兄と姉は火葬夫婦。土葬が主流の米国や豪州でも近年火葬が増加中。義兄の遺灰の一部は大学当局の許可を得て、北大のポプラ並木に撒骨。姉がもし散骨を希望するなら思い出の地はどこかな？岩手県二戸市で生まれ、新潟市、青森県五戸町、むつ市と転々。18歳から巣鴨に15年、ケンタッキー州レキシントンに20年、バージニア州ロアノークに23年居住。蒲田の東邦医大には13年間在籍。日本では巣鴨が1番長い。姉貴よ、ご免。本日の米国での葬式には参列できないけど巣鴨地蔵尊にお参りしたからご勘弁。

巣鴨地蔵尊

巣鴨の蒲焼

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Jizo stone statue at Sugamo
Sat. September 24 : fine

My sister and brother-in-law were burnt to ashes. In the US and also in Australia where inhumation is the mainstream, cremation has been increasing recently. My brother-in-law’s ashes were scattered on the poplar tree avenue of Hokkaido University with admission of the authority. Which place would be my sister’s memorial place if she wanted her ashes to be scattered? She was born in Ninohe-city of Iwate prefecture and often moved to different cities of Niigata, Gonohe in Aomori prefecture, Mutsu and more. She moved to Sugamo when she was 18 and lived there for 15 years, another 20 years in Lexington of Kentucky, and 23 years in Roanoke of Virginia. She studied at Toho Medical School in Kamata for 13 years. So she spent the longest period in her life in Sugamo, Japan. Sorry, Sister. I can’t attend today’s your funeral in the US. Instead, I visited Jizo stone statue in Sugamo, so forgive me, please.

Jizo stone statue in Sugamo

broiled eel in Sugamo

イチゴ狩り

10月23日（金）快晴

10月のテーブルランドはイチゴの最盛期。4ヶ月間雨が降らなかったので、今年のイチゴは小粒で甘みも乏しいようです。観光イチゴ園には入場料はなく、園内は食べ放題。持ち帰りは1ｋｇ750円。蛇はいませんが紫外線に注意。日焼け止めクリームと帽子とサングラスは必携。売店ではイチゴのアイスクリームやスムージーも売っています。テーブルランドのマンゴの収穫まではあと1ヶ月。道路脇の無人販売所にはジャガイモやアボガドが並んでいますが我が家では滅多に食べません。

無人販売所

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Strawberry picking
Fri. October 23 : fine

Table Land in October is having the high season of strawberries. As it has not been raining for the past 4 months, the strawberries this year are rather small and lack of sweetness. There is no entrance fee for the tourists at the strawberry farms and you can eat as much of you want free of charge in the farms. Taking away strawberries costs $10 per 1kg. There are no snakes but you should be careful not to have sunburn. You should bring some sun screen, a hat and sunglasses. You can buy strawberry ice-cream and smoothies at the shop. There is one more month before the harvesting season of mangos. Potatoes and avocados are being displayed at the unmanned sales stores beside the roads but we rarely eat them.

unmanned sales store

野焼き

10月22日（木）快晴

今年は高温少雨のためにテーブルランドでも山火事が頻発。豪州は空気が乾燥しているので枯草や落葉が容易に分解しません。乾季には火の不始末が原因で、あちこちで山火事が発生します。予防策は焚火の禁止と野焼き。枯草や落ち葉を計画的に焼くことで山火事の拡大を防ぎます。白人が豪州にやって来る以前から先住民のアボリジニは野焼きをしていました。野焼きのために昆虫や小鳥や小動物が犠牲になっていることは確かですが、現在のところ他に山火事の予防策はないようです。

アボリジニの野焼き

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Burning off dead grass
Thu. October 22 : fine

Bush fires often occurred in Table Land this year because of high temperature and little rain fall. It’s so dry in Australia that dead grass and leaves don’t break down easily. In dry season bush fires caused by careless handling of the embers occur here and there. The precautionary measures against them are to prohibit making bonfires and burning off dead grass or leaves. Burning of the fields deliberately will prevent extension of bush fires. Before Western people came to Australia the indigenous people, Aborigines already engaged in burning off. It is obvious that many insects, birds and small animals have become the victims but there aren’t any other effective ways to prevent bush fires.

burning off by Aborigines

散水車

10月21日（水）晴後雨

全長300ｍのムカデ・ロボットは農業用散水車。長いホースを引きずって、水を吐きながら横に移動。主に牧草畑で使用されます。牧草は1年に数回収穫され、干草やサイレージに加工されて販売されます。牧草作りは全過程が機械化されています。草刈り機で刈られた牧草は1-２日天日乾燥された後、草巻機で直径2ｍ、重さ500ｋｇの牧草ロールに。牧草ロールをビニール梱包すると自然発酵して栄養価の高いサイレージになります。昔はサイロを使用しましたが、現在ではほとんど見かけません。

牧草ロール

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Sprinkler
Wed. October 21 : rainy after fine

This 300m-long centipede robot is an agricultural sprinkler. It moves transversely drawing a long hose and spewing water. It mainly used in the grass farm. The grass is harvested several times a year and processed into hay or silage to be sold. All the processes of herbage production are mechanized. After mowing with the mowing machine the grass is dried under the sunlight for a few days and rolled with the roll-baler into grass bales of the diameter of 2m and the weight of 500kg each. If you wrap the bale with vinyl sheet, it ferments naturally and changes to the nutritious silage. Silos were used in old days but you can hardly see them nowadays.

grass bales

ティナルー湖

10月20日（火）晴時々雨

ティナルー湖は不正形の農業用人造湖。日本で言えば灌漑用溜池ですが、1周50ｋｍと十和田湖と同じ大きさ。緩やかな芝生の斜面と森に囲まれています。湖に流れ込む小川にはカモノハシ、湖畔には豪州鶴、森には黒インコの群れが住んでいます。湖の北部には良く整備された5箇所のキャンプ場があり、水泳やボートや釣りも盛んです。ワニやサメやクラゲがいないので家族連れに人気のスポットです。湖の南部には眺望の良い高級別荘地がありますが、冬の温度が零下になるので僕には住めそうにありません。

十和田湖

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Lake Tinaroo
Tue. October 20 : fine occasionally rainy

Lake Tinaroo is a pseudomorphous artificial lake for irrigation to farmland. In Japan it is called the holding pond but it actually is as large as Lake Towada that has its circumference of 50kms. It is surrounded by the gentle slop with the grass and the forest. There are platypuses in the streams that flow into the lake, Australian Cranes on the lake side and Black-Cockatoos in the forest. There are well-equipped 5 camp sites on the northern lake side and you can enjoy swimming, boating and fishing there. As there are no crocodiles, sharks and jelly fish it attracts a lot of families. There is a high-class resort area with nice view on the southern lake side but I can never live there because the temperature becomes below zero in winter.

Lake Towada

ティナルー・ダム

10月19日（月）雨後曇

ケアンズは4ヶ月振りの恵みの雨。育成の遅れていた農作物も元気を取り戻し、紅い砂塵も収まるでしょう。ティナルー・ダムはテーブルランドの農地に水を供給する灌漑ダム。タービンを回すほどの落差はないので発電はしていません。人造湖の湖畔はどこも緩やかな傾斜で、絶好のピクニック・ポイント。11月から4月の半年間ケアンズの海には毒クラゲが発生しますが、ここでは安心して水遊びが楽しめます。僕のアパートから車で1時間半の距離。

ケアンズの水がめ

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Tinaroo Dam
Mon. October 19 : cloudy after rain

We are having blessed rain after 4 months. The crops that have been preventing their growth will recover and regain their vividness. The red sand dust will be also put down. Tinaroo Dam is the irrigation lake that supplies water to the farm land in Tableland. It has no enough height to move the turbine, so it doesn’t generate any electricity. Every side of this artificial lake is gently inclines and there are a lot of nice picnic points. For half a year from November to April the poisonous jelly fish appear in the Cairns Sea but you can enjoy being in the water here. It takes 1 and a half hour driving to there from my apartment.

jag for Cairns

日曜日は赤パン

10月18日（日）快晴

ケアンズでは在宅中は裸の生活。リタイアの身なので曜日の感覚はゼロ。だから日曜日にはビキニの赤パン下着を着用。プールでもスピード社の赤いビキニの水着。白パン着用でテラスをうろつくと変質者と見間違われますが、赤パンだといかにもアスリート風で好感度アップ？僕のブログを見た日本の赤パン屋さんからメール。「赤パンは臍の下3-4cmの丹田（たんでん）のツボを覆うことで気運を高めるのでビキニは無理です」。巣鴨の赤パン下着は750円。ケアンズの赤パン下着は中国産で75円。

巣鴨の赤パン専門店

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Putting on red bottom on Sunday
Sun. October 18 : fine

I live being naked at home in Cairns. I have no sense of the day of the week as I’ve been retired long time ago. So I put on the red bikini underpants on Sundays. I swim with my red Speedo suit. If I walk on the terrace with white underpants, I could be misread as a pervert. But if it’s red, you might look just like an athlete and your likability possibly rises. I’ve received an e-mail from the red underpants specialty store owner who had seen my blog. He says “As red underpants encourage to rise your luck and motivation by covering your solar plexus under the navel, we never manufacture red bikini underpants. The red underpants in Sugamo are $10 each and ones in Cairns that are made in China are $1 each.

red underpants specialty store at Sugamo

偕老隣穴

10月17日（土）快晴

ナッシュビル（テネシー州）に住む甥のタッドからメールが届き、姉の葬式をロアノーク（バージニア州）で10月24日（土）に行うとの通知。姉は3ヶ月前に死去していますから、日本の感覚では随分のんびり。葬式でも結婚式でもゆっくりが良いと僕は思います。ロアノークには9年前に同じく肺癌で逝った義兄の墓があり、その隣に葬られるとのこと。メールに添付されてきた姉の写真は今年の4月に老人アパートに入居の際に撮ったもの。76歳。日本のお婆さんは若い。

義兄の墓参り

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Being berried in the same graveyard
Sat. October 17 : fine

We’ve received an e-mail from my nephew, Tad in Nashville, Tennessee. He said that he will hold my sister’s funeral in Roanoke, Virginia on October 24, next Saturday. It seems to be pretty easygoing from Japanese perspective. Talking about funerals or weddings, I think it is rather better to be easygoing. There is my brother-in-law’s grave in Roanoke. He passed away suffering lung cancer as well 9 years ago and she will be buried next to him. This photo of her attached to the e-mail was shot last April when she moved to the apartment for elderly. She was 76 years old. Japanese old women look quite young.

visiting my brother-in-law's grave