六本木の果物屋

10月16日（金）快晴

毎週金曜日には青物市場に買い物に出かけます。今日も持ちきれないほどの野菜と果物の買出し。日本は美味い。寿司、そば、ラーメン、餃子、鍋料理、焼き鳥、鰻重、てんぷら、刺身、焼き魚、煮魚、干物、練り物、海草、茸、栗、スイーツ、梨、柿、リンゴ、和製中華、和製韓国、和製エスニック料理など、どれも美味いけど青物不足。野菜は添え物、果物は珍味扱い。OZは日本人の5倍の野菜と果物を食べるそうです。六本木の果物屋さんは商品不足？値段がケアンズの100倍だから100分の1の品揃えで十分なのでしょうか？

ケアンズも美味しい

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Fruits shop at Roppongi
Fri. October 16 : fine

We go to the green market every Friday. As usual we bought quite a lot of vegetables and fruit today. There are numerous kinds of tasty food in Japan; sushi, Japanese noodles, ramen, dumplings, hot pots, grilled chicken, boiled eel on rice, tempura, sashimi, boiled fish, dried fish, steamed fish paste, sea weed, mushrooms, chestnuts, sweets, pears, persimmons, apples, Japanese style Chinese cuisine, Japanese style Korean cuisine, Japanese style ethnic cuisine and more. All of them are good but lack of green food. Vegetables are just garnish and fruit is treated as if it is a jewel. OZs eat 5 times of vegetables and fruit as Japanese. Is the fruit shop in Roppongi in short of commodities? Or is it enough to be the hundredth because the price is 100 times as it is in Cairns?

tasty Cairns as well

巣鴨の赤パン専門店

10月15日（木）快晴

ケアンズに帰還。赤い砂嵐はまだ完全に収まっていません。どうやら過去2週間にまとまった雨は降らなかった模様。テラスのブーゲンビリアの鉢植えは腰水に漬けて行ったので元気に赤い花を咲かせています。東京滞在中にユミが「巣鴨の塩饅頭を食べたい」と言うのでとげ抜き地蔵参り。おばあさんの銀座で赤パン専門店を発見。豪州のライフセーバーはビキニの赤パンをはきます。赤パンならテラスでも下着姿で大丈夫。♪赤パンや、よくぞ男に生まれけり。しかしビキニの赤パンは製造していないとのこと。

ケアンズは黒パンもOK

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Red underpants specialty store at Sugamo
Thu. October 15 : fine

We are back in Cairns. The red sand storm hasn’t gone yet. It seems that it hasn’t rained much for the past 2 weeks. The pot plant of bougainvillea on our terrace is in bloom and has its red flowers vividly as that has been dipped in the water bowl. When we were in Tokyo Yumi said “I want to eat a bun with bean-jam and salt filling” and I took her to Togenuki Jizo. We found the red underpants specialty store at Sugamo, the old women’s Ginza. Lifesavers in Australia wear the red bikini bottoms. It might be OK to go out to the terrace putting on the red underpants. ♪Red underpants, I appreciate of being born as a male. Unfortunately, they said they didn’t produce any red bikini underpants.

black bikini is OK as well in Cairns

考える人

10月14日（水）曇時々雨

近代美術館にロダンと印象派の絵画を観に行きました。ミスマッチのエジプト展も開催中で入場料は1500円。近代美術館を世界遺産に推薦するよりも本物の芸術を愛する人をもっと増やすべきです。CDショップはJポップだらけ、本屋はアニメとノウハウ物だらけでは情けない。コルビジェは都市の超高層ビルと周辺の緑地化を提唱。ドバイやシンガポールはその優等生、東京や香港は少し出来の悪い生徒。ところでコルビジェ先生の垂直思考の都市計画は時代遅れじゃないのですか？

ピラミッドは世界遺産

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The thinker
Wed. October 14 : cloudy occasionally rainy

We went to Modern Art Museum to see Rodin’s works and paintings of the Impressionists. The exhibition of Egyptian art which doesn’t match was being held there as well, so each of us had to pay $20 for both exhibitions. Japan should encourage the genuine art lovers more in stead of nominating this museum for the world heritage. It’s a pity that there are only Japanese pop songs in the CD shops and only animations or how-to books in the book stores. Le Corbusier advocated developing the cities by making skyscrapers and the green zone around them. Dubai and Singapore are well made. On the other hand, Tokyo and Hong Kong are the poor made. By the way, Prof. Le Corbusier, isn’t your city planning based on vertical thinking out-of -date?

pyramids are world heritage

劇団員は楽じゃない

10月13日（火）曇

紀伊国屋書店で小説の世界最高傑作「カラマーゾフの兄弟」を購入。49年振りの再読。ユミは「１Q８４」その他20冊。厨房器具、茶器、PC関連器具、衣服、DVD、本など2箱をケアンズに郵送。送料は18,000円。夕方紀伊国屋サザンシアターで劇団民芸の「らくだ」を観ました。会場は450席、1人6000円だから、1日の水揚げは270万円。ルミネよしもとの半分以下。劇団四季の5分の1以下。民芸の中堅劇団員の義兄もアルバイトをしないと食べていけない身分でした。

500万頭のらくだ

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It’s hard to live as a company’s performer
Tue. October 13 : cloudy

I bought “The Brothers Karamazov”, the world’s masterpiece novel at Kinokuniya Book Store. I reread it after 49 years. Yumi bought “1Q84” and other 20 books. We sent 2 packages to Cairns; kitchen tools, tea things, PC tools, clothes, DVDs, books and some others. The shipping charge was $250. We saw “Camel” acted by Mingei Company at Kinokuniya Southern Theater in the evening. The theater has 450 seats. The entrance fee is $80 per head so they make $38,000 a day. That is less than half of Yoshimoto makes and less than one fifth of Shiki Company does. My brother-in-law was one of the main members of Mingei Company and he had to do some part-time job to make living.

5,000,000 camels

みなと未来の観覧車

10月12日（月）晴

鞆の浦の埋立てが話題になっているので渋谷のDVD店で「崖の上のポニョ」を購入。渋谷は人が多くて窒息しそうなので横浜へ移動。みなと未来で海を眺めたり大道芸を見物。観覧車からネオン輝く夜景を見ていると不安になります。汐留サイトやミッドタウンもそうですが、みなと未来の20年後、30年後の未来はどうなるのでしょうか？中華街で夕食。日本で外食を繰り返していると野菜や果物などのビタミン欠乏症になりそう。その点中華料理は多少バランスが良いかな。

横浜の夜景

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A Ferris wheel at Minato-Mirai
Mon. October 12 : fine

I bought the DVD, ”Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” that has made news about the landfill of Tomonoura Cove at the DVD shop in Shibuya. As Shibuya was so crowded and we were almost choking we moved to Yokohama. We saw the sea and some street performance in Minato-Mirai. I became anxious when I saw the neon-glittering night view; what will be the future of Minato-Mirai like in 20-30 years and that of Shiodome-cite and Mid Town as well? We had dinner in China Town. Repeating dining out in Japan, I am afraid of becoming lack of vitamin due to shortage of vegetables and fruit. From that point of view Chinese food has a little better nutritious balance, hasn’t it?

night view of Yokohama

低俗も悪くはないけど・・・

10月11日（日）晴

10日間日本のTV番組を毎日見続け食傷気味です。ニュース、旅行、グルメ、商品情報、お笑い、トークショー、ドラマ・・・。豪州と違って日本のTV番組は刺激的で面白い。面白いけど低俗です。そして低俗だけど面白い。本日はホテルから徒歩3分のルミネよしもと見物。素人芸に近いのに450席は満員。1人4500円。1日3回興行だから1日600万円、１ヶ月1.8億円。日本人は真面目な芸術も大事にしないといけません。夕食は高校の同級生の佐瀬夫妻と東順永本店で北京料理。この店は美味くて安い。

東順永本店

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Lowbrow culture is not very bad…
Sun. October 11: fine

Having been watching Japanese TV programs for 10 days I’m quite tired; the news, the travelling show, the gourmet show, the merchandise information, the comedy show, talk show, the drama, etc. Being different from Australian TV programs Japanese ones are very exciting and interesting. They are interesting but lowbrow. And they are lowbrow but interesting. Today we went to Lumine Yoshimoto which is 3 minute walk from our hotel. The comic show was almost amateurish performance but the theater with 450 seats had no vacancy. The entrance fee is $50 per head. As the stage runs 3times a day they make $80,000 daily and so $2,400,000 monthly. Japanese people should take a good care of some serious arts as well. We had Beijing cuisine tonight at the restaurant Toujunei with Mr. and Mrs. Sase, my classmates from high school. The food there is good and reasonable.

Chinese Restaurant Toujunei

明治神宮の絵馬

10月10日（土）晴時々雨

1964年のこの日東京五輪が開幕。高校生の僕も五輪出場を目指して水泳に励んだものです。♪降る雨や昭和も遠くなりにけり。小雨が時々ぱらつく明治神宮を散歩。大安吉日とあって結婚式が目白押し。外国人観光客が結婚行列に一斉にカメラを向けます。絵馬も国際色豊かです。中国が北京、上海、広州の三都市の富裕層に海外旅行を認可したので、日本観光の主役は今や中国人。裕福な中国人観光客は白人の数倍のお金を落とします。日中友好はいよいよ重要です。

北京五輪

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Wooden plaques at Meiji Shrine
Sat. October 10 : fine occasionally rainy

Tokyo Olympic Games opened on the same day as today in 1964. When I was a high school student I used to strive for going to Olympics swimming game. ♪The rain reminds me Showa era, long time ago. We walked in the garden of Meiji Shrine while it was drizzling occasionally. As today is the lucky day there are lots of wedding ceremonies going on. Foreign tourists shoot the wedding parades all together. The wooden plaques are also very cosmopolitan. As Chinese government has permitted riches in three cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Canton to travel overseas, the leading people of Japanese tourism are Chinese now. The rich Chinese spend several times of money than Westerns. Friendly relationship between Japan and China is becoming important more and more.

Beijing Olympic Games

新宿御苑

10月9日（金）快晴

ホテルを移動。僕は海の見えるインターコンチネンタルが好きですが、ユミは新宿駅の南口に直結する今度の小田急センチュリー・ホテルがお気に入り。徒歩の範囲内にデパート、劇場、映画館、本屋、パソコン・ショップ、飲食店など何でもあります。試食のできるデパ地下とコインランドリーも。新宿御苑も徒歩10分。池の向こうにドコモの時計台とセンチュリー・ホテルも見えます。苑内の紫羽亭で優雅に抹茶を飲みました。夜は新大久保の韓国料理店で、上品とは言えない蛸の踊り食い。

クライスラー・ビル

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Shinjuku-gyoen
Fri. October 9 : fine

We’ve moved to a different hotel. I love Intercontinental Hotel because you can look over the sea from there but Yumi prefers Odakyu Century Hotel because it is connected directly to the south entrance of Shinjuku station. There are the department stores, the theaters, the book shops, the computer shops, the restaurants and all other kinds of shop within walking distance. There are the basement of the department stores in where you can eat and the coin-operated launderette as well. Shinjuku-gyoen is 10 minute walk from our hotel. We saw the clock tower of Docomo and Odakyu Century Hotel behind the lake. We drank powdered tea elegantly at Shiba-tei in the park. At night we had live octopus without elegancy at the Korean restaurant in Shinokubo.

Chrysler Building

芸術の秋、食欲の秋

10月8日（木）台風一過、快晴

午前中は田町の掖済会病院で半日ドック。亡兄が昔勤務していた病院です。午後は合羽橋で厨房器具を物色。チタンの中華鍋、鬼おろし、まな板、包丁、茶器などを購入。白人の観光客の姿も多く、合成樹脂製の食品サンプルに見入っていました。夕方ミッドタウンでユミのシドニー時代の同級生・順子と食事。アラフォーの順子は「婚活」が功を奏し、来春結婚の見通し。現代用語辞典によると「婚活」とは結婚相談所に登録すること。食事は豚カツではなく、モダン・インド料理でした。

食品サンプル

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Autumn is the best season for art and appetite
Thu. October 8 : after the typhoon passed, fine

In the morning I had a half-daymedical check-up at Ekisaikai Hospital in Tamachi. My deceased brother used to work there. In the afternoon we went to Kappabashi to look for some kitchen tools. We bought a titanium wok, a bamboo grater, some cutting boards, a knife, tea things and some other things. There were also lots of foreign visitors and some of them were gazing the plastic food samples. In the evening we had dinner at Mid Town with Junko, Yumi’s former classmate in Sydney. She is around forty years old, her “match hunting” has been successful and she is going to get married next year. According to the Dictionary of Modern Terminology “match hunting” means registering one’s name with marriage consulting companies. The dinner was not pork cutlet but modern Indian cuisine.

fake food sample

鳩山会館

10月7日（水）雨

台風が接近中ですが鳩山会館を見物。丘の上の広い庭と洋風建築は音羽御殿とも呼ばれます。入場料は500円。悪天候にもかかわらず観光バスで大勢の見物人が押しかけていました。夕方には劇団四季「アイーダ」見物。カレッタ汐留という47階建て200mの堂々たるビルに四季の劇場「海」があります。劇場は段差のない平土間に1500席のぎゅうぎゅう詰め。舞台も狭く、オーケストラ・ピットもないカラオケ・ミュージカル。入場料は1万円。1舞台1500万円の荒稼ぎ。日本演劇界は四季の一人勝ち。

鳩山会館

四季のアイーダ


カレッタ汐留から見た浜離宮とインターコンチネンタル

紫友（小石川高校）美術会展

10月6日（火）雨

品川プリンス・シアターで「カムイ外伝」。傾斜のついたアルプス・スタンド150席の立派な映画館に観客は11人だけ。入場料は1200円。1日4回上映でも大赤字。松山ケンイチが下北出身なので見たのですが、村上作品の初映画化「ノルウエーの森」には期待しています。その後大崎ニューシティーのO美術館で開催中の紫友美術会展へ。45年前に小石川高校美術会に所属していたので見物したのですが、61人のプロ、アマが130作を展示。年1回の展示会でも出品者の経済的負担はかなりなもの。

小石川高校同窓生

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Art Exhibition of Koishikawa High School
Tue. October 6 : rainy

We saw “Additional Story of Kamui” at Shinagawa Prince Theater. The gorgeous theater was imposing with 150 seats on the inclined floor but the number of spectators was only 11. The entrance fee is $17 per head. Even if it has 4 shows a day it will show a big deficit. We saw it because Kenichi Matsuyama, the main character was born in Shimokita. We are expecting good performance in the next film, ”Norwegian Wood”, Haruki Murakami’s very first cinematized novel . Next we went to O Museum to see the art exhibition of Koishikawa High School. The reason why we went there was because I belonged to the art club of that school 45 years ago. 130 works of 61 professional and amateur artists are displayed. Although the exhibition is annual, their economic burden is quite heavy.

the graduates of the same school

浜離宮の沈没船

10月5日（月）曇時々雨

今回の2週間の東京滞在のテーマは「庭園と文化」。小雨の浜離宮を散歩しているとあだ花の五輪PR船に遭遇。東京は商業五輪の政治利用争奪戦に敗北。誘致に使った血税は150億円。新橋烏森口ガード下の映画館で「ブッシュ」を見る。2本立てで800円でしたが、もう1本はつまらなそうなのでパス。上野公園を散歩した後、近代美術館を訪れましたが月曜日は休館。上野の森美術館でチベット展。入場料は1400円。

1年半前の誘致船

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Sunken ship at Hamarikyu
Mon. October 5 : cloudy occasionally rainy

The theme of this 2week-stay in Tokyo is “gardens and culture”. When we were walking around in Hamarikyu we drooped in the vein propaganda ship for Tokyo Olympic Games. Tokyo has failed in the political invitation contest of the commercial Olympic Games. $220M tax was spent on it. We saw “Bush” at the movie theater under the railroad bridge of Karasumori entrance of Shinbashi station. It was double feature and costed \800 but we didn’t see the other film because we couldn’t expect that to have been interesting. After walking in Ueno Park we visited Modern Art Museum but it is close on Mondays. We saw Tibet Exhibition at Ueno Forest Art Gallery. The entrance fee was $20 per head.

the sunken ship one and half year ago

大安吉日

10月4日（日）晴一時小雨

結婚式場は大松閣から車で30分の日高市の高麗（こま）神社。息子がインターネットで3万円の格安の会場を捜したとか。参列者が10人。所要時間は30分。僕とユミは結婚式も挙げずに18年間一緒に暮らしていますが、息子たちも15年以上の事実婚。茶道教師のあちらのお母さんの発癌のために急遽挙式。病を押して凛々しく振舞う姿は健気です。新郎新婦とユミはアラフォーの同世代。妙な気分です。竹芝桟橋のホテルに戻ると1日遅れの中秋の名月がレインボウ・ブリッジの上に輝いていました。

僕の結婚式

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Lucky day
Sun. October 4 : fine occasionally rainy

The wedding hall is in Koma Shrine of Hidaka city that is 30 minutes away from Taisho-kaku Inn by car. My son has found it on internet as one of the cheapest wedding halls that costs $700. The attendants were 10 people. Everything took 30 minutes. Yumi and I have been living together for 18 years without the wedding and my son’s couple had also been a de facto for more than 15 years. They decided to hold the ceremony hastily because the bride’s mother had a cancer. It was so brave for her to behave in quite good manners in spite of her illness. The couple and Yumi are in the same generation, around forty. I feel a little curious. When we returned to our hotel locates at Takeshiba Pier the harvest moon of one day behind was shining above Rainbow Bridge.

mu wedding 40 years ago

大松閣

10月3日（土）快晴

山の中の1軒宿を準備したからと催促され今夜は飯能市に移動。武蔵野の面影をわずかに留める入間川の上流。9月にはマンジュシャゲが群生し蛍が舞う地とのことですが、残念ながら時期外れ。今夜は中秋の名月ですが曇り空。それでも東京近郊とは思えないほどの静けさ。谷沿いの宿には緑が溢れ、猿や鹿も訪れるとか。ロビーから下界を眺めると民家の庭先に小さな茶畑が拡がっています。温泉は鉱泉の沸かし湯ですが、料理も抹茶も結構なお味でした。

大松閣

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Taisho-kaku Inn
Sat. October 3 : fine

As they told us that the mountain inn had already been booked for us, we were reminded to move to Hanno city. The inn locates beside the upstream of Iruma River where retains a little of the scenery of Musashino. You can see clustered red spider lilies and fire flies in September there but unfortunately, we went at the wrong time. Tonight is the harvest moon but it’s cloudy today. Though, it’s so peaceful and quiet there that we cannot believe we’re in the suburb of Tokyo. The inn in the valley is full of greens and the staff told us that monkeys and deer sometimes appear. Looking out from the lobby, there is a small tea field in front of the private house. The hot spring is the heated mineral spring but the dishes and powdered tea were very tasty.

Taisho-kaku Inn

汐留サイト

10月2日（金）快晴

1年に2-3回は日本に帰ります。今回は息子の結婚式に参列するために東京へ。ケアンズー成田は7時間。時差が1時間だけなので移動は楽。東京では定宿のインターコンチネンタルと小田急センチュリーに６泊ずつ。午後8時半空港発のリムジンバスで都心へ。東京には12歳から27歳まで15年間住みました。新宿も新橋も通い慣れた地ですが、徹底的なスクラップ・アンド・ビルドで当時の面影はなく、懐かしさは感じません。原発と同様に撤去費用は考慮していないようです。

浜離宮から見たインターコンチネンタル

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Shiodome Site
Fri. October 2 ; fine

I return to Japan 2 or 3 times a year. This time we’ve come to Tokyo to attend my son’s wedding. It takes 7 hours from Cairns to Narita. The time difference is only 1 hour, so you can travel quite easily. As usual we are staying at Intercontinental Hotel and Odakyu Century Hotel for 6 nights each in Tokyo. We left Narita Airport for midtown at 8:30pm by the limousine bus. I’d lived in Tokyo for 15 years since I was 12 until 27. Sinjuku and Shinbashi are both familiar town but there is no image from those days any more after the complete scrap and build. I hardly feel nostalgic. They never seem to think about any removal coats just as that of nuclear power plants.

Intercontinental Hotel looking from Hamarikyu