日本文が後ろに続きます。
In the mailbox beneath my apartment room, I found a letter from Central Pacific Bank, a Hawaiian bank I’ve kept my account for almost 15 years, saying that it had changed the policy for customers with Non-Resident Alien (NRA). According to the new policy effective April 1 this year, the bank will deduct $20 of monthly service charge from accounts of NRA customers if they don’t keep at least $10,000 in total in their accounts.
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日本文が後ろに続きます。
I live in Japan. I have bank accounts in Japan to get a monthly income and make regular payments. Besides, I have bank accounts in the United States and Hong Kong to put some of my money into different banks in different places with different currencies to minimize the risk. I manage my assets in these countries because there are more options for investment than in Japan.
A consideration is how to transfer the money you get in Japan to a foreign bank account. Wire transfer at a banking institute in Japan costs very much. I tried some online international money transfer services. All of these services require no less than 2,000 JPY of fee per transaction, so sending tens of thousand Yen with these services is costly.
Having two Paypal accounts can resolve this problem. I got two Paypal accounts with my different email addresses and linked one of the Paypal accounts to a debit card of the bank account in Japan and the other to the bank account in the US. When money was credited to the Japan bank account, I logged in to the Paypal account linked to the debit card and sent money with the debit card to the Paypal account linked to the US bank account. Then I logged out and logged in to the other Paypal account, and I withdrew money credited to the account to the US bank account linked to the Paypal account. The fee is cheaper as long as you send a small amount of money. However, you cannot send money from Japan to Hong Kong because if you live in Japan, your Paypal account does not allow you to link to any bank accounts in Hong Kong.
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日本文が後ろに続きます。
The second year of the Reiwa period began with a nightmare. More precisely, at the beginning of the year, nobody could predict what would be going on just two months later. I am talking about what the entire world is fighting against—COVID-19.
The coronavirus outbreak has been an urgent global issue. It was just the case of people in a limited area of a particular country, or poor, rich travelers within a trapped gorgeous cruise ship in February. Only a few weeks later, however, it became the case relevant in most parts of the world. Now the situation is changing day by day. For days, thousands of people around the world have been newly hospitalized due to this disease. More than 10,000 patients have died from it in China, Japan, Iran, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, the United States, and more.
The World Health Organization declared a pandemic. Lockdown is underway in many cities and even nationwide in some countries. Going out for non-essential reasons is banned or discouraged. People are forced to stay home and keep six feet away from others so as not to be six feet under.
The lockdown has had a massive impact on the world economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by around 1,000 points this month with circuit breakers taking effect many times. The share price of Boeing has become less than a third for weeks. This financial crisis is even worse than those in the great depression in 1929.
That is true with Japan. Here in Tokyo, the governor stated that lockdown in Tokyo is likely because patients tested positive are increasing every day by more than the number of cases a day before. She requested Tokyoites for being home this weekend except for essential business.
People in Japan look afraid of a state of emergency being declared and lockdown being issued. I hate to say that, but I’m sure that these will be near. I think lockdown orders will be released in weeks or even in days because we see other civilized countries being already like this.
Lockdown being inevitable, how should we do? Most people will be forced to stay away from their workplaces, such as offices, farms, fishing grounds, milk plants, and factories. Then it is likely to run short of various things needed for daily life. As a result, the production of foods and groceries will be severely restricted.
Once supply cease, panic buying is likely to take place. This action must be blamed as antisocial behavior since not all households have enough money or means to get what they need. It will be difficult to supply daily necessities if panic buying occurs, because the distribution system will be burdened more than usual, and the distribution of domestic inventory will be unfair. Participating in such panic buying is nothing but not only exposing your low awareness of social solidarity, that is, lack of knowledge that society will not be established if we do our own things, but also proving that you have neglected to be prepared and save in case of an emergency.
We have no choice but to secure the needed supplies for the time being before lockdown takes effect. It would help us a lot to find out what people in countries where lockdown is already in place are doing.
This experience gives us the following important suggestions and lessons: the fact that even the most rights-sensitive liberal nations can easily and quickly control individual’s rights and freedom before the impending crisis. It means that, once an emergency happens, the rights of individuals are insignificant and vulnerable.
What is happening in front of us now seems like a dry run exercise for the third world war. I think it is likely to occur in the coming decades because it is a very similar situation where a big earthquake occurred in 1923, the world financial crisis in 1929, and WWII 12 years later. Likewise, the big earthquake and tsunami happened in 2011, and the economic crisis derived from the coronavirus epidemic eight years later. Now the world is divided. Each country is isolated and closing its borders. How many years is left for us to see those countries to collide?
The time is right to be prepared for in the future. Divide your assets into some pieces and save them in different countries. If possible, have multiple places to live and jobs in two or more countries. Having as many life options as possible will save you in this volatile future with many uncertainties.
令和二年は悪夢で始まったようです。正確に言うと年のはじめには、２ヶ月後にこうなってるなどと誰も予測し得なかったのです。言うまでもなく、いま世界全体が戦っているもの、つまりコロナウイルスの話です。
２月の時点では、特定の国の限られた地域だけの話、あるいはとどめ置かれた豪華客船の中の、気の毒な富裕層の旅行者に限られた話だったのですが、数週間すると、世界のほとんどの場所で関係する話になってしまいました。今や事態は日に日に変わっていきます。ここ数日で、世界中で何千人もの人がこの病気であらたに入院しています。そして中国、日本、イラン、イタリア、スペイン、ドイツ、フランス、アメリカ、その他で、一万人以上の患者が亡くなりました。
ＷＨＯはパンデミックを宣言しました。ロックダウンが多くの都市で、ある国では国全体で進行中です。不要不急の外出は禁止されたり、推奨されなくなったりしています。人々は死なないために、家にとどまって、他人と２メートル離れることを強いられています。
このロックダウンで世界経済に大きな打撃を与えています。ダウ平均株価は今月だけで何度もサーキットブレーカーが発動し、１０００ポイント以上下落しました。ボーイングの株価はここ数週間で３分の１になりました。この経済危機は１９２９年の世界恐慌より悪くなっています。
この状況は日本にもあてはまっています。ここ東京では、陽性患者が毎日、前日より多く発生している中、ロックダウンの可能性もあると都知事が発言しました。今週末は不要不急の外出を控えるようによびかけています。
日本人は、緊急事態宣言やロックダウンの発令を恐れているようにみえますが、言いたくないですが私は、ロックダウンの命令はここ数週間以内、あるいは数日以内に発令されるとみています。他の文明国がすでにそうなっているからです。
ロックダウンが避けられないとすれば、どうすればいいのか。ほとんどの人が職場に行けなくなる、ということは、田畑、漁場、搾乳場、工場などに行けなくなるということなので、食糧生産や日用品生産が厳しく制限されるということになります。
ひとたび供給がやめば、パニック買いが起こりやすくなります。すべての家庭が必要なものを得るだけの資金や手段があるわけではないので、この買いあさりの行動は反社会的なものとして非難しなければなりません。パニック買いが起これば、流通機構に平常以上の負担がかかるので、国内の在庫品の流通が不公平になります。このようなパニック買いに加わることは、社会連帯意識の欠如、つまり自分勝手なことをしたのでは社会が成り立たないという意識が欠けていることを暴露するだけでなく、自分が有事の際の備え、貯えを怠っていたことを証明するにほかなりません。
われわれとしては、さしあたり必要な物資を、ロックダウンが発令されるまでに確保するほかありません。すでにロックダウンが実施中の国の人が何をしているのかを知ることが助けになるでしょう。
この経験は、次の重要な示唆と教訓を与えています。つまり、最も権利意識に敏感な自由主義諸国でさえ、さしせまった危機の前では、個人の権利や自由をいとも簡単に、そして迅速にコントロールすることができる、という事実です。それはとりもなおさず、ひとたび緊急事態が発生すれば、個人の権利などとるにたりない脆弱なものということです。
今わたしたちの目の前で起こっていることは、第三次世界大戦の予行演習のようにも思えます。第三次世界大戦は今後数十年のうちに起こるのではないかと思います。１９２３年の大震災、１９２９年の世界恐慌、そして12年後に起きた第二次世界大戦のときと状況が似ているからです。同じように、２０１１に東日本大震災が起こり、今回のコロナウイルスに起因する世界恐慌が８年後に起こりました。今や世界は分断されています。それぞれの国は孤立し、国境を閉ざしています。これらの国が衝突するまであと何年残されているでしょうか。
将来に向けて準備をすべき時だと思います。資産を分割し、別々の国に置いておきましょう。できるなら、複数の生活場所を確保し複数の国で仕事を持つのがよいでしょう。人生の選択肢をできるだけ多く持つことが、今後の不安定で不確定要素の多い将来においては救われるのではないかと思います。
Visiting US military bases is fun for me. The US Army, US Navy, US Air Force and US Marine Corps use 75 facilities within Japan and Okinawa, 51 of which are dedicated and the rest 24 shared with Japan Self Defense Force. Though those facilities are usually closed to civilians, they are open to residents around them once or twice a year, and you can get inside the military places during these festivals.
Visiting those facilities is one of the few occasions to get in touch with the United States. You can eat American-made hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, turkey legs, and other American foods. You can pay foods, sodas, beer, sweets, and souvenirs with US dollars. You can talk to Americans in English. And, you can find out how average Americans live their daily life. What kind of groceries do they buy? What kind of foods do they eat? What kind of newspapers do they read? What kind of school do they make their children attend? You can catch a glimpse of those things without flying more than 12 hours to get to mainland America.
I have visited US bases and facilities in Japan and Okinawa for more than 15 years. With respect to what I have experienced, I’m grading each of these out of 5 by categories of accessibility, smoothness of entry and exit, freedom of movement, and availability of on-base building. 5 is the most excellent, and 0 the worst.
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日本文が後ろに続きます。
I think it’s too late to write this entry, but I visited Portland and Boothbay Harbor, Maine in this September. I watched a musical play Carousel at Kokugakuin Tochigi High School performed by its musical club a few weeks before. Carousel is a musical that features a love story of a young girl and a barker in Maine, filmed in 1956. That inspired me to visit this state and, if I could, eat some lobsters and clambakes.
There were no direct flights from Tokyo to Maine, so I chose flights from Tokyo (Narita) to New York (JFK), and from LaGuardia to Portland (Maine’s largest city). All flights were Delta Airlines.
今年の９月の國學院栃木高校の文化祭。いつも観に行くミュージカル部の今年の公演は「回転木馬」。じつに10年ぶりです。
「回転木馬」（Ｃａｒｏｕｓｅｌ）のあらすじは10年前のブログ記事の内容にも書いてありますが、この作品の舞台となっているのはアメリカのニューイングランド地方・メイン州。ロブスターが名産といわれている場所だそうで、一度行ってみたい気持ちが頭をもたげてきたので、実際にメイン州まで行ってみることにしました。
日本語の旅行記はフォートラベルに転載しました。
https://4travel.jp/travelogue/11320820
The flight to JFK was noisy by Chinese passengers around my seat chatting all the time. A middle-aged Chinese woman next to me even talked to me in Chinese though I didn’t understand it. She was too helpful to me, lending a neck pillow to me and even giving me some local sweets (I couldn’t eat it because I didn’t know what was contained).
JFK Airport was busy, and there were long lines in front of the immigration. It took almost an hour to pass the immigration counter. I expected a free WiFi service in the building, but all hotspots were encrypted and payment was needed to get passwords to access to them. So I was IP-unreachabel until I had a new SIM card activated at Hudson News of that terminal. There were no vending machines of AT&T’s pay-as-you-go smartphone in that terminal.
I had to take a shuttle bus to LaGuardia Airport. I had to wait for a long time to get in the bus because busy traffic around JFK delayed its arrival at that terminal I was in. After I waited for more than 30 minutes, the bus managed to arrive. It took me to LaGuardia Airport, and let me off at the terminal B while I had to check in at the terminal C, so I had to walk thousands of feet on the walkway to the terminal C dragging my suitcase.
Thank God I managed to get to the boarding gate without missing the flight to Portland because it was delayed about one hour.
I had dinner within the food court of LaGuardia Airport. It was a combo of roasted beef sandwiches, a bowl of Manhattan clam chowder and a glass of white wine, costing about $50 including a tip.
After dinner, I bought Barrons at a local newsstand and got to the gate C12, where the next flight was supposed to be ready. Actually it wasn’t ready when I arrived, because the aircraft was so delayed that it didn’t arrive yet.
When the gate was ready, the staff told us that the aircraft was too small for our carry-on baggage to get inside the cabin. He gave each of us a baggage claim tag and put the same-numbered one to the corresponding baggage. He told us to leave our baggage on the shelf in front of the ramp before getting on the plane.
It took about one hour from New York to Portland, Maine. Getting off the plane, the passengers who had left their baggage were told to wait in the boarding bridge in front of the door to pick their baggage up, instead of picking it up at the baggage claim area.
It was 50 degrees outside. I felt it was much colder than New York and Tokyo. I took a taxi cab to take me to the motel. It was already midnight when I got there.
It was the video that I recorded next morning the motel where I stayed. It was very refreshing for me even to eat breakfast at such a standard American motel.
I walked 3/4 mile to the rental car office by the airport to check out a car I had made a reservation. I wanted to go to Boothbay Harbor, about 30 miles away from Portland, where I heard that Carousel was filmed.
It was a minivan that was assigned to me as a rental car. It was Nissan’s Quest, a bit larger and more difficult for me to drive as I usually drive a small car in wrong side of the road ;-p The maneuver of the car was a bit confusing because driver’s seat was on the left, a steering wheel was on the left, a gear stick on the right of me, a rear-view mirror on the right of me, and everything but the gas pedal and the brake pedal was on the opposite side to what was in a car I drove in Japan.
Driving in the US was a bit confusing, but it wasn’t so difficult. It was not so exciting as I expected, as roads in Maine weren’t so wider than normal country roads in Japan and I didn’t think it was quite different from that in Japan except that I was driving in the opposite side of the road.
It took about an hour from Portland to Boothbay Harbor, driving US1. Here are some pictures and videos of Boothbay Harbor.
I ate lobster rolls and steamed live lobsters at Shannon’s Unshelled and Boothbay Lobster Wharf.
That’s Carousel Marina, named after the musical film Carousel.
And this is Carousel Music Theater near that downtown Boothbay Harbor, where a musical troupe performs a show along with dinner. Actors and actresses of the troupe are waiters and waitresses as well, and they serve dishes for visitors as well as sing Hello Dolly‘s numbers and other oldies songs on stage.
Backyard is a footpath around Penny Lake.
Next day I walked around downtown Portland.
A guided tour with a boat was available at a wharf. I paid $24 to apply for a 90-minute lighthouse tour.
That’s Berlin Wall.
There was a restaurant at the wharf.
It’s fried clams. It wasn’t so nice though….
I flew back from Portland to Tokyo via Detroit, MI, and Seattle, WA.
The more we headed to the west, the more I felt there were Japanese and other Asian people around us. In Detroit, there were signs written in English and Japanese. I don’t know why there were Japanese, and no other foreign languages in the signs.
In Seattle, I saw many Japanese tourists walking in the concourse, while I saw very few foreign people in Maine (99% of people in Maine I saw were Caucasian Americans!). I realized that the West Coast is the gateway to Japan!
I expected Microsoft Store or something like that in Seattle Tacoma Airport as Seattle is home to Microsoft, but there were no such stores in the concourse. Maybe American airports were not willing to sell local products. I didn’t find any local bourbon whiskeys in duty free shops, where they sold normal alcohols sold in standard international airports.
The departure information for the flight to Tokyo didn’t appear in the display, so passengers for that flight couldn’t get any terminal information of it. I didn’t know why.
I managed to get to the terminal S8 where the flight to Tokyo were going to depart, as I had TripIt in my smartphone and updated flight information came into it.
Actually I wasn’t so interested in cosmetics or expensive liquors sold in duty free shops, but I wanted to get American sweets, drugs and commodities sold in Hudson News. I bought them as many things as I could, because Seattle was the last stop and it was the last chance to get them in that country. I paid almost $100 there for candies, pain relievers, handy wet wipes, travel goods and more. I think I spent too much money.
日本文が後ろに続きます。
Today I went to Taco Bell at Shibuya, which had opened last Tuesday as Japan’s first Taco Bell store and hundreds of people had waited in the queue for more than two hours in front of the store on the first day only. Today there was a long queue, too. A staff member standing at the end of the queue said that I had to wait up to two hours to be served from there. It was a bit tough for me to wait such a long time, but it couldn’t be helped to do it to enjoy the American taste I’d ever had in New York where I had travelled for a business trip.
先週の火曜日にいよいよ来日したタコベル（渋谷・道玄坂１号店）に今日やっと行ってきました。初日は何百人もが列をなして待っていたそうですが、今日もすごい長い列で、最後尾のスタッフ曰く２時間待ちとか。それでも前に出張で行ったニューヨークで食べた味をもう一度味わうべく、頑張って並ぶことにしました。
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日本文が後ろに続きます。
National Azabu Supermarket at Hiroo, where foods, groceries, books, toiletries and stationery imported from abroad were available, terminated operation as of today due to the age of its building.
The Hiroo neighbourhood is one of the places I visited very frequently because the training centre of the company I worked for was in that area. I visited there from time to time to have an English test or training for English writing or business skills when I was a young worker. Every time I had classes there, I dropped in on the supermarket to see the shoppers coming from abroad, mainly the United States, who looked rich enough to afford the imported products sold there. To see such successful people encouraged me to do my best to learn English and business skills for my success.
However, several years later the training centre was closed and moved to another place. Most of the products sold in the supermarket has become what I can get online for the same prices as in their home countries, without paying extra money at such imported grocery shops. Besides, the United States is no longer the goal for successful persons, seeing the current circumstances of it.
The supermarket was a dream for me, and a wonderland that offered me a space of extraordinariness, but it ended the role as a symbol of success with the change of the times. Without the supermarket, I will visit the Hiroo area more rarely than ever.
輸入ものの食品や日用品、本、文房具、化粧品などを売っている広尾のナショナル麻布スーパーマーケットが建物の老朽化のため本日をもって閉店しました。
広尾地区は、会社の研修センターがあった関係で、けっこうよく訪れる場所でした。若手社員のころ、ＴＯＥＩＣのテストやら英文ライティング研修やらビジネススキル系の研修やらでちょくちょく研修センターに行っては、帰りにはここのスーパーに立ち寄って外国人の買い物客を見に行ったものでした。だいたいがアメリカ人で、仕事で成功しいっぱい稼いでこういうスーパーで買い物できる身分になっているのを見るにつけ、これから仕事頑張ろう、英語頑張ろう、頑張ってこういう人たちみたいに成功者になりたい、と思ったものでした。
そうこうしてるうちに、何年かたつと研修センターが他の場所に移転してしまい、またここのスーパーで売ってる輸入品も、今ではネットで現地価格で買えるようになりました。何よりも、アメリカの今の状況を見るにつけ、アメリカが必ずしも成功者の目標でなくなったということがあります。
このスーパーは私にとって非日常の空間を与えてくれた夢の場所だったんですが、時代の移り変わりとともに、成功のシンボルとしての役割は終わったのかもしれません。このスーパーがなくなった今、もう広尾に行くこと自体、あまりないでしょう。
日本文が後ろに続きます。
We Japanese know that English is the world’s de facto standard language everyone in the world needs to learn to communicate with each other in this fast-globalising society. Mastering English is, nevertheless, one of the greatest hardships for most of Japanese who were born in Japan and raised by Japanese parents within Japan. They learn English as a mandatory subject in middle school, high school, and even college for up to eight years, but very few of them have a good command of it.
Quite a few analysts have given comments on why most Japanese are weak in English. Some say it’s because English’s structure of language is quite different from that of the language they usually speak. Others point out the problem with Japan’s English education policies, relying overly on teaching translation techniques from English to Japanese rather than communicative English.
It is also said that English isn’t necessary for Japanese people’s everyday life. Even if English is taught in school, it’s what they can forget after managing to pass the entrance examination of their highest education facility at long last. Once they finish studying for exams, they can do without English for life as long as they stay within Japan. Rather, showing off English is considered in many cases as rude, affected, and disgusting behaviour by other average Japanese, especially older people who have less chance to learn English.
Why do average Japanese living in Japan hate such people who speak English fluently, though they may neither feel rude, affected nor disgusting to good painters, professional musicians, skilled karate masters, or those who are good at something other than English? Japan has been subject to America’s control in business, economy, military, culture, and everything else since WWII, and various kinds of things have been brought into Japan. People in Japan have been mesmerised by such American-style things and, because it has been noised about especially for the last 15 years that all examples in America are the global standard they should follow, they have done their best to try to incorporate them in their daily life. However, a few things are what they can’t manage to do it —- English is the one. Affection to what they try to get in vain turns into hatred over time and the hatred will be expressed at those who successfully have it. Due to such nature of Japanese people, most of them don’t or pretend not to speak English well so that they won’t generate unexpected resentment among people. Because it’s considered affected to show off speaking English in public, they have less motivation to use it.
In my humble opinion, one of the important attitudes to master English is to stop admiring America too much. English is not a language for Americans only, but a lingua franca everybody in the world learns whether or not he is a native English speaker. You’ll find out that American English mainly taught in Japan is not dominant in the world if you travel to countries in Europe, Middle East, or Southeast Asia, where British English is widely used in conversation and signs in public. People in the UK, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia use their own local English. Even within the United States, you’ll see various kinds of people from businesspersons to hotel clerks, taxi drivers, and newsstand workers who speak in various kinds of accents. Nothing is right, and nothing is wrong. Nothing is fashionable, and nothing is dowdyish. They are all in English.
We should be a master of English, not a slave of it. We should learn it as not so much one of American cultures as an interface language to get our views over anybody in the world, regardless of his mother tongue, representing the nation we stand. The more Japanese can do it, the more they can influence in the world, resulting in the benefit of our country.
昨今のグローバル社会、世界のデファクトスタンダード言語である英語をやらなきゃというのはわかっていても、日本で生まれて日本で日本人の親のもとで育った日本人にとって、中学・高校果ては大学まで最大８年勉強しても、マスターするのは至難の業です。
なぜ日本人は英語が弱いのか、数えきれないほどの専門家が意見を述べています。やれ英語の構造が日本語と全然違うからだとか、英語教育が英文和訳に偏り過ぎていて会話を教えないだとか、そもそも英語は日常生活に必要なくて、入試になんとか合格してしまえば忘れちゃって、日本にいる限り英語なしでも生きていけるからとか。むしろ英語をひけらかすほうが（特に英語を学ぶ機会の少なかった年配者に対しては）無礼で、キザで、ムカツクなどと受け取られちゃったりします。
英語ができる人に対して鼻持ちならない感情を抱く人がいます。「絵がうまい人」とか「プロのミュージシャン」とか「空手の達人」とか、「何かが得意」という点では同じはずなのに、彼らに対しては嫌悪感を抱かずに、英語ができる人に対してだけ不快感を抱くのも変な話だと思うんですが、戦後ずっと日本はアメリカのコントロールを受け、ビジネス面、経済面、軍事面、文化面すべてにおいてアメリカの影響を受けており、アメリカからいろんな事物が入ってくると日本人はそれに魅了され、特にここ１５年ほどはアメリカの事例がすべて「グローバル・スタンダード」で、日本人も身につけるべきと喧伝されているのもあって、アメリカのものをなんとかして手に入れたいと頑張ってきました。とはいっても、頑張っても身につけられないものもいくつかあり、その一つが「英語」で、いくら頑張っても手に入れられないものへの愛情は、しだいに憎しみへと変わっていき、それが、それを簡単に身につけられた者に向けられるんじゃないか、と。そういう日本人の国民性があるので、予期しないところで人から恨みを買うのを避けるために、ほとんどの日本人は英語を話せないか、話せないふりをするようになったんじゃないでしょうか。人前で英語を使うのがキザと取られるのでは、英語を使うモチベーションは下がっていくでしょう。
私の個人的な考えとしては、英語をマスターするにあたってとるべき態度は「アメリカに過度に憧れるのをやめる」ことじゃないかと思っています。英語はアメリカ人だけの言葉ではなく、世界中の人が、ネイティブであってもそうでなくても、学んでいる「リングア・フランカ」だからです。海外に行くと、日本で主に教えられているアメリカ英語は実は世界的にはそんなに優位ではなく、特にヨーロッパや中東や東南アジアなど、むしろ会話や公共の表示などはイギリス英語のほうが使われていることがわかります。イギリス、インド、香港、シンガポール、マレーシア、オーストラリア……そこの人たちはそれぞれ地元の英語を使ってます。アメリカの中でも、ビジネスマンからホテルのフロント係員、タクシーの運転手、ニューススタンドの店員、いろんな人がいていろんなアクセントで話してるのがわかります。そこには正しいとか間違っているとかはなく、カッコいいとかダサいとかはないんです。みな英語なのです。
私達は英語の主人であるべきで、英語の奴隷であるべきではありません。英語を学ぶのは、アメリカの文化としてではなく、自分の拠って立つ国を代表して、自分の考えを世界のどの母語の人にも伝えられるようにするためのインタフェースとして学ぶべきと思います。そういう日本人が増えれば、日本人がもっと世界で影響力を発揮することができ、それが日本の国益にもつながるんじゃないでしょうか。
日本文が後ろに続きます。
This year I saw Oklahoma! at Kokugakuin Tochigi University High School. Every year I go to the cultural festival of this high school to see a play performed by the Musical Club. This club consists of tenth and twelfth graders of this high school, playing musical on an after-school basis. They have regular performances several times a year, and the biggest one is a show at the cultural festival in early September. Mieko Saigusa, one of this club’s instructors in charge of choreography, is the lady I know well and look forward to seeing once a year. That’s why I go to this high school even though I didn’t graduate from it and, to be sure, I’m nothing to do with it.
The city of Tochigi is about 50 miles to the north from central Tokyo. Car is the most convenient option to go there, but I went there by train for the last two years as I didn’t have my own car since I sold it two years ago.
Nevertheless, this time I rented a car to get there faster and more comfortably.
Ms. Saigusa was fine, worked energetically, and looked a bit younger than last year. To my happiness, when I came this morning in front of the entrance door of the musical venue, she led only me to the front row of the spectator’s seats inside the theater where the show was performed, while other guests were still waiting in front of the door 🙂
The musical was perfect. All the cast members played almost as skillfully as professional musical players. I enjoyed it very much.
The synopsis of Oklahoma! is shown here.
今年も國學院栃木高校の文化祭の時期がやってきました。恒例のミュージカル部公演を見るべく、今回はレンタカーを借りて朝から栃木まで行ってきました。今年の演目は「オクラホマ！」。
高校生の部活ですが、内容はプロ顔負けの高レベルです。主役２人を含めみなさん好演していましたが、特にJudを演じた人の演技は際立っていたと個人的に感じました。それから、Gertieの怪演も見事でした。
指導する三枝美江子先生に会いに行ってきました。今年もお元気でした。今年は少しお若く見えたような気がします。毎年見に行ってる常連だということで配慮してくれたのか、今年は入口に立っていると、特別に他のお客様に先んじて最前列の席をご案内いただきました。おかげさまで維持員席でかぶりつきで堪能することができました 🙂 ちょうど理事長先生もお見えだったようでその専用席も用意されていたんですが、理事長席は２列目だったので、理事長先生よりも前の席でちょっと恐縮だったんですけどね。
ちなみに他の展示はというと、英語部が３年ぶりに復活してました。部員が確保できたんですね。その代わりというわけではないですが、恒例だったアイオワホームステイの展示が今年はなかったようです。他にも電車の実験とか面白そうなものはいくつかあったんですが、レンタカーの時間もあったのでお昼過ぎには失礼しちゃいました。。。
【2017年10月22日追記】
動画でウエディングドレスを着て歌っている女性は関谷ひかりさん。今の宝塚宙組 天瀬はつひさんです。