(Continued from A trip to real England)
Breakfast served at Heathfield Bed & Breakfast was really British-style, with a fried egg, fried potatoes, and mushrooms, a fried tomato cut in half, two slices of bacon and two sausages as well as cereals, slices of bread, a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea. I have a good appetite for breakfast in England because when it’s breakfast time in England, it’s time to have dinner in Japan where it’s nine hours ahead.
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Although it was a bit while ago, I made a private trip to the United Kingdom. It was not the British Hills, not an English village, not a British-style cottage in Tochigi Prefecture, not any other “fake Britain” in Japan. It was the real England, where I had wanted to visit before I died. I visited London and Haworth, West Yorkshire. Both of those places were introduced in Japanese manga, Emma, by Kaoru Mori, which was one of my favourite comics I’d ever read.
日本文が後ろに続きます。
Visiting England is one of the things I want to do in the future. I planned a trip there in the middle of September. I purchased air tickets to and from London and booked hotels there. To my sorrow, however, I was forced to cancel all of the reservations because of the hectic work I had for almost two years. The British Hills is one of its alternatives, but I get tired of it as I visited there many times. One day I heard that there was such a place in South Korea mocking English streets. That’s why I visited South Korea this month, though I didn’t understand Korean at all.
(English text follows after several Japanese paragraphs)
イギリスに行きたいとずっと思っていて、９月にイギリスに行こうと思い立って航空券まで買ってホテルまで予約してたのですが、ここ２年近く続く激務のせいで時間がとれず結局キャンセルを余儀なくされる始末。ブリティッシュヒルズで我慢しようにも、何度も行ってると飽きが来てしまう。ある日、韓国に似たようなイギリスを模した通りがあると聞き、今月、韓国語が全くわからないのに韓国まで行ってきました。
旅行記をフォートラベルに転載しました。以降は英語だけです。
https://4travel.jp/travelogue/11320822
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I visited British Hills first in this year because the snow melted and it became accessible by car.
雪が解けて車で行けるようになったので、今年初のブリティッシュヒルズ訪問です。
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。
Last weekend was happy days for me because I deeply experienced a British taste last Saturday and Sunday. From the beginning, I preferred the USA to the UK or other English-speaking countries. Still, my affection has been shifting to England for years since I happened to read Kaoru Mori’s Emma, a romance manga about a maid in England in the Victorian Era who falls in love with a member of the gentry.
先週は、イギリスにどっぷり浸かってきました。
もともとはアメリカ一辺倒だったんですが、森薫の「エマ」と出会って以来ここ数年はむしろイギリスのほうに興味がシフトしていってまして、まずは初日は毎年恒例の國學院栃木高校の文化祭「國學院祭」のミュージカル部公演「Ｏｌｉｖｅｒ！」を見に行きました。
On the first day, the first thing I did is to see Oliver! by the Musical Club of Kokugakuin Tochigi High School playing for the school’s cultural festival held this weekend. Oliver! is, as you may already know, an English musical based on Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist. It’s the story that Oliver Twist, who has missing parents and is in a workhouse, is forced to get out of the workhouse and gets involved in a group of pickpockets. He tries to pick a pocket of a well-off lady, who finally takes him in and brings him up, and then he gets happy.
「Ｏｌｉｖｅｒ！」は、以前にも書いたとおり、イギリスのチャールズ・ディケンズの小説「オリバー・ツイスト」をもとにしたミュージカルで、孤児となって救貧院に入れられていたオリバー・ツイストがスリの一味に引き入れられながらも、財布をすろうとした相手の金持ちに拾われて幸せになるというお話です。
今年も講師の三枝幹音センセイはお元気でいらっしゃいました。
ということでまずイギリス気分に浸ったあとは、クルマを走らせて福島県のブリティッシュ・ヒルズに向かいました。
ブリティッシュ・ヒルズの旅行記はフォートラベルに書いてあります。以降は英語だけです。
https://4travel.jp/travelogue/11722398
I parked my car in the car park and took my iPhone to tweet in Gowalla, but the iPhone couldn’t connect to the 3G network because Softbank wasn’t in service in this area, whilst my Blackberry, where NTT DoCoMo’s SIM card was installed, was okay.
I got out of my car with all of my luggage and walked to the reception desk, following the signs put on the roadside.
The reception desk was in the Manor House. A Caucasian receptionist accepted my check-in. She gave me a room key and a brochure where my name and dates of stay were printed and gave a detailed explanation of the building where I was supposed to stay, as well as each of the premises in British Hills. Unlike the people you may see in the countries other than Japan, she behaved in a manner as polite and gentle as Japanese clerks would do. She also advised me that a handbell was available at the reception desk and anybody who was walking in the nature trail of British Hills should carry it in hand so that its sound might scare bears which might appear in front of the walker.
This is the guestroom I stayed in. It was a gorgeously furnished suite room.
It wasn’t air-conditioned so as to meet the taste of a Medieval British house, but I could cool off by an electric fan put in the room.
This is the bathtub made of the fabric imported from the UK. The amenities (shampoo, conditioners, soap, and body moisturiser) are imported from the UK as well.
After putting my holdall in the guestroom, I went out to walk around the grounds around the buildings. Unlike US military bases, you could go and walk wherever you wanted, although some “No Entry” zones for staff only were only exceptions.
Every building was built in an ancient British manner, from Yeoman to Stuart, Georgian, and Tudor styles.
Each guest house was named after a historical person popular in the UK.
This building is named “Wren,” who was an astronomer in Oxford making a great contribution to the reconstruction of London burnt down by fire in the 17th century.
This is the Turner, where I stayed. Turner was a landscape painter in the 18th century.
This is the Drake, derived from Francis Drake, the first British sea captain who sailed around the world in the Elizabethan era.
This is the Henry II, the first King of England.
I dropped in on the Ascot tea house to have a tea set. An Englishmen and some Japanese girls served me there.
This is what was served at Ascot: tea with a scone, a quiche, fresh cream (not clotted cream), and strawberry jam. They had got an afternoon tea set or a high tea set with more scones and sandwiches, but I didn’t order them because the dinner time was coming soon and I didn’t want to be stuffed there.
This is the Ye Shoppe, a souvenir shop selling tea leaves, mugs, shortbread, sweets, letter sets, bookmarks, keyrings, pens, toiletries, and other items imported from the UK. I found a gorgeous feather pen used in ancient times, so I bought it with a bar of English soap, bottles of bath foam, and a key ring celebrating the marriage of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Then I dropped in on the reception to borrow a handbell and walked the nature trail. It was a 2-mile long unpaved footpath around the building area, with many ups and downs. It was a good exercise for me.
I had got a viewpoint and special places to see on my way of the trail. Fortunately, I saw no bears or any other scary wildlife, but I had got a heavy thunderstorm while walking, so I gave up walking all of the trails and went back to the guest house halfway through the walk.
Dinner time began at 6:30 pm at the Refectory dining room. It was the main dining room modelling a refectory of British traditional public schools. It had dress codes and no admission for casually dressed personnel. I changed clothes into a suit with a tie before going there.
It was a full course dinner starting from pumpkin & yoghurt veloute, followed by salmon terrine, consommé soup, sorbet, and the main dish in the above picture. This is some slices of the roast beef marinated with gravy and horseradish sauce. When serving it to me, the chef of the Refractory himself came to me and carved from a chunk of beef. Of course, it tasted excellent! It was a bit too luxurious for me, as I always eat simple foods daily.
After dinner, I went to the pub next to the Refectory and got a glass of 1-pint beer. A Canadian girl sat next to me, so I talked a bit with her. She said she was a staff member of the Refectory and she was coming to drink there because that day was her day off. After a while, a group of the staff finishing the work at the Refectory and changing their clothes more casually came to her and invited her to the inner seats to talk together. She went and joined them. Then I made a little conversation with a Japanese bartender, drank some dry martini, and played darts with him a bit. He told me that many more foreign staff members usually worked there and made merry in the pub every night, but in those days there were less because many of them were returning to their home countries to renew the working visas expiring in that season.
The next morning it was very foggy, and it was hard to see even ten yards ahead.
It’s breakfast at the Refectory. It was a buffet style. I thought it would’ve been perfect if there had been baked beans.
While eating breakfast, a supervisor came to me and asked me to have a guided tour in the Manor House if I had time. When checking out the hotel, I told her I was ready for the tour. Then she took two young girls to me and told them to guide me as attendants. They were just college students studying the hotel industry and were coming there for one of the education programmes of the college.
They took me inside the Manor House and explained the history of the Manor House, how and why those kinds of houses had been built in the Medieval times, with what fabrics the rooms were furnished, in what manner the walls and the ceilings were decorated, and more. They explained a bit falteringly, but with all their might.
One of the most instructive pieces of knowledge from their explanations was why the level where there was the main entrance was called “the ground floor” and the upper level called “the first floor” in the UK or the British Commonwealth. According to their explanations, the downstairs wasn’t considered as a residential area because it was used just for a butler who greeted incoming guests, judging whether the guests were going down well with the master or not. Only the guests judged as welcome persons could be shown upstairs by the butler and arranged to meet the master at the upper hall like the picture above. That’s why the place was on “the first floor,” whilst the downstairs hall was on “the ground floor.”
In this picture above, you can see in the middle the gorgeous stained glass weighing 1 tonne specially crafted at Scotland, Queen’s and King’s rooms on the right side, and the left, a library of more than 1,000 volumes of old books stored in the bookshelves. Of course, Oliver Twist was one of the collections.
On both sides of the aisle were the portrait pictures of the people who had made a great contribution to the UK and Japan, including former Emperor Hirohito and his Empress, as well as Emperor Meiji, the first east Asian person on whom the Order of the Garter was conferred.
It’s the Queen’s room named “Her Majesty,” modelling the private room of the mistress.
The King’s room called “His Majesty,” the master’s private room. The furniture had a fierce-animal-shaped decoration in many parts to show off his power and strength. Prince Hitachinomiya actually stayed in this room when he visited British Hills. The attendants said even an ordinary person could stay here for 250,000 yen per night.
The last place they guided me was the snooker room, where snooker was available as well as drinking brandy at the bar counter. Snooker looked like billiard, but they said snooker used a wider table and smaller balls than billiard, and it was much more difficult to play.
I enjoyed the stay until noon on that Sunday. The staff members were very polite, well trained, and had much elegance and hospitality. I thought it would’ve been better if the uniforms of the staff had been like those of British maids and footmen :-p as everything in British Hills was modelling the ancient British cultures. Apart from that, that “theme park” is my No.1 recommendation that is good for taking a rest if you get tired of your routine days. I think that the company I’m working for, trying to get involved in global business, should arrange a few days of English lessons in British Hills as an education programme for encouraging the employees to be more skilful in English.
日本文が後ろに続きます。
Many people around me are suffered from cold in this season. As many people know well, cold is caused by being infected by viruses. In the crowded area like Tokyo, you can easily catch viruses on the crowded commuter trains. It is inevitable to take virus if you go out on a normal basis. For this, to avoid catching cold you must be immune to viruses, because (unlike germs that can be killed by antibiotics) no medicine but your white blood cells can kill viruses.
There are several options to keep your body’s immunity. Taking nutritious foods will help to keep you immune. Sleeping well will also be nice. Avoiding much stress, much alcohol or anything impairing your immunity is also important for keep you healthy. Besides, aromatherapic means can work well.
I read books saying that lavender essential oil was good for strengthen your body’s immunity against harmful viruses or germs and English people used it on a daily basis to prevent cold. I imported Tisserand’s 20ml lavender oil from England for about £10, because the books said that Tisserand provided good essential oils.
この季節になると周りに風邪っぴきが増えてくるんですが、そもそも風邪というものはウイルスが感染して起こるのであって、東京のような混雑した場所では満員の通勤電車などに乗ってればウイルスがそこらじゅうに蔓延しているわけなので、普通に出歩いて生活している限りウイルスに感染するのは避けられないわけです。細菌は抗生物質で殺すことができますが、風邪の原因になるのはウイルスであって、ウイルスはどんな薬でも殺すことはできません。殺せるのは体内の白血球（免疫系）だけです。ということは、風邪をひかない（ウイルスに感染しても発病しない）ようにするためには、その免疫系を強くしておけばよいわけです。
免疫力を強くする方法にはいくつかあって、滋養のある食べ物をよく食べる、よく寝る、免疫力を弱めるアルコールやストレスを避けるなどいろいろありますが、アロマセラピーによっても免疫力を維持することができます。
井形慶子の本に、ラベンダーオイルを使って免疫力を高める方法が紹介されていました。この人の本はイギリスびいきに過ぎるところがあるので批判する人も多いですが、この人の紹介するイギリス人の生活の知恵は参考になるところがいっぱいあります。イギリス人は常備薬的にラベンダーオイルを使うとのことで、風邪予防にラベンダーオイルを垂らした風呂に浸かったり、ヤケドにラベンダーオイルを塗ったりするとのことです。
さっそく真似をしてみることにし、イギリスで有名といわれるTisserand社のラベンダーオイルをネットで取り寄せてきました。20ml入りで、送料込みで約10ポンド（約1500円）。D○Cのラベンダーオイルが5ml入りで1575円なのに比べれば、はるかにお買い得です。
風呂に浸かるときに湯船に10滴ほど垂らし、立ち上ってくる蒸気を吸ってみたり、ハンカチに1滴垂らして鼻と口を覆って吸ってみたりしてます。夜寝る前にやるとすぐに睡魔が襲ってきてぐっすり眠れます。おかげさまでこの冬は今のところ風邪をひいておりません。さらに、最近ニキビがよくできて困っていたんですが、ニキビにラベンダーオイルの原液をつけると、翌日にはニキビが目立たなくなっています。ラベンダー恐るべし、です。
Tisserandのラベンダーオイルはwww.tisserand.co.ukで販売してるんですが、どういうわけか日本には発送してくれないので、OneNilTrade Limited（www.blushingbuyer.co.uk）というところから取り寄せました。
風邪をひいたら井形女史の紹介する「カラシ風呂」をためしてみようと思いますが、まだ風邪をひいてないのでやってません。。。
【2009/2/3追記】
なんてえらそうなコト書いてましたが、先週の終わりぐらいにとうとう風邪でダウンしちゃいました。。。からし風呂もラベンダーオイルも全く役に立たず。。。5日間寝込んでしまってました。。。強烈過ぎる風邪でした。
頼むからガイジンさんは山手線の中で騒ぐのもほどほどに。。。