ラストサムライを観ました。素晴らしい映画をありがとう。私の中に眠っていた日本人の心意気を思い出させて頂き感謝しています。 �� Last sum rye It saw. Thank you for a wonderful movie. I am allowed to remember it and appreciate for the spirit of the Japanese who was sleeping in me. �� I saw your film “THE LAST SAMURAI”. Thank you for a wonderful film. I appreciate it reminded me of the spirit of Japanese that was sleeping in myself. �� I saw your film “THE LAST SAMURAI”. I'm truly grateful to have encountered your wonderful film, which awakened the true spirit of the Japanese sleeping within myself.
私がラストサムライを観たのは、私の住むマチにある小さな映画館です。でも・・、その映画館は残念なことに3/31に閉館となりました。その小さな映画館の最後の作品としてラストサムライがかかったのです。何か因縁のようなものを感じなくもありません。 �� It is a small movie theater in MACHI in which I live that I looked at last sum rye. But .. and its movie theater turned into that they were closed at 3/31 at the regrettable thing. Last sum rye started as a work of the last of the small movie theater. A thing like connection is felt some. �� It is a small movie theater in my town that I saw “THE LAST SAMURAI”.But, to my deep regret, the movie theater was closed at March 31st. “THE LAST SAMURAI” was THE LAST FILM shown at this small theater. I find it some kind of coincidence. �� I saw “THE LAST SAMURAI” in a small movie theater in my hometown - Yubari. But, to my deep regret, the movie theater (named CINESALON) stopped operations on March 31st. "THE LAST SAMURAI” was THE LAST FILM shown at this small theater. What a coincidence !
私の住むマチは、聞いたことがあるかもしれませんが、毎年 国際映画祭（Yubari international funtastic film festival)を開催しています。映画祭のあるマチなのに常設の映画館がなくなってしまうのは寂しいかぎりです。 �� MACHI in which I live is an every year although it may have been heard. International Film Festival (Yubari international funtastic film festival) It is holding. Although it is MACHI with a film festival, it is [ whether it is lonely and ] that a standing movie theater is lost. �� My town is famous for annual international film festival,you may have heard the name, Yubari international fantastic film festival. I think “Film festival town” without theater is a pity. �� You may recognize my town for the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival held every year. I think that a “film festival town” without a theater is a pity.
映画館がなくなってしまった理由の一つは、音響システムが壊れてしまったことだと聞きました。音響システムは中古のもの（近くのマチで何ケ所か映画館が閉館となった為中古品があるそうです)でも私のマチの小さな映画館（名前はシネサロンといいます)１年分の予算金額に相当するそうです。 �� It was heard that one of the reasons whose movie theater has been lost was that the sound system has broken. It is said that a sound system is equivalent to the budget amount of money for movie theater (name is called cinema salon) one year when the used thing of my MACHI (there is seemingly a used article since several places or the movie theater turned into that it was closed by nearby MACHI) is also small. �� I hear one of the reasons the theater is closed was that the sound system has broken. The sound system is so expensive that even second-hand one (some are available because several theaters in neighbor towns have been closed) costs as much as one- year budget for the small theater (by the way, its name is CINESALON) in my town, �� One of the reasons the theater closed down is that the sound system was broken. The sound system is so expensive that even a second-hand system (available because several theaters in neighbor towns have also closed down) costs as much as the annual budget allocated for the small theater.
でも、悲嘆に暮れているだけではありません。映画の小さなともしびを守ろうと有志が集まり、活動を始めています。月に一度くらいは有志で映画をかけたいと計画をしているようです。 �� But it is not only overwhelmed with grief. The volunteer gathered to protect the small light of a movie, and activity is begun. It seems that the plan will be made if you want to apply a movie by the volunteer at once in the moon. �� But we are not just crying. Interested persons get together to do something to keep the torch of cinema burning. They are planning to show a film once a month voluntarily �� But we are all not sitting around and lamenting the loss. Dedicated people are getting together to keep the torch of cinema burning. Volunteers endeaver to show a film once a month.
私もこれからもトムクルーズさんの映画が観れるよう、小さな映画館を微力ながら支えたいと思います。 �� I also want to support a small movie theater with poor ability so that Mr. Tom Cruise's movie can be seen from now on. ���� With them, I will do what I can to support this small movie theater so that I can see your film there again.
トムクルーズさんの益々のご活躍をお祈りします。もっともっと素敵な映画を作って下さい。楽しみにしています。 �� I pray Mr. Tom Cruise's more and more activity. Please make a greater movie. I am looking forward to it. �� Mr. Tom Cruise, I wish you take an active part in film industry further. Please make more and more great films. I am looking forward to seeing them. �� Mr. Cruise, I hope you will continue to take an active part in the film industry. Please make many more great films. I am looking forward to seeing them.
Though people hardly believe it, I was such a quiet child when I was little. My body was weak because of asthma and so was my will. My best friends were dolls for long time till I met her, Yoshika. Now people are amazed saying "You talk a lot", and it is Yoshika who made me so. Just after my 4 year old birthday, my family and I moved to the suburb town for cleaner air good for my body. Then there lived Yoshika nextdoor.
Yoshika claimed arrogantly "We started living here before you guys"(It is true, but "just before", not "long before"). I was urged to do my best to protect myself from her bullets of words. I talked back, argued. Desperately answering back, I found myself getting as talkative as Yoshika day by day.
After long fighting days, Yoshika and I finally admit each other as a good rival. We two talk at the same time like machineguns. Our parents were amazed how we two could understand each other that way. Shortly after that, Yoshika and her family moved to Berlin, Germany for the transfer of Yoshika's scientist father. While their absence, an Indian family from New Delhi lived their house. Having an Indian neighbor and a penpal in Berlin, I became curious about foreign cultures and determined, "When I grow up, I will study abroad".
After Yoshika came back from Berlin, we went to elementary school and then junior high school together everyday, talking and singing. We studied, played, and invented games together. We two shared a long time side by side like salt and pepper, and therefore we were often compared. I believed Yoshika and I were like twins until when I was at the fifth grader a friend of ours told me honestly, "Yoshika and you are not alike. Because Yoshika is pretty". Classmates remember Yoshika as a "Beautiful girl". I was too close to her to recognize our difference. Even the Indian family named their baby girl "Yashika"(sounds like "Yoshika", not "Masako"!) so that she grows into a pretty girl like Yoshika, who they knew only in a photograph.
Yoshika and I were separated at senior high school. After my family moved when I was 17, Yoshika was not my nextdoor neighbor anymore. Yoshika and I had a lot in common but we two ware very different, too. Yoshica was an athlete. She always won the 1st place at races both long and short distance. I liked reading at the desk rather than running outdoor. At university, I took liberal arts course and Yoshika, science course.
Yohika was continuing her research in Max-Planck-Institute in Berlin since 2002. She was an only Japanese among scientists from all over the world, but Yoshika was Yoshika wherever on earth she was. One day, her e-mail wrote, "I couldn't express diarrhea downfall either in German or English. So I made myself understood with body language". She was such a genius of going beyond borders.
A month ago I received a notice that Yoshika was passed away. Berlin and Tokyo where I live is such a long distance. Now the distance is expanded to the heaven, the place too far to reach.
Before I was ready to cry, the farewell assembly was held today in our hometown. I Asked for by Yoshika’s parents, I was a master of ceremony. I wanted to make the ceremony filled with warm atmosphere. People who filled the hall brought it together. Yoshika's classmate cellist Yu Nakata and her elder sister pianist Ryo Nakata presented beautiful harmony.
The word of mourning were unique reflecting Yoshika's personality. The adviser teacher of the track and field team in the junior high school said “I was advised by her how I should advise the team”. Yoshika's classmate at senior high school introduced one of Yoshika’s unforgettable words, "Having pride make you storong". Alpine team's adviser teacher at university introduced a dynamic episode, "When Yoshika was sick in the mountain, beer made her recover". The mournful sentence sent by Mr. Yuichi Inoue at Japanese embassy in Germany sent by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology introduced a astonishing episode. When minister Toyama visited Max-Planck-Institute, Yoshika surprised the minister and bodyguards saying "I'm very honored because it is my first time to see somebody with the name of minister". Imaging the scene, I can't help smiling.
Yoshika has many episodes pulling out smiles and laughter. In our favorite Osamu Tezuka’s cartoon “The Phoenix”, there was a scene a girl introducing herself “Kigisu, 16”. Kigisu was the girl’s name in the story but Yoshika somehow misunderstood Kigisu means age and she asked every person she met "How many Kogisus do you have?". When Yoshika's ice cream spinned off the candy cane, Yoshika catched the cream with the cane swiftly before it hit the ground, screaming "Ice catch!". It was really a nice catch. Remembering such episodes, laughter comes out instead of tears.
The ceremony was over while I was missing chance to cry. I talked with my childhood friends “We would go forward without really understanding Yoshika is gone” Since I was a child, I would not show tears to Yoshika, my rival. That might be a reason I still can’t cry for her.
When living next doors, Yoshika and I called each other by whistle. Yoshika whistled "The Holy Night" and I whistled "Hope" by Taku Izumi. Yoshika will never show up again even if I whistle.
In my diary at December 22, 2002. I wrote, "Japan is peace and quiet these years because talkative Yoshika is away for Berlin" but I didin’t expect it last forever. At the same time, I never felt Yoshika so close to me. The more I think of her, the closer she is. Yoshika is not gone, she is here, close to me, part of me, because she made such a big influence to me. Her words, her attitudes, her way of thinking, are flown into my blood. In what I write, there is surely Yoshika. After all no tears but smiles, and I would like to say to Yoshika "Thank you" rather than "Goodbye".
When jogging together, Yoshika was always too fast to catch up. Like her way of running, she went through her life with all her might.
■友人や知人の舞台や個展を観に行くのが好きなのは、彼らの発信しているものに触れて、刺激や元気をもらえるから。今日は、
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■下北沢ＯＦＦＯＦＦシアターにて、ヤニーズあらため
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シネマアートン下北沢にて、友人の鈴木薫主演の短編『
８月３日生まれのケーキ職人、はちみつ・亜紀子（はちみつと亜紀子の間に何か入れないと字画が悪いそうなのでナカグロ）ちゃんのお菓子教室に遊びに行く。わたしが今書いている作品に登場するケーキの描写について相談したら、「じゃあ焼いてあげるから食べにおいでよ」と言ってくれた。味わったまんまを書くと、きっとおいしそうな文章になるよ、と。友だちに恵まれているって、ほんと、作品の栄養源だと思う。
English follows Japanese.