2014.11.14
ウイリアムに想う5
佐藤賢太郎

 ウイリアムが来訪して2週間になる。楽しさもあり難しさもある。興味があっても誰でもでも受け入れことができないだろうと思う。それは日本人同士でもそうだが、相手との間合いを測れるかということがある。

彼は日本語を覚えようと、かなり勉強熱心である。しかし日本語を学ぶだけなら、お金はかかるがその教室に通えばいい。

生きた日本の文化を肌で感じられること、しかもそれが無料で体験できるところがウーファーの特典である。我が家では朝から自然食の最高のもてなしをしていることには自信がある。ほかのホストではこんな待遇はできないだろうと、私は彼に英語で言っている。

ただし彼自身、日本語も不自由でありながら、知らない家に入り、リスクを冒しても行動するところにスゴサを感じる。私は多くの日本人の若者はそのようなことは、できないであろうと思う。知らないところに身を置くことを楽しいと思うところがすごい。そして彼はいたって明るく、まじめで、温厚である。

ブルックさんとは違い、私たちと積極的に話をする。私は片言の英語、彼は片言の日本語で話す。それは素晴らしいことである。なぜなら彼が何を考えているかわかるからである。

一番助かるのは私の使っているパソコンが故障して、新しいパソコンを使っている。とても操作に不自由をしている。そんな時、私はしばしば彼に聞くことがある。もちろん彼は同じスタイルのパソコンを持っているからです。そしてはるかに私よりパソコンは堪能である。

こんなことができることはすごい豊かな生き方をしていると思う。


 

Day 9 - First Snow (indoors)

At breakfast today, Sato-san asked me if I knew the actual meaning of the often repeated pre-meal saying of 'itadakimasu' and I had to confess that I didn't. He then very kindly and clearly explained it to me as consisting of the giving of thanks for three things: firstly, thanks to the cook (in our case, Makiko-san) for preparing the meal we're about to receive; secondly, thanks to the animals and vegetables that have lost their lives so that we may have sustenance; and finally, thanks for the sun, air, rain and earth that give us life. Coming from the West, where people are more likely to say 'grace' before a meal, I found it interesting to hear that there's no religious motivation behind this Japanese saying.

After breakfast, Sato-san, Makiko-san and I had the task of giving the two house stoves' chimneys their annual clean. Preparation for this involved carpetting the floor, the chairs and anything else within reach in a layer of newspaper, which I understood when I saw the amount of soot that came once Sato-san started sweeping. The first sign of the mess to come was a fine haze of white dust that began falling from the stove pipe overhead, and soon had all three of us looked like we'd been out in a minor blizzard. Despite a few challenging blockages and repeatedly lost gloves, however, we had the whole place cleaned up and the stove running like a dream in under 2 hours.

I also met a few of the local junior high school students; three very sweet girls that came to the door of the house looking to buy some of the apples that Makiko-san is selling at Wasaikan. They obligingly stood there listening to my attempts at basic Japanese whilst Makiko-san looked on and filled in the gaps for me. It was nice to see that there are still some representatives of a younger generation living here in Toyomi.

I spent the rest of the day doing various wood chopping jobs. Perhaps most interesting of these was the large cherry tree next to one of the vegetable patches, which Sato-san told me, amazingly, he had planted from a seed. This we had to prune quite severely, as Sato-san explained it had become a ladder for the monkeys to climb in order to get over the electric fence around the field. It was a shame to see such a clearly cared-for tree trimmed back in this way, but I guess one is left with little choice when your daikon are at stake!