🚚.....Harry

Nigel

Nov 21, 20243 min read

November 2024 年11月

Hot off the press from the exciting town of Langen.......

I'm walking through the town and this lorry stops right in front of me ..."Fresh as Harry" - I would love to hear your comments.....

ランゲンからのニュース

Further up the road.....My pet subject : the Darmstadt - Frankfurt express bike route...The bit where it meets Langen station is taking forever to finish.......In the 1960s, when the economy was booming, they replaced the level crossing here with a bridge.

私のお気に入りのトピック - エクスプレスバイクハイウェイ

I remember now. I had found the BUS STOP (maybe the English is to help foreigners) only to discover that the timetable was alarmingly sparse.....

懐かしさ

So I had a long wait before me. It was last November, and I was in the hills......

........the hills of the Kumano Kodo, the pilgrimage path in southern Japan...

The sun was hot, the skies were blue. Why not investigate this nearby river? The waters looked so clean, and with the rainy season only a memory, a vast riverbed of dry rocks and stones had been exposed.

And there it was, smiling benevolently up at me ......

I doubt it will be in that spot next year. These rivers can swell to thunderous floods and can easily move stones like these.

What is it about the Japanese rivers that they can produce such works of art? This was a remote mountain river in Kyushu. No question about it not being natural.

A year later my friendly palaeographist sends me a note about this......A museum of stone faces....all formed by nature. No wonder that for centuries the folk here believed in the river god.

Naughty thought : maybe these stone faces - and my "heart" - are really the forerunners of Kanji characters (local characters? - forgive the pun) created by the river god, then only later scripted by the Chinese😉?).

There'a subject for a PhD student😂

I love the website, it's full of funny little details, like how to get there (apparently the daughter runs a Sushi shop next door)....https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hall-of-curious-stones

Have you been there?

埼玉にあるこの博物館に行ったことがありますか？

Incidently I did get my bus. Not the most modern of buses, but clean, bang on time and loaded with friendly chattering hikers.

Now who on earth is this? 🫣

この男は誰だ？

I decided recently that it was time to get back to singing again. I had not sung since Covid hit, so my voice was rather rusty. So I asked my son to give me a singing lesson. This proved very useful indeed. I subsequently did an audition for the International Choir Frankfurt, noting that the conductor (Rhodri Britton) was Welsh - a good omen. Little did I know that my first assignment would be to sing in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt - the site of Germany's first democratic parliament. An Einburgerungsfeier (a ceremony for all those who had recently taken German citizenship). I was very sceptical (lots of boring speeches?)..........................

私は最近新しい合唱団に参加しました。私たちはフランクフルトのパウルス教会で行われた新ドイツ国民の式典で歌いました。

In fact, the Mayor of Frankfurt gave an exceptionally good speech, welcoming all these new citizens to Germany and praising the multi-cultural nature of Frankfurt life. There were free drinks afterwards and the whole event felt very positive and friendly. I even met two friends who had recently got their German passports!

We provided the music......

Of course singing in a Frankfurt choir involves rehearsals once a week in the West End.....and it gets dark so early at this time of year.....

....even the bicycles seem to huddle together against the cold and dark.......

On rare occasions the sun appears at dawn........

今は寒くて暗い天気です

However, the workshop is warm and cosy. Even more so when a violin is being played......

ワークショップは暖かくて居心地が良いです...特に誰かがバイオリンを弾いているときは...

..or is simply waiting to be played......

... a warm mug of coffee is always a treat. I doubt you are allowed to eat koala bears. But when they come in a little packet they are irresistable.......