It was Ema ちゃんの誕生日, It was 6-yr.old Ema's birthday party, and I had been invited. Now you don't just not turn up to a little girl's birthday party do you?
Saturday afternoon, and I had not been out all day. The streets outside were deserted, and the shutters on the windows throbbed with heat. Yes, it was hot, seriously hot. I thought : now if I make a quick dash for it, I shall be at the station in 5 minutes on a bicycle. Then I shall quickly hop into the air-conditioned Frankfurt train. I'll be at the party in no time. No problem. Well, I got as far as the platform....then up came the digital display "Feuerwehr 🚒Einsatz/Vollsperrung/Verspätungen (Fire brigade call on the line/Line closed/delays). 鉄道の事故. てつどうのじこ。Now normally I would have taken that with a pinch of salt, but today, with the railway tracks almost bending in the heat,......... no, this was not a day to be waiting for Deutsche Bahn. So.....I was soon back in my appartment, feet in a bucket of water and a chilled beer in one hand. For once I envied my friends in the UK and Holland...........Den Haag, only 21°c!
Being confined to home in a sort of "heat lockdown" I turned my attention to some old cassette tapes which I had brought back from the family house in the UK. Here is one. I don't know who recorded it but..........
記念品 きねんひん....(I haven't found a better word)
.....when I pressed "play"........It was like being transported back in time . 昔 むかし.
It turns out that on this tape a BBC religious correspondent is reporting on a conference on cable television. The year is 1982.........just listen to those accents!....and wait for the question about the "Moonies" (the name for The Unification Church, founded in S. Korea in 1954). As for one quote about "........a consensus about what people in Britain would like to see".......well.....I'll let you listen. I've included the recording here.............little did these speakers know that a year later something much bigger was going to be launched - The Internet. 一年後 ...........インターネット!
Luckily the cool winds and refreshing rain arrived on Monday, and I took the chance to have a little stroll 散歩 さんぽをした in East Frankfurt. Here the ECB (European Central Bank) dominates the skyline......
......and the former industrial docklands landscape has been transformed into a fitness park, with a pleasant promenade along the river. I walked over the Deutchherrenbrücke - a 19thc iron railway bridge.......
(n.b. Considering that the historic steam railway only operates once in a blue moon, this sign is rather over the top) 蒸気機関車...... じょうききかんしゃはたまにしかありません!
............which offers a superb view of the city......See that tower block on the left? That is where the Main Matsuri takes place this summer.....写真の左側はマイン まつり....
There are even some fit people to be seen.......
........as the trains rumble behind you.......
Another recent highlight was going with gourmet colleague Vicdan to Muku Restaurant in Sachsenhausen. This is one of my favourite japanese restaurants in town https://www.muku-ramen.com/....aaah! A Kirin beer and a Ramen.....😋
It is also nice to be at home sometimes......enjoying a cool Chardonnay as the wind wafts gently through my appartment.....私のアパートで冷たいワインを飲んでいます
Later in the week I was able to enjoy my daughter's 娘 company over Sencha, Sushi and Kekki at Iimori Ichiba in Frankfurt......煎茶やすしや ケーキ..........
PICTURES FROM AN EXHIBITION
I've decided to end each post now with a drawing by Kawanabe Kyousei (1831-1889), having been bowled over (感動した - かんどうした) by an exhibition of his work at the Royal Academy of Arts in London recently.
He was a maverick artist. A genius. An Individualist. A scandal. It was during his lifetime that the Japanese Shogunate fell, and the Meiji Era ushered in the restoration of the Emperor. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/kyosai Admiral Perry had forced open the port of Yokohama to western trade, and Kyousai took advantage of this political turmoil to take his art to excesses. Now I send out this blog to friends of many cultures, and as some of Kyousai's art is very explicit ( 明示的 - めいじてき?) I simply cannot publish it here. But it was always full of humour, beauty and mystery - such an antidote to the Victorian values of Britain at the time. He sort of bridges the Ukiyo-e woodblock prints era....
(classic example Wave off Kanagawa).............
.........with the age of Manga today. He held wild parties of artists where vast amounts of sake were consumed and brushes flew over paper. This little detail is typical - a mice prepares the calligraphy ink for his master...
So that's all for this week.
Thanks for reading this post. I hope you found it interesting and that it didn't clog up your inbox.
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終わり