Saturday 19 May 2007

Japanese

"Cool clear water
and fireflies that vanish
that is all there is"
Chiyo - ni

Why Japanese? It all began with computer games and an obsolete games console which my boys all particularly loved. We could only import new games for it from Japan, so we did. Japanese dictionaries were acquired and consulted, games were endlessly pored over, discussed and, finally, played. So I now have a Japanese speaking son. The twists and turns in a life often rest on a sixpence.

He had an interesting and traumatic time there. He fell in love with a beautiful Japanese girl, broke his wrist in several places and was hospitalised, made some lifelong friends, took up smoking temporarily, saw a man throw himself under a train, and lost two stone. He came back very thin and utterly changed.

18 comments:

  1. It's experiences like those, that make us into the people we become. I have always worried about my eldest son getting heart broken as I would have mine broken too - he's so senstive, but he needs to go through that to develop as a person. My youngest will leave a trail of broken hearts where ever he goes!

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  2. Gosh, yes, Marianne, isn't that a strange coincidence that we both featured the Japanese poem on our latest posts? Think Chiyo-ni's is just a tad more sophisticated than mine, though!
    Livvy

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  3. I just thought that was lovely, Livvy and wanted to share it.

    Getting your heart broken, sadly, is a rite of passage for everyone I think, Secretary. Probably so is breaking someone else's.

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  4. Very nice - I detected a sort of Haiku self-contained-ness all the way through.

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  6. I don't know if I have broken anybody's heart...

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  7. Oh M&M, I'm heartbroken to hear that. Not sure I have either, but I guess we all hurt people sometimes. It goes with the territory.

    I have recently bought a book of Haiku, OM. I love the simplicity.

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  8. What has always surprised me about the Japanese as a race, is the contrast between the sweet gentleness of the women - and the (alleged) absence of those qualities in the men!

    The female cabin crew on JAL changed into the prettiest pinafores each time they served food or drink - it was so charming. And for two years I had Japanese hairdressers at a salon in Marylebone. A constantly changing staff of extremely pretty young girls - who used to like to tell me that they all came over here looking for English husbands, because they were "so much nicer than Japanese ones"!

    (As you see, I funked the Gatsby quote! Couldn't endure the thought of the possibly indifferent response - though for my tastes, he does the firefly thing even better....)

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  9. How could anything be better than that? Still we all have our own tastes. I must reread Gatsby, Beatrice to see what it's all about. It's been a long time.

    As for Japan, it is a very rigid chauvanistic society which encourages extremes of behaviour between the sexes, but it is rapidly becoming more westernised.

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  10. Oh.... I thought Chiyo-Ni was like "Bye for now" in Japanese...silly me. I have written some Haikus - you can find them on my blog in old posts. Don't leave a comment there as I will never read it...

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  11. 'The twists and turns in life often rest on a sixpence'.

    Yes, Marianne, how true. One small thing, one minor misdemeanor or success can change a person's life in its entirety, one way or another. Quite frightening in a way.

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  12. I dread anyone ever breaking my darling boys heart.

    DM

    Beautiful post

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  13. Sweet DM, thank you and I hope he never has his heart broken.

    Lizzie, yes, both scary and exciting too. In the end, as they say, it's not what happens but how you deal with it that matters. Although looking at my picture of lovely Maddie I'm not sure I entirely agree with that. No-one should have to cope with that.

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  14. Yes, so right, Marianne.
    It's like most stuff, I suppose; it's how we cope, how we deal with it, that's the important part.
    And we do survive dreadful things, we do get strength which ultimately changes us, moves us on.

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  15. Broken hearts are good I think. Helps them grow up. Though your boy sounds like he was thrown in the deep end. But he'll be all the better for it, I hope, I think.

    Snuffy

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  17. He certainly was thrown in the deep end. It's so interesting seeing them develop and become their own people. Almost makes up for not having babies and small children any more. I did love that, but every stage of life has it's interest and compensations.

    I love meeting up with my older boys and spending a day with them, seeing what they are making of their lives, seeing them fly.

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