４月１７日（木曜日）２０２５

彦根のK様から自家製鮒寿司をいただきました。子供の時は我が家でも人に頼んで樽いっぱいに鮒寿司を
漬け、お客があった時などに出してもてなしていました。琵琶湖産の子持ち鮒の内蔵をきれいに取り、そこに炊き立ての白米を詰めて塩漬けにし熟成させる滋賀県の郷土料理。（漬け込む過程は確かでなく間違っているかもしれません。）

昔、裏小屋の前の樽に水を張って置いてあったのですが、祖母が樽から取り出す際に放つ強烈な匂いが嫌で逃げ回り、大人はどうしてこんな臭い魚を食べるのか不思議で仕方がなかったのですが、やがて鮒寿司の味がわかり、食べたいと思うようになった時には鮒寿司はすでに高級品となり、簡単に口にすることができなくなりました。

この独特の匂いと一般的な「寿司」とは違う外見のせいで、鮒寿司は県外の人で食べられる人は稀であったのが、近年はチーズなど匂いの強いものでも好む人が増えて、滋賀県人しか分からないと思っていた鮒寿司もグルメの仲間入りをしています。

K様からいただいた貴重な鮒寿司。早速、賞味させていただきました。絶妙なお味で贅沢この上ない限りです。もちろん飯（いい）と言われるご飯も美味しかったです。
子供の頃に大皿に並べられた鮒寿司と当時の家族の情景。食べ物というのは記憶を蘇らせます。

Mr. K from Hikone brought me homemade Funazushi (a local specialty of Shiga Prefecture, which is a fermented sushi made with crucian carp). When I was a child, my grandmother asked a person to come and make Funazushi in a full barrel and serve it at special occasions such as when welcoming guests. The process of making Funazushi is as follows. Remove gut of fresh parent crucian carp from Biwa Lake, stuff cooked white rice in it, preserve with salt and ferment for about ten months.

The barrel stayed outside of the backyard house. When my grandma took out Funazushi from the barrel, the smell was very strong and I ran away because I hated it. As a child, I wondered why adults eat such bad smelling fish but when I grew up and became able to appreciate Funazushi. It became a luxury food and very expensive to taste.

Since it has such a strong smell and looks very different from usual sushi, very few people who live outside of Shiga had been able to appreciate it, however people's tastes have been changing nowadays. As many people like strong cheese these days, many people from outside Shiga like Funazushi as a Foodie.

I appreciated precious Funazushi from Mr. K.that night. It was so good! I remembered the days when the slices of Funazushi were on a big plate surrounded by all my family members. I think food has the power to evoke old memories.

４月１２日（土曜日）２０２５
　遠縁ながらお世話になったおば様が１０５歳で逝去なさいました。祖父、左京が婿入りした親元の延命寺という守山のお寺のおば様です。

　１００歳を超えてもお元気で穏やかに自宅でお過ごしでしたが、２日間ほど寝込んで眠るようにお亡くなりになったとのこと。激動の戦争の後も様々なことが身の回りに起こるドラマチックなおば様の人生でしたが、元教師の芯の強さは定評で、私が多賀に帰った後も折に触れていただくおば様の言葉で私は心の安定を保つことができました。

　お通夜に伺うと、お寺だけあって大勢の御門徒、お寺関係の方々でいっぱいでした。遠縁ということで本堂に上げていただき、前後の力強いお経の中で、私も心を込めて正信偈（しょうしんげ）をお唱えしました。

    家族葬が多い昨今ですが、久々に立派なお通夜に参列し見事に人生を全うされたおば様に感謝とお別れを申し上げられたのは幸いでした。

A lady who was a distant relative and often took care of me passed away at the age of 105. She was in the buddhist temple in Moriyama where my grandfather married into my grandmother's family.

She was amazing because she was spending her daily life healthily and calmly at her home even after 100 years old and passed away peacefully after two days in bed with falling ill. She experienced various hardships around her in the wartime and after the war, but she was always resilient, maybe because she was a school teacher. When I visited her home or she came to my place, I always received her warm encouragement and I could have a stable mental state.

I visited her funeral wake. Since it was held in her temple, followers who were in the area and temple related people were there. I was guided to the main hall of the temple by a distant relative of hers. I recited Buddhist sutra with other people around me who were mostly Buddhist monks.

Since many people who lost their family members choose a private funeral nowadays, it has been a long time since I attended such the orthodox style of funeral wake. I appreciated being there to say goodbye and thanks to a woman who lived out her 105 year old life to the fullest.

４月１１日（金曜日）２０２５
　雨の予報もありましたが、お天気は大きく外れて今日は暖かな陽射しの良い日になりました。
昨年に続き、２回目の多賀あさひやでの北京子先生によるヨガとその後のランチ。縁側のガラス戸を開けて気持ち良い春の風を時折受けながら、和室のスペースにそれぞれマットを敷いてゆっくりとヨガのポーズで皆さん身体を解放させていらっしゃいました。普段はスポーツ施設でのヨガクラスですが、たまにはこんなところでポーズをとるのも新鮮な気持ちになるようで皆さんご機嫌でした。

　１時間のヨガの後は、離れでランチタイム。多賀大社は桜の花が満開ですが、我が家も楽しそうなお話しの花が咲いていました。

Previous weather forecast said that it would be rain, but in fact it was wrong and became beautiful day. The second Yoga and Lunch by Master Kita was held at Taga Asahiya today continuing from last year. Opening big glass sliding doors, and receiving the fresh spring wind from outside, participants put their yoga mats in the Japanese rooms, and did their yoga poses on them. It seemed they released their mind and body. Usually they are doing yoga at a sports gym or spacious hall, and this special opportunity made them feel fresh and pleasant.

After yoga, they had lunch together in the back Japanese room which I prepared for them. Cherry blossoms were opening outside, and ten yoga members including the instructor were enjoying the lunch and talking.

４月９日（水曜日）２０２５　
　昨日、豊郷（とよさと）のNさんから椿と可愛いらしい百合をいただきました。茶道や華道の先生なので、お寺であるご自宅の庭に植えていらっしゃり、折に触れてお花をお持ちくださいます。
　さて、「バイモユリです」とおっしゃったので、てっきり梅のバイかと思ったら、「貝母百合」とのこと。中国から咳止めや止血のための薬用植物として入ったのが、今は観賞用としても育てられているようです。それから珍しい椿が何種類か入っていました。赤と白が混じり合ったものは「清緋（せいひ）椿」、周りが赤で真ん中が白は「朴判（ぼくはん）椿」、白いのは「加茂本阿弥（かもほんなみ）椿」とNさんは名前を紙に書いてくださいました。どれも私には珍しいものばかり。　
　いただいた時は蕾だったのが今朝はそっと花が開いていました。趣が少し違います。こうした花々を見ていると勝手に思いが巡ります。人間の縮図だなぁ....と。

Yesterday Ms.N from Toyosato kindly brought several camellia branchs and cute lily flowers for me. Ms. N who is a master of tea ceremony and flower arrangement and plants, has many kinds of flowers and trees in her garden in the temple where she lives. She occasionally brings flowers for me from her garden.

Well, white little flowers are called Baimo-yuri (Fritillaria verticillata var) and it came from China as a medicinal plant for suppressing coughing or to stop bleeding but it is now planted as an ornamental plant in Japan. Ms. N also gave several kinds of camellia flowers.　Since I have never seen any of them, Ms. N wrote each of the names for me.

Some of them were still buds but they started opening this morning. They look different between yesterday and today. Looking at those flowers, I see that even though they are the same kind, none of them are identical. I really think the same can be said for humans.

４月８日（火曜日）２０２５
　高校のクラス会が彦根であるので昨日は早めに家を出て先ず彦根市役所内の新聞社などのプレス用に設置されたポストに５月と６月のイベントのチラシを簡単な概要を添えて入れにいきました。新聞にイベント案内を載せてもらって少しは集客につながることを期待して。一社でも掲載してもらえたら幸運ですが、なかなかこのハードルは高いのです。

　クラス会に出た後、３時すぎに長浜のいとこの家へ行き、夕方JRで彦根に戻り、近江鉄道で多賀まで帰りました。彦根駅でJRを降りた時に近江線の車両が見えたので乗り遅れては大変と慌てて階段を駆け下り、財布からシルバーカード（高齢者用の割引パス）を出して改札を通ろうとしたら、駅員に「違いますよ！」と言われて手元を見ると、それはクリーニング屋のカード。同じ青色で紛らわしいのですが、間違えたことがおかしいやら情けないやら、またしてもそそっかしい自分自身に苦笑しました。

　カフェの玄関は友人のHさんが持ってきてくれたレンギョウの黄色い花が満開です。

Yesterday, I was planning to attend my highschool class reunion in Hikone, so I arrived at Hikone before the starting time because I wanted to go to city office to put the brochure of the Noh and Marimba Concert events in May and June at my cafe, and to put up posters there. I was hoping that some newspaper would make an announcement of my events and help get people to the events. I would be very happy if they picked up my events and wrote about them on the papers even though that is less likely.

After the class reunion, I went to Nagahama to visit my cousin by JR (Japan railways) and came back to Hikone again in the evening. When I got off the train at the Hikone station I saw the train of the local line which I was expecting to get on to go back to my home. I went down the stairs in a hurry in order not to miss the train and took my Silver Pass which was a discount railcard for the seniors and tried to go through the ticket gate showing the pass. Then I was stopped by a station attendant at the gate saying "it was the wrong card!". The card I had was a member's card from the laundry shop and not a Silver Pass. They were both blue and I showed a completely wrong card and non-related railway pass. I was very much embarrassed and at the same time I couldn't help laughing at myself because it was so funny. I retook the right pass from my wallet and showed it to him.

Yellow flowers of weeping golden bells are in full bloom and so beautiful at the entrance of my cafe. They are from my high school friend, H.N.

３月３０日（土曜日）２０２５
一週間前に書いたものですが、取り敢えずアップしておきます。
今日は昨日と打って変わって上天気。カレンダーを見ると春分の日で祝日。あわてて国旗を出しました。
一段落ついて本を読もうかと本を開けてすぐ、あっ、やっぱり散歩しよっと気が変わって外に出ました。

お天気は良いものの風は冷たく、春がどこに来てるのか探してみました。多賀大社の森の小川は穏やかに流れていましたが椿の蕾はまだ硬そう。霊山は昨日の雪が白く残っていました。桜の蕾もまだまだ固く、眼に見える春はなかなか見つかりません。田んぼは土が掘り返してあるところもありました。
地面にくっつくように咲いていたたんぽぽの花が僅かに春の色を出していました。
いつも通る帰り道のお宅の梅の花が満開でした。


I wrote this blog a week ago and it is a bit late to upload but I will put it here anyhow.
It is a clear, beautiful day this morning compared to yesterday. I saw the wall calendar, then I realized that it was a national holiday called the Spring Equinox Day. Then I put up a national flag in front of my house. After finishing my housework, I sat down on the chair to relax and was about to read a book, but I changed my mind and decided to take a walk instead.

It was a fine day but the wind was still cold. I tried to find " the Spring outside". The stream in the forest of the shrine was flowing calmly but buds of camellia hadn't broken yet. The top of Ryoozen mountain was covered with snow and buds of cherry trees were also far from opening. Thus, I couldn't find "Spring" easily. But, in some rice paddies, the soil was dug up for rice planting and yellow dandelion flowers were found very low beside the rice paddies showing a little bit of spring color.

On the way back home, white plum blossoms were in full bloom.

３月１９日（水曜日）２０２５
　朝起きて外を見て思わず「えーっ！？」と声を出してしまいました。まさかの雪景色だったのです。
３月も半ばを過ぎて、春がすぐそこにという今日、寒さの白雪が降りました。
　お昼過ぎにお見えになったお客様がお母様から聞いたことば。「よその殿様と春の雪は怖くはないよ」と。
おもしろい例えだと思いました。雪はまもなく雨になり、その雨もやがて止みました。
行きつ戻りつ、季節は少しずつ春に向かっているのでしょう。

I couldn't help but say "Oh!" when I woke up and looked outside and saw everything was covered in snow. It is already past the middle of March when spring is almost here and nobody was expecting the snowy day.

One of the customers in the cafe told me that her mom said " You shouldn't be afraid of either the foreign lords or spring snow." It is an interesting metaphor. As it was forecasted the snow turned to rain and the rain stopped afterwards.

The weather goes back and forth, nevertheless we are approaching spring little by little.