９月１８日（水曜日） 
今朝はミステリアスな一件がありました。 カフェの支度をして暖簾を出して、開店まで少し時間があったので、今の間にと銀行へ自転車を 走らせました、すぐに戻るのでお店の鍵は掛けずに。帰ってふらりとカフェの厨房に出ると、カウンターの上に茶色の袋が二つ置いてあります。「えっ？何…？」と思って中を見ると可愛いすだちが沢山と緑のレモンが３つ。袋のどこを見ても送り主の名前はなく、どなたかが朝、わざわざうちに持ってきて下さったのに間違いないのですが、はて、どなたが？…御礼の申し上げようがなく、取りあえずザルに載せて写真におさめたところでお客さまがカウンターに。到来物はカウンターに載ったまま。このミステリアスなお話をお客様にも話したので、お帰りの時に、送り主が分からないまますだちを二つずつお裾分けしました。御礼もまだ言えていないのに、お裾分けするなんて失礼とは思いつつ、新鮮なうちが一番なので差し上げました。ホントにどなたがお持ちくださったのでしょうか。ご親切な方が早くわかりますように…。This morning, a mysterious thing happened. After preparing cake for the cafe, I hung the shop curtain in front. I still had a little time before opening, so I decided to go to the bank by bicycle to do some errands without locking the shop door. When I came back and got into the kitchen of the cafe, I found two brown bags on the counter. "Oh, what is it? " and I looked inside the bags. There were cute Japanese limes and green lemons. I tried to find a name on the bags, but no name was there and there was no clue about who brought these. Therefore there is no way to say thank you for these fresh gifts. I took photos anyhow. Then the first customers came to the cafe. Those citrons were still on the counter. I talked about what happened to them. I felt sorry for not saying thank you to the person who gave those but decided to give some of them to the customers. I am still wondering who brought those and wishing that I find soon such a kind person.

９月１３日（金曜日） 
昨日、小学校の恩師と電話でお話した時に、「明日は中秋の名月よ」と教えていただき、朝から お天気が心配でしたが、暗くなって外に出てみると美しい月が夜空にくっきりと見えました。 お月見の用意はできなかったけど、床の間は芙蓉の掛け軸とすすきで少し秋らしい雰囲気になりました。 静かな夜ですが、庭の虫たちは元気に鳴いています。秋に入った実感がします。それにしても 何日も停電で千葉の方は仕事も生活も大変だろうと思います。Yesterday, when I was talking with my former elementary school teacher over the phone, she told me "tomorrow is the day of harvest moon.". I was worried about the weather today. After dark, when I went outside, I could clearly see a beautiful harvest moon in the sky. Although I could not prepare a special setting for viewing the moon, I put a hanging scroll of Fuyoo (Confederate rose) and Susuki (pampas grass) which both express autumn. It is a quiet night, but the lively singing of insects can be heard from the garden.I really feel it is autumn now. Anyway, I feel sympathy for the people in Chiba who are having a hard time because of the blackout due to the typhoon which happened the other day.

９月１２日（木曜日） 
またまた彦根の友人Kさんの畑からの贈り物です。息子さんが肩にかけた布バッグから取り出したものを見てびっくりしたのなんのって！なが〜いナスが３本。「長ナス」だそうですが、それにしてもこんな細長いナスを見たのは初めてです。４０センチありました。そばにいた人たちがそれほど驚かなかったので、あまりの長さにたまげたのは私だけのようです。一緒にいただいたのはきゅうりとゴーヤですが、普通はキュウリのほうがナスより細長いというのが私のこれまでのイメージでした。…が、Kさんちのナスはうなぎ並みの長さです。オクラを買ったので、今日は焼き煮浸しにしていただきました。柔らかくて美味しいおナスでした。Again, I received gifts from my friend, Ms.K who owns a vegetable garden in Hikone. When I saw the things her son took out from his shoulder bag, I was very surprised. They were three very long fresh eggplants. He told me it is "long eggplant". Indeed it was long (40 centimeter /15.75 in) and I have never seen such a long eggplant before. But the other people in the same room didn't show their surprise, so it was only me who was expressing excitement. I received cucumbers and Goya as well. I had always imagined cucumbers to be longer than eggplants up until now, but these eggplants from Ms. K 's vegetable garden are much longer than the cucumbers, and their length are almost like eel! I got okra today, so I made simmered egg plant with okra. It was so good!

９月１０日（火曜日） 
昨日の多賀大社秋の古例祭は豊年満作を祈願したお祭りと言われています。http://www.tagataisya.or.jp/event/ 境内では農作物の吉凶を 占う「古知古知（こちこち）相撲」も行なわれました。今年の稲は豊作だったのでしょうか。 農家の方が丁寧に育てた稲。収穫の秋です。彦根の友人Kさんがご主人が作られた「こしひかり」を白米にして持ってきて下さいました。スイカをいただいた友人です。「新米はツヤが違うよー！」とKさん。袋から出して眺めると何か神聖な気持ちになる美しいお米です。日本は昔から米の文化であることが誇りに思えます。有り難く頂戴します。The purpose of the fall annual festival at Taga taisha which was held yesterday, was for praying for a good harvest. http://www.tagataisya.or.jp/event In the precincts of the shrine, "Kochi-Kochi-zumoo" was held on this day to know whether there would be good or bad fortune for the harvest of the year. Well, I wonder if we will have good harvest of rice this year. Farmers take very good care to grow their rice and now, it is harvest season. My friend, Ms. K brought the first rice crop of the year "KOSHIHIKARI" which her husband raised. She is the same person who gave me watermelon this summer. She said "New rice is shining differently from old one.". When I opened the rice bag and put the rice on the tray, I looked at them up close. They are so beautiful that they make me feel sacred. I am proud that Japan is a country of rice cultivation since the ancient times. I humbly receive these precious rice with many thanks to Ms. K.

９月９日（月曜日） 
朝、小学校の読み聞かせに行って帰り道、表通りの玄関前に祭提灯が下がっているので何だろうと思って、「あっ！」と気付きました。今日は多賀大社の秋の古例祭だったのです。月曜日はカフェの定休日なので予定を立てていたのですが、お祭りなら、やはりカフェは開けなければと思い、大急ぎで家に帰って餅粉ケーキといなり寿司の支度に掛かりました。１０時すぎには何とか間に合いほっとしていたら、遠くからドンドンと太鼓の音が聞こえてきました。お渡りを見ようと表に出ると、外は猛暑。厳しい陽射しの中、春の古例大祭に比べるとずっと小規模ですが、馬に乗った馬頭人、お付きの方々の行列が家の前を通って行かれました。先日の布谷さんのコンサートに来てくださった方も何人か行列の中にいらっしゃり、ご挨拶できたのはよかったです。それにしても、せっかくのお祭り、お渡りにもう少し盛り上がりを見せる工夫はないものでしょうか。沿道で行列を見物する方もまばらで、照りつける太陽の下を立派な装束で騎乗していらっしゃる頭人の方や神社の方々、そして汗をふきふき正装で歩いていらっしゃる皆様。せめて見物人がもう少しいるなら張り合いもあるでしょうに。お気の毒という気持ちになったのは私ばかりではないと思います。This morning, on my way back to my home after story-telling at the elementary school, I saw big festival lanterns in front of the entrances of each house. I wondered, "why are these here....", then I realized that today is the annual fall festival at Taga Taisha. Today is Monday and it is a regular closing day, so I had many plans, but I decided to open my cafe because of the special day. I rushed to my home and prepared Mochiko-cake and Inari-zushi. When I was ready for the food just after 10 a.m., the sound of drum was approaching far from the street. It was a signal that the procession of the festival was coming. Compared to the spring festival, the size of the procession was much smaller, but Batonin (Head man of the festival) and Shinto priests riding on horses, people related to Batonin or the festival were passing by my cafe. I found some familiar faces of those who came to the Marimba concert the other day and it was nice that I could greet them. Even so, I thought that we needed a more festive mood on the street. I felt sorry that very few people were watching the procession. People in the procession who were all wearing traditional costumes or formal suits on a very warm day looked so hot and tired. If they had been walking through many spectators, they could get some encouragement and walk proudly. I think it is not only me who feels sorry for them.

９月８日（日曜日） 
台風の直撃は免れましたが、代りに残暑の厳しい一日となりました。 朝おきると裏山から賑やかな蝉の合唱が聞こえてきます。先日取材を受けた神戸を中心とした旅の雑誌「ステーション」を手に したご夫婦が開店早々カフェにお見えになりました。ページを開けて「あさひやが大きく出ているから来ました」とおっしゃり、 ちょっと照れましたが、遠くからの嬉しいご来店でした。午後遅く、一人のご婦人が遠慮がちに入ってこられ、大きめの鞄をお持ちだったので「ご旅行ですか」とお尋ねしたら「御礼参りにきました」と。何だかこの「御礼参り」という言葉が胸に響き思わず「よかったですね」と返しました。福井から来られたこのお客様のお帰りは５時を過ぎていたので、残っていた餅粉ケーキといなり寿司を少しお持ち帰り用にお渡ししたところ、「ありがとうございます、主人のお土産にします。」と喜んで下さいました。ご主人のことで御礼参りに いらっしゃったのかな…、勝手な想像ですが、爽やかなお別れでした。Although we had just escaped the direct hit of the typhoon, it was severely warm today instead. When I woke up in the morning, I heard lively cicadas chirping from the mountains. My first customers of the day was a couple who was holding the magazine "Station" on which my cafe was introduced. Showing the article and photos in the page, the husband said to me "we came here because we found this cafe on this page". I was bit embarrassed but appreciated their visit to my cafe. In the late afternoon, a woman who looked modest and quiet came to the cafe with a rather big bag. I asked "Are you travelling?". She said " I made a visit to the shrine to offer my thanks.". Since I was moved by the word " offer my thanks", I replied to her " Oh, that's great". When she was about to leave, It was already five o'clock, so I put some Mochiko-cakes and Inari-zushi in two little cases and gave them to her. She said " Thank you so much, it will be for my husband.". I just guessed that she might have come to shrine to offer her thanks to her husband. In any case, it was a pleasant farewell.

９月３日（火曜日） 
今年も布谷史人（ぬのやふみと）さんを迎えてマリンバコンサートを開くことができました。１３時半と１７時半の二回公演。大勢のお客様がお見えでしたが、半分ぐらいは初めての方でした。新聞などのメディアを通してコンサートをお知りになったのでしょうか。ありがたい限りです。今年のプログラムはどちらかと言えば日本人に馴染みのある曲が多く選ばれました。マリンバを教えている人が言っていましたが、マリンバは（マレットと呼ばれるバチで木の鍵盤を叩くのですから）「点」で演奏されます。皆、同じように何本かのマレットを巧みに操って演奏するのですが、何故布谷さんの演奏がこんなにも人の心を捉えて離さないのでしょうか。もちろん技法や練習量に他との差が歴然と出るのですが、一番は布谷さんの音楽の創り方が見事で美しいからなのでしょう。イギリスのBBC Music Magazineで最高点の講評を得たConcertos on Marimba（マリンバのための協奏曲集）という新しいCDを聴きました。ソロでは聴けないマリンバの表情が出ていて素晴らしいの一言です。Fumito Nunoya Marimba concert was held this year, too. We had two performances（1:30pm~, 5:30pm~) with a full audience, of which half were people who were seeing his performance for the first time. They probably found out about this concert by radio and newspaper. I really thank them for coming. Many familiar music to Japanese people were chosen in the program of this year. One of the marimbists said that marimba is played with dots (because they hit wooden keyboard with stick called mallet). All of marimbists play music holding several mallets which looks amazing anyway, but why is it that Mr. Nunoya's play captures the heart of people? Of course it is because of the difference of his technique and amount of practice time from others but the important reason is because of his music. Mr. Nunoya creates his music with wonderful phrasing and it is so beautiful. I listened to his new CD "Concertos on Marimba" which got highest points by critics in "BBC Music Magazine" in UK. It is terrific! One can not help but be amazed by his expression of marimba with the orchestra which is different from solo concert.