Wednesday, September 27, 2017



9月27日(水曜日)2017


ボストンでは今やスーパーで日本の食材やお寿司が並ぶようになりました。といってもお寿司はかなりアメリカ風。にぎりはまぐろやサーモンが定番ですが、ご飯は白米か玄米を選べるところが健康志向の国ならではですね。巻物はカリフォルニア・ロール(カニカマ+アボカド+キュウリ)はそれほど珍しくないにしても、フィラデルフィア・ロール(サーモン+アボカド+アスパラガス+クリームチーズ)、ニューヨーク・ロール(スモークサーモン+リンゴ+アボカド)、ボストン・ロール(カニ+サーモン+ネギ)、テキサス・ロール(ビーフ+キュウリ+ほうれん草)といった感じ。アメリカの寿司やではドラゴンロール、スパイダーロールそれにスネークロールなどかなり独創的なものがあるところも。一体何が入っているかと思います。寿司カウンターのそばに、Mochi Ice Creamがマカロンのとなりに売られていました。周りがお餅で中がアイスクリーム。1個2ドル(200円ぐらい)で色々な味があるようです。In Boston you will see many Japanese vegetables and sushi at the supermarket nowadays. Still, sushi is much more in American style than you would expect. As for Nigiri, tuna and salmon are very popular in the US as well as in Japan but if you are health-conscious you can choose brown rice rather than white rice which sounds very American. As for Roll, there are California Roll (imitation crab+avocado+cucumber), Philadelphia Roll( salmon+ avocado+ asparagus+ cream cheese), New York Roll (smoked salmon+ apple+ avocado), Boston Roll (crab+ salmon+ scallion), Texas Roll (beef+ cucumber+ spinach leaves). In some sushi restaurant, you can order more creative rolls such as Dragon Roll, Spider Roll and Snake Roll, etc. You might wonder what is in there. They are selling Mochi Ice Cream next to Macaron near the sushi counter. It is an ice cream wrapped in mochi (rice cake). It is $2.00 for one and you can choose your favorite flavor among many.




Friday, September 22, 2017



9月22日(金曜日)2017


1週間前からカフェをS.Kさんにお任せしてボストンに来ています。お天気は毎日曇り時々雨。落ち葉かきもそろそろ始まろうかという季節です。今日は日米の、 ポストの写真です。神社脇にある昔ながらのこのポストは、スケッチ画家の松居さんによると多賀や彦根近辺にまだ数カ所残っているそうです。アメリカ版はどこへ行っても四本足で踏ん張っている青いポスト。最初、ゴミ箱かと思いました。赤と青。並べて見ると何だか赤鬼、青鬼を連想します。浜田廣介作「泣いた赤鬼」は心に響く良いお話です。Leaving the cafe to Ms. S.K., I have been in Boston since a week ago. The weather here is cloudy every day and sometimes it rains. It's almost the season to start raking fallen leaves. Today I would like to show photos of Japanese and US mailboxes. An old fashioned Japanese mailbox is located beside the entrance of Taga Taisha. According to Mr. Matsui who is a sketch artist, there are still a couple of these mailboxes around the Taga and Hikone area. On the other hand, the blue one which stands firmly with four legs is an American mailbox which you will see everywhere in the US. When I saw it, I thought it was a trash container. A red mailbox and a blue mailbox. Looking at both side by side, I associate them with a red demon and blue demon. "The Red Demon cried " by Koosuke Hamada is a story that resonates strongly in my heart.



Friday, September 15, 2017



9月15日(金曜日)2017


先日「多賀あさひや」で演奏をして下さったマリンバ奏者の布谷史人(ぬのや・ふみと)さんの京都での公演に昨夜行ってきました。今回はマリンバと関西弦楽合奏団との共演という興味津々の組み合わせ。大きな音楽ホールのステージ中央やや左前にマリンバが置かれ、その後ろには弦楽奏者の席が20程。あさひやでは部屋を占領するほどだったマリンバが、席に着いた時は広いステージの上で静かに出番を待っていました。そして明るくなって開演。布谷さんはソロやピアノとの演奏も素晴らしいですが、オーケストラの中で響くマリンバの広がりと深さに息をのみました。今回、プログラムの真中に信長貴富(のぶなが・たかとみ)さんが布谷さんのために作曲された協奏曲「混線するドルフィン・ソナー」の初演があり、海の中のイルカをイメージした様々な表情が演奏者の息づかいとともに見えて聴こえてホールの中をうねりました。マリンバと弦楽奏者の一体感が見事でした。3曲のプログラムとアンコールの琵琶湖周航の歌、全てに全開した布谷さんの表現力にただただ感動しました。Last night, I went to Mr. Fumito Nunoya's concert in Kyoto. He played solo marimba at my cafe on Sep. 3rd. This time it was a marimba concert with Kansai string orchestra. The combination was new to me and I was very interested in it. Mr. Nunoya's marimba was placed in the front, a little bit left from the center of the stage and there were about twenty chairs for the strings behind the marimba in the ROHM Theatre. When the marimba was in my house, it almost occupied one room but in the hall of course it was not like that and stayed there as if it were waiting elegantly for Mr. Nunoya. After a while, the concert started. It was a breathtaking dynamic sound although I know his remarkable solo and duo playing with a piano. In the program, there was a debut of a marimba concerto "The Crossed Sonar of Dolphins" composed by Mr. Takatomi Nobunaga. It was just wonderful! I could feel at one with the marimba and the strings. Listening to the sound and looking at the musicians, I felt as if I were a dolphin riding on the waves of the sea. I was deeply moved by Mr. Nunoya's expressive power in all of the music including the anchor "Biwako Shuukoo no Uta".


Monday, September 11, 2017



9月11日(月曜日)2017


昨日野菜直売店で栗が並んでいたので買って、一晩水に漬けて、皮と渋皮をとって栗ご飯を作ってみました。虫などひとつも見つからない新鮮な栗で夕食は秋の味覚をお腹いっぱい楽しみました。夏用の簾(すだれ)をはずし襖をはめると、落ち着いた雰囲気に戻りました。秋になったことを感じた一日でした。I bought chestnuts at the vegetable stand nearby yesterday, so I soaked them overnight in water, peeled off the skin and astringent coat, and cooked chestnut rice. Chestnuts were all very fresh (not damaged by vermin). I enjoyed the taste of autumn. It was so good! Today, I also changed the room arrangement from Sudare (bamboo screen) to Fusuma (a wood-framed sliding door covered with thick paper). I really felt that the season is changing.




Sunday, September 10, 2017



9月10日(日曜日)2017


H.Nさんが美しい花、S.Kさんが可憐な野草を次々に持ってきて下さいました。殆ど私には初めての出会いです。「ムクゲ(木槿)」と「ホトトギス(杜鵑草)」はお茶花。「おたふく南天」は名前が楽しいです。「水引草」はその名の通りおめでたい時に使う水引のように小さな花の片側は赤、裏は白になっています。黄色い花はひまわりの一種だそうですがマーガレット大の大きさで山間部に咲いているとか。茎の先に赤い棒状の花の「ワレモコウ(吾亦紅)」は「ちとせ庵」のFさんからいただきました。My friends, Ms. H.N and Ms. S.K brought beautiful flowers from their garden to me. I was seeing most of these flowers for the first time. Mukuge (Hibiscus syriacus) and Hototogis (Japanese Toadlily) are often used for tea ceremonies. Otafuku-nanten (no English name) sounds joyful because Otafuku literally means many fortunes and it indicates a woman with a small low nose, high flat forehead and bulging cheeks. Mizuhikisoo really looks like Mizuhiki, which is a bundle of strings. Red and white strings are used for celebratory gifts. I don't know the name of the yellow flowers but according to Ms. S.K. it is a kind of sunflower and there are many in her area. Waremokoo which are rod-like with dark red flowers on top of the stalks are from Mr. and Mrs. F who run the soba shop "Chitose-an".









Saturday, September 9, 2017



9月9日(土曜日)2017


秋晴れの一日。9月9日は重陽の節句で多賀大社は秋の古例祭が行なわれました。土曜日なのに春のお祭りに比べると驚く程静かで、立派な馬頭人とお付きの沢山の方々の晴れの姿を観る方が少ないのは残念でした。カフェは地元の方数人と東近江市からお客様が来て下さいました。It was a clear sunny day and today (Sep.9th) was Chooyoo no Sekku. The annual traditional festival was held at Taga-taisha. Compared to the Spring festival, there were only a few spectators which made me disappointed even through it was Saturday. We welcomed a couple of local customers and people from Higashi Ohmi to the cafe.





Wednesday, September 6, 2017



9月6日(木曜日)2017


マリンバコンサートの余韻がまだまだ残る中、今朝はいつもの散歩に出かけました。月が変わり秋の気配がそこここに漂い始めていますが、蝉が夏の最後を告げるように鳴いていました。田んぼは半分ぐらい稲刈りが終っています。今はあまり見られなくなった藁の束を見つけ写真を撮り、太田川に戻ってくるとそこには芙蓉の花が美しく咲いていました。I am still feeling deeply impacted after Mr. Nunoya's marimba concert. I went out for morning walk as usual. Now that the month has changed to September, I feel autumn in the air but still hear cicadas making noise as if they are telling me that it's almost the end of the summer. Half of the rice fields have finished their harvest. I found bundles of straw which we don't see much nowadays. When I came back to the small river nearby, flowers of Cotton rosemallow were beautifully blooming.





Monday, September 4, 2017



9月4日(月曜日)2017

9月3日日曜日、多賀あさひやでマリンバ奏者の布谷史人さんを迎えてコンサートを開きました。前日の夕方、10個ほどの大きな重い箱が宅配便で届き、翌朝、布谷さん達の手で箱が開けられマリンバの組み立てが始まりました。組み立てられたマリンバの大きいこと!本番前布谷さんのリハーサルの音が絵馬通りに心地よく響いていました。そして開演。お客様は何と90人近く。静かに滑りだした布谷さんのマリンバは時に力強く、時に軽快に、そして時に心が震えるほど温かく、聴く人の心を一気に掴んで離しませんでした。素晴らしいの一言。ありがとう、布谷さん。ありがとう、いらして下さった皆さん!そして、前日から設営を手伝ってくさった皆さん、ありがとう!On Sep. 3rd, we had a marimba concert featuring internationally known marimbist, Mr. Fumito Nunoya. The day before the concert, about 10 big and heavy boxes arrived at my house and the next morning Mr. Nunoya and Drs. Fukui who are his strong supporters, opened them and assembled the marimba. It was a really big installment when I saw the marimba after the pieces were assembled. The sound of marimba as Mr. Nunoya rehearsed could be heard nicely from the street out front. About 90 people gathered for the concert. The concert started with the smooth sound of the marimba and it sometimes became energetic and rough, sometimes it sounded lightly and sometimes it was a really warm sound which was appealing to all of the senses. Mr. Nunoya's marimba was simply wonderful. Thank you Mr. Nunoya. Thank you to the people who came for the concert. And thank you to the amazing people who helped prepare for the concert from the day before.