長い間レッスンへ来て下さっていたAさん。１年以上かけて定年されたご主人とのヨーロッパ１か月旅行を計画されていました。滞在国はクロアチアに始まり、ハンガリー、オーストリア、オランダの４か国です。

全ての手配はAさんご自身で、ホテルに泊まるのではなくB&Bにされました。外食せず、スーパーへ食材を買い自炊をされ、観光名所には徒歩か公共交通機関を少し利用する程度とされたため、選ばれたB＆Bはある程度便利な街なかを選んでいらっしゃいました。

彼女が駆使したのはAIで、旅行の提案から移動手段、細かな事の大部分です。AIが提案してくれる内容が必ずしも正しい情報とは限りませんが、かなり大きな骨組みは作れるのです。

「旅行代理店はもう、要らんな。」Aさんのお話を聞きながら私はそう思ったのです。

現地の言葉がわからず何らかの問題が起きても、ネットが使えれば翻訳アプリで意思疎通も出来てしまう。問題がおきねば人に助けを求めることもない。現地の人や他の旅人たちと交流するきっかけもない。旅の醍醐味は一体なんなんでしょう。Aさんのお話では、ご旅行中にちょっとしたことで医療サービスを受けることになったようです。でもそれ故に英語が話せてよかったであろうし、意味深い経験になったでしょう。

ふと思い出したのが、生徒Nさんが年末年始に東南アジアの語学学校で英語のクラスに入られたこと。現地に到着して数日で流行り物の病をもらわれてしまい、なんと現地で入院されたのです。語学学校代金はパーになったものの、入院中に英語を使う羽目になったというお話です。怪我の功名ですな！

Tim Curry, a beloved actor from the UK, passed away last week. I knew Tim Curry as a voice actor from some cartoons I used to watch as a kid, and as I got older, I learned to appreciate his movies as well. He even did a voice for Alien Encounter, which was my favorite attraction at Disney World when I was a kid.

He wasn’t exactly famous in Japan, but some people might know him from Home Alone 2.

Home Alone 2

Or, if you’re a fan of the Muppets, you may have seen him dressed as a pirate.

Muppet Treasure Island

He was also a character in Clue – one of my favorite comedies of all time.

Clue

His breakout role was in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, a bizarre musical from way back in 1975. It became a cult classic and is probably still his most important movie.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Tim Curry has a long legacy in film, cartoons, the Broadway stage, and even video games. It will always be a pleasure to rewatch some of those old productions for a little bit of nostalgia and entertainment.

Last year I posted about going to Shikoku’s largest music festival (Monster Bash) for two days. I had such a good time I decided to go again this year. Sadly, this time I could only go for one day on the Sunday. This was a little disappointing, but the lineup was still good and appealing. Though some things did not go to plan.

The day started great. We got on a bus at Takamatsu station and did not have to line up at all. It took over an hour to get to the festival. After arriving, we went to buy merchandise of the artists. I was able to get the shirts and towels I was interested in. Then it was time to enjoy some music. We headed to the ‘Sado’ stage. It was my first time going there. It is the smallest stage at the festival, and usually musicians who play acoustic or slow music perform on the stage. A band I have been a fan of for a long time called Base Ball Bear did a rare acoustic set on the stage. While I would have preferred to have seen a regular performance, their acoustic set was still really good.

After their performance, we went to the main stage. There we watched Miyamoto Hiroji. He was a true rock star on the stage, putting on an amazing and passionate performance. It is hard to believe he is 60 years old.  I had a great time watching him but, during his last song I suddenly realized I did not feel good at all. That day was extremely hot, and the stage had no shade at all. I was getting borderline heat stroke. I had to leave the area and almost collapsed. Luckily there was an emergency tent nearby and I was able to cool down there. This sadly affected me for the rest of the day, and the next few hours I could not enjoy the way I wanted to. I was excited to see the band 10-FEET, but I was not feeling 100% and had to watch them on a tiny screen from far away while only listening to them play. I spent this part of the day mostly eating and trying to stay cool.

Later in the afternoon I managed to see some other musicians perform. Particularly at the end of the day there were 3 rock bands in a row from the same generation who closed out the festival. The first was Ellegarden. I am not so familiar with their music, but a lot of their fans showed up on that day. Next was Straightener. I had to watch them from the next stage over as I wanted a good spot for the last band. They were great, and now I want to listen to more of their music. The finale was Asian Kung-Fu Generation (many people call them Ajikan). I have been a fan of their music for over 20 years, and the last time I saw them live was in 2015, so I was very excited to see them again. They had a great performance where they played mostly hit songs, but even some of their newer ones too. Everyone in the audience was singing along to their most famous tracks, and it was incredibly fun to be in the crowd. My day may not have been perfect, but at least it ended in a great way.

昨年以上に暑い岡山の夏ですが、少しの間だけ岡山を脱出してきました。今回の行き先は豪州の北西、ダーウィンです。進化論のチャールズ・ダーウィンに因んで名付けられた街です。

羽田から南にシドニーへ10時間、そのあと飛行機で４時間ほど北上するとダーウィンの街です。そこから車を借り、300km３時間走るとカカドゥ国立公園です。いつも一緒に旅行をするT子さんと二人での個人旅。ちょっとした困りごとはあったものの、雄大・壮大な景色をみるとここまで来てよかったと思う大自然でした。豪州の北西とあって赤道に近くインドネシアにも近い、アボリジニもいる多文化な地域。ダーウィンは地平線を遮るものがないので夕日が美しいことで有名。夕焼けとその後の移り変わる空の色は写真に収めるには不可能でした。想像以上に欧州からの観光客が多く、色々な訛りのある英語が飛び交っていました。さすがに日本からは遠いし、団体で行くととんでもない金額なので、私たちの滞在中に日本人からの観光客は皆無でした。

ここで旅行話から外れ、帰路で会ったオバちゃんとの交流を一筆。

ダーウィンからシドニーへ戻る深夜便を待つ間、携帯の充電をすべく充電箇所を探すと限られた場所しかありませんでした。唯一空いていた１か所にはオバちゃんがお一人で使用中。共有すれば充電ができるので話しかけたら、中国のオバちゃんでした。そしてこの方、全く英語ができない。全く。最近の日本語は英語から取り入れたカタカナ語が相当量あるので、日本人で英語が出来なくてもある程度の単語はカタカナでも知っているから多少は英語で会話ができるものです。が、中国語はそうではない。telephoneと英語で言っても通じない。

そこでわたくし、我流で勉強中の初級中国語をこのオバちゃんにぶつけることにしました。久しぶりに意思疎通に四苦八苦し、久しぶりに外国語を勉強する人のもどかしさを喰らいました。でもオバちゃんから得た情報が理解できた嬉しさは、我流でも今まで中国語を頑張った甲斐があったと思えたのでした。昆明出身のこのオバちゃんは経済的にはゆとりがあるようでカカドゥ国立公園は全て個人的にガイドを雇い（ご主人が）、セスナ機に乗り、また日本来訪は2回あり、北へも南へも行ったことがあるとのこと。最終的には日本と中国の政府のことを言い始めたから私は笑顔で「分からん」として会話を終えました。

そんなワケで、この内容をできるだけ外来語無しで書いてみました。お気づきになったかしら？

写真はそのオバちゃんと。そしてカカドゥ国立公園。そして海から見える日没後の明けの明星。

Recently an old friend of mine came to Japan for a trip with his partner. We had not seen each other for about 12 years, but he got in touch and wanted to catch up. He decided to spend 3 nights in Okayama during one of my weekends. While we were friends in university in New Zealand, he was originally born in England and has been living there for almost as long as I have in Japan. It was interesting to see how he has changed since we both moved away from NZ. We had a great time and were able to visit many places.

On their first night here, it was a workday for me. I was only able to meet them at night. We went out for dinner and had yakitori downtown. They looked exhausted as they had climbed Mt. Fuji only two days earlier. Nonetheless, they were happy to go to a local place for dinner rather than a chain or somewhere well-known. The next day, we did a lot of Okayama tourist activities. Okayama castle, Korakuen, and Bikanchiku. Sadly, it was rainy in the morning, but we spent some time inside the castle and managed to get to the garden when the rain had settled a bit. On that day, the lotus flowers had started to bloom so it was lucky timing. While in Bikanchiku, I took them to an udon shop. This trend of getting them to experience different Japanese foods continued throughout the weekend as that night we went to a yakiniku place. On our last day, we had sushi and tsukumen.

On our last day, we did not spend much time in Okayama. We went over to Himeji. Himeji castle is probably my favorite castle in Japan, so I wanted to show it off to them.  At the time we were planning to go, the England vs Mexico world cup game was live, so my friend insisted on watching it during the train ride. Amusingly, the other foreigners we saw on the train and even the platform at Himeji were also staring at their phones and watching the game. Despite raining in the morning again, it managed to mostly clear up once we reached the castle. My friends were impressed by the size, scale and craftsmanship. We managed to spend a lot more time there than I expected so we ended up just coming back to Okayama, doing some shopping and having dinner.

Overall, it was a fun weekend, and a great chance to catch up with an old friend. He said he hopes to visit Japan again in the future. Hopefully I can someday visit England as well.