上野まで散歩です。
Took a walk to Ueno. Shopping town and concert hall, museums and park including zoo, area.
Museums are on the small hill where used sit a great Kaneiji Temple. Temples are gone because of civil war more than a century ago. Now a few people remember the name of the hill; Shinobu ga oka, the hill of silent thought. The pond's name is very popular; Shinobazu no ike, The pond of unbealable. They come in pairs.
不忍池の蓮池茶屋です。前は仮設でしたが、常設になって人気も出ています。でもこの日は寒かったので開店休業。
So this is a Japanese style tea shop not exactly it was years ago, but still resembles the traditional mood.

The flag says "Our proud sweet sake." Sweet sake contains an essence of alcohol and mostly sweet rice fermented drinks for the winter. OK for children, too. May be we jumped in if it was colder.

週に一度は所用で浅草に行きます。雷門門前です。

I have been visiting Asakusa once a week. This traditional town is, according to my old professor, is older than the City of Edo that was established in 1590. It is a easy-going town, though. "Going to temple" was a good reason for many old day Japanese to skip their jobs. After paying short respect to the temple, you would enjoy eating or playing. Restaurants, diner, bar, sideshows, vaudeville, play, pleasure park, movies, you name it.
この日はクリスマスイブでしたが、浅草はすでに正月支度。ツリーなど影も形もありませんでした。



It is loosing its power as pleasure town, but still is a big tourist spot. Jinrinkisha, or rickshaw, rikisha, kuruma, as you like it, is a popular attraction now. It is purely for sightseers just like horse carriage around the Central Park, N.Y. This day was Christmas eve and I saw one ricksha man dressed in reindeer costume and old ladies saying, "Look at that! I have never seen anything like that in my life.""Sure you are. This is my first time in my life that I saw real Jinkikisha." Good. They were modern girls.
観光人力車の車引きのお兄ちゃん、お姉ちゃんがうるさいのが、若干困るのですが（観光客じゃないってばさ、こちとら用事できてんだよっ）この日は、トナカイの着ぐるみを着せられたお兄ちゃんがいて、ちょっと気の毒。そして、相変わらず「人力車よっ本物だわっ」と、感嘆なさるおばさま方。
まあ、そうさねえ。谷中にも一つ車屋さんがあるし（そう、近所を人力車が走るのです）、湯布院とか高山とか、あちこちで人力車見てきたので、気にしてなかったけど、言われてみれば珍しいわねえ。

こういう簡単な門松は、町内のトビが作って売るので、町内会ごとに形が違います。
うちのあたりは、トビから買う人と、町内会のポスター貼る人。うちはポスター貼る人です。
But other than that, I could find anything Christmas in this old town on the Christmas eve. (Oh, may be I should have gone to a department store, where ornaments are always their favorites.)
In stead of Christmas trees, I found they already started to place the New Year Ornaments. Pines, mainly. This rice cake shop has small ones. You place it on both sides of your gate as a pair.
The more gorgeous ones look like this. This happen to be very traditional, though a bit small.

観光案内所の門松。なかなか絵に描いたような門松ってないですよね。
They say "One night ornament brings a bad luck for whole year" that means never put ornament on 31. Finish it before.

Today was "The last day of work" and we used to have certain kind of ceremony, but in this economic condition, many people are still working, I think. Let myself has a good sleep and I will do chores with my family tomorrow!

寒かったけど、まあまあのお天気でした。
Cold, but not that bad weather. Thanks Tokyo's winter is dry and fine, mostly.


But because of it, it makes me wonder if this antique shop in my neighborhood is doing a right thing. No, it is no means a garage sale. Every morning they carry furniture out and exhibit.
東京の冬は乾いて日差しが明るいですよね。そこでこの光景。


Good way to attract people, may be. Good to old furniture? I can't say yes. I enjoy the sight, but I would never buy from them, even I had yens and I don't have yens so who cares. Still, I feel sorry for furniture.
こういう展示法をしていいのだろうかと、毎日見ております。家具には悪いんじゃないのかなあ。でも、老舗の古美術点なのです。

さて、夫の自作機の上にミクロが乗っています。ここのところ、ぴったり感にうっとりしているようだ・・・と思ったら、PCが暴走しました。黒猫の呪いかな？
And Micro again on my daughter's computer, hand made by my husband. After I took this photo, the PC went crazy. It must be the black cat curse.

In the mid 19th century, Japan decided to be a new modern country and say good-bye to Shogunate through a revolutionary civil war. Then new leaders' next issue was to be recognized as a Westernized country, because they found out the treaty Shogunate had concluded with Westerners was so humiliating that they had to have new one as soon as possible.
「坂の上の雲」をやっていますが、明治時代初期の妙ちきりんな文明開化は勘違いというより、条約改正のための必死の努力の結果であったと考えた方が良さそうです。

This caused many strange and nonsense things to happen and bronze statues in the city were one.
「都市には銅像があるもんだ」というのも、その一つかな？
でも、伝統がないところで無理をすると、勘違いが生まれます。ハチ公や太郎次郎は理解できるんだけど（でも、犬の銅像というのも珍しいらしい）ゴジラや妖怪やアトムや餃子となると、もう何がなんだか。

I think they got the idea 99% right. However, it was implanted to our culture in haste, we are sometimes too tolerant to some bizarre ideas, like this.

Godzilla protecting now-endangered-smoking-saraimen.

Even Japanese felt a bit strange when they decided to build this statue at Yurakucho, a business district in the very center of Tokyo, just like the midtown area in Manhattan. Why here? Because the Toho Movie company was (or is?) here. But it is rather hard to find out, if you are not a smoker.
有楽町でもちょっとみつけにくい場所で、しかも後ろが喫煙所なので、オジサンたちをゴジラが守っているように見えます。



Then another shock has hit us; TOO SMALL!


It gotta look like this.
ちっちゃくて可愛すぎるので、ゴジラらしく。（撮ったのは娘ですが）

I love the cute little Godzilla, too, though.

おばあちゃんがお汁粉の元を作ってくれました。ただしお餅はなし。
たくさんお芋をもらったところだったので、娘たちが、芋餅を作ってお汁粉にしました。
しかし、なぜか使ったのが紫芋。白いのも、オレンジのも、もちろん普通のサツマイモもあったのに・・・

What's this?
A kind of sweet bean soup my kids made. Very traditional.



I was thinking if there are any western soups that are sweet and you eat it like cakes, but can't think of any. It's rather like pie. You eat meat pies as meal but eat fruit pies and cream pies as desserts.

So this, small red beans made into soup with sugar and you add grilled rice cakes in it. Today, my kids tried more country style one with some sweet potato gnocchi in, but the potato they used happen to be the purple one. It got to be yellow if you want it right, but OK because purple ones are supposed to be more healthy.

And they were talking about my mother-in-law's expression about not enough sugar in it; she says, "Taste like ghosts." Yes, it probably means it tastes very thin that you can't get it, but including I, we feel a kind of funny when she repeats, "Sorry kids. I should have be more careful. It tastes like ghost!"

If you are interested how the ghosts tastes, put your small red beans and water in a pan, let it stand overnight, boil once, throw the hot water away and check if beans are not bitter. Then add fresh water and let it boil till the beans are soft. Then add a few spoons of sugar . Be careful not to make it sweet. Just add a pinch of salt. Taste it. Tasteless? OK, now you are tasting ghost!

今日のお汁粉はほどよい甘さでしたが、甘さ控えめにするとおばあちゃんは「お化けみたいな味」と言います。
英語にしてみたら、とっても面白くなりました。

　　これだけ無料自動翻訳サイトがあふれる昨今、わざわざお金を払って翻訳をするなんて・・「スピードメール翻訳サービス、Whoopee!mail を利用しているユーザーはどんなジャンルの方が多いのでしょうか？」という質問を頂きます。ホームページだけでは確かにわかりにくいですね　(汗)メール翻訳サービス Whoopee!mail （ウーピーメール）の特徴は、プロの翻訳者が２４時間、日本語、英語の翻訳をスピード対応できることにありま...
メール翻訳サービス Whoopee!mail の謎にせまる（笑）

私はWhoopee！の翻訳者ですが、メール翻訳ですから、本当に心を込めて、かつ出来る限り迅速に翻訳しています。自慢じゃないけど、この間の集中力は半端じゃないですよ。

日本語のメールのやりとりでも、ミスコミュニケーションが起こるのに、外国語の場合は・・・知れば知るほど、怖いなあと思うようになってきました。

よく「あなたの英語力は？」という質問があって、一番初級に「日常会話」と書いてあるんですが、私はこれが不思議で仕方ないのです。日常会話ほど難しいものはないです。同時に、eメールもとても難しいのです。

日本語のメールをもらって猛烈に腹が立つこともあるくらいですから、英語では・・・ね、怖いでしょ？

ちなみに、よくある文面、
「このたびはお世話になりました。無事に調査は終了いたしました。まずはお知らせまで。今後ともよろしくお願いいたします。」
を、機械翻訳で訳すと・・・
「Thank you for all this time. Safety investigation ended. FYI, first. Thank you in the future.」
と出てきます。これをまた日本語訳すと、
「このすべての時間をありがとうございます。 安全調査は終わりました。 最初にFYI。 将来、ありがとうございます。」

こんな文面送りたいですか？
私だったら、
「Thank you for your cooperation. We successfully have finished the research. Working with you　was a great experience. Let me write you again for the future plans.」
とすると思います。
日本語と違う？それはそうです。言葉は文化ですから。肝心なのはニュアンスなのです。

完全に英語化した日本語の一つ、カラオケ。正しい発音は「カリィオーキィ」らしいのですが（伝聞情報）、まあ、とにかく「今時の若い者」には普通の娯楽で、ときどき娘につきあいます。（いや、つきあわされるのかな？　お財布目当てで）

Karaoke is soooo popular among teens in Japan. Karaoke shops get extremely cheep during the day-time so just like going to a shop at corner, teens go to Karaoke for a song and a sip of soda.

This is how a very usual Karaoke Building looks like in the city center. It is in early evening but got dark already.

One of my daughter wanted me to go to karaoke with her. She loves songs and sing many Jpops that I don't know. I only sing "the greatest hits of 70s" but thought may be a good idea to have several hours singing sipping soda.

This hallway is a little scary when we have so many terrifying fires these days. We checked the way out and made sure we'd crawl the floor touching the wall. That will lead us to the exit.

Inside is very cozy. You can have soda, coffee, snacks, sandwiches and almost anything, though it is not a good idea to have your dinner here. Except few cups of soda, foods are a bit expensive for their tastes.

I never met anyone making big trouble even in the middle of the night, but if you act really bad, even Japanese part time workers would get really angry. My kid saw couples of customers being told, "Not do it again or never come back!" I really wonder what they did.
真夜中でもベロベロのグループに会ったりすることはあまりありませんが、先日、娘が「二度と来ないでください」と言い渡されているお客さんを見たそうです。いったい何をしたんでしょう？