About that car....

The car in the above photo has sat in that same location for as long as I've been living in Yonezawa.  Essentially it's an abandoned vehicle.  But I couldn't suss out why it hadn't been towed away.  Finally, a month or two ago, I found out.

The story, according to a friend of mine, is that it belongs to a fellow who used to own a very large plot of land on the east side of Yonezawa station.  As time passed he subdivided his land and sold off the parcels piece by piece.  Eventually he was left with a tiny sliver of land occupying a corner next to an intersection.  That's where he parked his car.

The rest of the story is that the fellow no longer lives in Yonezawa.  I've glanced at the licence plates on the car and they're from Nagano prefecture (or city).  So that part of the story sounds like it's true.  I also heard he's e a bit advanced in age and doesn't travel around much either.  So, he probably doesn't have any reason to be back in Yonezawa again.  So his old car has remained in Yonezawa sitting on his last piece of real estate here.  Thus we have the last piece of the puzzle.

A Rude Awakening...Of a Sort.

This morning I was woken up by a chorus of chain saws (I found out from a friend later that there doesn't seem to be Japanese specific name for the tool - it's just a "che-in-sa-uh").  After listening to the racket for a while I got up and opened the shoji slide doors to take a look at what was going on.  The sight wasn't a pleasing one.  Workers were busy cutting down the trees in the lot next door.  After a while the sound of the chain saws and trees being felled became a bit disturbing so I went out for lunch. 

At the cafe I asked about the Japanese name for a chain saw.  That led on to their purpose this morning.  I was told the lot is being cleared so that a new apartment building can be built.  The purpose of the Shinto ceremony which woke me up late last month thus became apparent; the priest was unconsecrating the little shrine in the corner of the lot. 

The buildings which occupied the lot housed a restaurant which had been founded in the 10th year of the Meiji era or 1877.  The buildings were of a much more recent vintage as the original structures would have burned down in the 1910s when a pair of massive fires consumed the centre of the city.  I'd hazard a guess that the business closed down as much as 20 years ago though the buildings were used occasionally as late as this past summer.  My friend's remark was that it's a bit sad to see it being torn down.

Then I asked him what one calls a Shinto priest in Japanese (the answer is "kannushi"/ 神主 ) and that led onto a question of what is the difference between "bokushi" (牧師) and "shinpu" (神父).   I couldn't come up with an authoritative answer to that one.  I pointed out that the kanji for shinpu suggested a relationship to the title of "Father" used by the Catholic Church.  By that time Minako, the woman taking care of the cafe today, had joined the conversation and it went off on tangent: the meaning of "ho-ankan" (保安官) in English and what position of authority that would equate to in Japan.  That prompted me to check online and the word I pulled out of the hat was "sheriff".

Trying to explain "sheriff" was a bit of a handful for me.  I pointed out that sheriffs were public figures responsible for enforcing the law before the days of police forces.  I also pointed out their frequent appearances in westerns and cowboy movies.  That tipped off my friend and he mentioned the title of a millennial western movie, "Young Guns".  So we talked a bit about the rule of the law in the Wild West.  On top of that was talk about various titles used by the public for members of Japanese police officers and whether or not their usage is correct in Japanese language subtitles for American movies. 

Anyways, the conversation was a lot longer than last night's conversation about a vegetable called "takana".  Incidentally, that name is a local version.  I don't remember the proper Japanese name for it.  Though I suspect the vegetable in question is kale.  At which point its name would be "ryoku kanran"...I think.

"Post War Blues" and "What's Going On?"

The above two are titles to songs.  The former is by Dan Magnan.  If I recall correctly the first line is "Let's start a war for the kids...".  The latter probably doesn't need an introduction. But, yes, indeed it is the title of the late Marvin Gaye's 1971 hit song.  The latter was playing on my iPhone when I left the office this evening.  I thought of the other as I walked out to the car.  They seem like such a fitting denouement to the day's main event; the US presidential election.

I only spoke with one person today about the US election.  That was a student who started on the subject when I had mistakenly reached for my iPhone during a break in a lesson.  She guessed correctly that I wanted to check the results.  When she asked me who I thought was going to win the election, I matter of factually replied the winner probably was going to be Trump.  She was genuinely shocked when she heard that.  She wondered out loud in Japanese, "I wonder what will happen".  Without hesitation I stated that the TPP agreement was likely doomed.  Same for the Paris Agreement on the environment.  The only silver lining she could find to the cloud was the value of the US dollar.  I made a sound like a rapidly deflating balloon and agreed it might be a good time to scoop up some US dollars.  She chuckled and said she was probably going to do so.  And that was more or less the end of conversation as we had reached the end of the time slot for her lesson.  I gave her a hint on what tomorrow's lesson was going to be on and that was all....


PS:  I taught a lesson today that focused on the poem "In Flanders Fields".  It was an interesting experience.  I played a bit of a CBC news story about Lt. Col. McCrae.  Portions of the poem were read in the video clip.  They helped him get an idea of how to read the poem.  He did relatively well with that task.  But he was puzzled by the word "ye".  I told him of its less poetic counterpart and all was well. 

Oh, yes, I remembered to pin a poppy on my suit jacket today.....