Here's looking at you, kid[November 2014]

KOBORI Sojitsu (the 13th Grand Master of the Enshu Sado School )

While September and October were both months that were stark reminders that autumn is now upon us, one can't help sweating on days when temperatures reach 28 degrees. I think these last few years, with the cool biz and super cool biz campaigns, the way we dress and our senses have changed significantly. Even I who am used to not wearing a necktie feel muggy around the neck. Once we get used to something convenient, it is very difficult to revert back to a life without that convenience.

I wonder if everyone else notices how things are changing around them as time goes on. For example, when I was small, there was a shopping street on my way home from school and whenever I walked past the tofu shop or greengrocer the shop owner would always greet me. If I couldn't stop to say hello I would at least give a small bow. I would stop by my favorite goldfish seller once a week and gaze at the water tanks for two to three minutes before going home.

I was able to get home from Gakushuin Primary School either on foot or by train and when I used the Sobu-line to get home there was another interesting shop on the way. It was a hardware store, the kind you don't see often today. It sold everything from screws and saws to shovels and sandpaper. The owner was not very friendly but whenever I stopped to look at his screws he would often say to me 'Hi there'. This scene doesn't seem to happen anymore these days.

The old towns in Tokyo still seem to have this atmosphere but they are becoming less common. I would like to pass this feeling of a town seeped in human interaction to the next generation but am always dismayed whenever I see people walking in the streets wearing earphones and listening to music on their smartphones.

Since I've been writing about films recently, I have been asked on several occasions about my favorite actress. She would have to be Ingrid Bergman. There are many reasons for this but I could not possible go into them all in this month's journal entry.

One reason is because she starred in Casablanca, a film I love. The film was filmed in 1942, a while before I was born, and also starred Humphrey Bogart, whose wife, Lauren Bacall, passed away in August of this year. Many fans know the story well but Bergman's class and beauty and Bogart's character Rick's lines were just wonderful.

I have of course seen the film many times and have recorded them. And even then whenever the film is shown on TV I watch it again. Of all the lines in the film, the most splendid and my most favorite is of course the title of this month's journal entry.