The first Shige essay in Myojo 2006-07
Wow, thank you for all your comments, I'm really happy that there are so many Shige fans! And since some people asked for translations, I thought I'd post some more, whenever I have a bit of time to translate another one. So here's the very first one, titled "Door", from Myojo 2006-07. Have fun reading! ♥
#1: Myojo 2006-07 - Door
My hometown is a typical town in the suburbs, the nearest train station has the kanji "yama" in it [Note: very common in Japanese place names] and there's nothing spectacular about it. Considering this, it has quite a lot of modern beauty and hair salons with a great atmosphere. Therefore one expects to see a lot of stylish, beautiful people, but the town disappoints a bit in that regard. If you come out from the ticket gate [of the train station], there expands a street that has a fruit in its name to your left, and among the many hair salons facing towards it, there is one hair salon with a specially fashionable glass window. Years ago I spotted the following words there.
"The customer is god!"
I was getting home late on that day, and by chance I noticed the words written in giant characters on a white board squarely in the middle of the shop, among the many closed hair salons. The person who had written those chaotic characters overflowing with personality was an old guy with white hair and a white mustache who looked like the owner of the shop. He was wearing a white shirt with an open collar on top of a pair of jeans, and he made the impression of being something of a bad guy. And this person who made you feel as if time had stopped in the Showa era [1925-1989] appeared in the hair salon. In front of a lot of other stylists he didn't get angry, he didn't argue, he just continued to say something very passionately. He didn't look as if he wanted to add any more characters to the white board. To me, he looked comical. Hey, what's that supposed to mean, a white board in a hair salon? Don't normally use the younger stylists the shop after closing to practice their craft or to clean up? And firstly, everyone knows that old saying by now, there's no need to write it down now. Didn't you confuse 神様 and 髪さま? [Note: This is a pun in Japanese, since both words are pronounced "kami-sama". The first means "god", but the second means something like "hair-sama". :)]
I can't forget the characters, written ramrod-straight, even today. Surely that shop owner has lived by the motto that the customer is god until it was engraved in his innermost soul. Inspite of that, I think he noticed that he was in danger of forgetting it and once more engraved those words with a needle. But still, I couldn't approve of the shop owner making the staff stay until late in the night to lecture them. From the moment I returned home, I kept remembering this scene, and everytime I did, something knocked on a door inside my head. But without understanding just what existed behind that door, I became a university student.
I wanted to tell someone about this. But I didn't. Even if I told that story very seriously, it would end up being made fun of, so I somehow wanted to delve into this on my own. And recently I have finally gotten the feeling that I can hear the voice of whatever lies behind that door.
Recently, there's a kind of spiritual thinking occuring in Japan. I found myself strangely agreeing to the statement "Coincidence doesn't exist" that was said during a TV program about the world of the psyche. Everything is connected by cause, there's a meaning. Even if that might not be the case, it's more positive to think like this, and every common scenery, talk and meeting appears crystal clear. Maybe those words on the white board hadn't been there for the stylists in front of it, maybe they had been a message for me to see who had dismissed the words as obvious. Maybe that something which had knocked on my door had wanted to tell me "There are no coincidences in this world"...
A friend of mine who was in the same class had to repeat a year, so he couldn't attend our graduation ceremony, he didn't have a single friend in his new class, he was dumped by the girl he loved or confessed to by girls he didn't love, but maybe this will all make sense in the distant future.
As will the fact that you have read this essay of mine.
#1: Myojo 2006-07 - Door
My hometown is a typical town in the suburbs, the nearest train station has the kanji "yama" in it [Note: very common in Japanese place names] and there's nothing spectacular about it. Considering this, it has quite a lot of modern beauty and hair salons with a great atmosphere. Therefore one expects to see a lot of stylish, beautiful people, but the town disappoints a bit in that regard. If you come out from the ticket gate [of the train station], there expands a street that has a fruit in its name to your left, and among the many hair salons facing towards it, there is one hair salon with a specially fashionable glass window. Years ago I spotted the following words there.
"The customer is god!"
I was getting home late on that day, and by chance I noticed the words written in giant characters on a white board squarely in the middle of the shop, among the many closed hair salons. The person who had written those chaotic characters overflowing with personality was an old guy with white hair and a white mustache who looked like the owner of the shop. He was wearing a white shirt with an open collar on top of a pair of jeans, and he made the impression of being something of a bad guy. And this person who made you feel as if time had stopped in the Showa era [1925-1989] appeared in the hair salon. In front of a lot of other stylists he didn't get angry, he didn't argue, he just continued to say something very passionately. He didn't look as if he wanted to add any more characters to the white board. To me, he looked comical. Hey, what's that supposed to mean, a white board in a hair salon? Don't normally use the younger stylists the shop after closing to practice their craft or to clean up? And firstly, everyone knows that old saying by now, there's no need to write it down now. Didn't you confuse 神様 and 髪さま? [Note: This is a pun in Japanese, since both words are pronounced "kami-sama". The first means "god", but the second means something like "hair-sama". :)]
I can't forget the characters, written ramrod-straight, even today. Surely that shop owner has lived by the motto that the customer is god until it was engraved in his innermost soul. Inspite of that, I think he noticed that he was in danger of forgetting it and once more engraved those words with a needle. But still, I couldn't approve of the shop owner making the staff stay until late in the night to lecture them. From the moment I returned home, I kept remembering this scene, and everytime I did, something knocked on a door inside my head. But without understanding just what existed behind that door, I became a university student.
I wanted to tell someone about this. But I didn't. Even if I told that story very seriously, it would end up being made fun of, so I somehow wanted to delve into this on my own. And recently I have finally gotten the feeling that I can hear the voice of whatever lies behind that door.
Recently, there's a kind of spiritual thinking occuring in Japan. I found myself strangely agreeing to the statement "Coincidence doesn't exist" that was said during a TV program about the world of the psyche. Everything is connected by cause, there's a meaning. Even if that might not be the case, it's more positive to think like this, and every common scenery, talk and meeting appears crystal clear. Maybe those words on the white board hadn't been there for the stylists in front of it, maybe they had been a message for me to see who had dismissed the words as obvious. Maybe that something which had knocked on my door had wanted to tell me "There are no coincidences in this world"...
A friend of mine who was in the same class had to repeat a year, so he couldn't attend our graduation ceremony, he didn't have a single friend in his new class, he was dumped by the girl he loved or confessed to by girls he didn't love, but maybe this will all make sense in the distant future.
As will the fact that you have read this essay of mine.