Thirty years ago today, an event that can’t be forgotten and shouldn’t be forgotten occurred in Kobe and its vicinity. Ten years ago, I posted both English and Japanese entries of what I had experienced, witnessed, and thought at that time; you can read them below:
Category: Japanese Culture
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An Unhappy New Year
On New Year’s Day, as I do every year, I paid a New Year’s visit to a local shrine to pray to the deities enshrined there for the development and prosperity of the Imperial nation and the happiness of all the people, to buy a shrine calendar to check my good fortune around my star for this year and to draw an omikuji to predict my fortune for this year. Then, I gathered around a festive meal with my relatives to celebrate each other’s health and pray for a safe and peaceful year ahead…until we heard the news of the earthquake and tsunami centered on the Noto Peninsula in the afternoon.
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The Words of the Year 2021
The last day of each year is when I look back at what happened, what I encountered, and what impressed me the most throughout the year. Then I summarize them into some words as “the words of the year.” For example, the words of the year 2020 were Synapusyu, the handgun, and computer programming. The words of the year 2019 were Hokkaido, Mercari, and Grand Cherokee.
Sadly, I haven’t experienced very many things that impressed me this year. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, a state of emergency was declared nationwide for most months. As a result, I could do nothing but stay home all day long, go out shopping at the nearest supermarkets, or drive a car just a few miles away from my house.
Even on such monotonous days, I did something new. Summarizing this year, the words of the year 2021 were Google Maps, Yurie Omi’s resignation, Tokyo Games, and death games.
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The Words of the Year 2020
It is time for me to look back at what I experienced this year and summarize it in some words, as I do it every year-end. This year, COVID-19 has affected a great deal to the lifestyle of people all over the world, including myself. I have been forced to stay home and work from home for most days of this year.
Despite such restricted situations, I encountered some new things. The words of this year are Synapusyu, the handgun, and computer programming.
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Changes of the World From COVID-19
COVID-19 is dreadfully spreading throughout the world, hospitalizing more than 3,100,000 people and taking the lives of more than 200,000 patients as of April 29, according to Johns Hopkins University. It is no exception here in Tokyo.
The virus is forcing all people in the world to change their lifestyles. Many have been grounded for months. Essential workers, such as doctors, healthcare workers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, supermarket clerks, garbage collectors, delivery service personnel, and staff involved in public transportation, work outside facing the fear of infection.
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Shofukutei Riko
Shofukutei Riko (笑福亭里光) is a professional rakugo artist who speaks Kansai-dialect rakugo stories. Rakugo is, as Wikipedia puts it, a form of Japanese verbal entertainment in which the lone storyteller sits on stage and depicts a long, complex, comical (or sometimes sentimental) story using only a paper fan and a small cloth as props.
He was one of my classmates when we were in junior high school. Besides, he was one of my best friends. In junior high, I talked to him a lot, played with him a lot, belonged to the same club as he did, and resigned from the club together with him on the same day. He sometimes played rakugo on stage in school events. His performance was rising above the level of an amateur, so he was called shisho, a title used for professional rakugo storytellers.
After we graduated from junior high, we went to different high schools. We didn’t see each other for ages.
One day in 2012, I was staying in a hotel room watching an entertainment program on TV, where several rakugo artists who had just been promoted to the shin’uchi rank were on stage, and they were giving speeches in turn to show their thankful feelings for the promotion. The program reminded me of the classmate who wanted to be a rakugo storyteller. I wondered if he still kept up his hobby. Watching TV, I thought he might appear on such an entertainment program someday. To my surprise, he really did it in the very program that day.
According to online sources, after graduating from university, he became a disciple of Shofukutei Tsuruko (笑福亭鶴光), a well-known rakugo artist, and began his rakugo career in 1998. He was promoted to the futatsume rank in July 2002 and became a shin’uchi in May 2012.
I tried to contact him. Since he had a Twitter account, I sent him a direct message. He replied to me soon. We talked a bit on Twitter for a while. Several months later, we met face-to-face for the first time in more than 25 years. He had not changed at all since we saw him in junior high.
Now I sometimes go to his stage to listen to his story and see him offstage. Last night I saw him in Shinjuku and went for a drink with him at an izakaya in the west gate area. He was fine. We talked a lot. I drank too much, and I have a hangover this morning, though.
I think that being friends with public figures might help me have a chance to see the celebrity world, and maybe it would even change my life.