Long time ago, when I was still very young, I had a strange dream.

I remember it very clearly still now.  A red ogre is living next to us, and I absolutely love this red ogre and want to marry him.  The red ogre himself also loves me so dearly.  However, my parents are definitely against my marriage with him.  I dash out of my house crying ・・・and burst into the next house of the red ogre and he embraces me so hard.  I am overwhelmed with grief about my parents’ opposition to our marriage.  And the red ogre, too, is crying, hugging me so tight.

・・・”Who” was this red ogre symbolized・・・?

is what I still wonder even now.

Ogres’ scary hollers/

From/

Cherry buds/

Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko

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昔、若かった頃、不思議な夢を見ました。

今も覚えています。うちの隣に赤鬼が住んでいて、私はその赤鬼が好きで、好きでたまらなくて、結婚したいし、赤鬼の方も私を愛おしく思ってくれているのですが、親がどうしても赤鬼との結婚を許してくれないのです。私は泣いて家を飛び出して・・・と言っても、すぐ隣の家の赤鬼に会いに行き、赤鬼も私を抱きしめてくれるのですが、こんなにも好きな赤鬼との結婚を親が許してくれないのが悲しくてなりません。赤鬼も私を抱きしめながら泣いています。

・・・この赤鬼は「誰」だったんだろう・・・？

とは今も思うことです。

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Whenever getting a chance to, I enjoy having lunch at one of the school cafeterias of the college I went to.　However, it is too obvious eating here every day will quickly make you fat quite easily.

Putting a fork and a knife/

To the shoulder width/

Oh, month of September/

Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko

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ときに、機会があれば、母校の学食で食事をするのが楽しみです。でも、こういう食事を毎日続ければ、簡単に太れるのは余りにも明らか。

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It began raining pretty heavily just before the last event of o-bon, Gozan no Okuribi.　Fortunately though, the important observance was conducted smoothly.

All five ceremonial bonfires on mountainsides went out/

Dark returns/

To all five mountains/

Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko

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今夜はお盆の最終行事の送り火でしたが、点火の直前から大雨になりました。無事に行われましたが。

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Hangesho is one of the solar terms in the East which deeply related to how agricultural jobs be done according to the seasons.  It used to be fixed on the eleventh day after the Summer solstice and this year it falls on July 1st, and in Kansai region <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_region> a tradition of eating octopuses on this day has been practiced as making a wish that rice seedings will grow firmly into the earth like the octopuses’ s eight legs.

On hangesho/

Boiled octopuses are all sold out/

At fish stores/

Translation and calligraphy by Tomoko

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ただ、暑い。

半夏生という呼び方はちょっと素敵ですが。

あと、蛸は大好きです。

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