Just a few years ago, I found a cherry tree in a vacant land with weeds and remnants of fallen building walls. The cherry was in full bloom then, and the wind was blowing off the flower petals like snow flakes falling and whirling around.
数年前、崩れた建物の壁と雑草だらけの空き地に桜の樹を見つけた。桜はちょうど満開で、風に吹かれた花びらが雪のように舞い落ちていた。

That was such a beautiful place on the nicely terraced and banked terrain, with rubbish in the weeds, graffiti on the ruined walls, and the tire swing hung from the cherry tree; although the lot was nothing but a small patch of abandoned land, it had everything a kid could dream of. And I WAS a kid as I just stood there.
程よく段差と斜面があって、草むらにはガラクタ、廃墟の壁にはラクガキ、桜の枝にはタイヤのブランコが吊りさがり、それは美しい場所だった。たかがうち棄てられた小さな空き地であれど、子どもにとっては夢の国に違いなかった。そして、そこにいたら僕も子どもになれた。

Today, the cherry tree has been cut down, the swing gone, the wire fence mended so as to keep out kids from trespassing.
今はもう桜の樹は切り倒され、ブランコは無くなり、子どもが立ち入らないようにフェンスが修理されてしまった。

Warning notes are posted on the fence: “This is a municipally owned land. Withdraw the plants and the storage immediately, for private use is considered illegal occupation. If in case of no withdrawal, they are to be removed by the City of Kyoto. Please understand.”
フェンスの上には警告が貼ってある。「ここは市有地です。私的な利用は不法占拠となりますので、すみやかに樹木、物置を撤去してください。なお、撤去なき場合は京都市によって撤去しますので、ご了承ください。」

Now I know who cut down the cherry tree…
なるほど、誰が桜を切り倒したのか、これで判った。。。

Just down below the warning was a small stuffed doll left and forgotten. The doll was of “Hello Kitty” in a dinosaur (or monster) costume, which reminded me of the picture book “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak.
その警告のすぐ下に小さなキティちゃんのぬいぐるみ人形が置き忘れられていた。キティちゃんが着ていたのは恐竜か怪獣のきぐるみ。それを見て僕はモーリス・センダクの絵本『かいじゅうたちのいるところ』を思い浮かべた

What an adventitious miracle! I was a Max every time I came here. Although I just stood by the fence and didn’t actually play with the swing, my mind was running around among the weeds and playing with the Things nobody else could see.
何という奇跡的偶然！ここへ来るたびに、僕は絵本の主人公マックスになっていた。フェンスの脇にたたずむだけで、実際にブランコに乗ったりはしなかったけれど、心は他の草むらを駆けまわり、人には見えない「あいつら」といっしょに遊んでいたんだった。

When I came home tonight, I didn’t find a hot supper waiting for me, though.
今夜、家に帰ったときに温かい夕飯が待っていてくれたわけではないけどさ。

The verandah is done now. No more lumber cutting and the days of sawdust are past.

When I was leaning against the fence railing, a soft rattling came in my ear. Fist, I thought it was a woodpecker in the distant forest, but soon found out that little green frogs (Rhacophorus schlegelii) are the source of the sound. Spring has finally come in the mountain village (though the cherry buds are yet to bloom)

I bought a used iPad mini a fer days ago to replace an aged (meaning obsolete) car navigation system. For the price, the iPad looks good but there is always a catch if you grab cheap stuff; its Wi-Fi connection is very unstable. The thing did get connected once or twice out of hundreds of tries. I have had to spend the whole day and night ever since yesterday to figure out what’s wrong with it, but so far, it doesn’t seem to be worked out.

Having stayed up all night to struggle with the whimsical device in vain, I finally became sick and tired to solve the problem, and I stepped out of my house this morning in order to breathe fresh air. I am not an early bird, but it’s good to walk in the crisp air at the crack of dawn. As soon as opening the door, I found what yesterday’s heavy rain and strong wind have done to the cherry tree about ten yards from my house.

This movie must be interesting. I always enjoy seeing the movies at Sakaimachi Garow gallery, which is run by my old friend ever since high school days.

One thing I was worried about was the projector’s unsuitable placing. it was situated temporarily on an unstable box or stack of books on a sculpture pedestal, because the pedestal is too low for the screen. Thanks to the wide lens, the projector was placed right in the middle the first row of the audience, but it occupies an area for one or two viewers, and the cables are running all over around it, so that there is a good chance of one can get caught and tip it over– causing a disaster.

I recently helped the gallery introduce a new and more powerful projector. It comes with high definition image quality and a brighter lamp, but has to be placed farther back due to its focusing ability; therefore it needs more height in order to clear the audience’s heads. I don’t by the idea to set the expensive device on an insecure makeshift pedestal.

To solve these problems, I made a new “pedestal extender” that helps to place the projector higher and stabler. The materials are mostly from the leftover lumbers for my Hanase house.

Now that the new projector has the function of horizontal keystone correction, it may sit immediately next to a sidewall of the gallery. It takes away only a small area and the cables can be run along the wall to avoid a tangling-blunder accident. The extender has an angle-adjustable top plate to compensate the keystone correction, and it can sit up-side-down so as to lower the height.

So, finally I can fully enjoy watching the movie at Sakaimachi Garow without getting bothered by the projector in sight and worried by its instability.

  Here comes the cherry blossom season.

Yesterday, I took these photos shown down below.  The cherry trees were beautifully flowering then, but if you walk or drive down the streets of Kyoto today, you will come across cherry trees even closer to their full-blossom culmination; only one day makes a big difference, for it’s been warm enough these days.

I don’t care much about SNS any more and don’t even glance my eye at the posts, but there must be a lot of cherry blossom photos all over in the timelines in this time of the year in Japan as usual. And I, too, don’t hesitate to show off just another cherry pics here– meaning I am, after all, just another Japanese crazy about the gorgeous but fragile and transient cherry blossom.