Mr.Gordon Thompson (left) and Mr. Hiroshi Kawamoto
久しぶりに英文で書きます。ちょっと急いでいるという事情もあるのですが、実は昨日午後ある友人が、妹背の滝のちょっと上でやってる「流しそうめん屋」を訪ね、そこにはるばる英国から来て滞在中の英国人老紳士と、３時間以上ぶっ通しでしゃべっていて、まだ「英語の余韻」が残っている…という背景もあるものですから。
[ Let me hereby write in English after several weeks’ interval…most probably because I am still dragging the atmosphere of chatting with Mr. Gordon Thompson, a nice British gentleman staying at my friend Hiroshi’s Restaurant upon Imose-no-Taki, for more than three hours long !]
* * *
Hiroshi, my friend at my age, who is running a cozy Soumen restaurant up above Imose-no-Taki (Imose twin waterfalls), had been continuously announcing to us, his merry comrades, the annual visit of Mr. Gordon Thompson, who had been regularly visiting Hiroshi for the past 40 years.
This restaurant is also functioning as a a kind of “secret hangout” of Hiroshi’s comrades equipped with deep curiosity and a little bit of intelligence.
Here is a long story behind Mr. Thompson’s annual visit, but,as it could easily fill up the whole page of this blog, let me skip to the Part II by only commenting that, not only Mr. Thompson (let me call his name in this quite British way instead of just saying “Gordon”, considering his dignity and…perhaps his honourable age: he is now eighty-seven years old), is visiting Hiroshi in Hiroshima, but also Hiroshi is, in return, visiting Mr. Thompson in London for the past forty years !
Part II
When I first met him yesterday, Gordon (why changed to American style? I don’t know…) introduced himself in a very gentleman-like manner. In return I did the same thing, by handing out to him a name card (Meishi) of my previous occupation, which I occasionally do for the persons who may not be able to read the Japanese version and who, of course, would be interested in m previous job.
Quickly reading my previous Meishi, he straightly looked at me, and asked “How did you find the national character of Thai people in the light of history for the past one hundred years ?”
I was very glad to have this sophisticated and philosophical inquiry only one minute after our first encounter. Yes, he is an authentic British gentleman with high education backgroud and intelligence, which I had not have heard from Hiroshi.
I had to satisfy his high-quality curiosity by dating back to the “regrettable”diplomatic relationship among Thailand, Japan, and United Kingdom at the era of WW II, beginning with the “Battle of Nakhon-Sithamarat”.
We discussed a lot…for such a long course of time, that I was temporarily afraid that this considerably ponderable (ponduous?) theme would prevail throughout my stay here up above the twin falls.
Help was Hiroshi’s visit to our garden table, saying “our lunch will be ready within ten minutes. Please come inside.” Yes, he speaks English fluently, because he studied English language in London about 40 years ago, when he home-stayed at the house of the Thompsons.
“O.K., let’s go inside…” I urged this aged gentleman, but he would not stand up until I could totally answer his second question “why do not Thai people hesitate in speaking English, but do Japanese ?”. I hesitated in continuing this discussion, considering that Hiroshi would be waiting for our entering the room, but I placed a priority to seriously facing with his earnest and very interesting question.
“I think it is rooted in the difference of characters between two peoples, I think that Russians and Japanese seem to have something in common, that…..” He seemed to sensitively respond to the keyword “Russians”, and intercepted my speech, stood up slowly, and started stepping into the restaurant.
この調子だと、またまた長文になりそうなので、ここらでやめときますね。まあ、ゴードン・トンプソン氏のお人柄を表現するには、ここいらまでで十分のような気もしますし。