OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

intense!

love,
jason mulgrew
internet quasi-celebrity

Thanks for your reply to my previous comment. I wish that typhoon 16 did not make you utter a big scream. Where do you live in Kochi?

Past April I made my first (!) trip to Shikoku, and found the street name 'Hata' in Kochi. In Chinese characters, it's just the other way around of my last name. I say to the overseas friends of mine, 'My last name means many flags.' The flags are of a vertically long kind (nobori-bata) such as used by samurai. I suppose that many Heike samurai secretly lived in Hata after being beaten by Genji. My last name possibly comes from the fact that my father-side ancestors were fishermen, not samurai; they must have come back from fishing with many flags on the boat when they got much fish.

By the way, my English pronunciation is poor, so that some friends of mine ask which I mean, frogs or flags. I say, 'Stars and Stripes is the American flag. That flag!' Once I said this to a British friend of mine. I should have referred to Union Jack.

Tatsu Many Flags

>Jason --- Sure!

>Tatsu --- Isn’t it interesting to know what the Chinese characters in you last name can tell? Yes, it is said that many of Kochi people are descendants of Heike warriors who lost in the war and run away.

>Tatsu --- I'm terrible with telling national flags, by the way. The Olympic game was a good chance for me to improve on that, but I guess what I learned quickly slipped away ASA the closing ceremony was over :)

Thanks for your response to my comment of yesterday. I modified that comment into a short essay entitled "Frogs or Flags?" and posted it on my web page "Surely I'm Joking" (a collection of my funny stories). It's nice that I can make my mini-essays by commenting on your essays. May I make links to your web pages at my websites?

About national flags. You can learn them, for example, at http://www.photius.com/flags/alphabetic_list.html. The Internet is quite useful these days.

Some Japanese people as well as most people of other Asian countries don't like Japan's national flag and national anthem for the reason that those were the symbols of aggressive wars Japan started. I wonder what you, possibly a lady of the generation without the direct experience of Japan's war, think about this. I align myself with those people from the thought that we should deeply repent Japan's aggression and value good international relationships.

>Tatsu --- I always have a complicated feeling about the issue. I can imagine why they feel that way towards our national flag and anthem, and I strongly hope Japan doesn’t repeat the same mistake again. On the other hand, I do want them to understand our natural urge to cheer for our country in international sports competitions.

About links to my blog: Yes, that's fine with me.

> Obachan --- Thanks for your consent to links and thought about the flag. I'll paste links soon.

I wish to cheer for our country with a new national flag. But the design of the present Japanese flag is so good that I don't think of a better one. How about a brilliant-orange circle with some dark sunspots in it, in place of the red circle? I reply by myself: Oh, no; it may be scientific but not so artistic! --- Tatsu of ISAAC (Institute for Scientific And Artistic Cultures)

>Tatsu --- I heard that the number of sunspots changes with time. If we had such a scientific flag, we would be busy updating it.

> Obachan --- You're quite right about sunspots. An accurate version, to be put at important national places, of a scientific national flag could be controlled by a computer connected to an astronomical observatory. Ha-ha.

I've pasted links to your blog sites at the lower right of my home page and "Links: Recommended" section of my blog site. --- Tatsu

could someone please send me the word "obachan" written in japanese characters please? mine just passed away and i would like to get a tattoo so she will never be forgotten. thanks. 

Posted by Eddie Bauer

Hi Eddie,
"Obachan" is either おばちゃん or オバチャン in Japanese characters.
I can see that you loved her so much.... 

Posted by obachan