I went to Inokashira Park with Carolyn and Keiko

In 1998, Paul, who was in charge of Wednesdays, quit, and the faces in the Monday class changed after spring. Since the students' schedules changed to Wednesdays, I asked Carolyn to teach me on Wednesdays instead of Mondays.
I took a break that year because I was returning to Scotland in the summer, and since I took the summer off the following year as well, I had Brent, who had come to Japan, teach me instead.

Carolyn had a Japanese boyfriend she had been seeing for a long time, and they got married in 2001.
In May, when the three of us—including Keiko, who was her student—went to Inokashira Park, she told us an anecdote from her wedding.

I have been to Inokashira Park many times.
When I was working at a company, the computer department of the business school moved to the Kichijoji office, so I commuted there for a year.
The office manager, K, lived with her American husband, but she loved cats and kept several of them.
When I worked there, we went to Inokashira Park for spring cherry blossom viewing.
People from nearby companies would stake out spots early with blue tarps, so we, who would wander out at noon, walked among those parties to look at the cherry blossoms.

When I went with Carolyn and Keiko, we went not only to the edge of the pond but also to the woods above.
It was my first time going to the woods, and there were dozens, if not hundreds, of large zelkova trees creating pleasant shade.
This is the grove that frequently appears in Yumiko Oshima's "Wata no Kuni Hoshi" (The Star of Cottonland), and Yumiko Oshima lived in an apartment overlooking this park.

As an aside, I have loved "Wata no Kuni Hoshi" since I was in my twenties and collected all the volumes in the Hana to Yume Comics edition.
When I had my mother read it, she also became a fan of Chibi-neko, so I bought the books and gave them to her as a gift.
Through this work, I became a fan of Yumiko Oshima, collected all her works in Hana to Yume Comics, bought her early works that were released in paperback, and bought the "Yumiko Oshima Selection" from Asahi Sonorama as soon as it was released.
When I wrote in the Buttercups newsletter that I liked Yumiko Oshima, a member named Emiko sent me a hand-drawn map showing the location of Yumiko Oshima's apartment.
I think it's still tucked away somewhere, but Yumiko Oshima later moved from that apartment to a detached house.

Now, to continue the story, the three of us sat on a bench in the shade of the zelkova trees and chatted while eating lunch.
The mid-May sun was strong, but the leaves spreading out high above provided just the right amount of shade, and the dappled sunlight was cool, so we sat for quite a long time enjoying the scent of the trees.

Carolyn said she held weddings in both Scotland and Japan, and in Japan, it was a Shinto wedding where she wore an uchikake kimono.
Because there was no time before the ceremony and she hadn't received any instructions, she decided to imitate her husband. However, he was nervous and drank the sake from the nuptial cups in one gulp, so Carolyn imitated him and drank it all in one gulp too. She said they both drank the second cup in one gulp as well, and only realized what they were doing on the third cup.
When she watched the video later, she saw that his uncle was desperately calling out "Three times, three times" from behind.
Carolyn's explanation, complete with gestures, was so funny that Keiko and I doubled over laughing.
When I told this story to Keiko last year, she didn't remember it at all.

After chatting for a long time, we walked through the woods to the canal.
The natural flow was left as it was, and the surrounding trees were not overly manicured, but the undergrowth had been cleared to make it easy to walk.
There were many white flowers blooming on the trees that hung their branches over the water.

After walking along the stream for a while, we went down the path to the edge of the pond.
Since it was Sunday, there were many people out, including people selling handmade postcards and others playing musical instruments.
There was someone playing a long, flexible saw with a violin bow, so I stopped to listen.
It was an enchanting melody that I wouldn't have believed came from a saw, and I still vividly remember that tone.

After that, Carolyn gave birth to a girl and named her "Mia."
She said she wanted a name that didn't contain the Japanese "ra-ri-ru-re-ro" sounds because she wasn't sure if they were the English R or L.
Linda, who I learned English conversation from in my twenties, named her daughter "Elena," but in English, it is Elena, which has an L sound, while in Japanese, it sounds closer to an R.
I thought it was reasonable for Carolyn to want to avoid the "ra-ri-ru-re-ro" sounds.

On New Year's Day in 2003, Carolyn came to Tamagawa Daishi for her first shrine visit of the year with her husband and Mia.
The temple is very busy at this time of year, and I used to go every year on New Year's Eve and the first three days of the year to help carry amulets, and it was just when I was at the reception desk for amulets.
Mia was a very cute child.
This was the last time I met Carolyn, and although we exchanged New Year's cards for a while, it eventually stopped.