Cocktails and Margins: 01 [The Colonel's Manifesto ①] With the Soul of Jimbocho in My Heart. A Report on My Arrival at the New Battlefield, 'note'! (Season 0)

[Cocktails and Margins Series]
Click here for the magazine and all episodes ⬇️

🎼🎹 Let's start with this song.
✏️ Let It Be
(The Beatles)
Percy Faith Grand Orchestra.

Please listen while you read, if you'd like. (Please be careful with the volume) 🔽

Instructions on how to operate the player are provided at the end of this article. Of course, you can also read it without music.

🥃🥃🥃 Producer Katori (hereinafter 🥃)
"Colonel, it's finally time. Is the preparation for note complete?"

🥕🥕🥕 Colonel Daiden (hereinafter 🥕)
"Yes... Katori. I am at 'OLD TIME' in Akasaka again tonight.
Can you hear the sound of the shaker Mr. Yokose is using?

The time has come to take that passion I cultivated cheering at Jingu and Chichibunomiya and channel it through this pen 🥕.

By the way, Katori, there seem to be some rude people in town who claim I look like a rabbit, but let me state clearly: I am a pure human being."

🥃 "That's right, Colonel. Those long ears of yours look like nothing more than state-of-the-art sound-collecting radar to me."

🥕 "Glad you understand. Just now, while savoring the 'Kamikaze' made by my senior, Mr. Yokose, I have reaffirmed my resolve as a human being and as a leader."

🥃 "I have high expectations. Please go and show the middle school students and their parents your 'Showa-era Surugadai Spirit'."

[Cocktails and Margins: Opening Declaration]
🥕🥕🥕
Gentlemen, sorry to keep you waiting!!
I am Colonel Reinhard Daiden of the Family Peacekeeping Force.
Starting today, along with my comrade-in-arms, Producer Katori, I am arriving at this new base called 'note'.

My heart's home is in Jimbocho, Ochanomizu. Meiji High School (Please stop calling it 'Meimei'. I am not a goat.)

It has been about 50 years since I graduated. Since then, I have bathed in the refined jazz at the famous Ochanomizu shop 'NARU', filled my stomach with tempura bowls at 'Imoya' and curry at 'VAN', and pondered thoughts over a Mandheling coffee at the cafe 'Salome'.

That 'indomitable spirit' cultivated in the Surugadai of the Showa era is the root of my identity as an educator. By the way... just to be clear, this is not a carrot. It is a pen!
🥕🥕🥕

🥕🥕🥕
In my battlefield of middle school education, there are students to whom I pay special respect.

Gyosei, Shirayuri, Futaba, Seikei, Keio Yochisha, Toyo Eiwa, Waseda Jitsugyo... students who knock on the gates of those schools from elementary level and advance without entrance exams.
I call them, with respect, 'Priority Students'.

They have internalized the soul of their school since childhood; they are, so to speak, 'guardians of the spirit'. Respecting the unique pride and sensibility they possess and helping their talents bloom further—that is the important mission of 'Mugendo'.

🥕🥕🥕
The world of competition is not sweet. The Swallows fighting at Jingu and the warriors running on the turf at Chichibunomiya know that a split-second decision can be a matter of life and death. Arithmetic and mathematics are the same.

That is why I have decided to take up this pen called a 'carrot' and fight alongside you. 🥕

We raise the flag of a tutoring center exclusively for middle school students (Priority Students) and carry out the mission of cultivating essential thinking skills through mathematics and English.

To protect the children's steady growth and the smiles of their families, beyond the numbers and words.
From here on, Mugendo note, operation start!

Priority students have extremely high intelligence. Also, having been raised in excellent family environments, they have good character.

However, unfortunately, they do not know the severity of entrance exams.

They lack the basics of arithmetic, Japanese, science, and social studies required in modern middle school entrance exams.

I will teach them the 'weapons of thought' to supplement these and to break through the two major fronts of mid-term and final exams in mathematics and English through one-on-one local warfare (individual instruction).

Those of you interested in our tactics, or parents who need reinforcements for the battle at home, please contact me at any time. Let's seize victory together.
[Cocktails and Margins: 1] End

[Cocktails and Margins 2] is here ↓

[Mugendo Page] is here 🔽

* Examples of instruction are available.

🌐 Official Website
https://mugendo1977.com/
Mugendo does not engage in any solicitation activities via phone, email, etc.

📸 Official Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mugendoofficial?igsh=MTh5ajg3ZGhyMHZ4NA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
Mugendo does not engage in any solicitation via phone, email, etc.

🥕 Daiden's Illustration: Ryo Higashi

[Afterword: The Melody Flowing in the Background of the Main Story]
This is the theme song of the work the author had in mind while writing.
If you'd like, please enjoy it along with the lingering aftertaste of your reading.
🍸 Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson /
"Street Corner" ⬇️

[How to Enjoy 'Cocktails and Margins' BGM]

① This work is complete with text alone, even without background music, so you can proceed with reading as is without any issues.

② If you register for a free Spotify account or log in, you can enjoy the songs that color the story in their full length from the beginning. Even without logging in, if you press the play button, a highlight of the song (about 90 seconds) will play automatically.

③ If the screen switches to Spotify when you press play, please return to this note screen and continue reading while the music plays in the background.

④ Once the song chosen for this work's production has finished, you may stop the playback. Please enjoy the rest of the story with the lingering mood.