E114: Because Today is Showa Day

Whenever I talk about this, no one listens to the end.

Everyone just gives me a half-smile and a troubled look halfway through.

And then, they wait for the right moment to change the subject.

Hey, you just changed the subject while I wasn't looking, didn't you?

I know what you're doing...

Today, could you please just listen to the end?

A fetish? Could you please stop with that boring categorization?

No, that's not it, that's not it at all!

What I mean is, I remember so many things.

Like my grandmother, who was busy working from before the sun rose.

The sound of the matches she would skillfully strike.

That strange, bubbly sound it made when it ignited.

The boiling kettle placed there as a humidifier,

the red bean mochi being toasted there,

the kotatsu placed nearby,

the mandarin oranges on the kotatsu,

the Chelsea candies and the melting Cecil chocolates on the kotatsu,

the dictionary, reference books, past exam papers, and notebooks on the kotatsu.

The Gold Blend red label, Creap, Nido, and Bright on the kotatsu.

Nestle? What are you talking about, it's Nestlé!

The New Year's cards and the Print Gocco on the kotatsu.

That day we made a huge fuss when mandarin juice splattered onto the New Year's cards we were about to write.

The pale look on my own face that day, standing there stunned and holding my hands over the heater because I couldn't accept those words.

The sticky aloe vera gel that was hurriedly applied after I accidentally burned myself while playing nearby—the kind that would be flatly dismissed in the Reiwa era.

Like that short-tempered version of myself from that day, who felt a chill on my back because someone forgot to close the sliding door and complained, 'Who was that? Close it properly!'

What are you talking about... wait, no, that's not it!

Hey, listen to me a little more,
Don't call Kinoko Konishi yet...

No, I mean...

Because it makes me instantly recall that feeling, packed with all those 'memories that might be trivial and silly but make me want to cry,' which are, so to speak, a collection of small things.

That's why I...

I like 'that smell when you turn on and turn off a kerosene heater'...

Or rather, even now, it grabs my heart...

Even after all this, do you still call me a 'fetishist'?

Hey, did you understand even a little bit?

......Really?

Thank you.

But you ask, why am I talking about kerosene heaters at a time like this, when we're about to change our wardrobes?

Ah, I guess you still don't understand...

I'm not just talking about the smell of a kerosene heater.
I'm talking about the 'scent of the Showa era'...

Reiwa is fine, but
Showa isn't so bad either!

After talking this much, do you still want to hear more?

I see, fine, I understand...

Come on, listen away, say what you will.

...What are you talking about?

I mean...

But,
if even one of the items I casually brought up
resonates with you,
then I am satisfied with that...

[Day 29 of 66]