==JAPAN: KM== [Death]

Whenever I see the stars, which are twinkling in the night sky, I recall one boy, who was my friend, classmate, and rival. His name was Tomoharu. He and I were both immature in those days. We couldn't reach an octave on keyboards, because our hands were very little. We had to adjust the height of the piano chair, because our feet couldn't reach the pedals. Our eyes were shining because of our innocence. But I'm not what I used to be. As the light vanished from my eyes, I became a grown-up. But my friend was different from me. His eyes, hands, hair, feet, possibly mind, and all of him hasn't been changing since those days. My friend...well, it wasn't possible for him to become an adult.
I hadn't known that boy before a party, which was held after a piano recital given by my teacher's pupils. We were eating at the same table; it was our destiny to be friends. I talked with him, and when I knew we were the same age, our conversation grew livelier. We not only commented on each other's playing but also gave impressions of "The Nutcracker Suite", which is a suite for ballet by Pyotr Ilych, Tchaikovsky: In this work, Clara who is a lovely girl undergoes many experiences in a marvelous story. During our recital, we actually did some choreography for it besides our personal playing. So we dressed up like Russians for the "Russian Dance" that is one of the program in the ballet. We talked together about what a mistake it had been to wear a false mustache, how the hat for the disguise was too tall, yet we applauded our performances. I thought him to be the "Friendly boy", but especially I was impressed by his playing, that I had felt I knew well before I knew him. Though I was vaguely aware of the fact that he was a man of unusual ability, he was truly called "genius." In spite of his young age, he was able to play much more difficult pieces. Moreover, he wrote the lyrics, and what was more he was a splendid-looking young man. Not only his teachers and his parents, but also many people who knew him looked forward to bright prospects. "Envy" might be the fittest word to describe my thought and feelings. But at the same time, we were very close.
One morning I had a call from my music teacher. Her voice was tremulous and filled with sadness. That's why I couldn't understand what she wanted to tell me, but as I finally realized the point of the call, I knew certainly of my friend's death. I was too young to realize the concept of death, the experience of a friend never to be with me again. "Death" was beyond my comprehension. Then the floor of my room seemed to be chillier than usual.
After the call, mysterious things happened... "What is this thing called death?" I said to myself, and then a clear but plaintive voice came from the distance. "It is hide-and-seek. Now it is you." Though there was a voice, I couldn't find out the author of it. "I give up! Please come out," I responded. "I can't do that." It was a familiar voice. In fact, it was Tomoharu's. "Why can't you appear in front of me, Tomoharu, I gave up..." "What are you living for?" Suddenly he inquired cutting off my question. I was perplexed because the asking was unexpected, "I don't know." I murmured. "If you don't have any of your own answers, you should search for them before trying to find me."...It was my strange dream.
After the experience, when I went for a piano lesson, my teacher showed me a piece of paper on which something was written that looked "like" Hiragana characters. The beginning lines could be read but as I read the letters, they lost their shape little by little, so I could not recognize them. I could not catch what it was at first. Then my teacher handed me another piece of paper.
It was a sheet of music that had the name of "Tomoharu" in the upper right corner. The music was his last work that had been composed just before he fell into a coma. The first sheet was a page of lyrics. My teacher told me solemnly, "As his condition turned for the worse, his hands couldn't work and could not grip a pencil, he tried desperately to write the lyrics by holding a pencil in his mouth. So the paper was sloppy from his saliva..." Her sorrow stopped her from continuing her talk. The warped letters told me of his struggle against illness and his thoughts of regret. He would want to live more and... I could not help weeping in that night.
Several years passed, and in those days I would play the "Lyphard Melody," which is music by Richard Clayderman: my missing friend played this music when we had known one another. The title of this piece, when it is translated into Japanese is "A Pianist in the Starlight." The tragedy of a Genius rose up in my mind as I listened to it.
That's why I always recall one boy whenever I see the stars in the night sky. In this night, a noble pianist must surely be playing the piano in the starlight. Our hide-and-seek seems to be continuing for a while. But someday, "the day" I find him in the night sky will definitely come.


"Getting It Together"

One of the things I think important is having an impressionable nature. If you are impressed with novels, dramas, directions, movies, games and your own experiences, you may well want to write them down in your personal diary or notebook for your future not only for an "essay". I wanted to write some tales that people would not forget easily. I love to write essays, but in Japanese. In English I struggled to express my Japanese soul, because I'm not good at English. Though I was in embarrassing situations, I could have a lot of experiences. If I hadn't kept my diary, this work would have been harder, I think.