Profile of black celluloido glasses
1
neighbor car

That night, I was on a train. I was a student back then, sitting in an window seat. I looked at the opposite seat.
I was facing a young man, who was in the next car. He was also sitting at the end of his seat.
We were facing each other through the windows.
He looked at me.He was a thin man , wearing black celulloid glasses.We were staring each other for a while.And I thought,
"It's night.And reflection makes me think I see myself on the other window to.

So that guy is me."

And we were starring each other.He was becoming another man.
A thin,young man with black celluloid glasses was sitting there,not me.

2
Yamachan

Keirin
I was walking in the keirin stadium.I was a law student .I wanted to be a journalist.
I was interested in gambling world.So I walked around horce racing stadium,
boat racing ground,motercycle racing stadium, and I wrote what I saw.

*Keirin Japanese bicycle race .The object of gambling



A man climbed the steel frame which suported a roof and watched races .
I heard tipsters talking ."Good Heavens! You will need a cartwheel for the cash when you come back." "Whoever uses this forecast card quit their job forever."
"How can you not lose your money on Keiri?You know?If you do`t want to lose your money on Keirin,
you quitedKeiri.But can you quit keirin? Can you?Yes or no.
You can`t quit.Great!Go the whole way.For people who can`t quit Keirin,I recommend you this
forecast system that I have developed."

 One of the man in the crowd who heard a tipster`s speech. I saw a big hole on his overcoat.
He looked a hard walking white collar worker .
I was surprised by everything I saw.
"Yamachan"I heard a voice. A moon faced young man looked at me ,with a smile on his face.
"He is calling me."I`v never been called Yamachan before.first of all,my name is`t even
Yamada nor Yamamoto.

"Yamachan you like Keirin too!.""I`m not Yamachan""Easy easy take it easy"
Take it easy means "I like Keirin, all fellows like Keirin.So no need to hide anything ,Yamachan.
Was I supposed to doubt that this was some kind of new fraud?
Iwasn`t.He looked full of pure joy,like a boy who found a friend in the playground.
"I am not Yamachan,"I repeated one more time and gave up.The man looked at me bemusedly.

When the last race was over,the paths were full of pieces of paper and betting tickets which failed..I walked there.
There was a sound such as the one of footsteps over fallen leaves.
I thought Yamachan must have worn those black celluoid glasses.

3 My town

I drove down to the south in the deep mountain along small narrow but
deep river.Sometimes I passed a small town,There was a bridge and
it separated both side of the river.

Every end of the year I get home this way.How many times did I get home
along this road? A hundred times?I can`t bring something new to my parerants
every year.

I　went to Shinsyu with hopes ,dreams ,ambitions.They drove me to work for some years.
Dreams, ambitions,they don `t easyly dissapear.But I still I did`nt find out what I had thought I would easely find out.
I felt myself a stranger who staggered between the dark mountains.

When I got to the town, An old man at the gas station looked at me and smiled.
Three boys on the bicycles waved their hands .They looked like baseball players.
When we passed each other,a girl who gripped the steering wheel smiled at me.

That guy must have worn the black celroid glasses.
That`s true.
He drives light-duty truck in his town,on the way he must continue to smile.
What a happy guy!
Everybody would think that my town is jusut like that.I would be a man in that town.
Traveling man is looking for such a town.

Next year I passed that town.Then I expected that again.But nobody looked at me.
The town was others.




the end




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