Diary octorber 17
I started learning Chinese this October. The reason I began was that I wanted to visit Taiwan for my next trip.
I’ve been to several other countries in Southeast Asia, though not Malaysia, and I realized I had never been to Taiwan either. I heard that the food there is delicious, that people are friendly toward Japan, and that there are beaches where you can even surf—all of which really attracted me. I’d like to make it my travel destination for next year.
When I started studying Chinese, I found it quite approachable because it uses Chinese characters, which are familiar to Japanese people. Also, since many materials include pinyin to show pronunciation, it’s somewhat easier to understand. However, a chiropractor I used to visit—who had lived in China for more than ten years—told me that Chinese pronunciation is extremely difficult. He said even after studying for a year, it’s still hard to master.
That said, learning Chinese led me to visit a Chinese snack bar on a Saturday night, where I met an interesting person. We ended up singing Showa-era pop songs together, and it was a lot of fun. This person is about my age and used to be in a choir and play the guitar, so they have a very good ear for music. They also played the euphonium in a brass band and used to play rhythm guitar, so they were great at harmonizing and really enjoyed singing together. Thanks to that, the two of us sang our hearts out—songs by The Checkers, Shonentai, and Hideki Saijo. Since they harmonized beautifully, it was an absolute blast.
It all started from learning Chinese, and it really opened up my world a bit. Incidentally, this person is also into motorcycles—they own a Honda CRF250 off-road bike and, incredibly, once rode from Kamakura all the way to Osaka in about six hours in a single day. That’s around 480 kilometers! I can’t imagine having that kind of stamina.
One of my own friends once rode a 750cc bike from Toyama to Aomori, but after that trip, he said he never wanted to ride a motorcycle again. The person who went to Osaka said that when he arrived, his hands and legs was completely numb, and he even dropped his phone and cracked the screen. He joked, “That must have been my sacrifice insted of me.” Truly incredible endurance.