In this walking tour of Tsugaru, I wanted to stop by N's home and spend a pleasant time. I sent a letter to N before I came and wrote something like:
Please, don't go to any trouble. Act like you know nothing. Please don't hold any kind of reception. Well, just apple cider and crabs are fine.
The only exception to my self-discipline regarding food is crabs.
I love crabs. Why do I love them? I love crabs, shrimp, squilla, only foods with no nutrients. Therefore, my favorite is sake. A disciple of love and truth who is supposed to have no interest in food talking like this has, by chance, exposed one edge of my innate greed.
At N's home in Kanita, crabs were piled on a large tray with red cabriole legs and carried to me.
"Do you have to drink apple cider? Are both Japanese sake and beer bad?" asked N with difficulty.
I know about their bad parts and decided they were better than cider, but the grown-up me knew the valuable parts of Japanese sake and beer. I held back when I wrote apple cider in the letter. I heard that these days in the Tsugaru district, apple cider is fairly abundant like wine in Koushu.
"Either is fine," I said with a confused smile.
N looked relieved and said, "I feel better hearing that. I don't like cider. The truth is, my wife saw your letter and said Dazai has given up drinking sake and beer in Tokyo and wants to drink the apple cider of home. Because you definitely wrote this in your letter, we should serve you cider. But I couldn't, I told her you don't hate beer or sake and, out of character, you were acting reserved."
"Well, your wife was not wrong."
"What are you saying? Come here. First, we'll have sake? Beer?"
"Later is better for beer," I said a bit shamelessly.
"I think so too. Hey, bring the sake! If warm is okay with you, she'll bring it now."
It is hard to forget sake from anywhere.
Speak of a land far from home, renew an old friendship.
Together, we did not reach greatness and were surprised by gray hair.
Parted twenty years ago. Traveled more than three thousand ri.
Now, without a cup of sake, life cannot be described.
Haku Kyoi
During my middle school years, I never went to play at anyone's home. The reason was I often went to play at my classmate N's home. In those days, N boarded on the second floor of a large sake dealer in Tera-machi. Every morning, we met and walked to school together. And on the way home, we took our time walking along the coast on the back streets. Even when it rained, we weren't in a rush and walked at a leisurely pace even if we ended up soaked like wet rats. Thinking about it now, we were two dopey kids with generous spirits. That might have been the key to our friendship.
We ran around and played tennis in a large field in front of the temple and, on Sundays, carried bento boxes to play at a nearby mountain. The friend who appeared in my first novella Memories was based on this friend N. After graduating from middle school, N left for Tokyo and worked at a magazine company. I was a few years behind N in leaving for Tokyo to enroll in college. At that time, we renewed our friendship. N was boarding in Ikebukuro, and I boarded in Takadanobaba, and we saw each other almost every day.
This time our fun wasn't tennis and running. N left the magazine company to work at an insurance company. Like me, his big-hearted nature led to him always being cheated by people. Each time someone cheated me, I became a little darker and meaner. In contrast, N became more easygoing and light-hearted, no matter how much he was cheated. N is a mysterious man and admirable for not feeling mistreated. His flippant friend considers that to be a benefit inherited from his ancestors and holds his gentle nature in high regard.
N visited me at my birthplace in Kanagi during middle school. Even after coming to Tokyo, he often visited the home of my next-older brother in Tokka. When this brother died at twenty-seven, N took off work to do various errands for me and was thanked by all of my relatives. Later, N had to return to the countryside to take over his family's rice polishing business. He gained the trust of the young people of the village due to his mysterious innate virtue after inheriting the family business. A few years ago, he was elected as a town councilman of Kanita, took on various responsibilities of executive secretary of some association, and became an indispensable man in Kanita.
That evening, a couple of people stopped by the home of N, a young influential man in the district, for drinks of sake and beer. N's popularity was amazing, the star of the troupe. What was told to the world as the rules of a pilgrimage by the elderly Basho, the first condition was to not drink sake for enjoyment, to refuse treats of food and drink, to prevent becoming even slightly intoxicated, and to never end up confused. However, I understand the advice from the Analects of Confucius says to drink unknown quantities of sake without acting rude. I did not follow the teachings of Basho.
It's all right to be
