Japanese with anime voice: episode73
Hello, I’m Sachi.
June 12, today is Lover’s Day. The day before the anniversary of the death of Mr. Antonio, who is considered a saint of matchmaking in Brazil, was established as Lovers’ Day, and lovers have a custom of giving each other picture frames. It seems that the National Federation of Picture Framing Associations established the anniversary on the same day in order to spread this custom in Japan. Interesting. What’s a picture frame association? I didn’t know there was such a thing. But the times we live in are digital. I wonder how popular picture frames are now.
I wonder if this photo frame gift match is just a frame. Does it come with a photo? Is it a picture of yourself? I guess it’s their own photo. Even if you put your partner’s picture in the frame, he or she will be displaying his or her own picture, right? That’s not true. I guess they would put their own picture in the box and give it to their lovers. Well, I’m too embarrassed to do that. I’m too embarrassed to do that….
Whenever I see foreign dramas and movies, there are always pictures of them on display. At home and at work. And family photos in their wallets. The only photo I have in my wallet is my face on my driver’s license or my number card. I don’t have a picture of my partner. If it was taken together, it’s on my phone. Even if I took it with a digital camera, I don’t print it out anymore.
Hey, will you listen to me? My partner has a bunch of pictures of me on his phone. When you hear that, it sounds like he loves me or like we have a sweet relationship, doesn’t it? Not at all. As far as I am concerned. Why? All the pictures are of me sleeping with my mouth open. That’s how he takes pictures of me with my ugly face. And then he never erases them. He keeps them on his phone forever. Even when I asked him to erase them, he just said he understood. And then, when I forget about it, he shows me the picture again. It’s really annoying. So when I see a couple’s boyfriends taking pictures or videos of their girlfriends making cute faces on social media, I envy them. Why does my boyfriend only take pictures of me with my mouth open? What is this? Can’t you take a few more cute moments?
Well, it’s fine now that we live in an age of digital preservation. What do people do with their photos after printing them? Photos are the hardest to throw away. Especially photos with people other than yourself in them. What do people do with them? Do they keep them forever? I, for example, threw away all my photos when I moved to a new house. When I was a student, プリクラ (Purikura) was very popular, and I had a プリクラ (Purikura) book with a lot of プリクラ (Purikura) pasted on it, but I threw all of those away too. I decided to do 終活 (shuukatsu). 終活 (shuukatsu) is the Kanji character for “ending activities,” and it means to put one’s affairs in order before one’s death. I wondered what the point was in keeping photos of my youth. I thought that it would be nothing more than a form of self-indulgence and that if I kept them forever and died alone, the people who would sort out my belongings would be troubled. So I don’t have any pictures of myself. Well, I think there are still some pictures here and there at my parents’ house. I would like to throw them all away someday. I think you should take responsibility for your own things and organize them properly.
When I was cleaning out my parents’ house some time ago, I found a large number of photos in a box. There were pictures of my dad when he was young and pictures of my siblings and me when we were children. Among them was a picture of my grandfather. I loved him so much. When I can remember, he was ill and could no longer speak, so we never spoke, but I loved him very much. So when I found his picture, I was very happy. I still have a bunch of those pictures. All the pictures of the whole family. Well, even if I leave them as they are, someone will probably be in trouble someday. Maybe someone will end up throwing them away, or they will get mixed up in something and end up being thrown away. I think we have to get rid of it someday. Photography, you know, I think is a super innovative thing. Being able to capture a moment in time allows us to understand the background of history. It is a wonderful invention, but the more it is popularized, the more luggage of belongings left behind increases. I think it was a good thing that there were not so many personal items that had to be thrown away in the days before the Edo period when there were not so many things. I think it is good that we keep our memories only in our minds.
