＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・幼稚園時代の思い出話。結んで開いて・肝油ドロップ・イチハツ・だるまストーブ
I attended kindergarten for only one year in 1955 (Showa 30). Having never played with children my own age before, I was very bewildered by the large number of children my age.
I remember having a hard time adjusting to group life due to my shy personality.
1. “Tie and untie”
During playtime, the teacher would sing, “Close your hands, open them, clap, close them…” and we would close and open our hands and clap them together. I remember being completely lost at first, not understanding what “closed hands” meant.
I then observed the child next to me and realized it meant “to clench your fist (rock),” and “open your hand (paper).”
However, the expression “closed hands” always felt strange to me. In eastern Japan, rice balls are called “omusubi,” which I also find difficult to get used to.
Incidentally, before the war, although the lyrics differed, it was apparently sung as a hymn, a school song like “Looking Around,” and even a military song called a “battle song.”
As an aside, I first learned in a Western intellectual history class at university that the composer of the song “Musunde Hiraite” (Tie and Untie) was the French thinker, philosopher, and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
2. “Cod Liver Oil Drops”
When it was time to go home, the teacher would hand each child a yellow “cod liver oil drop.” These were Kawai Pharmaceutical’s “Kawai Cod Liver Oil Drops.” They were like what we would call “nutritional supplements” today, made by adding sugar to cod liver oil and forming it into a drop.
“Cod liver oil” is “the liquid found in the livers of cod, sharks, and rays, and the fat extracted from it,” and it seems it was given to children to prevent night blindness and rickets.
3. “Ichihachi” (Japanese iris)
White irises (Ichihachi) were planted in the courtyard of my house. They resemble irises and sweet flags, but the plants are smaller and the flowers are slightly larger than those of the Japanese iris (Shaga). Many flowers bloomed, so my mother told me to take them to kindergarten and have them arranged in the classroom.
When I handed them to the teacher, she said, “Oh, what beautiful flowers! Are they irises?” I replied, “They’re Ichihachi.” The teacher looked puzzled.
Perhaps the teacher had never heard the name “Ichihachi” before. I should have just said, “Yes, they’re irises,” but now I regret saying something unnecessary because I knew the name of the flower.
4. “Daruma Stove”
In winter, a “Daruma stove” (a type of portable stove) was set up in the classroom. Before lunchtime, everyone would place their lunchboxes on top of the stove to warm them up. It’s a fond and happy memory.