966: “Doodle” 1/4 — 2010/11/01 15:06:57
This is a story about my older sister.
My sister is an incredibly lucky person.
Whenever she buys a lottery ticket, she almost always wins something.
Unfortunately, it’s never the dream-like jackpots like 300 million yen—
usually it’s the 3,000-yen wins.
She’s won so many times that she can’t even remember the total.
The highest prizes she’s gotten were around 100,000 yen, and that happened three times.
When that happened, she’d get so excited she’d come home with things like Matsusaka beef or fatty bluefin tuna.
I was thrilled too, so I remember those times clearly.
Recently, she’s stopped buying the usual batch of ten tickets and buys only three at a time.
About six months ago, she came home half crying—apparently she’d been drinking after work, rode her “mama-chari” bike (※), and took a huge spill.
She asked me, “Can you fix my bike?”
But when I looked at it, the tire was totally bent out of shape.
No way I could fix something like that, so I told her, “Take it to a shop.”
So on Saturday, she brought it to the neighborhood bicycle repair shop.
Later that night, when I came home, there was an electric-assist bicycle sitting by the entrance.
I thought maybe my sister bought a new one,
but during dinner she came in smiling and told us what happened.
At the shop, when the clerk checked her bike, he told her it would cost quite a bit to repair.
While she was stressing over whether to fix it or buy a new one,
an old lady came in pushing her own bicycle.
From the conversation, my sister overheard that the old woman was asking the shop to dispose of her bicycle.
She was moving into a senior residence soon and no longer felt safe riding it.
The clerk said,
“We don’t sell used bikes here, but if you pay the disposal fee of 2,500 yen, we’ll get rid of it for you.”
My sister immediately asked,
“Um… would it be okay if I took it instead?”
The old lady agreed happily, and my sister had her own bike disposed of—
coming home with the electric bike at no cost.
“ママチャリ (mama-chari)” = a common Japanese term for a basic, utilitarian bicycle often used by mothers for errands.
967: “Doodle” 2/4 — 2010/11/01 15:07:42
My sister often gets lucky in small ways like that.
Little things just happen to go her way.
Last Saturday, I think I finally understood why.
Our uncle and aunt from Hokkaido—my father’s older brother and his wife—came to visit, celebrating their retirement.
They planned to stay two nights at our house and then travel around Japan for a week.
Their home is actually my father’s childhood home,
so my sister and I spent many summers there as kids.
But I don’t remember our uncle ever visiting our house.
My sister didn’t remember either.
When we asked,
“It’s rare for you to come here, isn’t it?”
Uncle said the last time he came was for the housewarming when our home was built.
I was two years old and my sister was four—
so of course we wouldn’t remember.
We prepared the Japanese-style room for their stay,
and while we were cleaning up and showing them around,
my uncle said, “Ah, this brings back memories.”
But my aunt…
She just stared intently at the kamidana—our household Shinto shrine.
She’s from Fukushima and has very strong spiritual sensitivity.
There are lots of stories about her… but I’ll save those for another time.
After staring at the shrine for a while, she suddenly burst out laughing:
“This is interesting. I really want everyone to hear this—go call them.”
Once the whole family gathered in front of the household shrine,
my aunt began speaking:
“This is fascinating. Things like this really happen.
Normally, the kami (deities) would get angry…
but I guess this one decided to let it slide.”
None of us had the slightest idea what she was talking about.
スポンサーリンク
968: “Doodle” 3/4 — 2010/11/01 15:08:31
My aunt said:
“You know… there’s a little tanuki living in your household shrine.”
She continued:
“You probably think it’s just some picture of a tanuki placed up there,
but something has attached itself to it.
It’s not an evil spirit—more like something raw and natural.
At first, it was probably just playing tricks for fun.
But since it was put up on the shrine and worshipped every day,
it got confused and… misunderstood in a good way.”
My dad isn’t especially religious,
but out of habit he prays at both the household shrine (kamidana) and the Buddhist altar every morning.
The rest of us only do it occasionally.
Aunt continued:
**“It’s trying really hard—doing its best to act like a real kami.
It has a little bit of power, but since it’s just a tanuki spirit,
it can only manage small things.
Still, it’s impressive.
If this continues for a hundred years, it could gain considerable power—
maybe even become a full-fledged deity someday.
So I want you to treat it just a little better,
so it doesn’t lose motivation.
Does anyone know the picture?”**
My sister suddenly shouted, “Ah!”
She grabbed a step stool and started rummaging around the shrine.
From behind the small shrine structure, she pulled out what looked like a sheet of drawing paper.
Tanuki = a Japanese raccoon dog, known in folklore as a shapeshifter or playful trickster spirit.
Kamidana = a small household Shinto altar where families enshrine protective deities.
969: “Doodle” 4/4 — 2010/11/01 15:10:41
Apparently the drawing was something my sister made in first grade.
Back then, she loved drawing and scribbled on anything she could find.
One day, while Mom was out shopping,
she ran out of paper and started drawing on the sliding closet doors in the Japanese-style room.
Naturally, when Mom came home, she exploded with anger and threw away everything my sister had drawn.
But my sister had secretly hidden one favorite drawing.
Of course, everyone wanted to see it.
When we told her, “Come on, show us,”
she reluctantly handed it over.
We had no idea what it was.
A tanuki?
A dog?
A cat?
A fox?
Picasso?
Everyone had a different opinion.
When we asked my sister, “What is this supposed to be?”
she frowned and said, “I think… it was a horse.”
Amazing that my sister thought that was a horse,
and equally amazing that the tanuki spirit apparently decided that was a drawing of itself.
Following my aunt’s advice,
we put the drawing in a picture frame and placed it at the edge of the shrine.
Aunt laughed and said:
“I’ve known for a long time that a spirit has been around your sister.
But since it wasn’t harmful, I left it alone.
Still… I didn’t know things had gotten this far.
It’s been protecting her all this time,
so your sister should pray to it too.”
And she laughed again, carefree as ever.
My sister may be lucky,
but her luck with men seems to be another story.
She’s 29 this year and turns 30 next year.
She’s 164 cm tall—weight and bust/waist/hip measurements unknown.
C-cup, blood type O, Scorpio.
Anyone want to marry her?
The tanuki spirit comes included—free of charge.
