Alina Ibragimova is undoubtedly one of the most endearing violinists in the world. A while ago, I'd been fascinated by her recordings of Schubert's sonatas. Even now, I often put on the CD at home. Tonight, she has been in Tokyo and played Ysaye in Toppan Hall at Iidabashi. In fact, I don't like the hall because it's far away from the station and its seats are stiff. On top of that, there I smell smoke every time. But this time I had no choice but to have bought a ticket to enjoy her playing sonatas for solo violin by Ysaye.

The performance was really nice. I've never experienced such a bright tone in Ysaye. Especially, the second and fifth were so attractive. For instance, at the very beginning of the second sonata, her abrupt but not rude pause after the short passage of Bach's third sonata took my breath away. It almost looked like she was pretending to play the passage by error. Of course it wasn't. Having expected some anger or grief at the pause, I felt a funny surprise. I hope these feathery impression won't change to be more serious and heavier one in her future recordings of this masterpieces.

I went drinking with one of my best drinking pals yesterday. For me, he is the only friend from college days. These days we are always talking about our children, despite many common interests in a broad range of areas. That's good because I can respect his attitude toward life as well as on parental interests, and hopefully he also seems to be gratified by my way of thoughts. But it means that we drink and eat so much every getting together, and naturally, we regretted having eaten a bowl of ramen after bottles of wine yesterday.

It has turned out nice these two days. We went to the zoo on Saturday, and today we attended a local community event. Both two days, my daughter was made so many fuss by passing strangers that I was a little bit embarrassed. I think it was because of the baby coach. It's really cute. The elder brother, who was also brought up with the coach and now pushes it in a proud manner, is cute too.

When I waited with our baby sleeping in the coach, a girl who said that she was studying photography in a university asked me if she could take picture of the coach and baby. I let her do that, of course. However, it was her film camera that attracted my attention. I used to take B&W photos like her. I could even develop films myself. In fact, I still have gears and chemicals to develop films, though they are unlikely to be used again.

I played cards with my son after the diner. He was inevitably defeated and burst into tears. I know what he felt but he needs to get used to that.

The morning air was neither hot nor cold, so I went to the office by walk. The townscape has changed a lot since the days I used to run through by bicycle. Especially, there are more food related shops than before. I was intrigued by a venerable traditional sweets shop and their new dorayaki-tasting soft cream. I'll try it the other day.

I often say to my son that he should be careful in doing something. That's not because I'm careful but actually the very opposite. In fact, I carelessly sent an email to a wrong address. I hope my son not to become like me.

When I listen to somebody talking in English, I think I somehow manage to recognize each words. But I still can't grasp the meaning of what they say before constructing the sentence from these words in my head.