8 Kingdom, or about the literature and personality of the English author A.L. Huxley, (1894-1963). Often on Saturdays and Sundays, accompanied by Morisue I would barge into the house of our teacher (whom we affectionately referred to as Mr. Shigeru), and listen to his stories about English literature and other matters. His wife hailed from the Chiba prefecture, and so I was happy to receive from her some nice tales about Tokyo. In those days it took a day and night to reach Tokyo, by transferring to the Seikan Ferry from the Nemuro Main Line. Such gatherings at the residence of Mr. Shigeru continued even after I had entered university. I visited him on coming home on vacation, and we pondered over, discussed, and argued over what we thought of student life. I received various types of advice from him, sometimes mingled with harsh comments. What I principally learned was that nothing was easily grasped. We used to refer to these gatherings as “Salon de Yoshida.” My Entrance into the French Language Department of Sophia University While I was at Obihiro Sanjo High School, I was a recipient of the scholastic nurturing of my English teacher, Shigeru Yoshida. Yet, I was in due course to switch over to the study of French. What triggered this change was the French naturalist writer, Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893). On reading his paperback version of “A Woman’s Life” that my elder sister possessed, I was attracted by the flesh-and-blood way of life of this author, who wrote of the sorrow, joy, and fear of human beings, in a realistic manner. Urged on by my desire to read the original I thereupon began to peck at the French language, by way of radio broadcasted lectures and so on. Accordingly in 1957 I joined the French department of Sophia University, but as I was the only male among three siblings I believed I would ultimately return to Hokkaido, in order to take over the family business. Knowing that to be the case, I
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