Love Inside Takoyaki: Why a Gift Clothes Feels Warmer When It’s Worn

I didn’t bring much clothes when I came to Japan, but still my baggage felt quite heavy to carry. Besides books, my bag were filled with some gifts from my friends (which actually not essential for my stay in Japan). Yet, I never regret bringing them here, because they constantly remind me that there are some people that care for me, (hopefully) as much as, or even more than I care for them...
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I think you often read something like this before, but I’ll write anyway...

It always feels good to go eating with my lab friends or my home-stay family, since they are much more concerned in any ‘edible objects’ that I eat than me myself. Not only they always try ‘to feed’ me with more high-calorie food (to help me gain more weight :-) ), they also always check first whether the food contain meat or not (I refrain eating meat here in Japan for a reason related to my religion, except it is stated clearly that the meat is okay for me). Like when we bought Takoyaki (たこ焼: baked octopus) on our way back from batting center; they didn’t forget to ask first whether the Takoyaki contain meat or not. The waiter quickly replied that there was no meat there, and that they only used seafood for the ingredients. Feeling safe with the response, we proceeded to buy some, but the waiter halted us by saying that actually they added something else to the food. We started to worry that it was something that I shouldn’t eat, when the waiter told us that ‘that something else’ was aijou (愛情: love :-) ).

We couldn’t help laughing at that time, but by the time we ate it, it did taste a little bit different. Of course it should have been tasted the same as (or at least similar to) any other Takoyaki that I had eaten before. But the notion of “love inside Takoyaki” was enough to change the Takoyaki into something different. Something special (special enough to be mentioned here :-) ).

Well, by now you should have already figured out what are the words that I think would properly answer the question above (i.e. because there’s love inside it). However, it will lead to the next question: does it always feel warmer to wear gift clothes? If you don’t often buy your clothes yourself (like me... :-) ), may be you won’t feel the warmth all the time. It is because you already get used to it and often don’t think much about the fact that somebody gave it to you. Similar to the Takoyaki case: if the waiter didn’t mention about the bonus ‘love’ inside, the Takoyaki wouldn’t taste differently. No matter how much love that they put inside it, your clothes won’t feel warmer if you don’t think about the giver. It is their love to you and your love back to them that synergistically help to make it feels warmer. Without it, the love inside won’t glint, and you won’t feel the esoteric geniality lies inside. (By the way, although I mentioned the word ‘love’ quite a lot of time here, it is not only gift from your lover that I mean. Even sometimes your family or friends can love you to an extent that your lover can’t...).

And of course, clothes is just an example (I picked it up because I received clothes from lots of people :-) ). Any gift from your friends, family, or other people that cares about you is filled with their love. By knowing that they love you and having the same feeling to them, you’ll be able to sense that, however simple the gift is, it indeed something special.

Japanese Lesson in Five Minutes

This is the picture of Sotetsu line, where the Futamatagawa station is located. Sorry for the small picture, but if you're really lucky enough to be able to read it, you would be able to see the Futamatagawa station (it right on the branch of the line) and Kibougaoka station right next to it.
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Last week we had party in my professor home (we have it every year), and on the subway to the party I got additional important word to my Japanese vocabulary (actually it depends on how you define the word ‘important’ :-) ). It was started with Chris and Tang-san showed me one station that we would pass on our way to the party. The station name was futamatagawa (二俣川), and when they reckoned that I didn’t find anything interesting with the name, they asked me whether I knew the meaning of ‘futamata’ (二俣, or sometimes二股).

I tried to consult my dictionary, but their explanation, added by Kim-san and Makii, was able to enlighten me more than any dictionary ever exists in this world :-). Futamata means ‘to have it both ways’, and it is also often used to express the act of having two lovers (and of course this meaning that attracted their attention :-) ).

Eventually, ‘the lecture’ developed into discussion on why a river (川: kawa or gawa: river) was given such a name. Even though the most logical explanation is that because the river forks into two directions, it seemed that everyone agreed that the river got its name because there are a lot of people with two lovers visiting the river (As an addition, the name of the station next to futamatagawa station is kibougaoka (希望が丘) station, which literally means ‘hill of hope’. And according to our ‘consensus’, this is the place where someone who wish to have two lovers go... :-) ).

Well, I think now you’re no longer wondering from what source I got my vocabulary of such words... :-)