■

  4 - My bucket list - continued

  "Just hang around in Paris?" She looked askance at me.

  "Yes."

  "I'm sure no one would take kindly to an old Oriental like you in Paris."

  "I don't expect any kindness of anyone."

  "Well, then, what's on your mind?"

  I was about to answer that I wanted to see the Latin part of the world and Its temperament as represented by French poeple, which should be widely different in culture and society from English speaking countries we 've been accustomed to seeing on far more occasions, but I hesitated to explain my desire to her. We were entering the area where I knew I'd have difficulty making myself understood. She is a realistic type of person who's been critical of my being always sort of daydreaming.

  Voir Paris et mourir.  See Paris and die.

  For all her criticism, I must have my dream come true. Otherwide, I'll go on having nightmares in broad daylight till the end of my life.

  Furthermore, I like languages. I must put to use this splendid language - French.

  French was, however, all Greek to me. When I was a high school student, some fifty plus years ago, I tried to learn at least basic French grammar to grasp how the language is structured and spent a whole summer, to little avail.

  - Again, I'll re-live my young days and try to learn French and fly over to France and speak with French people. What a wonderful idea! I'll entertain them by playing my 尺八.

  I started tackling the language - Je m'appelle Ojinjin, je suis japonais et j'ai soixant-dix ans. Cela se dit 古希, coqui en japonais. Pas cocu -.

  It's impossilbe, however, needless to say, to learn a foreign langauage in a few months unless you're really so gifted as to be called genius. I'm no genius and should I wait until I become a genius my limited days will have long expired and been gone afar. 

  Therefore, I just gave it up halfway and visited one of those travel agencies, many of whom are here making money from helping people who plan to go overseas, but when I entered the shop, nobody paid attention to an old man like me nor was there even any leaflet given on Paris owing to terrorists attacks there such as on Bataclan in 11th arrondissement (administrative district) that occurred in November 13th 2015.

  Left to my own devices, I looked for airlines and hotels on the Internet for myself, which turned out more beneficial and cheaper.