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I felt like playing my 尺八、but was afraid I might disturb those people around by the noise I make, i.e., my poor performance on the bamboo flute. After a lot of hesitation, however, I screwed up my courage and took the instrument out of my bag. Should there be people who feel bothered, they will complain - I thought and furthermore - I'd regret forever unless I play here and now. I'd have to live with the regret the rest of my life - even though it's not to be very long. Anyways I must avoid this sort of regret at any cost as I know how bitter the taste of it is. 

 Softly I breathed into the 尺八 mouthpiece and, encouraged by the sound I was able to get, I started off with such songs I used to sing when I was a primary school pupil as 浜辺の歌、a song by the seashore, 歌を忘れたカナリア、a canary that forgot its song, et cetera. When I finished playing part of the 2nd movement of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, from the New World, two young lovely women came up to me asking in French if the music I'd played was a `souviens-toi` or something like that. I barely understood their words but I happened to remember a flower name, 忘れな草、in Japanese, that is, foreget me not in English or souviens-toi de moi in French. So I replied the name of the music was `le Nouveau Monde` i.e., the New World, not `souviens-toi` and I watched their faces cloud over. Here again the Nat King Cole song started to play in my ears - wish my French were good enough, I'd tell you more,,,,,,!

 "May I speak in English?" When I asked, they looked nervously at each other in silence.