Coal was quickly piled up…

The table in the middle room is still and quiet by the table lamps, and the light of the lamps is bright and clear, but it’s a bit of a mischief. Tonight, all the friends who gather here night after night to play cards with bones will be staying at the hotel, and only one of us will remain on the boat.

Five years ago, when I arrived at the port of Seigon, I saw things and heard things that were not new to me, and I wrote down thousands of words every day in travelogues that were published in the newspapers of the time. They were published in the newspapers of the time, and were much admired by the people of the world, but now I think back on them today, how could anyone with a heart see the thoughtless thoughts, the ramblings of a man who did not know his own limitations, the unusual plants and stones, and even the manners and customs that were so rare and unusual. I bought this book for my diary when I was on my way to Japan, and it is still in blank form, but I may have developed a kind of “nil-admirality” while studying in Germany.

I am now back in the East, and I am not the same person I was when I sailed to the West. I have learned more than I ever could have learned before, I know more about the vicissitudes of the floating world, I know more than I can say about the unreliability of the human heart, and I realize how easily my heart and mind can change. I have learned that my mind and my heart can easily change. I want to show this momentary feeling of mine, which I had not experienced in the past, to whom I will show it by copying it with a brush. This is the reason why my diary has not been completed, but there is another reason.

Ah, ah, it has been more than twenty days since I left the port of Brindisi.

As is my custom on this voyage, I have been in the company of many guests to comfort them on their journey, but I have been in a state of anxiety and have not spoken a word to my companions, for I am troubled by a grudge that no one else knows. At first, this resentment was like a cloud that haunted my mind, preventing me from seeing the mountainous scenery of Ruisei Switzerland and the ancient sites of Italia, but in the middle of my life, I was so disgusted with the world that I was so ashamed of myself that my guts turned nine times a day, and now they are so hardened in my mind that they are only a shadow of a shadow. But every time I read a sentence, every time I see a thing, like a shadow reflected in a mirror or an echo in a voice, it arouses my endless nostalgia and torments my heart again and again. How can I let this resentment disappear? If it were a grudge from somewhere else, after reciting it in a poem or a song, I would feel so much better. I know that this is not the only thing that is deeply engraved in my heart, but there is no one around tonight, and I know that there is still a little more to it than for a follower to come and twist the key of an electric wire.

　I have been a student of the strict teachings of the garden since I was a child, and though I lost my father early in life, I have never lost my academic vigor and have never lost my love for learning. The mother’s heart was comforted by the fact that her only child was able to cross over to the other side of the world with her own strength. At the age of nineteen, I received the title of Bachelor of Science, and people said that it was the greatest honor they had ever received since the establishment of the university. I was ordered to go abroad to investigate the affairs of a section, and I left my home and came to the capital of Berlin, far away from home, not thinking that I would be so sad to leave my mother who was over fifty years old.

With a sense of fame and a study ability that had become accustomed to the inspection process,

I was soon standing in the center of the new great city of Europe, Europe-United States. What glimmer of light is it that my eyes see? What colors are there to make my heart go astray? But look at the soldiers and women who come to Unter, Den, and Linden and walk along the stone paths on either side of the road. The towering officers, their chests heaving, their shoulders soaring, still facing the city of Wilhelm I. (“Windows / heart”, 3rd level 1-89-54)When they are about to sit down, there is nothing that does not astonish the eye, neither he nor she, who is dressed in ceremonial garments of various colors and beauty, with a makeup of the Parisian parry of the bride. Wherever there was a slight break in the clouds, the sound of an evening shower could be heard in the clear sky, the water from the spouting wells filled to overflowing and falling, and if one looked far enough away, the image of a goddess of the Arc de Triomphe rising halfway up into the sky from among the intersecting branches of the green tree that separated the Brandenburg Gate. With so many sights and eyelashes, it is only fitting that I should have so much time to practice what I do when I first come to visit. However, I have a vow in my heart not to be swayed by the beauty of the world, no matter what kind of situation I find myself in, and I have always been able to block out the things that attacked me.

　I rang the bell to convey my intention to come to Japan, and the officials of Prussia welcomed me with open arms, and I promised to teach them whatever they wanted to know. I am happy to learn German, French, and Western languages in my native land. When they first saw me, they never asked me how and when I learned them. 　Whenever he had time for official business, he would obtain the permission of the king to enter a local university to study political science, and his name would be written in a book.

　As a month or two passed, the meetings with the governor were completed, and the investigations were gradually progressing. As I had thought about it with my young mind at university, there was no way I could become a politician, and I was not sure whether I should become a politician or not…