Hello, I’m Nakamae from the Hobohichi Techo team.

In this issue of the Hobonichi Techo News, I am sharing something I was glad I had written or pasted in my techo.

I keep a photo journal in my Weeks book every day.

So many happy events over 2023 remain with me as fun memories, and I would like to pick up two of the most joyful days.

The first one is when a longtime dream came true; I published my book!

I have been writing for quite a long time, but I never thought I could hold my book in my own hands. I had been preparing for it since last year. I will never forget the day the work was finally completed, and the book became available in bookstores.

Looking back at this page, I can reexperience the feeling of happiness over and over again, as if it has been preserved in a vacuum pack. It is definitely what I am glad that I have kept in my techo.


It would also be great to mark the pages you want to look back on repeatedly.


The second event was my wedding, which was held in April. Having my favorite people celebrate already made it a special day, but what was most impressive was what my father did.


　
At the climax of the wedding, I was planning to read a letter of gratitude to my father. It was supposed to be a surprise for him, to thank him for what he had done after becoming alone with me in the family when my mother passed away.

I started reading the letter out loud, wondering if I could see my father’s tears. I managed to finish the reading, but I sounded nasal from the thousands of emotions building up.

I looked at my father, who was trying hard to hide his tears. He then slowly got up from his seat and started walking towards me and my microphone. “What is happening?” I thought, would it be a handshake or a warm embrace?

Neither of my expectations came true.

My father suddenly took the microphone from me and started talking. “Good evening! I am the father; I came from Nara prefecture.” Everyone at the venue, including me, was stunned.

“Good evening! I am the father; I came from Nara prefecture. Thank you all for coming to celebrate my daughter’s wedding. Now that she has read a letter to me, I would also like to share something. My daughter recently published a book of essays, and I read it. I had never read essays before, so I wondered what it would be like, but after reading it, I was completely inspired. So I decided to write an essay myself! It is my first time doing something like this, and I would like everyone to hear what I have written. The title is “The Deer of Nara are Gods!” Oh… wait… I seem to have lost the note. I need to go look for it, so everyone, please have a chat!”

Everyone burst into laughter. After an interesting moment searching for the note together with the attendants, the MC announced that the note could not be found, and we decided to wait for another occasion to hear what he had written, and the wedding came to an end.

That night, however, my father did find the “essay note” from the bottom of his bag and gave it to me as a gift. “See? I really wrote something.”

What it said was about how godly my husband was to get married to a daughter like me (which seemed to have nothing to do with the deer of Nara). It was, in fact, an excellent piece of writing, so I printed a small copy of it and put it on the right page of my techo. It reminds me of the funny and happy wedding day whenever I read it over.




It was the night when I realized that my father was someone I could be nowhere near as good as, and to this day, I still remember the feeling every time I open the techo.

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To celebrate the Hobonichi Techo surpassing ten million all-time sales, we’re recruiting stories of everyone’s one-in-ten-million day. We’d love to hear about your own personal unforgettable day, and perhaps were glad you wrote it down in your techo. You will be able to submit your episode by clicking on the image below. We look forward to reading your submission!

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