Request of the month: Goro kun wrote an essay titled "The memory of lips". Don't you think we also have "the memory of scent"? It is not only flowers and food, but also the place, the weather, and people...Please write about scent. (From Yuko, 37 years old.)

There is "the chocolate effect" in human memory which is the phenomenon of human memory triggered by the smell and sweetness of chocolate. I learned this when I appeared on a TV show. Of course, chocolate is one the example of the things which might trigger the memory. Any scent can trigger the memory. Well, it could be the scent of an old girlfriend's perfume...The everyday human life described by the scent is quite interesting. I would like to start my journey of memory to search the relationship between scent and me.

My favorite scents are, if it is a flower, a fragrant Olive, and, if it is a season, spring. The smell of vegetation growing in spring has very strong liveliness which is different from the mature scent of summer vegetation. The hot smell of asphalt as a strong impact. I also like the smell of my car. I liked the smell of diesel engine of the train line very much when I was a child. It smelled like burned gas. I rode the train whenever I visited my grandmother. The train had black roofs with old wheels. I can't forget the smell of its engine.

The mother's scent is the scent of cosmetics. When she put make-up, it was always the time for her to wear some special clothes to go out. These special clothes in the closet smelled like the insecticide. When I smelled the mixture of cosmetics and insecticide, I felt "Ah, we are going out." I was happy to go out with her. Yet, I didn't like to see my mother putting make-up to be another person. I guess men always have mother complex regardless how old they are. Men always want to follow their mothers.

Even when I am going out with a girl of my age, I feel like she is wrapped in something when she wears a strong perfume of make-up. Rather than adding something like perfume and make-up, I prefer a girl to stay pure. I don't know if the origin of this thought is my perception of mother. However, zoologically speaking, males smell females and chase them which means human beings have desire to know the real scent of other people. If a woman wears perfume, it is very difficult to know the real scent of her. I myself want to smell the core of a person when I want to know about the person more.

I can't omit talking about wine when I talk about wine. There are many scents of wine, such as raspberry, vanilla, peppers, mushrooms, ashes, iron, blood, lather, and so on. About five scents can be detected from one bottle of wine. Sommelier guesses the name of the wine by remembering when, where, and whom he had served the wine. This must be the one of chocolate effects.

Keeping the memory by its scent is a very primitive and animalistic, yet, it is very delicate and supreme in a human sense. Being more animalistic is superior as human !? When I think about myself, I turned my head when I passed someone with unforgettable scent. Some times the person is not the one in my memory. Some time the person is almost like the person who I expected to see...It really depends on the occasion.