TAIAN KICHIJITSU(a lucky and good day in Japanese calendar), A very fine day. Recently, I came across with many fine occasions. These occasions include the press conferences for new dramas and stage plays and etc. Recently, I received the title of knight from " The knights of Medoc Bontan Grove"(the association of French Medoc wine producers) for my effort to spread the wine culture to young Japanese. This was due to the drama "Sommelier". It was a very honorable occasion. Then, this time of the year has lots of fine occasions, such as end-of-the-year parties and Christmas parties. Also, in the entertainment business, which got many party lovers, many honorable occasions and awards were created for almost all kinds of reasons. All of the fineness of these occasions can be enhanced by the congratulatory speeches. I am not really good at these kind of speeches at special occasions. I am even embarrassed to admit that I have been giving the speeches at the press conferences since I was very young. I think it is very silly that everybody is giving almost identical speeches of "Thank you for coming today despite your busy schedule." at the press conference for the production of new drama. To make the matter worse, these speeches became more of the formality since the detailed interviews are usually given after the press conference.

A couple of months ago, it was a beautiful autumn Sunday. I attended my older sister's wedding. In my sleepy eyes (I wasn't getting enough sleep due to the drama filming.), my sister's white wedding Kimono was shinning and I, for some reason, felt really shy looking at her. I have attended my friends' weddings before; but, this is my first time to attend the wedding of my family member. I quite didn't know how to act in this special occasion. Besides, I met with some of my relatives first time in 20 years and I wasn't really sure what to say to them. Generally speaking, the wedding is the finest occasion and there are lots of speeches from the relatives, the friends and the bosses from the couples' work. In these endless boring speeches, I enjoyed the speech given by my father's old friend who is a life planner working for an insurance company. His voice was low but warm similar to the voice of an actor, Leo Morimoto. His speech was the advises for the newly weds based on his life experiences and the mistakes he made in his own marriage. His speech was very humorous and made more sense than the speech given by the professional who was the master of ceremony for this wedding reception. I thought the wedding itself became too much of formality and all the speeches given at the receptions were just boring. But, this guy's speech was exceptionally good and I was really listening to his speech. It is often said that Japanese people are not good for giving speeches. We often see the advertisement in the train for speech skill workshops. I think the reason why Japanese are not good speakers is that Japanese culture and education don't give us the opportunity to make ourselves to be good speakers. However, giving speech to others is more like telling something to myself and having a conversation with myself. Moreover, each one of us has to be responsible for our own words to ensure the freedom of speech. By listening to the speech given by my father's friend, I now have somewhat different images about giving speech.