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While lazing around over New Year’s, I suddenly decided to open an old diary.
It covers New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day during my first year of high school. Why that year? Because my daughter is now in her first year of high school.

Reading it again… I really was living alongside terrorism.
Comparing that environment with Japan today… Japan is peaceful, and we have grown dull.
Perhaps it cannot be helped that I sometimes feel inadequate.

December 31, 1980 (Wed.)

Another 1 years have passed. While we were eating New Year’s Eve soba, at around 8:45 p.m. there was a loud boom. The kitchen window shook and the bowls rattled. Mzee[*1] said that Kikuyu[*2] who disliked President Moi had probably planted a bomb somewhere, but surely not. Ha ha ha.

Kohaku was on today, but the antenna[*3] had fallen, so I went to buy one. Then I bought Bach’s Flute Sonatas No. 2 and No. 4. They also had Debussy’s Clair de Lune, but I decided against it because it cost 49 shillings[*4]. At the photo shop I looked at photos from Reiko’s concert, but for some reason some had not been printed, so they had to redo them.

At home, I put up the antenna. I wired a bamboo pole to a jacaranda tree, connected one end to it and the other to the chimney, which was covered in soot. While climbing the tree, the ladder broke and I struck my testicles. I then became too frightened to climb down from the roof.

It did not feel like the end of the year at all, which was disappointing. After January 1 began, I ate soba once more. Ah, I want to hear the temple bells on New Year’s Eve.

January 1, 1981 (Thu.)

Apparently the “Nafuku Hotel” was bombed. That was yesterday’s booming sound. “Nafuku Hotel” is John’s[*5] pronunciation of Norfolk Hotel. Still, I am glad I did not go to the New Year’s Eve party[*6].

January 2, 1981 (Fri.)

Yesterday people said it might have been an air strike, but that was denied. The death toll also changed from 16 to 18. I went to see the Norfolk Hotel but could not enter the road.

January 3, 1981 (Sat.)

The death toll fell to 14 because missing people were found. Today I tried walking to the Norfolk, but was spotted just before reaching it and could not get closer.

January 4, 1981 (Sun.)

The culprit was apparently a man with a Maltese passport who stayed in the room directly above the dining room. Another room had been reserved, but he asked whether the room above the dining room was available and took it. A woman visited him sometime later, and they left but never returned. They flew out of Kenya without checking out. Because the front desk burned, his name is unknown. Interpol has begun investigating.

Stone construction is remarkable, though. Looking at it today, it seemed only the roof tiles were gone.

[*1] Mzee: an elderly man. Here it refers to the elderly Luhya man who served as our gatekeeper.
[*2] Kikuyu: Kenya’s largest ethnic group. President Kenyatta and President Kibaki as of 2009 were Kikuyu. Incidentally, the then President Moi was Kalenjin.
[*3] A shortwave-radio antenna. There were few other options for listening to Japanese broadcasts.
[*4] “Shil” abbreviates shilling, Kenya’s currency unit, Ksh. At the time, I think Ksh. 1 was roughly JPY 30.
[*5] John was a male household helper, about 40 years old, and a Luhya.
[*6] We had discussed going to this party. That was close.

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