"Do you know that there is a cemetery for English people in Yokohama?", my co-worker who lives in Yokohama said.
She said that it was a cemetery, but roses were blooming all the year long, so it is a beautiful place to visit like a park. She often visits there and reads some books.
"Wow, it seems to be a nice place. I want to visit.", I thought. At last, in the three straight holidays in September as the autumn was approaching, I decided to visit. I asked Taki who lives in Yokohama to accompany me.
I think that only a few people know of this cemetery. When we got off the train at the nearest station, we asked the station staff where it was, but he didn't know. First of all, we decided to go to the bus stop. "If we can't find which bus we should get on, we'll ask a police man." We were not sure, but we started the day.
I looked at my map at home and knew that it is located a children's park, so we went to the bus stop going there. We asked a bus driver who was in a bus which had stopped there, "Is this bus going to the English cemetery?" He answered, "Yes... Probably..." after thinking a little. His answer made us anxious, but we got on the bus any way.
We were relaxed on the bus because we thought that we should get off the bus at the last stop. However, on the way, the bus driver looked back at us and signaled to us.
"Should we get off here?"
"Yes. You see the wall? After walking a little, you'll find a gate.", he said.
We hadn't ask him to tell us when we arrived there, but he told us nontheless because he knew our destination.
How kind he was!
"Thank you so very much.", we said in unision and got off the bus. After that, we walked towards the wall which we saw in the distance.

In this cemetery, people of the British Commonwealth, the United States of America, and the Netherlands are buried.
Truely, not so many people know of this place. In a large site, apart from us, there were only a married couple who entered a little before us and two young men who sat on a wooden bench. The young men were singing and playing guitars.
There are two paths. One is towards right and the other is stone steps. At first, we chose the stone steps and walked up.
Looking at tombstones one by one, we found people had died from their teens to their 50's. There were many teenagers and people in their twenties. Mainly, they seemed to die as prisoners.
They must have had a lot of things which they wanted to do." I felt great pity for them.
"Do the families visit the graves?"
"I don't know, but their families may feel some relief because they know where their sons, brothers and fathers are buried although most families don't know in the case of war dead."

After walking around, we sat down one wooden bench and had canned milk tea and cofee which we had bought in advance. At that time we could hear music. The songs were played by the two men whom we saw when we entered the cemetery. They still continued to play.
"Don't let me down, Don't let me down...Nobody ever loved me like she does Oo she does,..." It is a Beatles' song!
"They played quite well. I like their voices", said Taki.
"Yeah, I agree with you. Their songs are pretty good."
We didn't know most songs except the Beatles', but thier choice was nice. We listened to their songs for a while.
Uh, "Norwegian Wood". I siglnaled to Taki with my eyes. She likes Haruki Murakami, a Japanese author, who wrote "Norwegian Wood".
"Their songs are presents for us."
"Ye-s!"

When we were leaving, they began to play "Ue wo muite arukou".
"Wow, it's wonderful that we leave listening to Sakamoto Kyu's song".
"I hope that they play here when we come the next time.", said Taki.
I hope so too.
Thus, we visited the Commonwealth War Cemetery which looked so very green for the first time and we enjoyed a little concert. They sang songs as if they played only for us. We felt completey happy and left there.
A week after, I told this story to my English teach, John. He said, "I can't believe that. Playing some songs in the cemetery is a little strange for us"
"Huh, why?"
"Because playing some music may wake the dead."
"However, I heard that sometimes the English bask in the sun on the graves. It is more strange to me."
Actually, I truely think that a combination of dead people and music is a little strange.However, their songs were very comfortable, so I think that the people who are buried there listened to their songs and would feel some comfort. Don't you agree?

（2002.10.9）

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