The U.S. celebration of independence does not always fall on a column day and even when it does, I rarely write about it. There are some 153 diplomatic missions represented in Tokyo and they all have national days that could be noted. But then, once in a while I do. Once I wrote how Japan had honored the United States with a Fourth of July parade. This was when Japan's idealistic youth was regularly snaking through the streets in noisy demonstrations that foreigners were warned to stay away from. (Once one of the demonstrators broke away from the group and confronted me. I was a bit concerned until he bowed and asked if I could help him learn English.) I wrote in that column how they were dressed as the volunteer army during the American Revolutionary War, with red and white bandages wrapped around their heads to typify the wounds of soldiers after a battle -- demonstrators in those days covered their faces with bandanas. They apparently couldn't find fifers and drummers to lead them, I continued, but instead provided marching music and patriotic rhetoric from speaker trucks. And so on. It was meant to be facetious. I was surprised at the number of letters I received informing me that what I had seen was not an Independence Day parade but was instead an indigenous demonstration.

Perhaps you would find interest in excerpts from other columns written when the Fourth of July and a column day coincided, or were at least close together. In 1964, the year the first column appeared, there were questions about ikebana, mosquito nets and Panama sheets made of a fiber that induced a cool feeling. In 1967, the expressway encircling the inner city had just opened, like a Yamanote Line in the sky. Generally, it was felt that the 150 yen fee would keep many people from using it, but since it didn't really go anywhere, it might become a popular route for Sunday drivers, especially those who didn't want to venture too far from home.

In 1971, people were complaining about taxi gouging. At night, drivers refused fares unless passengers agreed to pay a highly inflated fee. One man reported paying 1,500 yen for a 300 yen ride from Shimbashi to Azabu Juban on a cold, rainy night. There was even an agent at the station to help with negotiations. Yes, it was illegal, but still, the best way to get a taxi was to raise two or three fingers to indicate how much you were willing to pay -- twice the meter amount, three times and sometimes even more. In 1975, back from a recent trip to the United States, I noted for the first time that people were beginning to say "person" instead of man or woman. I had trouble with salesmanship ("salespersonship"). That one didn't happen nor did "salaryperson" here in Japan, but others have become part of our everyday communication.