芝生化奮闘記

30年前に遡る話をします。

　当時は、母国でフルタイムの仕事を持ちながら通訳の仕事を少しやっていた頃だったが、いろんな事情があり、会社を辞め、ニュージーランドにはもう住みたくない別な事情（犯罪ではない）も重なり、特に仕事のあてもなく日本に来た。

　通訳に関してはニュージーランド政府の仕事も引き受け、母国ではトップ3に入ると言われる程の腕前で、独立して仕事を見つけようと思ったら出来ていた。30歳になるかならないかの頃、自分は、とにかく挑戦する気持ちが旺盛で、英語・日本語の通訳をするならば、殆ど競争相手がいないニュージーランドでトップ3と言われてもあまり意味がないと思っていた。

　自分の得意分野では、一番厳しい競争がある場所に行き、そこで自分の実力を確認したかった。確かに、あまり競争がない母国に残れば、目立つ活躍は出来るが、安全第一という選択が自分の性分には合わなかった。

　東京では最もレベルの高い通訳が多くいるだろうと思い、「ここで自分を試し、ここでもトップ3に入れたら、自分は本物だと確認できる」という挑戦に出た。

　どうしてこれを書くかと言うと、日本のプロ野球選手が米国のトップ球団からオファーがあり、金額的には問題ないけど「控え選手扱い」と言われ、本人が試合に出られなければ行く意味がないと言う結論を出す。結局、日本に帰って来て、日本でプレイする。つまり、安全策を取った。彼の決断は尊重できるが、俺には合わない生き方だと思う。

　俺ならば、向こうの条件を取りあえずのんで、米国に渡り、必ずその球団でスタメンになるプレイをするだろう。


We start about 30 years ago.

At the time, I had a full-time job but was doing some translation work on the side. I decided to leave the company for various reasons not needing to be stated here and at the same time decided that I did not want to live in New Zealand any more (this is a longer story), so I packed my bags and headed for Tokyo.

As a translator, I was good enough to be asked to do work for the NZ government on occasions and was rated in the Top 3 over there, so I could have gone free-lance and made a decent living if that had been my decision. However, I was driven by a sense of challenge at the time and somehow did not feel that being rated in the Top 3 in a country where there was very little meaningful competition.

I wanted to go to where competition was the most intense and test my ability. Clearly, remaining in NZ and being renowned as one of the best among very low competition was one option but it ran counter to my character.

Tokyo was where the level of the competition would be at the highest, so this was where I wanted to be. Making the Top 3 in Tokyo would be proof that I was genuinely good. I wanted that challenge.

Why am I telling you this now? I read recently in the news about a professional baseball player who had longed dreamed of testing himself in the US major leagues. Under the posting system, he negotiated with the Yankees. He was happy with their salary offer but not with the proposal that he would be a bench player, only to get game time when the first-choice player was badly out of form or injured. He decided that the lack of guaranteed game time made the offer meaningless, so came back to Japan and returned to his original team. He opted for safety first, a decision I respect but not one I would have made.

I would have accepted the offer, gone to the States, and played and trained so damned well that the manager had to name me as his first-choice player.