"Seaside Barbershop"｜6 warm family relationship stories, one of them will always reach your heart

Keigo Higashino once wrote a novel "The Worry-Free Grocery Store" that touched countless people. It gave us answers and hope when we were in confusion, and also gave us courage and strength.

The book "Seaside Barbershop" recommended by Keigo Higashino is also a touching masterpiece. The author Hiroshi Ogihara uses six classic but ordinary stories to describe the relationship between parent-child and husband and wife in the family. Come. After reading it, people will exclaim, isn’t this our daily family relationship?

Hiroshi Ogihara's "Barbershop by the Sea" won the Naoki Award, the National Bookstore Award, and was also the "Da Vinci" Book of the Year. He said that among the relationships between people, nothing is more important than parents and children and husband and wife. But for better or worse, relationships change over time.

"Seaside Barber Shop" is composed of six stories about different family relationships: Seaside Barber Shop, The Journey to That Time, Letters from a Faraway Place, Today's Sky Is Still Sky, A Clock with No Time, and Coming of Age Ceremony . It tells us about the relationship between father and son who have never met, between mother and daughter who have always been at odds with each other, between husband and wife whose emotions have been diluted by time, between children and parents who have been ignored and "forgotten" by their parents, and between children and parents who have never understood each other but are at peace. Ordinary stories about father and son who get along well, and between husband and wife who cannot get over the grief of losing their daughter.

The light behind every little story is the strength we need in the emotions that are rubbed by life. Don't let every impulse become a source of regret in the future. We love our families, we love the happiness in front of us, and we hope for the future. But why do we obviously want to be gentle and patient with our children, we obviously want to give our husbands and wives a kiss, we obviously want to give our parents a hug, but our bodies reflect the opposite actions, and what comes out of our mouths are unpleasant words?

Perhaps in these six stories, we can find the answer, reconcile with ourselves, let ourselves go, understand our families, and embrace happiness.

When I first read it, I just felt that the barber shop owner talked a lot, and even told his customers all about his life. After reading to the end, I discovered the reason, and for a moment I was so moved that I wanted to cry. This was not because I was talking too much, but because the son came to find his father, whom he had never met before, and gave his father a chance to repent.

Before the shop owner recognized the young man, he just said some words about the hairstyle. It was not until he touched the knob at a special position on the young man's head that he started to become verbose. He asked about the young man's job and what he should pay attention to when starting a business. He said that he had inherited his father's ambition and wanted to be a painter, and the young man graduated from an art major. This excited him. This is the indescribable beauty of blood ties. His son Fulfilled his dream for him.

Later, the shop owner said that he took over the barber shop and got married for the first time. When the barber shop couldn’t continue, he drank too much and injured his first wife, and she ran away. Later, he risked his life and reopened the barber shop, which achieved good results. He married a second wife and gave birth to a son, the young man in front of him. Of course, they knew each other but did not tell each other. But the good times did not last long, and the barber shop was in recession again. In order to avoid reality, the shop owner started drinking and looking for women. He even went to jail for a murder case, but his wife still refused to divorce. He lied to his wife to be with another woman in order to obtain a divorce.

At this point, he told the young man that he could not drag his woman and son down, so he divorced. Indirectly expressing his guilt towards their mother and son, he also showed that he has always loved them.

Finally, the shop owner told me that the young man’s hair was twisted in a special position and that there was a wound on the back of his head that had been stitched. He fell from a swing when he was a child. The relationship between the two was clarified, but they did not recognize each other. He said that the swing was installed in the yard by his beloved son when he was a child. Even now, the swing has been moved to the yard of the current barber shop. He loves his son as much as he did when he was a child.

The young man finally said the reason for his visit, "I'm having a wedding next week." This sentence is the most touching part of the whole story. It was said by a son who had gone through so much trouble to find his father. The words are also a son's respect for informing his father about important life events, and it is also a son's forgiveness for his sinful father who never fulfilled his father's duties. He doesn't blame his father, and hopes that from today on, his father will let him go.

At the end, the shop owner called out to his son and wanted to see his son's face again. He finally showed all his reluctance.

As a father who was used to hiding from life and unwilling to face reality, he still did not recognize his son, but indirectly revealed his strong feelings for his son. He was afraid that he would never see his son again in his lifetime.

On this day, it only took an hour to get a haircut, but it gave a father a chance to reconcile with the past. Probably he will never talk about the past again. This is probably the only time in his life that he faces life head-on. Because of his son, he was saved.

My mother is a face-saving and controlling woman. Her values ??are black and white. She either likes or hates her. Even her children are the targets of her criticism. She is very picky about what she wears, has rules for the placement of items, and is very strict about her children's lives. So much so that before her daughter, who has been away from home for many years, opens the door when she comes home, she still habitually checks her clothes to see if she will be criticized by her mother.

The mother pinned her unfinished dreams on her two daughters and began educating them from an early age. After her elder sister had a car accident, her younger sister Kyoko became the only one to devote her hopes to them. What she wants to draw and how much she wants to draw are all decided by her mother, and Kyoko cannot stand this torture. Not only does life have to be fixed, dress and behavior have to be criticized, but even dreams have to be controlled.

Finally, Kyoko finally found a reason to run away from home after her mother denied her relationship. Although she knew that her mother was right to criticize her boyfriend, she still chose to stay with him for five years in order to go against her mother. Many times, she would say in her heart, I'm sorry, Mom, you are absolutely right. But when she thought of her mother's superior control, she held on and refused to bow her head.

Kyoko has been working hard. Sixteen years later, she finally has her own career, which she earned through hard work and fierce competition. Although she has always said that she has cut off contact with her mother, she is always looking forward to the day when she can earn her mother's approval through hard work. This is an obsession held by most children who live in the shadow of their parents' criticism. They hope that their parents who were once critical of them can say, "Child, in my heart, you are the best."

However, when Kyoko returned home with a feeling of anxiety and hope, and built a defense line to fight back, she found that her mother had already forgotten what she had said in the past. In her mother's current understanding, she only remembers her family, her eldest daughter who passed away early, her son who is about to get married, her younger daughter Kyoko who will become a painter like her, her husband who has always stood behind everyone, and that A cat. She returned to her innocent appearance as a child, and Kyoko finally let go of her heart and told her mother that she would come again next time.

At the end of the article, Kyoko said sorry to her missing shadow, and now she is fine. This reconciliation finally arrived, but it took such a long time. The girl who once struggled to resist is no longer young. The rubbing of society has not eliminated the knot in her heart. It turns out that someone needs to send the bell to untie it.

Fortunately, in my lifetime, I can still meet my former self and achieve the reconciliation of the century. Fortunately, in my lifetime, I can still see my mother who is as innocent as a child, and I can still know that my mother loves me.

Xiangzi and her husband Xiaozhi have been married for three years and gave birth to a daughter. Their life gradually became dull and trivial. When his daughter was born, Takayuki was a competent babysitter. But a few months later, he returned to work. He left early and came back late every day, and the opportunities he could count on to help became increasingly rare. Xiangzi fell into the anxiety of raising her baby alone. When the baby kept crying, she would want to go back to her unsatisfactory job, which would be better than her current life.

The arrival of the mother-in-law also deepened their minor conflicts. In terms of raising children, her mother-in-law thinks that it doesn’t matter what she eats, and she shouldn’t be so squeamish. She also pays attention to holding and carrying, and the arrangement of furniture in the room depends on Feng Shui...Xiangzi privately resists Xiaozhi every time, but Xiaozhi He is a filial son. He understands that his mother became like this because of his father's death, and she likes to get along with Xiangzi.

Because of these accumulated minor conflicts, Xiangzi decided to attract Xiaozhi's attention by returning to her parents' home. She took her daughter away while her mother-in-law was out. She only sent a message to her husband before getting in the car, stating that she was leaving home and letting her husband live alone, unilaterally initiating a cold war.

But in fact, during the whole process, Xiangzi was angry on the surface, but in his heart he was always looking forward to the appearance of her husband. She wrote down where she wanted to go and calculated that it would only take two hours to get to her parents' home, so she waited eagerly at that time.

When I saw her husband's text message criticizing her inconsideration and begging her not to leave, although the reply was a bit unpleasant, I was actually laughing in my heart. Even the unknown message was immediately thought to be from Takayuki. He told him not to come, but secretly said come quickly. This is a cute and irritable wife.

Xiangzi found old letters between himself and Takayuki at her parents' home, and found that they also had sweet words at that time, and also recalled the difficulty of the two of them being together. It was love at that time, and now it is marriage. The two are gradually separating, and the intensity of love is gradually being erased in life. But when she sees the letter, she still remembers the love at that time in her heart. At the same time, she discovered in the letter that Takashi's dream when he was young was to work in a publishing house, so now he is not changing jobs willfully, but this has always been his dream.

Later Xiangzi learned that the message might have been sent by her grandfather or grandma who was already in heaven. She was shocked but understood their intentions. At that time, my grandparents' marriage was separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, and there were countless hurdles and ruthless wars. Love was so difficult that I never even met my biological son. In today's peaceful times, my granddaughter is living in happiness but she doesn't know how to be blessed. How is this possible? Cherish the happy time.

In the end, Xiangzi took her daughter and took the initiative to go home, but just to vent her anger, she did not tell Xiaozhi the date of her return. She thought that letting Takashi help his parents-in-law with farm work would be a good punishment.

Xiangzi is actually a representative of many of our married women. Their patience is worn out by children and the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, making the wife anxious. However, the husband does not understand this feeling and thinks that the wife is making trouble unreasonably.

This story is actually the process of Xiangzi returning to her parents' home to find love. Because of letters, letters from her and her husband when they were young, and mysterious messages from grandparents far away, she saw the happiness in front of her.

Happiness is hard-won, so cherish it. She only left the letter that said "I like you, please be my girlfriend" because she only needed to remember his love, and now it was a new beginning. The other unhappiness in life has disappeared along with the message from my grandparents.

Xiao Qian, a little girl who is only in the third grade of elementary school, is full of novelty about the world and tries to use the English she has just learned to replace everything she sees. She wanted to be an adventurer, so she really set out, and her destination was the seaside. There is a very warm sea home by the sea. She has only been there once, with her father and mother. It was a very happy day.

At that time, her parents had not divorced yet and her father was still alive. She just wanted to be like a little princess. But later, because my father could not write a story, he started drinking all day long, and his mother divorced him. Soon he lost his footing and fell down the stairs and passed away. Dad said that he wanted to see the end of the rainbow, but unfortunately his wish did not come true. Xiaoqian wanted to help him realize it.

The reason why Xiao Qian really wanted to run away from home was that her mother took her back to her uncle's house, and she was called a parasite by her aunt and cousin. As for her mother, she was always complaining because she couldn't find a job, which made Xiao Qian very depressed. If it was not good, why would she move here? She feels that adults are always so willful, so she also wants to have a big adventure.

During the adventure, I met a little boy Yota Morishima. He hid in a garbage bag and pretended to be transparent in order not to be beaten. Xiaoqian pulled him out of the trash bag, acted as a companion to adventure with him, and named him Forest. He has two fathers. His biological father drives a forklift. His dream is to be a driver, but his current father often beats him. He also mentioned to Xiao Qian that he had to go into the dog crate when his parents were sleeping, so he was a child who was not welcomed at home.

They did not see a rainbow in the sky after the rain, but they saw the sea. She rushed into the sea. Amidst the fishy smell of the sea and the dimming light and shadow, Xiao Qian was awakened by reality. It turns out that her adventure has turned into a house game, and she still has to go home and listen to her mother's teachings. Forest, on the other hand, was awakened by the honking of a motorcycle and had to go home, otherwise he would be beaten by his father.

In order to protect Forest, she suggested escaping to the Sea House, but she discovered that there were not always Sea Houses on the seashore, the home with the warmth of her parents. At this time, a Big Man appeared and saw the scarred Forest and Xiaoqian who also didn't want to go home. He took them back to his home. In the middle of the night, when Xiaoqian woke up and smelled a familiar smell, her memory was awakened. This might be the House of the Sea. Xiaoqian decided to work harder tomorrow and take another path of hope.

However, the police came and wanted to arrest Big Man because they suspected that he had abducted the two children. In order to save Big Man, Xiao Qian loudly defended him, saying that he was not a bad person. This meant that all her hopes had come to an end, and Forest would be sent back to that violent home. However, she was ready to save Forest and called the welfare department using the number Big Man wrote to her. This was the only feasible way to rescue him.

In the end, the sky and sea were still hopeless blue, with no change at all. Just like Xiaoqian's twelve-year-old life, it remained the same, and people and environments she didn't want to face were still unavoidable. This is the big trouble of adolescent girls. Adults always complain about life but do not change it, and they want to change but are unable to do so.

This story uses the adventure of a twelve-year-old girl to describe adults in the eyes of children and their expectations for their parents. Children see the world very simply. They want the warm company of their parents, a sea home with laughter, a father who accompanies them to explore the world, and a mother who accompanies her to change her life instead of complaining. Also, help her friends achieve the same happy life.

This is the best life a child can hope for. His dearest parents accompany him to know the world. There are no lies, no complaints, no harm, only beauty. The sky at that time was not just Sky, but boundless life.

In our family relationships, fathers are often silent figures. Fatherly love is as steady as a mountain, but it is always there. Children generally have only a vague impression of their father, and rarely know what their father is like.

The protagonist's memory of his father is almost blank. His father is always there, but he rarely accompanies and talks to him. It wasn't until he got his father's relic - a famous watch he bought 40 years ago - that he began to understand what kind of person his father was. It turns out that my father loves to follow fashion and spends expensive money to buy watches and coats for himself. The time when my father bought these things was actually when the family's financial situation was at its worst. At that time, he and his brother's lunch box meals were particularly poor, the TV broke and was not repaired, and my mother also started doing odd jobs. My father actually ignored the quality of his family's life for the sake of face. After learning this, his impression of his father was extremely bad, and he was even a little dissatisfied.

Later, when I chatted with the owner of the watch shop, he recalled some memories related to his father. His father loved photography and used a popular camera. They actually watched a movie with their father once. After the movie, they went to a restaurant. The father ordered a beef stew and pretended to be very knowledgeable, but in fact, the way he was burned by the pot and knocked over proved that he didn't eat it. However, my father just cares about face. The scene that day became the only profound memory that the sons had of their father. It turned out that their father also had such interesting moments.

When the watch was repaired and settled, the protagonist suddenly remembered that the time when his father bought the watch was the time to change jobs. Maybe his father was not selfish, but excited and happy. It's a pity that his father has passed away, and he has no chance to talk about this past event with his father. The watch is still there, but he can't turn it back. At this time, he no longer complained about his father's behavior of buying luxury goods. It wasn't until the owner of the watch shop told him before leaving that the watch was actually a counterfeit that he truly breathed a sigh of relief. His father was still the same father. Although he loved face, he loved his family even more.

In the story, the owner of the watch shop is also an old man who has experienced vicissitudes of life. There are many stagnant clocks in his shop, all recording his regrets. If time could be turned back, his life would definitely be better. Completely different. The daughter will not stay in the clock just after she was born, nor will the wife stay in the moment when she ran away from home. Everything is harmonious and beautiful. He knew that he had done something wrong, and imagined that time would still stand still at that time, and he still had time to choose to have his wife have a caesarean section instead of stubbornly giving birth naturally. However, the clock stopped, but time is still moving.

The clock shop owner asked the protagonist if there must have been a time when he wanted to turn the hour hand back. The protagonist tried his best to cover up and deny it, but in fact, he regretted it at the moment. He resigned because of impulse. He imagined countless times how great it would be if he had not submitted his resignation. But there are no ifs in life. Everyone has to pay for their own impulse.

Who has never had regrets? Life is happening at any time. It would be great if it were not like that, and it would be great if you listened to other people's advice. The clock without time records the regrets of a certain moment in life, and the regrets that you still want to turn back even though you can't go back. Cherish the moment, and when making every choice, pause for a moment and think about whether the consequences are within your tolerance.

Five years ago, a ruthless car accident took away the couple's only daughter, Suzanne. From then on, this originally happy home turned into a dark place shrouded in sadness.

The couple has been living with longing and regret for their daughter, especially the father, who has been blaming himself for being so busy and not spending more time with his daughter. Just a few days before the car accident, he and his daughter were still in a cold war. It wasn't until the day of the car accident that Suzanne showed signs of reconciliation. She wore the scarf given by her father. However, he blamed himself for why he didn't tell her to walk slowly that day, but urged her to hurry up. He blamed himself for not taking the initiative to show her kindness and asking her to accompany him for a while.

Whenever he recalled the scene that day, his father regretted it deeply. He imagined countless scenarios that could change history in exchange for the luxury of Suzune being alive. If it had been a few seconds earlier or a few seconds later, this tragedy might not have been caused.

Shortly after that day, the couple fell into heavy shackles. They stopped being happy and laughing because they would feel guilty; they no longer watched the TV they once watched with Ling Yin, because the pair of Ling Yin Yin is not fair; they no longer live a normal life as a couple because they failed to save their only daughter. It wasn't until a few years passed that they slowly learned to laugh and watch TV normally, but a brochure about Suzune's coming-of-age ceremony pulled them back into the abyss.

The father suddenly had a whim, and they went to the coming-of-age ceremony for Suzune. His wife Mieko acted as Suzune's stand-in and put on a furisode kimono for her to attend the coming-of-age ceremony. The two of them were very determined to change their image and make themselves look younger. This transformation process allowed them to gradually withdraw from the grief that they were unwilling to face. When his wife Mieko appeared in front of her husband with a brand new look, he felt that her was extremely beautiful and wanted to start a new life as a couple.

From being embarrassed at the beginning to making up their minds to end it on the coming-of-age ceremony, they need a chance to break this state. This coming-of-age ceremony is not just for Ling Yin, but also for them who are alive.

At the ceremony, they listened seriously for Ling Yin, even though the uncles on the stage were about the same age as themselves. When voices mocking Mieko came from nearby, her husband stood up for her like a young boy. When they came out, they were holding hands like when they first fell in love. They felt their hearts became lighter and their words were filled with excitement.

Mieko felt sorry for Suzune because they were so happy. But the husband said, no, Lingyin will be happy only when she is watching them smile from the sky. In his heart, Lingyin will always be the one who used to reconcile his quarreling parents when he was two or three years old, using the method of "one plus one equals something".

What is one plus one equal to? Of course not two. Because, in their family, one plus one equals three. Only with mom and dad can there be ringtones. This coming-of-age ceremony five years later is another gift that Suzin gives to her parents. The sad days will eventually pass, and the future will go on happily. After today, be reborn.

Balzac once said that marriage produces life, love produces happiness, and if happiness disappears, marriage still exists, and a value more precious than the union of men and women is born. Therefore, to have a happy marriage, it is enough to have the kind of friendship that forgives human shortcomings.

Regarding marriage, we are united by love. Maybe the passionate love will gradually disappear in the middle, but we are still the closest couple. Thinking about those couples who couldn't stay together for a lifetime due to various accidents, wouldn't we be much happier? Everyone has shortcomings, you have them and so do I. Why can we be so tolerant to outsiders but so harsh to each other?

When you feel that it is difficult to go on, think about the light you saw in the other person when you were in love, think about the busy back of the other person when he devoted himself to the family, and think about whether you will do it after the positions are reversed. It's better, it seems more wonderful to think about being together hand in hand for the rest of our lives.

Washington once said that letting children feel that family is the happiest place in the world was a wise approach for educated adults in the past. This wonderful family sentiment, in my opinion, is as precious as the most exquisite gifts that adults give to children.

Regarding children, they are the crystallization of love. They come to the world because of love and carry the halo of angels. Although he was a little noisy and disrupted the rhythm of our lives, he added color and softness to our lives. Since you brought him into the world, give him the most sincere love and let him live in a happy family. This is your responsibility to him, and it is also the most precious gift you can give him.

Regarding parents, maybe they have brought us some trauma, maybe they do not have very good educational concepts, maybe they are too busy and neglect our growth. However, we just need to remember that they are the ones who give us life. They are not good at expressing, but the deep love is true. Love them the way we love, not their way.

Parents, children, and husband and wife are all rare encounters in life. Cherish them and don’t regret them by constantly turning back the clock when you lose them. You only have one life, and the unpleasantness along the way is not all. Happy times are always waiting behind you.

Only by reconciling with ourselves, our family of origin, and the world can we embrace happiness.