Milan

The symbol of Milan is the Duomo (cathedral) that soars up in the centre of the city. This is the second-biggest dome in the world. It is surrounded by the city's busiest and most luxurious shopping area, which is constantly thronged with people.      One day early in summer, the city's main thoroughfare, the Vittorio Emanuel II Avenue, was closed to traffic and the 2nd Games Festival was held. This festival was inaugurated last year and was very successful, so, with support from the City and sponsors, it has been continued this year.      Groups representing about 20 different games set up stands designed to attract interest on the avenue. They hand out pamphlets to passers-by, give demonstrations, and teach. What with it being Sunday, the ?-kilometer-long avenue was crowded with people, so this festival is probably the most effective way to gain extra fans.      Familiar games like chess, checkers, bridge, Othello, scrabble and card tricks were of course prominent, but mahjong and shogi also participated. They may be Asian games, but these were no Asian faces -- they were being promoted by local players. Pokemon (pocket monsters), which had started being televised at the end of last year and had leapt to popularity with Italians, also made an appearance. A large Pikachu undulating along the avenue stood out in the crowd.
Mr. Oka, the president of the Italian Go Federation (who was featured in the July issue of Monthly Go World), and the members of the federation were kept busy from morning to dusk dealing with all the visitors. They were all wearing the federation uniform of a polo shirt (printed on the back with calligraphy by Takemiya for "cosmos"!); they were sweating from the heat -- the temperature rose above 30 degrees -- but they dutifully kept at their task all day long.      Some of the Japanese tourists who visit Milan throughout the year joined in and played games. In fact, some of them stayed with us all day playing.      That reminds me, Japanese don't even make the top ten among tourists visiting Italy as a whole -- Germans are number one -- but Milan is special. Here Japanese tourists, who come for the shopping, are number one by a long way. It's hard to believe there's an economic slump in Japan when you see the number of Japanese thronging the high-class shopping areas. For someone like me, for whom shopping is a source of stress, it's a mystery.      Let's be honest and confess. The reason why I feel so much stress is that I can't find sizes that fit me. It's not that the clothing is too big or too small -- rather, it doesn't fit my physique. My pure Japanese physique is just too different from the Italian model. After some mortifying failures in shopping expeditions, I started to hate shopping. If you go to the really expensive boutiques, however, they apparently have clothes tailored to the Japanese physique, but you have to be able to afford them.      That's how I got so interested in collecting go T-shirts.