Difficult Place

My wife is a runner. She takes part in the Nagoya Women’s Marathon every year. I visit the venue to root for her every year.

I asked her which point I should go to on the course. She answered that she needs support at the most difficult place. This place is near Nagoya Castle (Meijo) Park. It is around the thirty-five-kilometer point. The course is slightly uphill. That is the toughest for runners. No one lives in the park. On the opposite side of the park is a university. There are no students there on Sundays. So, there are few supporters at the most difficult point.

So, I go to that point when she runs every year. I bring some snacks and drinks to give her.

One year, I went to Nagoya Castle Park, and I was surprised. There was a booth on the course. They played music and served cups of drinks.

On the signboard was written “Red Bull.” They served Red Bull to runners.

The Red Bull company is great! They researched the most difficult place on the course. They found the most effective advertising point at this event.

Advertising must be like this. People never forget someone who helped them during their hardest time.

However, my wife doesn’t drink Red Bull except at marathon events. She drinks beer and lemon sour.

If you come to Nagoya Women’s Marathon to cheer on the runners, I have already recommended this viewing point. But the Red Bull booth only gives Red Bull to the runners. They don’t give it to supporters.　

Maybe they will give you wings.

 

Proofreading by Claire ProofreadingServices.com

Picture by Robert Zsombori

My Recommended Chinese TV Drama End of the Beginning

My Chinese TV Drama Recommendation: End of the Beginning

 

I am studying Chinese language. I watch many Chinese TV dramas. These are easy to watch in Japan. I started to watch Chinese dramas in the 2000s. I am surprised because they are rapidly progressing.

Today, I want to introduce a Chinese TV drama I recommend, End of the Beginning. I don’t know the actual English title of the drama in your country. I don’t know if you can even watch the drama in your country.

Most good TV dramas in China are period plays. A lot of money is spent on making those. But End of the Beginning is a modern play. It is an exception among Chinese TV dramas. It is modern, but the story starts from 2000. It covers twenty-one years up to 2021 and an additional few years. The PHS (Personal Handy-phone System, an early mobile network system in Asia that was developed in the 1990s)  features prominently.

There are two leading roles.

One is An. He is a policeman with strong sense of justice. He is always fair to everyone. Even criminals start to trust him because he is an extremely honorable man. But he does not know how to get along in the world. He is not interested in promotion. He hardly ever gets promoted.

The other lead is Gao. He is a fish shop owner when the story starts. His educational background is not good. But he is a smart and brave man. One day, he is offered an illegal job. He can’t refuse. After that day, he needs to get involved in fighting between mafia groups. He always wins. He becomes a mafia boss. But he also loves his wife. And he is a henpecked husband.

This drama describes the struggles between policemen and the mafia focusing on these two guys with contrasting characters.

I was surprised when I watched this drama because it describes bribery. It describes corrupted policemen and politicians. These topics are very sensitive in China.

Ironically, a policeman’s enemy is another policeman. And a mafia member’s enemy is another mafia member. Policemen and the mafia have complex relationships.

I felt the scenarios were well thought out. The writers did a lot of research on policemen and the mafia. The drama introduces various tricks that the mafia use to corrupt ordinary people.

I heard that media regulation is very strict in China. I guess the scenario writers needed to rewrite the scenarios again and again to clear government regulations. In this case, I think it made the drama more profound.

I found some scenes of the story to be unnatural. I guess it is because of these regulations. These kinds of regulations are like taxes for making dramas in China. We should ignore them.

Policeman An and fish shop owner Gao are played by middle-aged actors. Makeup artists did a good job making them look younger and older to cover a period of more than twenty years. They are not typical good-looking guys. But they say attractive lines and act in attractive ways. Magically, I started to recognize that they are cool.

Thirty-nine episodes. It was released in 2023.

If you are looking for a good drama in Chinese, I recommend this one.

 

Proofreading by Claire ProofreadingServices.com

Picture by Tetsuya Onoue

 

Hokattoite

Dialects are the most complex aspects of languages. My wife and I are from the same part of Japan, so usually, we can communicate easily. Even so, we still sometimes misunderstand each other’s words.

One day, we cleaned up our house. My wife put her CDs in a garbage bag. CDs once held so much meaning for our generation. When I was a high school student, I bought a CD of my favorite artist’s songs. For me, it was very expensive, so the CD was my treasure. But now, I have only a few CDs in my room. I download music or listen to it on demand.

I understood it was time for my wife to say goodbye to her CDs.

The next morning, I asked her, “Shall I dump the garbage bag with the CDs?” She thought for a while and answered me with the Japanese word “hokattoite.”

Hokattoite is a common dialect word in the western part of Japan. It has two meanings. One is “don’t touch,” while the other is “dump it.”

I assumed she meant the second meaning, so I dumped the bag. When I returned home, my wife asked me, “what did you do with the garbage bag?” I answered, “I dumped it.” She really told me off. She said, “I told you not to touch it.”

Luckily, the garbage truck had not yet arrived. My wife got to keep her CDs.

You know, language is very difficult.

Proofreading by Michael W, ProofreadingServices.com

Picture by Pekamaro

Master of Karate

　The pandemic altered the restaurant landscape in my city. Japan didn’t experience a lockdown, but many restaurants closed down anyway. I felt sorry for them because I used to work for a restaurant when I was a student.

I still remember a restaurant that was open, but there were no customers. The clerks silently wiped the tables and chairs. Such sights were tragic.

Incidentally, The Karate Kid is one of my favorite American movies. In the movie, a boy wants to learn karate from a master. But the master doesn’t teach him fighting moves; instead, he makes the boy wax cars and paint walls. The boy assumes these are mere chores, but actually, they are fundamental training for karate.

It is possible to think that wiping tables and chairs could be fundamental training for karate. Every clerk who experienced the pandemic could be a master of karate. You should not fight against clerks. They might be strong.

Proofreading by Michael W, ProofreadingServices.com

Picture by Mark

 

Celebrate the Birthdays

            When I was an elementary school student, my mother declared to all the family members: “From now on, we will never celebrate family members’ birthdays! Instead of that, we will have a gorgeous dinner in a high-class French restaurant once a year!”

 

I don’t recommend this. However, it might be one of the solutions to the birthday presents problem. Birthday presents become more difficult and more expensive year by year.

 

My mother became famous and busy during those days. She was popular and busy, but we were not rich. My mother was a creative woman. She invented the easy and cheap birthday present system. No one could say anything against my mother among my family members.

 

             Actually, from that day on, we have never celebrated our birthdays. Our family lost all the traditions of giving birthday presents. I started to forget my family members’ birthdays until I became an adult and left my parents’ house.

 

My mother was famous. Sometimes, she was on TV or newspapers. Prosperity makes friends. She was always surrounded by many “friends.” Once, when I returned to my parents’ house, one of the “friends” scolded me, saying, “I heard you never called your mother on her birthday. You have never given her a birthday present. You are an unfilial son!”

 

 I didn’t say that my mother started it. If you make a rule, you have to keep the rule. If you didn’t give birthday presents to a child, you would never be given birthday presents from the child, too. I didn’t get birthday presents from my parents. I have never given a birthday present to my parents either, but when my mother got Alzheimer’s disease, I lived with her for fourteen years and gave her care. After she moved to a nursing home, I visited her every week for six years.

 

The “friend” who scolded me vanished after my mother got Alzheimer’s disease. She had never taken part in caregiving. We lost contact with her. I don’t even know where she is now. If you know where she is, let me know. I have something to say to her.

 

When I started caring for my mother, I regretted that I didn’t memorize my parents’ birthdays. Governmental offices, hospitals, and nursing homes required me to fill out forms. I needed to write down my parents’ birthdays. I couldn’t remember. Hence, I had to check their birthdays every time. Because of complex reasons, my family name and my parents’ family names are different. All the clerks gave me a dubious look as if I were a fishy person. I believe caring for one’s parents is a good thing. However, most people doubted me. I almost lost my motivation.

 

Dear friends, celebrate your dear people’s birthdays. If you are too busy to celebrate your important people’s birthdays, your lifestyle is wrong. Remember, if you don’t celebrate the ones you care about, you will soon forget their birthdays.

 

ProofreadingServices.com

Picture by Kawatatsu

Firing a Teacher

              I was once a member of a language class. All the members had already graduated from their schools. The class was managed by the students. We paid a membership fee every time, and we gave all the money to a teacher. That was simple accounting. The class continued for a few years.

 

 One time, a teacher became too busy, which created a problem. She often skipped the class or came in late. She didn’t give us any advance notice for doing that. She could have personal problems. However, all the students were also busy. All of us managed to make time for the class.

 

The students decided to meet and discuss the situation, and we decided to fire her. Actually, I was a main member of the students at that time. I found a new teacher, and now I had to tell our ex-teacher: “You are fired.”

 

             This was a very difficult job for me. She was a nice person. Maybe she was not good at managing time. First of all, she was the person who invited me to the class. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

 

I can still remember the night I called her. I was at a park downtown when I decided to do it. I called her and told a lie that we were too busy to continue the class, so we decided to take a break. I said that we all thanked her for teaching us for a long time. I didn’t tell her we already found a new teacher. I didn’t tell her that we just kicked her out. I think she believed my story. She accepted it. I felt she might have been relieved when I told her about it.

 

I finished my hardest work. Right after, I called my classmate. I reported what happened. My classmates also felt relieved.

 

Afterwards, I called our new teacher. Now, we didn’t have any teachers. Officially, we could invite the new teacher. I said, “I look forward to your class” in a happy tone.

 

I finished all the work for that day. I sat down on the bench to relax, and then I realized a homeless guy was glaring at me. He might have heard all my lines. My stories were contradictory. He might have thought I was a fishy person. It is possible to think that he hates a contradictory and fishy person. That might be why he was homeless. Our society is contradictory and fishy.

 

We continued the class for a few years. The new teacher was good. However, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, we couldn’t continue the class anymore. My city was far from the epicenter, but all of us were affected indirectly. Schools, companies, theater groups, and any organizations found it hard to continue.

 

When people are together, there are many kinds of problems. We tend to look at the leaders of the organization. We should not forget about the shadow workers who actually carry out the organization’s work.

 

Proofreading by ProofreadingServices.com

Picture by hoangpts

Great Reader

 I have been a great reader since I was a child.

 I guess the reason was that I needed to read a book to protect myself.

 I have an elder brother. He is not a nice person. He always bullied me. My mother never helped me. But if my brother disturbed my reading, my mother would scold him. She thought disturbing someone while they were reading a book was worse than bullying. So, I had to read books to avoid being bullied by my elder brother all the time.

 I often used the school library. I also visited the city library with my friends by bicycle every Saturday.

 Once, my university and workplace were very far from my home. It took about two and a half hours to commute. But this was a joyful time for me. I could read books on the train.

 My home was at the edge of Nagoya city. I needed to take trains to do anything. If I needed to meet someone, I needed to take the train. Usually, I needed to transfer to another train. Most people hate wasting time on transportation. But I loved it because I could read books. In my case, being on a train is the best situation for reading a book.

 I married my wife. There was the pandemic.

 One day, I realized that my reading time had drastically decreased.

 My wife is not a good talker. But she is a nice person. Talking with a nice person is joyful. I read almost no books at home.

 Since the pandemic, I can work and meet people without transportation. Before the pandemic, I took the train to go somewhere every day. But now, I only take the train a few times a month.

　Furthermore, I have my smartphone now. I enjoy games on my smartphone. Sometimes, I also read electronic books on my smartphone. But it is only a few times a month. I almost forget the content.

 I am not a great reader anymore.

 I had an opportunity to talk with a talented young playwright. She said the shocking words: “I hate reading a book.” When I was young, senior playwrights always appealed to how many books they had read.

 A new era is about to come.

 If I had been born in this era, I might stick to my smartphone all day and night. In this case, my mother would never have protected me from my elder brother.

But I am sure we can learn from smartphone games or smartphone movies the same as books. I think they are just different types of media for individual use.

Like me, most great readers didn’t use to have good conversation partners at home. Or most of them needed to spend time on transportation. Since smartphones’ spread, they have another option to spend their time.

A famous Japanese novelist, Osamu Dazai, wrote, “Not reading books is proof that a person is not lonely.”

I think we can say the same thing about smartphones and games. If a person is not lonely, they never need any book, smartphone, or game.

Most people can’t spend their lifetime without being lonely. Books used to be our only friends when we were lonely. But we have other options now. I think it is a good thing.

 

Proofreading by ProofreadingServices.com

Picture by Yuka