Egg Shop

　My wife buys eggs at a shop that specializes in eggs. Most Japanese buy eggs at the supermarket. I asked my wife why she buys eggs at the egg shop. She got mad at my question. According to her, it’s because of me.

 I lived with my mother who had Alzheimer’s for fourteen years. There are many difficulties involved in living with someone with Alzheimer’s. In my case, the lack of sleep was the hardest aspect.

 For someone with Alzheimer’s, when they wake up, it’s morning to them. My mother often used to cause trouble in the middle of the night. She always disturbed my good sleep.

 When I decided to get social welfare help, a care manager asked me one question: “If you use short-stay care and have some time to yourself, what do you want to do?”

I answered “I want to sleep.”

　If you suffer from a lack of sleep for a long period, you will be half asleep. Someone in that condition might talk nonsense. And they won’t be able to remember what they talked about.

 Apparently, when I was half asleep, I told my wife, “You have to buy eggs at a shop that specializes in eggs. Don’t buy them at a supermarket. The eggs from an egg shop will be fresh and delicious! You understand?”

 My parents never bought eggs from egg shop. I have never been to any egg shops in my life. I have no idea why I said this. I don’t even remember the incident.

 My wife obeyed my request. She started to buy eggs from an egg shop. She didn’t know I was half asleep at that time until I asked the question.

 My mother has already passed away, but my wife keeps buying eggs from the egg shop.

　Scientists study the brain and dreams. I have read those kinds of books. I have never read a book about being half asleep. They should study that phenomenon.

 How are the eggs from the egg shop? They are good, but I can’t tell the difference between them and the eggs from a supermarket. I don’t think there is any need to buy eggs at an egg shop.

 Messages from dreams can be mysterious. We should study them. Messages from a half-asleep person can also be mysterious. But we shouldn’t study those closely.

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Japanese 

Picture by Urelzita

We Assumed It Was a Joke

 

 My wife’s sister is working in London as a nurse.

 Sometimes we talk on Skype.

 When the pandemic started, the hospital my sister-in-law was working for didn’t have enough PPE. They had just one size. There were bigger and smaller nurses in the hospital. Only my sister-in-law fitted the PPE they had. So, she took care of the very first COVID-19 patients in her hospital. She became the most experienced nurse there. After that, she moved to a hospital that specialized in COVID-19 cases.

 In those days, the TV news informed us about the pandemic all day every day. At that time, there were about one hundred patients in Japan.

 My wife and I talked to her sister on Skype, telling here, “There are about one hundred patients in Japan.”

My sister-in-law said, “There are over five thousand patients in the UK.”

 Unconsciously, my wife and I laughed. We assumed she was joking. There were too many patients for it to be true.

My sister-in-law scolded us. It wasn’t a laughing matter. She was working on the front line dealing with COVID-19. She would never tell that kind of joke.

 Sometimes, the worst situation sounds like a joke.

 Now, we have survived the pandemic. My sister-in-law went back to her original hospital.

 We hope there will never be a pandemic again.

Proofreading by Claire ProofreadingServices.com

Japanese

Picture by Tsuneo MP

 

Warning Sound

　This is a memory from when I was a child.

 One summer night, someone didn’t close the door of our refrigerator. We slept through the night. The next morning, we found a disaster had occurred. I remember my mother cleaning the refrigerator and dumping food that had gone bad. She was almost crying.

 These days, we don’t experience that kind of disaster very often. Modern refrigerators make a warning sound when someone leaves the doors open for a while. When we clean the refrigerator, we need to open the door for a long time. In this case, the sound gets very annoying.

 One day, I opened the door of our refrigerator. My wife was watching TV. I left the kitchen. I heard a sound, so I assumed I hadn’t closed the door. I returned to the kitchen. I checked the refrigerator. But the doors were closed. The sound was not from the refrigerator. What was it? Then, I heard the same sound again. I froze. Which home appliance was warning me? What was happening?

 Actually, the sound was coming from the TV. My wife was watching a fencing match on TV. In a fencing match, if a player gets a point, a machine makes an electronic sound. The sound is similar to our refrigerator’s warning sound.

 When I was a child, the only talkative home appliances were the radio, the record player, and the TV. These days, all appliances are very talkative. When I hear a mysterious electronic sound at home, I start to worry. If it was the sound warning us of a gas leak, it would be dangerous.

 Why are our refrigerator’s sound and the sound used in fencing so similar? I guess the designer of our refrigerator might have been a fencer.

 Japanese

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Picture by freehand