Big Box or Small Box

 The Sparrow’s Tongue is a traditional Japanese story. You may know this story, but I will introduce it to you.

 A nice old man visited a sparrow’s house. He had been very nice to the sparrow. The sparrow would give him a present. They gave him two choices: a big box or a small box. The old man was a selfless man. He chose the small box. In the box was silver, gold, and other treasures.

 A bad old woman listened to his story and also visited the sparrow’s house. She had not been nice to the sparrow. Actually, she had cut the sparrow’s tongue. But she found the sparrow’s house. The sparrow offered her a present too. She also had the same choice as the old man: a big box or a small box. The bad old woman was greedy. She chose the big box. Actually, in the box were monsters.

 This traditional story teaches us to be nice, to not be bad, and to not be greedy.

 But my wife understands this story from a different angle. She insists that if she were put in the same situation as the old people, she would definitely choose the big box.

 I tried to explain, “In the big box, there are monsters. You should choose the small box.” She answered, “Who decides that? No one knows until the box is opened.”

 My wife is a nice person. She is not bad. She has never abused animals. In this case, there might be treasure in the big box. It is a gamble. My wife loves gambling.

 This kind of person could be successful in the future.

 Japanese

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Boys, Be Ambitious

When I lived in Tokyo, my roommate was a programmer. He was a good programmer.

 When he was an elementary school student, a teacher asked the children in the class, “What do you want to be in the future?” His classmates answered with their dreams. “A baseball player!” “A pilot!”

 But my roommate answered, “I want to be a passenger on a train.”

 The teacher scolded him. “You should be more ambitious!”

 In the end, he became a wonderful programmer.

 I think children’s dreams can be like his dream. Maybe he didn’t know what a programmer was at that time. Children don’t know most jobs in this world. I don’t know all the jobs in the world even now. The world is changing. Maybe new jobs are created every day.

 We can’t predict our future. When I was a child, I couldn’t even imagine the world would be like this. I couldn’t imagine I would be like this.

 But I want to support young people who are ambitious.

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Japanese 

Should I Offer My Seat?

Recently, I have been thinking about the topic of trains or buses.

I am fifty-six years old. I am not surprised by my appearance in my usual mirror. But sometimes when I see my reflection in a mirror located at an unexpected angle in a shop, I am surprised. I am older than I think.

One day, I was on a train. An old man got on. The train was crowded. I thought I should offer my seat to the man. But I reconsidered: his age could be almost the same as mine. He could be younger than me. It could be rude.

Offering one’s seat to old people is a duty for young people. People at my age no longer have this duty.

My dear friends, do you offer your seat to old people even now?

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Japanese

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A Bottlecap of Sauce

A playwright said, “When you write an absurd play, you have to have concrete, reasonable theories, at least, in your mind.” Absurd plays are difficult to understand. But they are attractive. I guess that is because the playwrights have their theories.

Taking care of Alzheimer’s patients is similar. The patients may act meaninglessly. But if their caregivers support them sincerely, they can find their meaning. For example, wandering. From the patients’ point of view, they never wander. They have important reasons to go to particular places. On their way, they happen to get lost. So, some people tend to avoid using the word “wander.” A doctor said, “A good caregiver to Alzheimer’s patients needs to be a good detective.” Superficially, the patients’ actions appear meaningless, but good caregivers can deduce the meaning.

My own observation was that if a patient acts without a reason, they may cause trouble. In my mother’s case, she could stay home alone for a short time, provided some clear conditions were met: She was not hungry. She was not thirsty. It was neither cold nor hot. She needed a comfortable chair and a bed and so on.

One day, my wife and I left her at home for a short while.

When we got back home, we were so relieved to find her safe.

But I was surprised by the unnatural scene on the table. A bottle of sauce was opened. And the bottle’s cap was full of the sauce. Automatically, I started to wonder about the meaning of that. Was she thirsty? Did she have some message for us?

I froze up for a while, looking at the bottle and the cap full of sauce. And my wife said to me: “She was playing with them. OK?”

If my mother was playing, there was no meaning. If a person is satisfied, they start to play.

Japanese

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What did you do during WWII?

My favorite comedian, Kamioka, said on TV, “When my father got drunk, he always asked people the same question.” The question is, “What did you do during WWII?”

My parents were children at that time. My grandparents didn’t want to talk about the war. So, I didn’t hear information about the war from my family.

Maybe, for people who experienced the war as adults, there might be many things to talk about.

I guess maybe the conversations were like this:

“What did you do during WWII?”

“I was a soldier in the battle of Imphal.”

“How did you survive?”

Kamioka’s father always asked the question when he was drunk. When he got really drunk, he started to ask the question to younger people who were not born during the war.

WWII had a strong impact on most of the people in the world. Luckily, we don’t have any incidents with such strong impact in our generation.

But the pandemic had an impact on all of us.

Maybe the future drunkard could ask this question to people:

“What did you do during the pandemic?”

“I was a restaurant owner.”

“How did you survive?”

I hope a world war and a pandemic will never happen again.

 

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Japanese

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Realistic Movies

　I love to watch dramas on TV. I am surprised by the advanced makeup techniques these days.

In the old days, in scenes where someone gets injured or is sick, they used simple techniques. They were lovely. They used red or blue paint for the makeup. Those were cheap. But I was able to relax while watching those.

But now, if someone gets injured in a drama, they can use makeup for really painful-looking wounds. If someone is sick, they can make them look really sick and pale.

I know they are healthy actors, but I always start to worry about them.

The mysterious thing is that I can’t tell whether the techniques are done by makeup artists or digital artists.

My smartphone shows me short movies. Many beautiful people are dancing or smiling. But I can’t tell whether these people exist in the real world or are created by an AI artist.

Once, my smartphone showed me a kind of movie. In the movie, a cat or dog got rid of a bear. I believed this kind of movie. I imagined that if a bear attacked me, my cats would help me. But TV taught me these are fake movies.

What should I believe? We should be suspicious of the information from screens.

 

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Japanese

Inflation and Family Strife

I heard this story from my mother.

My family lived with my paternal grandmother. My mother was always scolded by my grandmother. My grandmother said to my mother, “You spend too much money!” “You are not good at shopping!” “You have to learn to make ends meet!”

 My mother had hard feelings about that even after my grandmother’s death. My mother sometimes complained that “she didn’t know it was because of inflation.”

 When I was a baby, Japan experienced a period of inflation. In 1970, the average first monthly payment for someone who graduated from a university was $111. In those days, most women didn’t have an income. In other words, a family could live on that income. Only 17% of people could study at university. Those were lucky people. They could have nice lifestyles with that income.

 My grandmother didn’t watch news programs. She didn’t read newspapers. She didn’t go shopping. She didn’t have information about inflation. That why she thought her son had married a stupid woman.

 History repeats itself.

 For a few weeks, my wife was busy at work. So, I went shopping to buy everyday items. I paid for those from my pocket money and kept the receipts. After that, my wife would give me the money from our family budget. She summed up the receipts and screamed, “That is too expensive! You cooked the receipts!”

 She started inspecting the receipts. She tried to find out if I had bought some stupid items using our family budget. I am a stupid man. Of course, I sometimes buy some stupid items, like cigarettes. But I don’t spend our family money on stupid items.

 My wife checked all the receipts. She never found any stupid items on the receipts. I was innocent, as I had insisted to her.

 Now, inflation is happening all around the world. It causes strife for many families everywhere.

 I heard that in the 1970s, the same thing happened. As a result, there was a wage increase. But wage increases are always too late.

 We need to do our best to survive.

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Japanese

Picture by Gugu