The same policeman questioned me twice

 In the beginning of 2000, when I lived in OSAKA, I had a strange experience.

 In those days I didn’t have a washing machine. So I used to go a coin-operated laundry shop by bicycle every weekend.

 The first police questioning was in front of the laundry shop. That was ordinary police questioning.

 A few weeks later the same policeman questioned me again at the same location. I was sure he was the same person but he seemed to have forgotten me. He questioned me as if I was a new person. I started to feel funny. I waited until remembered me as I answered the questions. Finally he said:

“Have we met before?”

I answered:

“Finally you have remembered!”

He started to be friendly to me. Then I asked him a question.

“You have questioned me twice. I guess you thought I was a suspicious person. Could you tell me about me made you so suspicious? If I seem suspicious, I want to change.”

 I know I am not good looking guy but I believe I create a first impression of being a good person. Some people tend to doubt my intelligence but rarely doubt my good personality at the first meeting. So I was shocked to have been suspected by the policeman. He said:

“No, no, no, no. I didn’t mean that. Just your bicycle is…”

  That was the point. In those days, I was not well off. I didn’t have enough money to buy a new bicycle. So I bought a secondhand bicycle. I bought the cheapest bicycle in the shop. The color of the bicycle happened to be pink.

“Considering your age and gender, it is hard to think you chose a pink bicycle in a shop. I suspected you had stolen the bicycle.”

He didn’t suspect me because of my facial features, so he couldn’t remember my face. He was just trying to catch a bicycle thief.

 Hey! Mr. Policeman! You should look for a more serious crime!

 

Photo by　Dachs

My first meeting with Alzheimer’s

In 1988, I was a freshman at university. During the summer vacation I travelled in east Japan by bicycle.

When I approached TOYAMA prefecture, I knew a famous annual festival would be held in YATSUO town on that day. The name of the festival was KAZENOBON. All the residents of the town become traditional dancers that night.

I thought:

“I want see the festival. If I hurry, I can get to YATSUO tonight. I can sleep at YATSUO station after the festival. ”

 

Then I arrived. But I had totally misunderstood the festival. I had not realized that KAZENOBON is a dancing-all-night festival. YATSUO station was very crowded. There were no place to sleep and no silence to sleep. There was no “after the festival” until the morning. I was at a loss with my bicycle.

An old gentleman asked me:

“Where are you from?”

I answered:

“I am from NAGOYA.”

“You can stay at my house.”

The old gentleman invited me to his house.

 The old gentleman seemed to live alone. The house looked as though it used to be a barber’s.

 

 He prepared a bath for me. After taking the bath I was surprised.

 There were about ten guys wearing traditional dancing costume in the house. They were waiting for me. They glared at me. They asked me some questions. I can’t remember what they said. I just wondered, “Why are these people gathered in the old gentleman’s at night? What strange people!”

 

Recently, I came to realize what was happening that night.

 

The old gentleman was in an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease. I was eighteen years old. I didn’t even know about Alzheimer’s disease. I just thought he was the kind of man who repeatedly says the same things. Some people do that. But it was not like that.

 

Just like my grand aunt and my mother, he was being protected by his family, friends and neighbors, and I had happened to come into his house.

When people looked at the old gentleman and me in the house, they might have thought:

“A fishy stranger is trespassing!”

“The stranger has chosen the busy festival night for stealing or fraud!”

 “What an evil guy!”

 

This is why about ten strong guys were waiting for me at the old gentleman’s house. They had gathered to judge me. I can’t remember how I answered their questions but maybe they trusted me after the conversation. I was allowed to stay at the old gentleman’s house that night.

 

If I had answered wrongly, they might have beaten me up. The people in YATSUO are all well-trained in synchronized dancing. They are also strong enough to dance all night. If I had been an evil person, I would have been beaten up by these strong people. They would have been happy to band together to beat me up.

 

Next morning, the old gentleman served me breakfast. My next goal was to go to the next prefecture, ISHIKAWA. He told me the way to ISHIKAWA over and over and again. I listened over and over again.

 

A few years after that incident, I sent a new-years card to the old gentleman. But one day a member of the old gentleman’s family called me and said:

“We decided to put him in a welfare facility for the elderly. So it is not necessary to send us a new-year card.”

 I knew his family, friends and neighbors had done did their best. There was a limit to what they could do for Alzheimer’s disease.

 

The limit will also affect us. Someday I have to put my mother in a welfare facility for the elderly.

 

Photo by Takataro

 

You are a genius! But your position is just wrong.

 

 

 

 

 This is a photo I took in a park near my house a few years ago.

 The dead leaf is actually an insect. It mimics a dead leaf.

That was first time I had seen this insect. It was on the vending machine, of all things.

 It might be saying “I am tired of drinking sap, give me some soda!”

Google car has come to my town!

I found a Google car in a park near my house.

 The strange red ball on the roof must be the camera which records everything as it moves through my town.

 I looked in the car. The driver was reading a paper map. What? Are you using a paper map, Mr. Google Map? Even I haven’t used a paper map for a few years. Of course I usually use Google Map on my smartphone. Possibly his work using a paper map makes my non-paper map life possible?

 By the way, this parking area is a hidden free parking spot which is known only by the neighbors. Many businessmen eat lunch or take a nap in their car here. I don’t know their individual situation, but I wonder if this place is hidden from their bosses or managers.

 Mr. Google Map driver, you finally found this place, but please don’t put the information about it on Google Map.

 

Drone

　Last week I re-watched “Cowboy Be-Bop”, an animated SF TV-show from 1998 by SUNRISE Inc. The characters in the cartoon were like my long lost friends.

 I was shocked when I watched episode eighteen, “Speak like a child”. Suddenly “a drone” appeared. “Drones” were delivering packages from the sky in “the world in 2071”.

 Eighteen years ago, “Cowboy Be-Bop” was canceled because of low viewer ratings. Its unexpected epilogue was the worst episode ever. For enthusiastic supporters including me, SUNRISE Inc. made a movie version in September 2001. But a few days before the release, 9-11 happened. Everyone was glued to the TV. In those days I lived in Tokyo. I went to a theater in downtown Tokyo but few people were watching the movie. “Cowboy Be-Bop” completely failed.

 A friend of mine was working for the Japan Patent Office. I asked him a question:

“The idea of a drone could be inspired by “Cowboy Be-Bop”. The people who get tons of money from drones have a duty to pay “Cowboy Be-Bop”. They need to regather the crew and voice actors to make sequels. Am I right?”

My friend said:

“Published ideas as works can’t have patents. They are just protected by copyright.”

 He meant that even if someone invented a “time machine” in the future, the author of the novel “The time machine” in 1895, H. G. Wells, couldn’t get any money.

 Dear my friends, creators! If you think up a good idea in the future, don’t publish immediately! Please tell the idea to a lawyer and get a patent.

I just wish to watch sequels of “Cowboy Be-Bop”. Someone do something!

Photo by KY

My father’s fishing rods

 

 

 

 

 

 My father passed away two years ago. His hobby was fishing.

 I love to eat fish but I am not interested in fishing. My father’s fishing tackle was left to me.

 My wife is from the next town to my own. Her parents still live in the town. They helped me when my father needed care.

My wife’s mother asked me:

“May I have your father’s fishing rods? I want use the rods as fences in my garden.”

My mother-in-law’s hobby was vegetable gardening in her garden. I gave her the fishing rods. My father’s fishing rods started a new life in the garden.

 

 A few weeks later, a gentleman who was familiar with fishing looked at the fences in my mother-in-law’s garden. He was shocked by the fishing rods.

“Madam! You shouldn’t use such valuable fishing rods like this!”

 Actually, I had not known that good fishing rods are so expensive. Some of their prices know no limit. Some fishermen can tell.

 Dad! You spent tons of money on those? You had a profitable job in a profitable era. You lived a modest life. But now I know why the savings you left in the banks were so small!

 My mother-in-law sometime gives me vegetables from her garden. They taste so great! It’s because the fences are so special!

 

Photo by voyata

 

Hiding identity and drinking alcohol

 When I studied at university as a graduate student, one of the professors took me a bar. A barmaid asked the professor:

“What do you do for a living?”

He answered:

“I work at a university as a clerk.”

I was surprised. He had lied. He was a professor. I was an economically poor graduate student. Actually, he was buying my drink so I also told the same lie to the barmaid.

 One of my childhood friends was a government officer. He worked in central government agencies. When I went to Tokyo, we visited a bar. Before we entered the bar, he seriously asked me.

“Never mention I am a government officer in the bar.”

 I don’t know why the professor and the government officer hide their identities, because I didn’t ask. I guess that when enjoying alcohol they want to hide their identities.

 In history books, we find that some great persons observed people incognito. In fact, I guess they also just wanted to enjoy alcohol as an ordinary citizen. It is possible to imagine that only persons who could enjoy alcohol like this could achieve their great works.

 The persons who drink sloppily next to you in a bar could be great posts incognito.

Picture by palto

The brave man who went to shopping in a fairyland

My secretly favorite comic writer wrote:

“Thinking realistically, the nearest fairyland must be lingerie shops.”

When I read this joke, I was single and was living by myself. I laughed a lot.

 After my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and I decided to live with her, I faced a situation that made me realize that the joke was not funny.

 I needed to buy underwear for my mother. All her underwear was worn and ragged. I didn’t have any female friend who I could ask to buy lingerie. The only person who could buy underwear for my mother was me.

 I conducted research and concluded that the best place would be a big shopping center. They also sold underwear for males and kids on the same floor. I didn’t have any experience of buying lingerie, so I thought it would take a long time to choose appropriate underwear for my mother. However, I did not want to spend too much time in the lingerie department. I hoped the cashier-lady would not be too young.

 I finally found an ideal shopping center and a perfect cashier-lady. On that day, I didn’t even look at the lingerie area. I just approached the ideal, not young cashier-lady and said to her.

“I am taking care of my mother. She has Alzheimer’s disease. I need to buy underwear for her.”

The lady immediately understood my situation and seriously guided me to the department for female underwear. She quickly showed the recommended underwear. I said:

“Give me ten of the same kind of underwear.”

 This was because I didn’t want to go to the store again for a while.

 Finally, the mission was completed. It was the longest day in my life.

 

 A week later, our care-manager said to me.

“I recommend you let her use rehab-pants (diapers for adults).” 

I did.

I can buy diapers in a pharmacy easily.

The ten pairs of underwear I bought at the risk of my life are in a chest of drawers, unused. But you may recount the legend of the brave man who went shopping in a fairyland.

picture by perming

 

My father’s near-death experience

 My father had a serious operation on his heart. According to the doctor there was a thirty percent chance he would die during the operation. There was also a thirty percent chance he would never regain consciousness after the operation.

 The operation was safely performed, but my father did not regain consciousness on that day, so I came home. My mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, daydreamed about a flower garden. That is a common near death experience to the Japanese. I really worried about whether my father would regain consciousness.

 The next day, I visited the hospital in the early morning to see him.

 In the hospital, a nurse said to me casually.

“He has already woken up.”

I was surprised that this important information was passed to me in such a casual tone.

 I saw my father in the intensive care unit. He had still many tubes in his body.

 He recognized me. The first words from him surprised me again.

“Did the Dragons win last night’s game?”

The Dragons are the professional baseball team based in my home town. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the team.

Were these his first words after the big operation? I expected to hear about a near death experience, like my mother’s flower garden dream. He couldn’t remember anything about during the operation. He had just thought about baseball.

 Some people just can’t have near death experiences.

 

Mother’s near-death experience

 

 Sometime we hear stories about near-death experiences. Some people see a bright light. Some people meet a holy person. Is it just a dream? Is it the entrance to the other world? I don’t know.

Actually near-death experiences depend on one’s culture. Many Japanese who have near-death experiences say that they visited a flower garden.

  My father had an operation on his heart. That was a few years after my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and a few years before my father passed away.

The doctor said there was a thirty percent possibility my father could die during the operation. The doctor also said there was a thirty percent possibility my father would not regain conscious after the operation. It was a tough operation. The doctor asked me to remain in the hospital during the operation.

 I decided to wait in the hospital with my mother on that day. In those days, it was already dangerous to let her stay alone at home, because her disease had progressed. Furthermore, I thought if my father passed away during the operation, she should be near him, even if she couldn’t understand the situation or she couldn’t remember what happened in the hospital.

 The hospital didn’t have a special waiting room for patients’ families. So my mother and I just waited a few hours in a lounge for inpatients. The same as usual, I just listened my mother’s endless talking.

 The operation was safely performed but my father did not recover consciousness on that day. We left the hospital and my unconscious father who had many tubes in his body.

 A few minutes later we came home, and my mother asked me a question.

“Well, I can’t remember…what were we doing today?”

I answered.

“We visited a hospital.”

She doubted that.

“I remember we visited a flower garden. I am sure we ate lunch there.”

 Actually we ate sandwiches for lunch in the dark lounge for inpatients in the hospital.

  My father had the operation on his heart. The doctor temporally stopped his heart. He was very close to death. He could visit the flower garden. My mother perhaps was already a half resident of the other world. It is possible to imagine that my mother actually visited the flower garden with my father.

 

Photo by nobi

Police Cat

 

I recorded the voice in my room on the second floor　at my house.

My, Alzheimer’s disease, mother replied to my voice acting.

When I said

“Out with it!”

She replied from the first floor.

“I am sorry, but I don’t know!”

To record my voice acting, I have to wait her going out to day service.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGNOClGO2Ys

Distance from a document

 We need dictionaries to read classical or foreign documents.

 When I studied at university as a graduate student, my professor forced me to read documents written two thousand four hundred years ago in Greece. I needed two kinds of dictionary. It took me about four hours to understand a line. My professor was so strict. When I couldn’t understand the meaning of a document he scolded me severely. I used to prepare for over fifteen hours for his class every week but I could never understand those documents. He always scolded me. During the class I always broke out in a cold sweat. We continued the class for four years.

 Recently, I read a book written by a Japanese popular novelist who is ten years younger than me. The book was a so-called “light novel”, a style of Japanese novel for young adults. I was enjoying the book very much, but suddenly I found two words I couldn’t understand. I repeatedly read the text, but I couldn’t even imagine the meaning of the words. This experience reminded me of my professor and made me break out in a cold sweat.

 I checked on the Internet. One of the words was a technical term for a snowboard. The other was a technical term for a video game. The author was ten years younger than me. His generation knows all about snowboards and video games. They could easily understand these words. I was too old to read his literature without recourse to a dictionary or the Internet. Every language is changing. If it continues to change like this, it will be very different two thousand four hundred years from now. Furthermore, if a foreign person reads a book written today, he or she will need four hours to understand one line.

 Actually, documents which you can read without using a dictionary are precious. The writer must be close to you. He or she uses the same language. He or she must be your generation. You should support him or her right now. Are you thinking of enjoying books after your retirement? However, in the future, young popular writers will use words you can’t understand and write documents you can’t understand without a dictionary.

 It will never happen, but if a graduate student in Greece read this document of mine two thousand four hundred years from now, he or she would break out in a cold sweat. Literally it would be Greek to him or her. Oh! I don’t mean literally?

 

Photo by bee

Watching a play about a railway station with a real station attendant

 My childhood friend worked for a local railway company as a station attendant. A few years ago, I asked him to watch a play about a railway station at a theater with me.

 After the performance, I asked him:

“Did you find anything strange in that play as a real station attendant?”

Actually he also used to be a stage actor, so he knew that “the most important point about a stage play is not reality.” However he taught me differences between a real station and a station on the stage.

He said:

“Handling a flag has strict rules. It is a sign to other attendants. If a real attendant used a flag like that actor, other attendants would be confused.”

I heard a lot of interesting stories about station attendants.

 I will tell you the most interesting story.

 In the play’s climax, a station attendant discovered a danger, and rushed to an emergency stop button on a pillar and stopped the approaching train. My friend said:

“That is absolutely impossible.”

That was because all station attendants have their own emergency stop button on their belt. If an attendant discovers a danger, he or she just needs to push his/her own button. However, the audience don’t know about that. Furthermore, rushing to an emergency stop button on a pillar looks dramatic. We discussed and concluded that was a proper direction by the director.

I asked him:

“Have you ever pushed your button?”

He answered:

“Nope”

He also pointed out a good point about the play:

“The lines on the attendants’ caps were correct. The lines on the stationmaster’s cap are different from those of other attendants. They did their research well.”

I didn’t know we can tell an attendant or a stationmaster based on their caps.

 My childhood friend had children. It is possible to imagine he might worry about his lines of the cap for his children. I hope he will be a stationmaster in a near future.

 

Photo:Gohtatu

My father’s Buddhist memorial tablet

 Most Japanese have their funeral in the Buddhist way. After the funeral we make a Buddhist memorial tablet which is inscribed with the deceased person’s name, the posthumous Buddhist name and the date of passing away. The middle tablet in the photo is a traditional wooden type. This is for my grandparents.

 Two years ago, my father passed away. I am not sure if I am a Buddhist or not, but I made a memorial tablet for my father from tempered glass, the right tablet in the photo. This is not a common traditional style.

 One day a priest from my town came and chanted a sutra for my father. He complained about this tablet, saying:

“Fifty years from now, you need to bring the tablet to a temple. This kind of tablet will cause a problem. A wooden tablet can be burnt while chanting a sutra in the temple but this type cannot be burnt. We have to put the tablet into the garbage bin.”

 I couldn’t consider that point, but the priest also complained like this:

“These days, it is difficult to make a bonfire in my temple. The neighbors complain about the fire and smoke.”

 Fifty years from now, what kind of fate awaits the glass tablet. Anyway neither the priest nor I have any power to do something to the tablet in the future.

 By the way, my family has another transparent memorial tablet, on the left of the photo. It was made in 1924. Maybe my grandfather made it for my great grandparents. My grandfather was a teacher of Western history. He loved Western culture. During WWⅡ, he taught his students like this:

“You assume Japan will win this war, but I assert Japan will lose.”

After that he was arrested and scolded by the police. He passed away a few months before the end of the war so I never met him.

 At least he left me this transparent tablet. I showed the tablet to the priest. He couldn’t complain about this almost one hundred year-old tablet. He said:

“If it is your family tradition, it is OK.”

Right or Left?

 For killing boredom, I started to be a left-hander four years ago.

“There are many boxers who are pretending to be left-handers.”

A friend of mine who played amateur boxing taught me about this.

 Boxing is a strange kind of sport. Most boxers need to use mainly their non-dominant hand. Left jab, short quick punch. It is said that “If you control the left jab well, you can be a world class boxer.” The left jab is important.

 Because of this, some boxers pretend to be left-handers. They jab with their right hand. This can give those advantages in a match because the right hand is easy to control. Furthermore, it could be a bluff. One’s right jab is so strong that left straight (long punch) is stronger.

I asked my friend this question:

“But actually one’s straight punch is not strong, so is that not a disadvantage?”

He answered:

”Basically, a straight punch is hardly direct hit. In most of case there is no disadvantage.”

 Right or left? After I heard this information, I have thought up a new theory.

 The theory is about two famous fighters in history, the legendary gunman, Billy the Kid (1859-1881) and one of the strongest samurai, Hajime Saito (1859-1915). In both cases, no-one knows what their dominant hands were. Some people say it was the left, while others say it was the right. The arguments are inconclusive.

 The truth about their dominant hands must have been their most closely guarded secrets. No one knew about it except themselves and their close supporters. It is possible to imagine that the secret could have been the key to their strength.

 In both cases of using a gun and using a sword, the combatants needed to pay attention to their opponent’s dominant hand. Life or death depended on the judgement of a moment. If the opponents didn’t know if the deadly attack would come from the right or left, they would be in great danger.

 Even I can eat a meal with my left hand. It was possible they ate with their non-dominant hands to trick their opponents.

 Actually I am not familiar with either of these fighters but it is interesting to think about their strategy, isn’t it?

 

Photo from Wikipedia

 

Southpaw

I am a right-hander, but four years ago I started to use my left hand mainly. You know, life in hospital and taking care of my mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, at home are boring. There is no challenge in my life. Using chopsticks with my left hand is interesting. Every meal is a challenge; beans, tofu and fish are especially difficult and interesting.

People who met me for the first time in these last four years might assume that I am a left-hander. Ha-ha, I tricked you! Actually I am a right-hander!

In these last four years, I found that most people don’t care which hand I use. There was only one person outside my family who realized and pointed out that I had switched from my right to left hand.

 On that day, I was eating lunch with a big group. The person was on a different table, but after the meal he came up to me and said:

“Mr. Miura, surely you’re a right-hander. Why did you eat with your left hand?”

I said I didn’t have any actual reason. I did this just for fun. He roared with laughter.

I was interested in him. How had he known I was using a different hand to normal?

 He was an amateur baseball player. I am not very familiar with baseball, but I had heard that for baseball players, whether one is a right-hander or left-hander is an important point. He had the habit of paying attention to which hand people prefer to use.

 He really liked my hobby. After that incident, he started introducing me to other people like this:

“This is Mr. Miura. He is a practicing southpaw, but he doesn’t play baseball.”

Is this interesting to baseball players?

 

Picture by KAZU

The devil wears a business suit

About 100 years has passed since Dr. Alois Alzheimer discovered Alzheimer-type dementia. So we don’t have enough evidence to prove a relation between Alzheimer's disease and heredity. One hundred years is too short a period to prove it. However, I have many relatives who have Alzheimer's disease on my mother’s side. My dear friends, please treat me gently if I develop Alzheimer's disease in the future. For now, gentle treatment is the only remedy for this disease.

My grandmother’s sister, my grand aunt, had no children. Her husband had passed away, so she lived alone. When I found out she had Alzheimer's disease, I decided to take care of her. It took one and a half hours to travel from my house to the grand aunt’s house. I used to call her every morning, visit her every week and take her to the hospital every month. I did this for a few years until she passed away. I organized her funeral and was the chief mourner.

One day a strange thing happened when I visited her.

I usually wear worn-out casual clothes, but on that day I needed to visit my grand aunt’s house from my work place directly, so I was wearing a business suit. As usual, my grand aunt and I walked to the hospital together, but that day many neighbors said hello to my grand aunt.

“Madam, where are you going?”

“Madam, how are you doing?”

I was surprised because usually no one said hello to us. I felt these voices were nervous. Like my mother, my grand aunt had Alzheimer's disease but she could communicate. So I asked her:

“Why did the neighbors say hello to us today?”

She immediately answered.

“Because you’re wearing clothes like that!”

 I assumed I took care of her alone. Actually the neighbors realized she had dementia and kept an eye on her silently. Furthermore, it was well known that a relative who always wore worn-out clothes visited and took care of her every week. That meant me. I was famous, but that day the neighbors assumed that a stranger wearing a business suit was trying to take her somewhere for a bad purpose. It was an emergency! They thought they had to protect her by saying hello to her.

 At her funeral, I gave a speech about this incident, expressing my appreciation of the efforts of the neighbors. After the funeral, a participant came up and said to me.

“I am the one who said hello to her. Yes, as you said, I assumed you were a bad stranger. Sorry about that.”

 I doubt all bad people wear business suits these days? People who wear a business suit! What kind of bad things are you doing?

Picture: xiangtao

 

Picture: xiangtao