A master of GO, Shu

 

 My name is Shujiro, but English speakers call me Shu.

One day a friend of mine who lives in Japan said to me.

“A guy is looking for you, Shu!”

Then I met the man. I have forgotten his name and nationality. He was a young English speaker and was excited to meet me.

After a short greeting, he suddenly asked me.

“Do you play GO?”

 GO is a traditional board game. It is popular in East Asia, but unfortunately I don’t know how to play. So I said “No”, but he doubted me and asked a few questions about GO. Maybe my answers sounded stupid to him. He was so disappointed. What happened?

 I was the wrong Shu. The young man was a GO player. He always played GO using a computer on line with other GO players around the world. One of them was his rival whose name was also “Shu”. “Shu” was Japanese. The young man was looking for “Shu” in the real world with these clues. He dreamed of playing GO with “Shu” on a real GO board, face to face. I was so surprised. Is GO such an attractive game that it makes people act like this?

 According to the Internet news, in the very near feature, the strongest GO players will be completely beaten by AI. Most GO players feel that is the funeral of GO. I do not think it will matter to GO.

A long time ago, someone invented horseback riding. In that moment, people who were light on their feet could all be beaten in a race. That was a few thousand years ago, but we still enjoy track and field races and respect athletes. When we watch a marathon race, no one says “if you want to move so fast, you should drive a car!” The same thing is happening in GO.

 By the way, I assumed that the young man and “Shu” are experts of GO, but I could be wrong. KASA-GO is a Japanese classic short story. KASA means sedge hat, and this is a simple but interesting story about two old GO players. They were good friends and always played GO. One day they had a big fight for a small reason. They said to each other “I don’t want to see you anymore!”, but they started to regret it a few days later. One of the old men said.

“I can’t enjoy GO without him, because other players are too strong.”

One rainy day, one of the old men approached the other old man’s house wearing a sedge hat. Both of them realized that they were very close and missed each other, but it took a long time for them to reconcile. After becoming friends again, they immediately started to play GO. Some water drops fell down on the GO board. The old man had forgotten to take off the sedge hat. Were the water drops rain drops from the sedge hat or tear drops? Nobody knows.

 The young man and “Shu” could be like this. It is not necessary to be experts. The chemistry between them just worked well, like the old men in KASA-GO.

 I wonder if the young man is still looking for “Shu” now or has already found him or her. It is possible to imagine that he finally found “Shu” and just now they have started to play the very first game of GO face to face. No one will report or broadcast the game, but it must be one of the best games of GO.

　PICTURE:xiangotao

 

If you smoke, you will be murdered!

 I have tried to quit smoking several times, but never succeeded. I want to succeed someday.

 I started smoking when I had a role in a stage play. I played a smoker. Then after the show, I just couldn’t quit. So I am interested in cigarettes as props in movies or TV dramas. The impression of smoking is changing.

 Once, smoking was cool. Can you believe this? Even Audrey Hepburn smoked on the screen.

 Next, people started to realize smoking was harmful. Only evil people smoked in movies and TV dramas. Smokers were liars, killers, thieves and betrayers. This has been a story pattern in many productions.

 Recently I was watching a new American drama. A main character suggested to a woman to quit smoking but she ignored that. A few scenes later, she was murdered by a villain with a sword. I was surprised. Is this the start of another story pattern? Smoking characters will be murdered!

 As a smoker, I think it is better that smokers are evil people.

Picture: Hanaboo

What happened to a bully?

YAKUDOSHI is a Japanese traditional idea that 42-year-old men must be careful because many bad things will happen at that age. So some places have special festivals to avoid bad things. It depends on the area but most festivals are organized by people who are 42 years old.

 My town also has a festival of this kind. I took part in the festival a few years ago. I met many old friends I had not met since junior high school. All of us have become terrible middle-aged men.

 After a meeting, we had party. Mr. W was next to me and said to me.

“I wish I had been a tender kid when I was a child.”

He was almost crying. I could not understand what he meant at that time.

 But when I thought back 30 years, Mr. W had not been a tender kid. He had been a bully.

 After becoming an adult, he took over his father’s office in this town. What happened in the small office in this small town? The children who Mr. W used to abuse also took over their parent’s companies and houses. What happened to him?

 This is another side of bullying. People tend to focus on abused children. But bullying is also dangerous to bullies. Abused children will never forget or forgive the bullies. Bullies suffer a lifetime penalty.

 Our next festival is KANREKI (for those aged 60). We will meet at that time. I hope Mr. W will also enjoy that party.

 

Mother’s Great Escape

　It has been over ten years since I started to live with my mother who has Alzheimer’s-type dementia.

 During this decade, I suffered a serious illness and spent a few months in hospital. When I was in the hospital, my mother was in a nursing home that specializes in dementia care.

 The nursing home has a special system to prevent dementia patients wandering about. There are three barriers that stop these patients leaving this home.

 The first barrier is a door from the living space to the corridor. In the living space, several dementia patients live together. The door needs a key that is kept by the staff members.

 The second barrier is a door from the corridor to the lobby. This door is the most effective barrier to the dementia patients. You need to enter a four-digit code to open the door. The code changes every month. The number consists of two digits representing the year and two digits representing the month. For example, if it is March, 2016, the key number will be “1603”. Alzheimer’s-type dementia patients easily forget today’s date. This door works effectively because of their weak point.

 The final barrier is an automatic door from the lobby to the outside. It is an automatic door but it doesn’t open just when someone stands in front of it. You need push a button by the front desk. It is difficult for the patients to remember where the button is. Furthermore, the front desk is directly connected to the office. In the office, there are always staff members. If a patient is looking for the button in front of the door, the staff members will notice that.

 The barriers seem to be perfect, but my mother broke through all of them and went out wandering for a few hours. To the nursing home, that was the first time anyone had escaped. Outstanding!

 I will tell you how my mother broke through the barriers later. The nursing home had never had a patient escape, so they panicked. They didn’t inform the police immediately.

 A few hours later, my mother was safely found by policemen a few miles away from the nursing home, but the policemen didn’t realize she was a runaway from a nursing home. My mother can tell the address of our house but can’t remember the name of the nursing home. The policemen drove her to our house in a police car, but they just found an empty house. I was at the hospital and my wife was working at her office. The policemen couldn’t contact the family. They didn’t know what they should do.

 The nursing home and police had not contacted each other. This is one of the problems of Japanese dementia care. My mother strongly pointed out a social problem like she used to do. “Full metal realist (her old nickname)” is still alive!

 Now I will tell you how she broke through the barriers. The trick was simple. She pretended to be a visitor.

 Some people visit the nursing house to see the patients every day. Sometimes it is crowded. My mother made a group of visitors believe she was also a visitor not a patient.

 “It was nice to meet you. Now, I also need to leave. May I go out with you?”

Speaking like this is easy to her. It is difficult to realize she is a dementia patient in a brief conversation. The home on that day was crowded with visitors. Hiding in the crowd, she could pass through the first barrier. Then she made the real visitors open the second and third barriers. She got free and went on an adventure of the dementia wandering.

 Caring for those with dementia is not only difficult because the patient’s mental ability is low, but also because in some ways the patient’s ability is too high. Some people say “A bedridden patient is easier than a dementia patient.” It sounds cold, but it is so true.

 By the way, “pretending to be a visitor”? Mom! Why did you become a university professor? You should have become a theater actor like I did!