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
