The inane person in SHIRETOKO

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

When I approached SHIRETOKO in HOKKAIDO, a middle-aged guy in a car said hello to me. He said:

“If you’re going to SHIRETOKO, I will give you a ride.”

I accepted. The guy put my bicycle in the trunk. I sat in the passenger seat. We enjoyed chatting and driving. But suddenly he stopped the car and said:

“Excuse me. Could you wait in the car?”

Then he got out of the car and walked up to a young couple on the road. He started to scold them. His face reddened with anger. I couldn’t hear what they were talking but I realized some emergency had occurred.

 I assumed he was insane. I thought:

(Oh, God! I am in an insane man’s car. I have to find a way to escape.)

After a few minutes, he came back to the car and explained briefly.

“We should not feed wild animals.”

I couldn’t understand what he meant. The young couple had put bread on the road. After they were scolded they picked up the bread.

 I couldn’t understand what was happening. I could only think about how to run away from him.

Actually I didn’t need to find a way to escape. When we arrived in SHIRETOKO he gently stopped the car and we parted. Of course I never gave him any contact information because I still thought he was insane.

 Later, I understood what he was doing.

Feeding wild animals is strictly forbidden in Hokkaido. If wild animals learn they can get food from people they will come to the road and be hit by cars. If wild bears connect people with food, they will come into towns. If we find bears in a town, we have to kill them with guns. Tourists are not familiar with this situation so they often give food to wild animals, but it risks the lives of the wild animals as well as people.

 The middle-aged guy was a volunteer who found tourists who were not aware of this problem and warned them. He was doing an important job that saves wild animals’ and people’s lives. I am sorry I thought he was insane.

 Two years ago, I went to Hokkaido by plane. A local TV announcer said “We should not feed wild animals. Let us give a good example to the tourists”.

 Almost thirty years has passed. I wonder if the “insane man” is still patrolling in SHIRETOKO.

 

Japanese version

http://miurashujiro.blog.shinobi.jp/

Picture by ayacon

Only nearer people can realize Alzheimer’s disease

 One of the characteristic symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease is that only close friends or family members can notice the disease in an early stage. The persons who live together and spend much time with the patients can find out the disease exists. This is one of the tough points Alzheimer’s disease patients.

 There have been many cases like this. In an old typical Japanese family style, the housewife lived with the husband’s parents and took care of them. The wife might find her father-in-law or mother-in-law had Alzheimer’s disease in an early stage. But her family, relatives, neighbors and even doctors wouldn’t believe it.

They might say:

“He or she can communicate to us normally.”

“That is ageing.”

“Maybe you have a mental problem.”

 It is very difficult to identify a person in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Even medical specialist can’t tell exactly. In my mother’s case, it took two or three years to have the diagnosis from a doctor. I lived with her in those two or three years. That period was pure hell.

 

 Ten years has passed. Now, my mother needs 24-hour-care every day. My wife and I can’t provide all of that. We use temporary short stay facilities for the elderly.

 

 One day the facility called me and said “We don’t have enough medicine for your mother”. We needed to provide the medicine for my mother during the short stay but we had made an error in calculation. So we went to the facility to bring her medicine.

 My wife’s sister lives in London. She works at a hospital as a nurse. At one time she temporarily came back to Japan and visited our house. She was interested in Japanese facilities for the elderly. She came to the facility with us.

 

 After we gave the medicine to the office, we visited my mother’s living place in the facility.

 

 I said to my mother:

“Hi! This is Shu.”

Because recently she has sometimes forgotten who I am, she often asks me “Where is Shu?”

My mother said:

“Oh! Shu! Long time no see!”

For your information, we live together and I had sent my mother to the facility that morning.

 

Next, my sister-in-law said hello to my mother briefly. She simply said her name and hello.

But my mother deeply bowed and answered to her:

“Nice to meet you! Thank you for visiting me all the way from a distant place.”

Mom! You are just perfect! Do you have telepathy or something? No one said she came from London!

 

 People hate Alzheimer’s disease because sometimes the patients act like superhumans.

Picture by bee