My Mother’s Dresses

 

 My mother had many kinds of jobs. Giving lectures was one. She had many topics such as feminism, international corporations, aging society, and so on. She was famous. She gave lectures all over Japan. Sometimes she was on TV.

 My mother said the contents of the lectures were extremely important to a speaker. But the attire is also important. She said, “I can’t wear the same dress at the same place.”

 So she had many dresses. All of them were original-designed, hand-made-to-orders. There was no ready-made product. One of my mother’s friends was a dressmaker. I heard she worked very economically for my mother.

 My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She lost her lecture jobs. We had many dresses in our house.

 I didn’t know what to do with those dresses.

 I decided to give the dresses to someone. I started bringing them to a laundry shop because they were extremely dusty.

 I could not bring them all at once. I brought some of them every week to the laundry shop. It took about half a year.

 One day, a clerk of the laundry shop cautiously asked me, “Don’t take this wrong. But may I ask you your occupation?”

 She suspected me! Yes! I was a suspicious customer: a middle-aged man bringing many custom-made dresses for a lady every week. It must be very unnatural.

 I told the story about my mother. The clerk listened with tears in her eyes.

 My mother had a successful life. I don’t want to be successful like her. But I want just one original-designed hand-made-to-order suit.

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Morning Cat

 

 

I have spent most of my life with cats. I love all the cats. Most of them are dead now. I especially remember one cat. She was extremely smart. Her name was Usami. Sometimes the memories of her make me feel a little spooked.

One morning I woke up at a good time to go to work, but I made a mistake. I slept again on my reclining chair. I was lacking sleep.

Suddenly, I felt a strong impact on my belly. I woke up and saw Usami on my belly. Apparently, she had jumped down from the top of the bookshelf to my belly. I was surprised because she had never shown that kind of behavior before. She was a gentle cat.

I looked at the clock. I was surprised again. It was almost past the time to go to work. I hastily went to work. Thanks to Usami, I was not late, but I had forgotten to say thank you to Usami.

I wonder if it was just a coincidence or not. Did she have special powers and save me? I will never know.

I live with three cats now. All of them are ordinary cats. When I oversleep, they would also oversleep. They are useless, but I love them.

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Call from the Mafia

 

 

My wife and I have been married for ten years. We have a good relationship. We share each other’s smartphones sometimes. I have nothing to hide from her. When one of us is taking a bath, the other would answer their smartphone.

One day, while my wife was taking a bath, her smartphone rang. I tried to answer the phone, but I stopped because the smartphone displayed that the call was from the “Mafia.”

I was worried. Did my wife have a connection with an illegal organization? What should I do? I didn’t answer the call. I waited for my wife to come back from the bath. I fearfully asked her about the call.

It was nothing. The person who had tried to call my wife was one of her coworkers. His working style was like that of the Mafia. So my wife had secretly given him the nickname, and she registered “Mafia” on her smartphone instead of his name.

Some people have this nickname in our society. A friend of mine works for the Japanese government as a public servant, but he said his coworkers call him the “Mafia.” I know he is a nice person, but his working style may be a little wild.

We make phone calls every day, but we will never know our secret nicknames.

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Plosive

 

 My father was a hearing-impaired person.

 I was a stage actor.

 Chemistry between us was good. My father couldn’t talk to people without hearing aids. But I was the only person who could talk without hearing aids because I was a stage actor. Stage actors have trained their voices.

 But even I couldn’t make him hear some sounds. These are plosives like the letters “b” and “p.” If the conversation includes those sounds, our communication becomes very difficult. The letters “f” and “d” were also difficult.

 I don’t know if all hearing-impaired persons have the same problem or not.

 In our case, we partially communicate by writing. When I needed to use a plosive, I would write down the word and point out the letter. Then we would continue to communicate verbally.

 I am worried about my old age. Perhaps, I wouldn’t be able to hear plosives too.

 If my dream future, the Star Wars world, comes true, I won’t be able to talk with R2-D2. I think he always talks using plosives.

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Aid Station

 Our city has the Nagoya Women’s Marathon. My wife takes part in the marathon every year. She always runs the whole distance and makes the finish line. She is so great. I always rush to support her every year. I am also great.

 The aid stations are wonderful places for the runners. The Nagoya Women’s Marathon serves unique local foods. I checked them on the Internet. They look so delicious. Running long distances must be so hard. But if you can eat these wonderful foods, you want to take part in the Nagoya Women’s Marathon. I recommend that you participate.

 However, I have some sad information for you.

 My wife has run the whole distance many times. But she has never eaten these foods.

 It is on a first-come-first-served basis.

 They don’t have enough food for all runners.

 My wife can run the whole distance, but there are many faster runners. Whenever my wife would arrive at an aid station, there would be no food except bananas. The faster runners had already eaten the other foods.

 But this might be a great motivation for her training. If she wants to eat the delicious foods, she needs to run faster.

 I wish someday my wife can eat the delicious local foods in the aid stations.

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Note

 After a play rehearsal, a director provides directions to the actors. Theater people call this “note.”

 In Japan, we call this dame dashi. A direct translation is “bad putting out”—a very negative word.

In 2005, I talked to a famous Japanese director about this topic. He was impressed with the English word “note.”

 He said, “I hated the word dame dashi. It is a negative term. We say positive things during dame dashi. From now on, I will use the English word ‘note.’”

　Some Japanese directors started to use “note” instead of dame dashi. I think it is a good change. The word “note” itself is neither negative nor positive.

 Recently I told this story to an actor whose mother language is English. He said, “After all, in most cases, directors say negative things after rehearsals.”

 Actors and directors are usually very busy before a show. There is no time to say positive things.

 “Note” and dame dashi might have the same essence.

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My Mother and Crab

 

 I had lived with my mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, for fourteen years.

 One day, my wife and her parents, my mother, and I traveled to Fukui Prefecture.

 Traveling with my mother was already hard for us, but we thought it might be our final trip with her. At that time, if we take her to the entrance of a restroom, she had the ability to take care of herself, and she could come back to the entrance. If she lost that ability, traveling with her might be very difficult.

 The specialty of Fukui Prefecture is crab. One popular way to eat crab in Japan is whole-boiled. We break the crab shells by ourselves and eat. The travel agency produced tons of whole-boiled crab for us as all-you-can-eat.

 My mother couldn’t break crab shells by herself, so I broke them for her. But there was a problem.

 Her eating speed was faster than my breaking speed. As a result, I kept breaking shells for a half-hour, but I couldn’t eat even one bite of meat. What kind of punishment was that! Is this exploitation?

 My wife noticed that. She started to break the shells instead of me. I finally could eat crab.

 Once, at a very early stage of her Alzheimer’s, my mother had a nickname in day service: Ms. Consideration. But the disease reduced her consideration.

 This was our final travel to another prefecture with my mother.

 I strongly remember breaking crab shells for a half hour. It was hard but it’s a good memory.

 If you are traveling with an Alzheimer’s patient, I recommend you choose a meal that is easy to eat.

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My Mother and Butter

 

My mother was a child during World War Ⅱ. In Japan, people were short of everything. Food was rationed.

One day there was butter in the rations. I heard it was unusual at the time. That was the first time my mother saw butter. She had heard of butter. She was interested in it.

She told my grandmother, “I want to lick the butter!”

My grandmother might have thought she should not give a precious food ingredient to a child as a snack. She was angry and refused this. “I will use this for cooking.”

They left the butter in the kitchen and moved to another room for a while. A stray cat snuck into the kitchen and ate up the butter. Oh, my poor mother and grandmother!

My grandmother said, “If I knew this, I should have let her lick the butter.”

Some people say it’s for nutrition. Some people say it’s for a healthy diet. However, I say, “Let’s always eat our favorite food in our favorite way. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

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Detective and Policeman

 

In June 2019, my wife and I had a traffic accident. My wife stopped our car in front of a red light. A small truck bumped us from behind without braking.

We were somewhat lucky to come out of it with only slight injuries. The other party in the accident were unhurt, but our precious car, which had been bought to commemorate our marriage, became scrap.

We weren’t responsible for this accident, but we needed to talk to the policemen for a long time. A policeman asked me to visit the police station for procedure the next day.

The next day, I visited the police station. A man in a suit handled the procedure, but I recognized him. He was one of the policemen who had come to the site. I was surprised.

I watch detective dramas on TV. I assumed that policemen always wear their uniforms and that detectives wear suits. However, it doesn’t seem to be as simple as that.

I checked the internet, but I couldn’t get enough information about it. I guess a policeman wears his uniform when he needs to work as a policeman. When the policeman does desk work inside a police station, he may wear a suit. It is also possible that a detective was disguised as a policeman to handle our accident.

Dear friends, drive safe!

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Young Media Is Naughty

 

I love social media. Sometimes it causes problems. Some countries control it strictly. I can’t say it is completely good or completely bad. Some people use social media for crime, terrorism, and propaganda.

I think most new media is naughty. Outlaws tend to love new things because they hate the old ones that kicked them out. New media always develops without rules at its dawn. In a lawless world, the naughtiest people win.

I was born in 1970. There was a TV at home when I was baby, so I watched TV every day as a child. Japanese TV programs were naughty in those days. They were full of violence and dirty topics. Fishy fortune tellers and fake scholars showed up and told lies. TV was young media. It was naughty.

Today, TV has grown up. I can even recommend that children watch TV. Ironically, young Japanese people tend not to watch TV.

I believe theater is ancient media. According to my studies, it also had naughty periods. In the 18^th century, the British government tried to control theaters strictly. It closed almost all theaters in England temporarily. In Japan, in the Edo period, the Japanese government tried to control Kabuki theater strictly. The two governments’ reasons were similar. I think theatre was too naughty in both Japan and Britain.

Social media is still young. It will cause many problems in the future. But I believe it will grow up. Someday it will be one of the peaceful forms of media. Ironically, in the future, young people will not be interested in social media.

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My Boyish Wife

 

When I first met my wife, I assumed she was male. It was not my fault. Her hair was very short, and she was dressed in boyish clothes.

Generally speaking, most women have not had the experience of people mistaking them for men, but it has always happened to my wife. I heard that it started when she was a girl.

Before I met her, I loved many stories in which women pretended to be men, for example, Yentl. But I assumed they were fictional. I believed that such a thing could never happen in the real world. When I watched movies of that kind, I sometimes felt that it was strange that the people in the movies easily accepted women in masculine attire as men. Encountering my wife changed everything. I learned that it was not impossible. I am married to her, and that is our daily life now.

In fiction, they don’t describe some problems, but in daily life, we can’t ignore those problems. Sometimes, my wife is scolded in the restroom: “Excuse me, this is the women’s restroom!” My wife is a woman.

I suggested that she wear a ribbon or wig to the restroom. She refused. That went against her principles. Furthermore, her job is very busy. She does not have the time to always do that. I suggested that she go to the men’s restroom. She refused to do that too.

Even now, my wife is nervous whenever she goes to the restroom. Do you have any ideas regarding what she can do for peace in the restroom?

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Clinic for Scumbags

 

When I was in my twenties, I had an acquaintance who was a scumbag. He always said something aggressive and sarcastic to me and even harassed me. I didn’t like him. I didn’t keep in touch with him. About ten years passed.

I saw him for the first time in ten years at a big party. He was talking with a friend of mine. I thought he didn’t remember me. The friend didn’t know I knew him personally. There was no reason for me to join their conversation. I left them.

I joined another group in the party and enjoyed talking with them. A while later, the friend who had talked with the scumbag joined our group.

The first thing she said was “I met Mr. X after a long interval. He was as much a scumbag as ever!”

I didn’t say anything, but I was surprised. I had assumed the scumbag hated me because of personal reasons. He had said sarcastic things to me and even harassed me. Actually, he had been a scumbag to everyone for ten years.

If this was so, I thought it might be an amazing thing. Was he a scumbag 24/7? Was he a scumbag indiscriminately? He could be a patient who needed medical care.

I am addicted to nicotine. The first thing I think of when I wake up is “I want to smoke.” I have a friend who is an alcoholic. The first thing he thinks of when he wakes up is “I want to drink.” The first thought of the scumbag when he wakes up might be “I want to say something sarcastic to and harass someone.” Being a scumbag might be an addiction.

We have clinics for addictions to nicotine and alcohol. I suggest that we should have clinics for scumbags. Nicotine and alcohol might be harmful. Saying sarcastic things and harassing people are nuisances. I am sure it causes negative effects to the scumbag himself. If it is a treatable illness, we need clinics for them.

Once, I was a patient of a clinic for nicotine addiction. Unfortunately, their medical treatment didn’t work on me. I am still a smoker, but I know many people who quit smoking because of the clinic. It may work. It is covered by insurance in Japan.

I wish the scumbag would be cured through some kind of medical treatment. The insurance should cover that.

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Barium

We drink barium when we have medical checks.

Recently, they have been sealed up. We break a seal to open a bottle of barium. It is safe and hygienic. Sometimes it has an artificial taste. It is easy to drink.

In the 1980s, when I was a university student, a hospital served me barium with a paper cup. The cup was apparently reused. We were all wild in the 1980s.

A doctor gave me barium with a huge paper cup and said, “Drink up.”

Actually, this was a joke. In those days, barium simply had a bad taste. Most patients hesitated to drink it, but I was a reckless young man. I took the words literally. I started to drink it in great gulps.

The doctor was upset. “No, no, no! You should not really drink it up!”

Actually, we should drink barium in sips, a little at a time. We should not gulp it down.

The doctor watched the monitor and scolded me. “Look at this! Now your insides are all white. I can’t check anything!”

Dear friends, don’t excessively drink alcohol and even barium.

Picture by Masayuki Wada

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My Mother and Hymn

 

My mother has Alzheimer’s disease. An Alzheimer’s patient forgets many things, but there are exceptions. This includes crystalized memory, the things that a patient repeatedly does.

When I lived with my mother, she went to day service. It gave me a brief rest. One Christmas day, my mother came back from the day service with a helper and the care manager.

The care manager was excited and said, “Today we had a Christmas party. We played hymns on a CD. Your mother could sing all the songs on the CD!”

My mother was a Christian. Most people around her didn’t know this. My mother didn’t have siblings. Her father had passed away when she was a child. My grandmother was sickly.

My grandmother said to my mother, “If I pass away, you should enter a convent. At least they will feed you.”

My mother studied at a Christian junior high school and a Christian university. I believe she had faith in God. After she graduated from the university, she didn’t have a chance to go to church. Our town didn’t have a church. This was why people around her didn’t know she was a Christian.

She has Alzheimer’s disease. It is difficult to communicate with her now. I don’t know if she is still a Christian or not.

I think, at least, she knows a lot of hymns.

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I Lost 30 Pounds in a Month

 

 

A few years ago, I was in a hospital because of a serious illness. During the first week, I completely lost consciousness. While I was unconscious, they put a feeding tube in my nose. After I woke up, I started eating, but at first, I couldn’t eat much. I left most of my meal on my plate.

When I was discharged, I lost 30 pounds. I had been the tubby type. It was a good change.

Before that, I had experienced losing much weight by dieting, but when I went on a diet, I took time. I slowly lost weight. I worked very hard. However, this time, I don’t have any memory of when I was losing weight. I feel like I had just woken up and lost 30 pounds.

I came back to society. All of my acquaintances were surprised when they looked at me. Some people couldn’t recognize me.

We can call this the “coma diet.” It doesn’t give you a sense of achievement. Of course, it is too dangerous. I don’t recommend it to you.

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Almost Moving

 

I used to work for a computer game company in Tokyo.

Our office was located in a student’s quarters. It was nice to live in. Our office was actually in an apartment building. It was designed for a family. We put many desks in all the rooms. It was the 2000s. These kinds of companies were busy and profitable.

We started to feel that our office was too small. We decided to move to a bigger room. The new room was designed for a family, but it was located in a better place.

We needed to adjust the working schedule. Then finally, we reached moving day. We didn’t hire any moving company. All of us were young. We packed up and moved by ourselves. We rented and filled up a small truck. I saw the truck off. Some of us continued packing up our old office.

A few hours later, the truck returned to our old office with all our belongings. What happened? One of my coworkers said when they unloaded our belongings, the landlord of the new office saw them.

The landlord said, “I expected a family would use the room. I don’t want to rent the room for a company.”

There was a mistake in communication. Our moving plan ended in failure. We didn’t get the new office. We unpacked our belongings again. We resumed our jobs at our old and only office.

You think this was a miserable experience? Actually, there was a bright side. We threw away many of our belongings for the move. So we felt that our old office got bigger. “Almost moving” is the best method for general cleaning. I recommend this to you.

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Picture by Masayuki Wada

 

Koden

 

In Japan, if you attend a funeral, in most cases, you need to bring koden, condolence money. They will give you back a present.

One day I attended a funeral. They gave me back a nice present. The bag that covered the present was especially good. In most cases, this bag is made of paper or plastic, but the bag was made of cloth. The color was chic. I liked it. I couldn’t throw it away.

Another day, I was invited to a birthday party of a friend of mine. I bought a present. I needed a bag to cover the present. I came up with an idea. I had the nice, chic cloth bag. As long as I didn’t say that it was from a funeral, I thought it would be a very nice bag to cover the present with.

I gave the present to my friend with the nice bag. My friend liked my present, but he also found a small pocket inside the bag. In the pocket, there was a packet of salt. That was concrete evidence that the bag was from a funeral.

In old Japanese tradition, after attending a funeral, you have to purify yourself with salt. They had given me salt. At that time, I couldn’t find the small pocket and the salt.

I told the truth. All my friends in the party laughed about that. I was humiliated.

 

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The Doctor Who Spoke in the Kansai Dialect

 

 A few years ago, I was in the hospital. I was hovering between life and death due to an illness. Before I recovered full consciousness, I experienced many things; I can’t tell if they were real or dreams.

 One of the experiences was that I was treated by a doctor who spoke the Kansai dialect. I was in the ICU. A team of doctors treated me. I remember clearly that there was a doctor who spoke the Kansai dialect on the team.

 While I was unconscious, they put a feeding tube in my nose. After I woke up, I started eating. But at first, I couldn’t eat much. I left most of my meal on my plate. My condition got better day by day. One day, finally, I finished my entire meal. I reported to the doctor. The doctor praised me in very strong Kansai dialect. That was the last time I saw him.

 After I was discharged, I went to the hospital once a month. One of the team doctors tested me. One day, I asked him about the doctor who spoke in the Kansai dialect. I wanted to say hello to him because I remembered he was especially nice to me. But the doctor couldn’t understand whom I was talking about. He said there was no doctor on the team who spoke in the Kansai dialect.

 I was surprised. The doctor did not exist? He was a dream? He might be a ghost.

 I had been in Kansai for six years. It might be possible to think that an excellent Kansai doctor’s ghost came to the crisis of my life and saved me.

 Dear friends in Kansai! Please help me if I am ever again in crisis in the future!

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Junk mail

 

 I used to receive a lot of junk mail. It was really annoying.

 My cell phone rang every ten minutes. Most of the messages were junk emails. I thought about changing my email address. But I was not sure that I could let all my acquaintances know. If I forgot to tell someone, it would be rude.

 The most annoying thing about junk mail was that it stopped coming during the holidays. I assumed they had stopped sending me junk mail, but I was wrong. They started again on weekdays. People who send junk mails are probably scumbags. These scumbags rested and enjoyed the holidays? They assumed this was a real job? Ridiculous!

 As a result, I changed my email address. As I had feared, I forgot to tell a person whom I really care for. She scolded me, “Did you change your email account without telling me?”

 Junk mail is my enemy.

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Deny with Eyes

 

I heard this story from my mother. It was before she had Alzheimer’s disease. One day she went Komaki City, which is located near our hometown. She took a taxi.

Then the taxi driver said to her, “Excuse me, but aren’t you the daughter of Vice Principal Kawai?”

He was right. My grandfather worked as a vice principal at a high school in Komaki. It was a few decades ago. Why could he remember my grandfather?

During World War II, the driver was a high school student in Komaki. He thought about taking part in the kamikaze special attack, which was a Japanese suicide mission. A pilot brought tons of gunpowder in a plane and threw himself toward an enemy. It is ridiculous, but some Japanese pilots believed they were heroes at that time.

The driver talked about his idea to Vice Principal Kawai. My grandfather couldn’t say anything because he had his position. He couldn’t say anything against the government. So he denied the student’s idea with his eyes.

As a result, the student refused to take part in the mission. He became a taxi driver after the war. I believe that taking passengers by taxi and living is better than taking gunpowder and death.

Vice Principal Kawai died during the war because of an illness. So I have never met him.

Still, I am proud of you, Grandpa!

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Male Nurses

 

 

I used to work as a teacher at a nursing school. My students worked as nurse’s aides. They were studying to be nurses.

I know you might assume that teachers are always angry, but all the teachers I knew hated scolding their students. If we could educate without scolding, it would be better. If there is a teacher who loves to scold his or her students, he or she has made a bad choice in his or her career. By the way, most nurses are female, but there are some male nurses. My class had about five male associate nurses every year.

One day the principal decided that she needed to scold all the five male associate nurses. They had thrown their cigarette butts on the street. Most of the students lived in the dormitory. The school set security cameras around the dormitory. The camera recorded the five male associate nurses smoking and throwing their cigarette butts on the street. The principal couldn’t put up with their behavior.

When you need to scold someone, you need to change your mode to scolding. It requires a huge amount of energy. The principal summoned the five male associate nurses to her office.

She began her scolding with the Japanese stock phrase “I believe you know why you have been summoned here today.”

One of the five male associate nurses answered, “You need power workers?”

This answer almost made her crack up. She needed to retain her scolding mode. She tried very hard not to laugh. She successfully continued scolding the associate nurses.

Dear friends, stop littering!

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“Appearing on TV” Scam

 

 

My wife and I lived with my mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease. Once, a Japanese state-run broadcasting station covered us. Our caregiving was broadcast several times on TV. The director informed us about the date when it would be on air beforehand.

One day the director informed us about the on-air date. I told my mother’s friends, other caregivers, and our relatives in Kyusyu. We were in front of the TV at the time. We waited for the program to come on the air, but it didn’t start. Another program was on air. I called the director.

He was surprised and spoke. “It is on air in Tokyo.”

We lived in Chubu. We understood. At that time, it was on air in some areas, but it was not on air in other areas. Of all the areas, Kyusyu and Chubu were not the on-air areas. The director didn’t know that.

I experienced the “appearing on TV” scam. I felt humiliated.

I have many friends who were stage actors. Sometimes they act for TV, but sometimes their appearances could be cut from being aired. When you do something in front of a TV camera, it doesn’t mean you will surely appear on air. Even if you are on air, it doesn’t mean the program will surely air in your area.

If I have a chance to appear on TV next time, I will not tell anybody. I want to secretly appear on TV.

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The Economy and Taxi

 

An article on a newspaper said that “if you want to know whether the economy shape is good or poor, you should not ask . . . economists. You should ask barbers, laundry shop keepers, and taxi drivers.” I rarely take a taxi, but if I have a chance, I want to ask the question to a taxi driver.

One day I had a chance to take a taxi in my hometown. I could finally ask the taxi driver the question.

“How is the economy? Good or poor?”

The driver laughed and spoke. “I know the meaning of the question. But if you want to know that, you should ask a driver who drives downtown. You should not ask a driver who drives in a local town like this one.”

What? I thought. I don’t take a taxi downtown. There are many subway and bus stations here and there. Then I understood. If the economy is in good shape, there are many rich people who take taxies downtown. They are too lazy or busy to walk to even the nearest station. They call taxis so often. That is a sign of a good economy.

For the same reason, my barber and my laundry shop keeper can’t give me a clue about the economy. We are all local citizens. We should not accept a newspaper’s information without question.

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Picture by Hosino Su

 

Near-Death Experience

A few years ago, I was on the verge of death because of an illness. At that time, I dreamed a mysterious dream. It might have been a near-death experience.

I was on a port in the dream. That port was not like a fantastical port. It was modern, paved with concrete. Two luxury passenger ships were anchored. I knew that if I boarded a ship, I could eat sumptuous seafood. I also knew that those ships went on round trips. I could return to the same port.

Now I think that meant reincarnation or something. I could return to the same port but as a different person. Then I also knew that I had to board one of the ships someday.

I thought at that time, “Nope. I am not in the mood for seafood right now.”

I didn’t board the ship.

Now I am writing this story to you probably because I didn’t board the ship at that time.

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Picture by Takota

Tank Top

 

When I was a freshman at a university, I traveled to East Japan on a bicycle alone. My main purpose was cycling in Hokkaido! I had dreamed I would cycle amid wonderful nature in Hokkaido.

When I arrived at Toma Komai Port, I felt chilly. I just had a tank top on. I had assumed I wouldn’t need long sleeves. I thought long sleeves were bulky, but it was almost autumn. Hokkaido was already cold.

I should have bought long sleeves in Toma Komai. Toma Komai was a city. Still, I was a teenager; I rushed to start my travels without long sleeves. I knew I needed to buy long sleeves on the way. I thought I could easily buy them in the next town.

“The next town.” Yes, there were some villages on the way, but there wasn’t a town where I could buy long sleeves. There were wonderful scenes of nature that I had dreamed of, but I couldn’t buy long sleeves in nature. In a video game, we get proper items in proper situations, but reality is not designed like that.

I changed my plan. I decided to visit Obi Hiro to buy long sleeves. I knew Obi Hiro was a city. I felt extremely cold on the way to Obi Hiro. I can’t remember other things. For your information, the distance between Toma Komai and Obi Hiro is about two hundred kilometers.

Finally, I arrived at Obi Hiro. I bought long sleeves in a department store. I can still remember the warmth of the long sleeves.

If we want to enjoy nature, we have to buy equipment in a city.

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High-handed Teachers

 

 

 When I was an elementary school student and a junior high school student, most teachers were very high-handed people. They were short-tempered. They didn’t listen to students. I couldn’t help but question their personalities. When I grew up, I talked to coworkers and friends about their school memories. Most of them had the same impression about their teachers.

 But there were exceptions. People who studied at rural schools, which had a few students, experienced a completely different school life. Their teachers were nice and gentle.

 Whenever I talked to young people about their school memories, I would find that they also experienced a different school life. They said most of their teachers were nice and gentle.

 This might be due to the number of students.

 I grew up in one of the biggest cities in Japan in the 1970s. That was shortly after Japan’s period of high economic growth. There was a concentration of population in big cities. My town built many huge apartment houses at that time. When I was an elementary school student, our class had six transfer students after summer vacation. I had about 60 classmates at that time. My classmates were also diverse. They were from all over Japan. Of course, there were local students whose families have lived there for many generations.

 I think there was no option. When a few individuals need to control many people, they have to be high-handed. It could be the most efficient way. If the teachers faced up and nestled all the students, it made the teachers uncomfortable. Imagine you have to teach 60 children every day. This situation could destroy your personality.

 Now I live in the same town I grew up. We had just one elementary school at that time. Now we have three. Because of the declining birth rate, all elementary schools have empty rooms.

 Once we had too few schools, now we have too many. I am tempted to say something sarcastic.

 I hated my high-handed teachers, most of whom, I believe, are dead now. But if they were teachers now, they might be completely different. They could be nice and gentle.

 Children can’t choose their educational environments. But unfortunately, in most cases, even adults have no choice over their working environments.

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Film Chronicle

 When I was a child, some people formed a line and stayed up all night to watch the very first day of a promising movie. They wanted to watch the very first show in the best seats. I haven’t experienced that.

 Visiting a movie theater was a special experience. When I planned to visit a nice spot with my friends or a girlfriend, a movie theater was the first choice.

 Recently, the situation changed. There were many attractive places to visit. I became lazy. I hardly visited a movie theater. I knew that I could watch a promising movie there. But I could also wait until they release the DVD or a downloadable version. I feel it could be bothersome to visit a movie theater and keep seated for a long time.

 But I think we should go to a movie theater to watch a movie!

 If you watch a movie in a movie theater, you can connect your memory and the period.

 It could depend on the person, but in my case, I remember that I watched which movie with whom. I can’t forget the circumstances and their opinions. In case I wonder when it happened, I can check the Internet. Then I can relive my memories one after another.

 Once I received a letter from my mother’s old friend. The letter said, “Your mother and I watched a movie together. The title was . . .” I checked the movie. It was released when they were in their twenties. They are in their eighties now. Watching a movie in a theater could be a lifetime memory.

 Dear friends! Let’s go to a theater to watch a movie! Ask some wonderful people to come with you!

 We can’t make a memory without things getting bothersome!

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New Employee’s Photo

 

 

 My ground mother worked for a local news paper company. She passed away when she was ninety-six years old. My mother was only child. But she had already Alzheimer’s disease. So, I did all of procedure about my ground mother’s death.

 The news paper company had a company-sponsored funeral every year. They had a funeral for workers and ex-workers who passed away in the year. I participated the funeral. They gave me several mementos. I was surprised at one of the mementos. That was my grandmother’s photo. But the phot was taken when she was a new employee. Of course, black-and-white phot. But she was very young. I was surprised because I haven’t seen her such young photo.

 My father worked for the same company. When he passed away, they also gave me my father’s photo. He was also a new employee.

 All companies that have long history do this?

 I think this is a good idea. If a worker has long life, only an aged photo might be showed in the funeral. The family could remember only aged face. If the company could give the family a photo that taken when the worker was a new employee, I might be nice surprise.

 Dear company managers! This could be a bonus to the family’s whose member worked for your company till their retirement.

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