Seeing Out

 

When I was a teenager, I was a student, but I participated in many theatrical plays, and I watched stage performances every week.

I loved mini-theaters. Most of these theaters had a custom of “seeing out.” After the performance, the actors stood at exit of the theater and met the audience, who could speak or shake hands with them.

One day, I watched a play that was directed by my senior. After the performance, I said hello to him.

Then he said something shocking to me: “Please watch the show again tomorrow.”

This surprised me because I had participated in too many plays. Of course, I was an unpaid actor. I was not financially well off. A ticket for a play cost $20 or $30 at the time, which I couldn’t afford, but I couldn’t say no to my senior. What should I do?

I thought about this a lot. Then I came up with a trick. I already knew the performance time. I visited the theater at the “seeing out” time on the dot. I pretended that I had watched the show and said hello to my senior, the director.

The mini-theater was so small that one could recognize every member of the audience. My trick might not have worked. My senior didn’t say anything, but he should not have asked me to watch the same play twice in a row. I hope my trick worked.

In the 1980s, Japan experienced a mini-theater boom. Some theater groups’ tickets were almost impossible to buy, but now most of the theater groups I mingle with struggle to sell their tickets.

Dear people, let’s go out and watch plays! We don’t ask you to watch the same play twice in a row, but if there’s a repeat performance, you should watch it!

Picture by Shintako

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Runes

 

 

Runes are letters used by ancient Germanic people. When I was a graduate student, my vice academic adviser was an authority on studying runes in Japan.

For my generation, “rune” was a popular word. We loved fantasy novels and animations. Some of these used runes as mysterious letters. For instance, some spells and secret words were written in runes.

My academic adviser told me this story. One day, one of the crew members of Gammera visited him. Gammera is a Japanese movie series about a huge turtle of the same name, similar to King Kong and Godzilla. My generation loved Gammera very much.

The crew member told my adviser about the next story of Gammera. In this story, people find an ancient document in ruins, upon which secrets about Gammera are written in runes. So the crew member wanted to know about runes.

My academic adviser was a nice person. He read the secrets about Gammera in Japanese. He translated the document to Proto-Germanic and wrote it down in runes. He also wrote down the document in Japanese so that an actor could read it out loud. Then he sent it to the crew member.

When he saw the movie in a theater, there was no scene where an actor spoke Proto-Germanic, but the paper that he had sent was shown on the screen from the back. They didn’t show the front of the paper. Only my adviser knew that the crew had used that paper.

I couldn’t resist my curiosity and asked, “How much did they pay for that?”

My adviser laughed and answered, “They gave me a box of snacks.”

Apparently, a real academic’s word doesn’t pay off financially.

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Picture by SuccessfulWitch

 

School Uniform

 

When I was a student, Japanese junior and senior high schools were in crisis. Some students were quick to use violence. There were many hooligans in schools. I read an article in a newspaper that said some high school students had a party and drank alcohol in a bar and were caught by police in my city.

 I don’t know if we have the same rules even now or not. When I was a high school student, my city prohibited teenagers from being outside at night. Teenagers couldn’t go out without a guardian at night. If teenagers were found on the street at night, police would catch them.

 I was a member of the drama club during high school. Sometimes I watched semi-professional plays. Most of their performances started from 7 p.m. My school was located far from downtown, so I didn’t have time to go back home to change my clothes. I went downtown wearing my school uniform. Most of the performances were about two hours long. I needed to be downtown at night.

 One day, after watching a performance at a theater, I took a subway to go home. A group of young men called out to me. They were my naughty classmates. They looked like adults because they wore mature clothing. Maybe they were worried about being caught by the police. They were excited and said, “You are great! You are enjoying nightlife wearing your school uniform!”

 It could be so. Watching a play might be enjoying nightlife.

 After that day, all of the naughty students at my school tended to respect me.

 I was a super naughty student. I enjoyed nightlife downtown in my school uniform. I have never been caught by the police.

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Picture by Minoru Mizuno

Shu-ichiro

 

 

 My name is Shujiro.

 I was named using a traditional Japanese naming style. If you are familiar with the style, you could guess that I am the second born son. “Jiro” means “second man.”

　I have one older brother and no sisters.

 Japanese traditional society tended to respect a firstborn son, because he would take over his parents’ work and property. Parents tended to educate and raise the firstborn son with great care. On the other hand, sons born later tended to be looked down upon.

 My father aged and had physical disabilities. My mother had Alzheimer’s disease. My brother and I should have taken care of them together—with my brother’s cooperation. But my elder brother ran away from difficult situations. He didn’t do anything. He didn’t help us financially. He ignored us.

 I took care of my parents, living with them for twenty years. I was a teacher and a part-time stage actor, but I quit those roles to focus on caregiving. I was hospitalized a few times because of the stress caused by caregiving. My brother never helped us. I wanted to write negative things about him, but I will not. I want to keep my writing clean.

 When I started to live with my parents and take care of them, I noticed a strange phenomenon. Some people started to mistake my name. Hospitals, temples, welfare facilities, and the neighborhood started to send me mail with the wrong name: “Shu-ichiro.” Hey! My name is Shujiro!

 “Ichiro” means “first man.”

 In Japan, firstborn sons were treated as special, and in return they were expected to take care of their parents.

 I took care of my parents. People started to think I was the firstborn son. “Shujiro” is not a proper name for the firstborn son. Maybe they thought it was a mistake. They corrected the “wrong name” to the “right name,” “Shu-ichiro.”

 When we had been seeing my mother’s doctor for over ten years, I talked about my family situation with him. The doctor was surprised and shouted, “Are you the secondborn son?” He had assumed I was the firstborn son.

 I respect Japanese traditions. But sometimes traditions include negative things. Most Japanese vaguely understand that discrimination is bad. We should not judge people based on race, ethnicity, gender, or religion. But most Japanese people judge sons based on birth order.

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Picture by roppu chop