A Bottlecap of Sauce

A playwright said, “When you write an absurd play, you have to have concrete, reasonable theories, at least, in your mind.” Absurd plays are difficult to understand. But they are attractive. I guess that is because the playwrights have their theories.

Taking care of Alzheimer’s patients is similar. The patients may act meaninglessly. But if their caregivers support them sincerely, they can find their meaning. For example, wandering. From the patients’ point of view, they never wander. They have important reasons to go to particular places. On their way, they happen to get lost. So, some people tend to avoid using the word “wander.” A doctor said, “A good caregiver to Alzheimer’s patients needs to be a good detective.” Superficially, the patients’ actions appear meaningless, but good caregivers can deduce the meaning.

My own observation was that if a patient acts without a reason, they may cause trouble. In my mother’s case, she could stay home alone for a short time, provided some clear conditions were met: She was not hungry. She was not thirsty. It was neither cold nor hot. She needed a comfortable chair and a bed and so on.

One day, my wife and I left her at home for a short while.

When we got back home, we were so relieved to find her safe.

But I was surprised by the unnatural scene on the table. A bottle of sauce was opened. And the bottle’s cap was full of the sauce. Automatically, I started to wonder about the meaning of that. Was she thirsty? Did she have some message for us?

I froze up for a while, looking at the bottle and the cap full of sauce. And my wife said to me: “She was playing with them. OK?”

If my mother was playing, there was no meaning. If a person is satisfied, they start to play.

Japanese

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Picture by Shintako

 

What did you do during WWII?

My favorite comedian, Kamioka, said on TV, “When my father got drunk, he always asked people the same question.” The question is, “What did you do during WWII?”

My parents were children at that time. My grandparents didn’t want to talk about the war. So, I didn’t hear information about the war from my family.

Maybe, for people who experienced the war as adults, there might be many things to talk about.

I guess maybe the conversations were like this:

“What did you do during WWII?”

“I was a soldier in the battle of Imphal.”

“How did you survive?”

Kamioka’s father always asked the question when he was drunk. When he got really drunk, he started to ask the question to younger people who were not born during the war.

WWII had a strong impact on most of the people in the world. Luckily, we don’t have any incidents with such strong impact in our generation.

But the pandemic had an impact on all of us.

Maybe the future drunkard could ask this question to people:

“What did you do during the pandemic?”

“I was a restaurant owner.”

“How did you survive?”

I hope a world war and a pandemic will never happen again.

 

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Japanese

Picture by kimidoro

Realistic Movies

　I love to watch dramas on TV. I am surprised by the advanced makeup techniques these days.

In the old days, in scenes where someone gets injured or is sick, they used simple techniques. They were lovely. They used red or blue paint for the makeup. Those were cheap. But I was able to relax while watching those.

But now, if someone gets injured in a drama, they can use makeup for really painful-looking wounds. If someone is sick, they can make them look really sick and pale.

I know they are healthy actors, but I always start to worry about them.

The mysterious thing is that I can’t tell whether the techniques are done by makeup artists or digital artists.

My smartphone shows me short movies. Many beautiful people are dancing or smiling. But I can’t tell whether these people exist in the real world or are created by an AI artist.

Once, my smartphone showed me a kind of movie. In the movie, a cat or dog got rid of a bear. I believed this kind of movie. I imagined that if a bear attacked me, my cats would help me. But TV taught me these are fake movies.

What should I believe? We should be suspicious of the information from screens.

 

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Picture by Andrea Izzotti

Japanese

Inflation and Family Strife

I heard this story from my mother.

My family lived with my paternal grandmother. My mother was always scolded by my grandmother. My grandmother said to my mother, “You spend too much money!” “You are not good at shopping!” “You have to learn to make ends meet!”

 My mother had hard feelings about that even after my grandmother’s death. My mother sometimes complained that “she didn’t know it was because of inflation.”

 When I was a baby, Japan experienced a period of inflation. In 1970, the average first monthly payment for someone who graduated from a university was $111. In those days, most women didn’t have an income. In other words, a family could live on that income. Only 17% of people could study at university. Those were lucky people. They could have nice lifestyles with that income.

 My grandmother didn’t watch news programs. She didn’t read newspapers. She didn’t go shopping. She didn’t have information about inflation. That why she thought her son had married a stupid woman.

 History repeats itself.

 For a few weeks, my wife was busy at work. So, I went shopping to buy everyday items. I paid for those from my pocket money and kept the receipts. After that, my wife would give me the money from our family budget. She summed up the receipts and screamed, “That is too expensive! You cooked the receipts!”

 She started inspecting the receipts. She tried to find out if I had bought some stupid items using our family budget. I am a stupid man. Of course, I sometimes buy some stupid items, like cigarettes. But I don’t spend our family money on stupid items.

 My wife checked all the receipts. She never found any stupid items on the receipts. I was innocent, as I had insisted to her.

 Now, inflation is happening all around the world. It causes strife for many families everywhere.

 I heard that in the 1970s, the same thing happened. As a result, there was a wage increase. But wage increases are always too late.

 We need to do our best to survive.

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Japanese

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Drone Show

 When my family went to Osaka Expo, the venue was very crowded. Most of the pavilions were already full. We could not go in any pavilions.

 My sister-in-law got information that the UK pavilion was not so crowded. If we waited for one hour in front of the pavilion, we could go inside.

 We decided to try the UK pavilion. When we were walking to the pavilion, we could see fireworks in the sky.

 When we were waiting in front of the pavilion, we could watch the drone show. That was the first time I had seen a drone show. Of course, that was a wonderful experience.

 The beauty of fireworks is difficult to show on television. The beauty of a drone show is also difficult to show on television. Each drone moved regularly. They made a beautiful show.

 At the same time, I felt scared. If a war happened, the drones would attack us.

 I am a Star Wars fan. In the story, there is a Clone War. Clone people fight against AI robots. But actually, we are now experiencing Drone Wars.

 Japanese fireworks are beautiful. Firework techniques were developed during the Edo period. During that period, Japan didn’t experience any wars. People could concentrate on developing fireworks. This must be a good way to use gunpowder.

 I hope people never use drones for wars. I hope people use drones in peaceful ways, like for entertainment. We will see many, many beautiful drone shows in the future.

 Japanese 

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UK Pavilion

       My wife, my wife’s younger sister, and I went to Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

Beforehand, we applied to visit popular pavilions online, but we were all rejected. Thus, we did not visit the famous pavilions.

My sister-in-law said she wanted to visit the UK Pavilion. She works in the UK. If I could visit an expo in a foreign country, I would want to see the Japanese Pavilion.

Luckily, we were informed that we could visit the UK Pavilion by waiting for an hour, which we did.

We could visit at least one pavilion. At the same time, we knew why we could enter the UK Pavilion after just an hour of waiting.

In the UK Pavilion, we just walked around and watched movies. The movies were not exceptional—they were educational. My wife complained, “Is this a class?”

Sometimes, I work for movie companies. I thought that if I asked six coworkers, we could make the same quality of movies as those that we watched.

My sister-in-law said that people in the UK are generally not interested in expos.

On the contrary, the Japanese might be too crazy about expos.

Japanese

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Special Skill

Did you go to Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan?

My house is not far from the venue, so my wife and I decided to visit the expo to make memories. At that time, my wife’s younger sister, who lives in London, was temporarily staying at their parents’ house. She decided to come along, and the three of us went on an overnight trip.

I was so happy that I saw a full-scale Mobile Suit Gundam. That is my all-time favorite animation. My wife and my sister-in-law are not familiar with Gundam. They didn’t say anything about it.

That was summer, and Japan was experiencing the worst heat wave. But when we visited the expo, it was not blazing hot. Many people visited the site, and the venue was packed. We had to wait for over an hour to enter the venue and another hour to leave it.

But I think the biggest problem was the women’s restrooms. In the venue, many women formed significantly long lines in front of all the ladies’ restrooms. By contrast, no lines were observed in front of the men’s restrooms. The women had to queue for a long time in the restrooms. Being a woman is challenging. If you feel the need to urinate, you have to wait for a long time. You need to pull yourself together strongly.

I think it’s not a small problem. We need to think of female and male equality. If we think of true equality, the sizes of restroom areas should not be equal. If the sizes were equal, the number of toilet bowls for women would be less than that for men. We should prepare at least the same number of toilet bowls for both men and women, but I don’t think that is enough. Females need more time to use the restroom. I think restrooms for women need a bigger area and more toilet bowls to address this issue.

I don’t know if the expo planner was a man or a woman, but did that person not feel anything when he or she watched the long lines for the women’s restrooms?

This problem not only applies to the expo but also to any events or theaters. The planners need to consider this problem when they design the restrooms—the restrooms are important.

How did my wife solve this problem at the expo? Don’t worry. She has a special skill. Gundam didn’t have special skills in the story, but my wife does. When I first met my wife, I assumed she was a boy. She looked like a male. She always wore boyish-style clothes. Sometimes, she gets scolded by other women in the restrooms: “This is the ladies’ restroom!”

My wife’s special skill is using the men’s restroom. We entered the same male restroom, but no one minded her. You need talent to use this special skill. If you can pull off wearing men’s attire, you can try that.

My sister-in-law? She has a more radical special skill. If she tries, she can endure not urinating for over seventeen hours. This might be a wonderful special skill.

However, these are not the solutions to the problem. My wife doesn’t want to use the male restroom, and my sister-in-law definitely cannot hold out all the time.

I strongly insist that there be true equality for men and women when it comes to restrooms.

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 Japanese

 

Long-distance friends

  When I was a child, some friends of my family moved to other towns. Those experiences had a strong impact on me. I almost felt like my friends had died. I believed I couldn’t see them again.

Now, I am an adult. But I think maintaining friendships with long-distance friends is difficult.

We can meet neighborhood friends easily. We can meet by chance. We can invite them someplace easily. We can go to cafés, bars, restaurants, and events together. We can help each other with small tasks. These actions are a good opportunity for maintaining friendships.

When I studied in California, I had many foreign friends. I still keep in touch with some of them. Sometimes, I send cards to them. Two of them send me cards too.

One friend from Hong Kong still lives in California. Another friend from Taiwan lives in Taiwan now.

When the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred, both of them sent me emails asking, “Are you OK?” I was OK. I lived far away from the epicenter. My fiancée scolded me because I didn’t call her when the earthquake happened. That was the biggest damage I experienced from that earthquake. But don’t worry, she is my wife now. And I was happy to hear from old friends.

They actually helped me when the pandemic happened. In Japan, people needed to wear masks everywhere. But we couldn’t buy masks in any shops. Magically, though, everyone wore masks everywhere.

My friends knew about that situation. They sent me masks from the USA and Taiwan. Let me say a few words of thanks. Those masks were really useful. Thank you!

You know, most of my friends live in Japan. If we have a problem nationwide, most of my friends have the same problem. No one can help me. But my USA friend and my Taiwan friend can help me.

Keeping in touch with long-distance friends is bothersome. Out of sight is out of mind.

But there are situations only long-distance friends can help you with. In our future, no one can predict who will help us in any situation. We need to keep in touch with long-distance friends.

Japanese 

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Nightmare

One night, I had a nightmare. I jumped up from the nightmare. I was sweating a lot. My heart was beating very quickly. I was relieved when I realized it was a dream. I went back to sleep again.

The next morning, I checked my smartwatch. It recorded that I had woken up in the middle of the night. It also recorded my heart rate. It was for a very short time, but my heart rate was as fast as when I have been doing strenuous exercise.

This could be used as a good dieting method in the future. You can sleep while using this method, but you can also do strenuous exercise. If you invent such a method, you will get tons of money.

But if I need to experience nightmares while using this method, I don’t want to try it. I don’t want to experience any nightmares.

Someone, please, invent a new method I can use to have a good night’s sleep and nice dreams while dieting in a healthy way.

 

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Japanese 

May Be a Friend

 One day in spring, my wife and I went for a drive. Of course, my wife was driving the car. I am not good at driving, but I can enjoy the drive. What a wonderful day!

 We stopped because the traffic signal was red. In the next seconds, we felt a shock. We heard a crashing sound.

 Our car was bumped by a truck from behind.

 I bought the car for the memory of our marriage, but it was badly broken. At that moment, it became a scrapped car.

 When the truck hit, I looked back at the driver. I saw that he was putting down his smartphone. I am sure he was driving while using the smartphone.

 Luckily, no one was injured in this accident. Policemen came, and we did all the procedures after the accident. We exchanged phone numbers with the truck driver.

 After everything, my wife and I went back to our normal life. I checked my smartphone. Facebook showed the truck driver’s page and read “May be a friend.”

 He is not my friend. I don’t want a friend who drives and uses a smartphone at the same time.

 I love social media, but sometimes, it is insensitive.

 

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My Great-Grandfather’s Retirement Allowance

 Will you get a retirement allowance in your future? It depends on your working style. If you work for a Japanese-style company as a full-time worker, you can get a lot of money when you retire. If you can get it, do you have plans to make an efficient investment of funds?

 For your information, I shall tell you an old story about my great-grandfather’s investment plan.

 My great-grandfather was an elementary school teacher. When he retired, he successfully got his retirement allowance. 

 His investment plan was this: He lent land and built many small houses for rent. He could get rental income and enjoy his old age.

 His plan worked for a while.

 But my grandfather recommended changing the plan and selling the houses. My grandfather was a highly educated person who graduated from a national university. It was during WWⅡ, so if there were an air raid at the houses, my great-grandfather would lose all of his property.

 My great-grandfather refused to sell them. He said he had donated tons of money to a shrine. He believed no bomb would ever come to his houses because of religious power. My great-grandfather was a religious and highly educated person. My grandfather tried to persuade him logically, but it was in vain.

 Sometimes, a religious person could be stubborn.

 I respect all religions in the world. When I visit churches, shrines, temples, and other holy places, I pray sincerely. But I also know religions never work like that. Any religion doesn’t work depends on money.

 As a result, my great-grandfather’s houses were all burned down. He didn’t own the land. He lost his retirement allowance.

 If he had had a different plan, my family might still be rich.

 Financial planning is always difficult.

 

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April in Japan

Are you coming to Japan? When?

 April is a good time to visit Japan. Those are warm days. You can watch cherry blossoms. It is a highly recommended season.

 But be careful because in April, Japan experiences small inconveniences every year.

 Schools, companies, and government offices all start the new term on the first day of April. Many people are given transfer notices. There are many freshmen in all fields.

 In a train, most Japanese people follow some unwritten rules, like giving way to passengers getting off at a busy station. But in April, you can find many people who don’t know the rules. So sometimes, some disruptions happen in trains. The train crew could also be freshmen. Japanese train systems are punctual. But in April, there are many delays.

 When we drive in April, we can find new drivers on the roads. Some people may be from different areas. They are not familiar with the roads. I am really careful to drive in April. I feel that my blood freezes a few times in April.

 Even in TV, there are many technical issues on pictures and sounds in April. I guess new TV workers make mistakes in April.

 If you go to a hospital in April, you need to be a little brave. It depends on the hospital, though. Some doctors tend to recommend that patients take a blood sample. Of course, in some cases, the doctors really need a blood sample for your health, but actually, some doctors want newbie nurses to have an experience taking a blood sample. I had an encounter with a neophyte nurse who had not yet experienced taking blood samples from a patient. I was the first. I had blood congestion for two weeks. I contributed to the medical world.

 Everyone was a freshman once. Everyone could be a freshman again. All you need is to tolerate April in Japan.

 Please come to Japan in April. You can experience wild Japan.

 

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Picture by Batako

 

Treated Like a Child

 When I was a university student, I was invited to a party with my mother and her friends in a restaurant. My mother had many friends, and she often asked me to accompany her to her meetings with her friends.

 At the dinner, I felt a strange atmosphere. It started when I saw a man and a woman who were sitting separately but paying attention to each other. I didn’t know why.

 I guessed they might be a divorced couple. This might not be a simple dinner party. It could be an opportunity for an intentional reunion for them.

 Actually, I was wrong, but my guess was kind of close. It was an arranged introduction for marriage. Officially, we had a dinner party, but it was also an event for the meeting of the man and the woman.

 In that case, I wanted to be involved. I could be supportive. I had no idea that was an arranged introduction for marriage. I was already a university student. I could understand the situation. My mother didn’t tell me; I think she treated me like a child.

 I didn’t know the situation, so I made a mistake.

 The man started to talk about his adventure. He traveled all around Biwa Lake (the biggest lake in Japan) by bicycle. After that, I talked about my adventure. I traveled all around Hokkaido (the largest prefecture in Japan) by bicycle. I think my story was not supportive of him. 

 If I knew that it was an arranged introduction for marriage, I shouldn’t have told my story about Hokkaido.

 I don’t know if they got married or not after that.

 If you have a party with a specific purpose, inform all the party members, including university students. We should not treat university students as children.

 

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Thinking New Music is “Noise”

When I was a high school student, I loved Blue Hearts very much. Blue Hearts is a Japanese punk rock band. I often listened to their music on cassette tapes. My mother listened to some of the music, and she said, “Why is such a bad singer singing a song?”

I was shocked. I doubted my mother’s intellect. This was punk rock. The vocalist should not be evaluated as “good” or “bad.”

My mother was a highly intelligent person. Her opinion was not related to her intellect. It was her way of looking at music. When she was young, singers had to be well-trained, which meant they were professional singers. That was common sense in my mother’s time.

I listened to the Beatles when I was a child. Everyone loved them. But when I researched them, I found that the Beatles were controversial in their early years. Some of the harsher critics described their music as “noise”.

When I was a junior high school student, I studied baroque music. I actually listened to records of some of it. I felt this music was boring. But the word “baroque” meant “twisted like a baroque pearl”; that is, “bizarre” and “foolish.” The original meaning had a negative connotation. In the early modern age, baroque music was like punk rock; it didn’t follow the old rules.

I’m not saying that my mother, the critics who criticized the Beatles, and the people who called the new style of music “baroque” are all stupid.

My point is that all of us, someday, will reach an age when we hear new music and think of it as just “noise.” If we have a long life, we can’t avoid that. That is a symptom of aging.

Luckily, I can still enjoy the newest music. I have never reached that age. But I still feel that the music that I loved when I was young is good.

Someday, I will reach that age. In that case, I will never say negative things about new music. I will pretend that I also enjoy it, so younger people won’t make fun of me.

“The newest music! I like it!”

 

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Picture by K.Nakano

Blur

Since I’m studying the Chinese language, I watch Chinese TV dramas, which are easily accessible in Japan. A few years ago, I came across something unusual in a Chinese program. Part of the screen was blurred out, even though nothing shocking was going on.

It was a Chinese show about high school students. In the morning, the heroine woke up in her bed, and large parts of the bed were blurred out. It was unlikely that she had anything indecent in her bed, so I guessed the blurred objects were stuffed toys; maybe Mickey Mouse or Doraemon. In China, showing such things might be OK. But in Japan, they couldn’t show copyrighted goods without permission.

I remember a particular episode about the relationship between the heroine and a boy. One day, they had a quarrel because of a misunderstanding. She bought a pair of T-shirts, which I guessed each had a character from Tom and Jerry. She kept the Jerry T-shirt and sent the Tom T-shirt to the boy. At first, the boy refused to wear the shirt, but finally, their misunderstanding was resolved. The boy put on the Tom T-shirt, and they healed their relationship with the pair of T-shirts.

It was a happy ending to a cute story. Of course, I’m not sure the T-shirts really were Tom and Jerry, because the pictures on them were blurred from the beginning to the end.

I think this clearly showed that most people in China love American animation. Isn’t there a better way to broadcast this episode in Japan, though?

I also wish all relationships ended up as happily.

 

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Picture by Suibokuga Arai

Difficult Place

My wife is a runner. She takes part in the Nagoya Women’s Marathon every year. I visit the venue to root for her every year.

I asked her which point I should go to on the course. She answered that she needs support at the most difficult place. This place is near Nagoya Castle (Meijo) Park. It is around the thirty-five-kilometer point. The course is slightly uphill. That is the toughest for runners. No one lives in the park. On the opposite side of the park is a university. There are no students there on Sundays. So, there are few supporters at the most difficult point.

So, I go to that point when she runs every year. I bring some snacks and drinks to give her.

One year, I went to Nagoya Castle Park, and I was surprised. There was a booth on the course. They played music and served cups of drinks.

On the signboard was written “Red Bull.” They served Red Bull to runners.

The Red Bull company is great! They researched the most difficult place on the course. They found the most effective advertising point at this event.

Advertising must be like this. People never forget someone who helped them during their hardest time.

However, my wife doesn’t drink Red Bull except at marathon events. She drinks beer and lemon sour.

If you come to Nagoya Women’s Marathon to cheer on the runners, I have already recommended this viewing point. But the Red Bull booth only gives Red Bull to the runners. They don’t give it to supporters.　

Maybe they will give you wings.

 

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My Recommended Chinese TV Drama End of the Beginning

My Chinese TV Drama Recommendation: End of the Beginning

 

I am studying Chinese language. I watch many Chinese TV dramas. These are easy to watch in Japan. I started to watch Chinese dramas in the 2000s. I am surprised because they are rapidly progressing.

Today, I want to introduce a Chinese TV drama I recommend, End of the Beginning. I don’t know the actual English title of the drama in your country. I don’t know if you can even watch the drama in your country.

Most good TV dramas in China are period plays. A lot of money is spent on making those. But End of the Beginning is a modern play. It is an exception among Chinese TV dramas. It is modern, but the story starts from 2000. It covers twenty-one years up to 2021 and an additional few years. The PHS (Personal Handy-phone System, an early mobile network system in Asia that was developed in the 1990s)  features prominently.

There are two leading roles.

One is An. He is a policeman with strong sense of justice. He is always fair to everyone. Even criminals start to trust him because he is an extremely honorable man. But he does not know how to get along in the world. He is not interested in promotion. He hardly ever gets promoted.

The other lead is Gao. He is a fish shop owner when the story starts. His educational background is not good. But he is a smart and brave man. One day, he is offered an illegal job. He can’t refuse. After that day, he needs to get involved in fighting between mafia groups. He always wins. He becomes a mafia boss. But he also loves his wife. And he is a henpecked husband.

This drama describes the struggles between policemen and the mafia focusing on these two guys with contrasting characters.

I was surprised when I watched this drama because it describes bribery. It describes corrupted policemen and politicians. These topics are very sensitive in China.

Ironically, a policeman’s enemy is another policeman. And a mafia member’s enemy is another mafia member. Policemen and the mafia have complex relationships.

I felt the scenarios were well thought out. The writers did a lot of research on policemen and the mafia. The drama introduces various tricks that the mafia use to corrupt ordinary people.

I heard that media regulation is very strict in China. I guess the scenario writers needed to rewrite the scenarios again and again to clear government regulations. In this case, I think it made the drama more profound.

I found some scenes of the story to be unnatural. I guess it is because of these regulations. These kinds of regulations are like taxes for making dramas in China. We should ignore them.

Policeman An and fish shop owner Gao are played by middle-aged actors. Makeup artists did a good job making them look younger and older to cover a period of more than twenty years. They are not typical good-looking guys. But they say attractive lines and act in attractive ways. Magically, I started to recognize that they are cool.

Thirty-nine episodes. It was released in 2023.

If you are looking for a good drama in Chinese, I recommend this one.

 

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Picture by Tetsuya Onoue

 

Hokattoite

Dialects are the most complex aspects of languages. My wife and I are from the same part of Japan, so usually, we can communicate easily. Even so, we still sometimes misunderstand each other’s words.

One day, we cleaned up our house. My wife put her CDs in a garbage bag. CDs once held so much meaning for our generation. When I was a high school student, I bought a CD of my favorite artist’s songs. For me, it was very expensive, so the CD was my treasure. But now, I have only a few CDs in my room. I download music or listen to it on demand.

I understood it was time for my wife to say goodbye to her CDs.

The next morning, I asked her, “Shall I dump the garbage bag with the CDs?” She thought for a while and answered me with the Japanese word “hokattoite.”

Hokattoite is a common dialect word in the western part of Japan. It has two meanings. One is “don’t touch,” while the other is “dump it.”

I assumed she meant the second meaning, so I dumped the bag. When I returned home, my wife asked me, “what did you do with the garbage bag?” I answered, “I dumped it.” She really told me off. She said, “I told you not to touch it.”

Luckily, the garbage truck had not yet arrived. My wife got to keep her CDs.

You know, language is very difficult.

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Master of Karate

　The pandemic altered the restaurant landscape in my city. Japan didn’t experience a lockdown, but many restaurants closed down anyway. I felt sorry for them because I used to work for a restaurant when I was a student.

I still remember a restaurant that was open, but there were no customers. The clerks silently wiped the tables and chairs. Such sights were tragic.

Incidentally, The Karate Kid is one of my favorite American movies. In the movie, a boy wants to learn karate from a master. But the master doesn’t teach him fighting moves; instead, he makes the boy wax cars and paint walls. The boy assumes these are mere chores, but actually, they are fundamental training for karate.

It is possible to think that wiping tables and chairs could be fundamental training for karate. Every clerk who experienced the pandemic could be a master of karate. You should not fight against clerks. They might be strong.

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Picture by Mark

 

Celebrate the Birthdays

            When I was an elementary school student, my mother declared to all the family members: “From now on, we will never celebrate family members’ birthdays! Instead of that, we will have a gorgeous dinner in a high-class French restaurant once a year!”

 

I don’t recommend this. However, it might be one of the solutions to the birthday presents problem. Birthday presents become more difficult and more expensive year by year.

 

My mother became famous and busy during those days. She was popular and busy, but we were not rich. My mother was a creative woman. She invented the easy and cheap birthday present system. No one could say anything against my mother among my family members.

 

             Actually, from that day on, we have never celebrated our birthdays. Our family lost all the traditions of giving birthday presents. I started to forget my family members’ birthdays until I became an adult and left my parents’ house.

 

My mother was famous. Sometimes, she was on TV or newspapers. Prosperity makes friends. She was always surrounded by many “friends.” Once, when I returned to my parents’ house, one of the “friends” scolded me, saying, “I heard you never called your mother on her birthday. You have never given her a birthday present. You are an unfilial son!”

 

 I didn’t say that my mother started it. If you make a rule, you have to keep the rule. If you didn’t give birthday presents to a child, you would never be given birthday presents from the child, too. I didn’t get birthday presents from my parents. I have never given a birthday present to my parents either, but when my mother got Alzheimer’s disease, I lived with her for fourteen years and gave her care. After she moved to a nursing home, I visited her every week for six years.

 

The “friend” who scolded me vanished after my mother got Alzheimer’s disease. She had never taken part in caregiving. We lost contact with her. I don’t even know where she is now. If you know where she is, let me know. I have something to say to her.

 

When I started caring for my mother, I regretted that I didn’t memorize my parents’ birthdays. Governmental offices, hospitals, and nursing homes required me to fill out forms. I needed to write down my parents’ birthdays. I couldn’t remember. Hence, I had to check their birthdays every time. Because of complex reasons, my family name and my parents’ family names are different. All the clerks gave me a dubious look as if I were a fishy person. I believe caring for one’s parents is a good thing. However, most people doubted me. I almost lost my motivation.

 

Dear friends, celebrate your dear people’s birthdays. If you are too busy to celebrate your important people’s birthdays, your lifestyle is wrong. Remember, if you don’t celebrate the ones you care about, you will soon forget their birthdays.

 

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Firing a Teacher

              I was once a member of a language class. All the members had already graduated from their schools. The class was managed by the students. We paid a membership fee every time, and we gave all the money to a teacher. That was simple accounting. The class continued for a few years.

 

 One time, a teacher became too busy, which created a problem. She often skipped the class or came in late. She didn’t give us any advance notice for doing that. She could have personal problems. However, all the students were also busy. All of us managed to make time for the class.

 

The students decided to meet and discuss the situation, and we decided to fire her. Actually, I was a main member of the students at that time. I found a new teacher, and now I had to tell our ex-teacher: “You are fired.”

 

             This was a very difficult job for me. She was a nice person. Maybe she was not good at managing time. First of all, she was the person who invited me to the class. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

 

I can still remember the night I called her. I was at a park downtown when I decided to do it. I called her and told a lie that we were too busy to continue the class, so we decided to take a break. I said that we all thanked her for teaching us for a long time. I didn’t tell her we already found a new teacher. I didn’t tell her that we just kicked her out. I think she believed my story. She accepted it. I felt she might have been relieved when I told her about it.

 

I finished my hardest work. Right after, I called my classmate. I reported what happened. My classmates also felt relieved.

 

Afterwards, I called our new teacher. Now, we didn’t have any teachers. Officially, we could invite the new teacher. I said, “I look forward to your class” in a happy tone.

 

I finished all the work for that day. I sat down on the bench to relax, and then I realized a homeless guy was glaring at me. He might have heard all my lines. My stories were contradictory. He might have thought I was a fishy person. It is possible to think that he hates a contradictory and fishy person. That might be why he was homeless. Our society is contradictory and fishy.

 

We continued the class for a few years. The new teacher was good. However, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, we couldn’t continue the class anymore. My city was far from the epicenter, but all of us were affected indirectly. Schools, companies, theater groups, and any organizations found it hard to continue.

 

When people are together, there are many kinds of problems. We tend to look at the leaders of the organization. We should not forget about the shadow workers who actually carry out the organization’s work.

 

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Great Reader

 I have been a great reader since I was a child.

 I guess the reason was that I needed to read a book to protect myself.

 I have an elder brother. He is not a nice person. He always bullied me. My mother never helped me. But if my brother disturbed my reading, my mother would scold him. She thought disturbing someone while they were reading a book was worse than bullying. So, I had to read books to avoid being bullied by my elder brother all the time.

 I often used the school library. I also visited the city library with my friends by bicycle every Saturday.

 Once, my university and workplace were very far from my home. It took about two and a half hours to commute. But this was a joyful time for me. I could read books on the train.

 My home was at the edge of Nagoya city. I needed to take trains to do anything. If I needed to meet someone, I needed to take the train. Usually, I needed to transfer to another train. Most people hate wasting time on transportation. But I loved it because I could read books. In my case, being on a train is the best situation for reading a book.

 I married my wife. There was the pandemic.

 One day, I realized that my reading time had drastically decreased.

 My wife is not a good talker. But she is a nice person. Talking with a nice person is joyful. I read almost no books at home.

 Since the pandemic, I can work and meet people without transportation. Before the pandemic, I took the train to go somewhere every day. But now, I only take the train a few times a month.

　Furthermore, I have my smartphone now. I enjoy games on my smartphone. Sometimes, I also read electronic books on my smartphone. But it is only a few times a month. I almost forget the content.

 I am not a great reader anymore.

 I had an opportunity to talk with a talented young playwright. She said the shocking words: “I hate reading a book.” When I was young, senior playwrights always appealed to how many books they had read.

 A new era is about to come.

 If I had been born in this era, I might stick to my smartphone all day and night. In this case, my mother would never have protected me from my elder brother.

But I am sure we can learn from smartphone games or smartphone movies the same as books. I think they are just different types of media for individual use.

Like me, most great readers didn’t use to have good conversation partners at home. Or most of them needed to spend time on transportation. Since smartphones’ spread, they have another option to spend their time.

A famous Japanese novelist, Osamu Dazai, wrote, “Not reading books is proof that a person is not lonely.”

I think we can say the same thing about smartphones and games. If a person is not lonely, they never need any book, smartphone, or game.

Most people can’t spend their lifetime without being lonely. Books used to be our only friends when we were lonely. But we have other options now. I think it is a good thing.

 

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Picture by Yuka