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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Seven-Herb Rice Porridge

 Generally, Japanese people eat seven-herb rice porridge on January 7. It is an old Japanese tradition. Some people believe it can keep people healthy.

 Actually, I never ate it when I was a child. Because my mother tended to doubt all superstitions.

 My mother was a strong woman. She was always the leader of our family. But she got Alzheimer’s. Then, my father became the leader of our family. But at that time, he had disabilities in his body. He just provided direction to me.

 One January 7, he bought a package of seven herbs and said, “We should eat seven-herb rice porridge. Make it.” I didn’t know he loved that kind of tradition. I was surprised. But I tried to make it. I used to work at a restaurant. Cooking is not difficult for me. Actually, I made all my family’s meals at that time. But I needed to check how to make seven-herb rice porridge on the internet.

 I assumed I made a perfect seven-herb rice porridge. It was the same as the sample picture on the internet. I proudly served the seven-herb rice porridge to my parents. But my father was not happy about it.

 He said, “This is not seven-herb rice porridge.”

 I was confused. Seven-herb rice porridge is not a difficult dish. Could the information on the internet be wrong? According to my father, I needed to add more water to make it. His ideal seven-herb porridge must be much more like soup. In Japan, rice porridge is served to sick persons. It is easy to digest. In this case, they add a lot of water. But for healthy people, porridge doesn’t need so much water.

 It is possible that his image of seven-herb porridge formed when he was a child. He had ten siblings. His family was poor. It was during World War II. In those days, many people were starving.

 Maybe my grandmother needed to add a lot of water when she made seven-herb porridge. She didn’t have enough rice to serve ten children.

 I didn’t argue with my father. I remade it into his ideal seven-herb porridge. From that day on, I made his ideal seven-herb porridge for him every year.

 There is no such thing as one correct answer in cooking.

 

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It Takes Ten Years for a Dissatisfied Customer to Come Back

Yakiniku is a popular restaurant style in Japan. You can cook your meal by yourself.

My wife, her parents, and I sometimes go to restaurants. Yakiniku is one of our favorite restaurant styles.

One day, we decided to go our favorite yakiniku restaurant. But the restaurant was closed. So, we went to our second-favorite yakiniku restaurant. But the restaurant was also closed. We could have gone to a different style restaurant. But we really wanted to eat yakiniku. My mother-in-law said, “I know another yakiniku restaurant. But it was not good ten years ago.”

We discussed wanting to eat yakiniku. We didn’t care about the quality of the yakiniku. So, we went to the not-so-good yakiniku restaurant.

But, unexpectedly, the yakiniku restaurant was good. It had a clean room, tables, and chairs. The staff were so polite and friendly. The food was delicious.

Maybe there had been drastic changes during those ten years. The store manager might have changed. Or their operating policies might have changed. I don’t know why, but that restaurant became a delicious yakiniku restaurant.

But if you think about this story from the yakiniku restaurant manager’s side, it is a scary story. If a restaurant gives a bad impression to a customer, the customer would not come back for at least ten years.

I used to work in a restaurant.

Dear friends who work in a restaurant, you are doing a great job. You have to concentrate hard every day. Kudos to you. Kudos again.

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Presents from the Sand Dunes

I visited Tottori prefecture with my wife, her sister, and her sister’s husband.

If you visit Tottori prefecture, you should visit the sand dunes. It is the most famous spot for visitors to Tottori.

We enjoyed climbing up and down the dunes. We also rode on a camel. I strongly recommend visiting the sand dunes.

After we enjoyed the sand dunes, we went to our hotel. Walking around the sand dunes was hard work. I jumped into my bed to relax. After that, we planned to go out for dinner. The hotel was near the sea. We could eat fresh seafood there.

Then, I got up. I was surprised. There was a lot of sand all around my bed. I couldn’t understand how it had happened. I lost my mind for a while.

At that time, I was wearing longer pants than normal. So, I had rolled up my pants. Doing this made pockets in the bottoms of my pants. I walked up and down the sand dunes. The pockets filled with sand. When I jumped into bed, the sand spread around my bed.

This could be a present from the sand dunes. If I slept in that bed, I could dream about the sand dunes. Thank you, sand dunes.

No. I wanted to sleep in a clean bed.

Dear friends, if you visit the Tottori sand dunes, you should wear tight-fitting pants.

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Who Knows the Champion

　　　It is a classic scenario that you may have seen before.

Some competition is taking place, and the final candidates for the championship are on stage in a theater. The stage is dark. You hear drums roaring. The spotlights are wandering. The master of ceremonies opens an envelope. He reads the paper and loudly announces the name of the champion! All the spotlights light up the winner. What a moving moment! Some people will cry at the spectacle.

Now, I have a pop quiz for you.

Before the master of ceremonies opens the envelope, who knows who the champion is? The judges, of course. They decided who it should be. Other than them, a few people know who it is.

Please think about it. I already gave a clue above.

The answer is the stage lighting artists. The judges send the envelope at the same time as they send the information to the lighting crews. They have to light up the champion just as the master announces his name. To do that, the lighting crews need to know who he is.

I know that because my wife is a stage lighting artist. She told me. She said she becomes very nervous when she needs to aim the spotlight in that situation. If she makes a mistake, someone other than the champion could have short-lived joy.

Dear friend, if you see that situation in a theater, you should pay attention to the stage but also to the lighting crew. They are behind the audience. They are also nervous. They might rehearse lighting up the champion on the stage. You could guess who it will be.

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A New Technology Looks Like a Toy

　When I was a junior high school student, mechanical pencils started to spread among students. We loved those. We were excited to use the new technology. But one of my aged teachers argued, “You should not use those toys. Use a pencil. If you use a knife to sharpen a pencil, it concentrates your mind.”

Actually, I didn’t agree with him. But mechanical pencils had problems in those days. They broke easily. So, I used both pencils and mechanical pencils.

When I was a university student, electronic dictionaries started spreading among students. We loved those. We were excited to use the new technology. But one of my aged professors argued, “You should not use those toys. Use a paper dictionary. You will memorize new words better by using a dictionary.”

Actually, I didn’t agree with him. But I have to admit that the very first electronic dictionary models were very expensive, and they didn’t have as much information as paper dictionaries.

When I was a teacher at a technical school, digital cameras started to spread. I was not interested in those. But one of my senior teachers argued, “Those are not real cameras. Young people miss out on the precious time waiting for photos to develop.”

Another of my senior teachers gave me a digital camera. It wasn’t useful. The number of pixels was too low. That was one of the very first models.

When smartphones started to spread, I thought, “These are toys for people who have a lot of time to kill.”

My wife recommended a smartphone to me, and I started to use it. The first smartphone models ran out of power quickly and froze up easily. But now, I can’t do anything without my smartphone.

Such things have always happened in history. Guns were imported to Japan in 1543. In those days, Japan was in a period of civil war. In 1575, Oda won against Takeda by using guns effectively.

I assumed Takeda didn’t know about guns. But I was wrong. The Takeda faction was aware of guns. They bought and tested them. But their leader’s conclusion was, “These are useless on the battlefield.” Maybe the very first guns brought to Japan were not of high quality.

New technologies always appear disguised as useless toys. The very first models are of poor quality. Young people happily use new technologies. Aged people tend to hesitate. They feel that using a low-grade new thing could be a waste of time. I think old people lose their patience. They are busy. They might feel that the time it takes to learn to use a difficult toy could be humiliating.

Keeping up with the times is hard.

 

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Mencius’ mother moved three times

This old saying is popular in East Asia. Mencius, also known as Mang-Tze or Mang-Tzu, was a Confucian philosopher during the Warring States Period in China. Some people say Mencius is the second-greatest Confucian philosopher. The greatest is Confucius.

When Mencius was a child, he and his mother moved to a house near a graveyard. Mencius started to play funerals. His mother hated that. So, they moved to a house near a market. But he started to play merchant. His mother hated that. Finally, they moved to a house near a school. He started to play student. Then, he became a great philosopher. Generally, this saying suggests to us that we should give children good educational environments.

Mencius is almost a legendary person. I don’t know if this story is truth or fiction. But I think this story has a deeper meaning than is generally believed.

I don’t think near a school is the best environment. The most important thing is that Mencius had experience playing funerals and merchants. Mencius’s mother hated those. But if they had first moved to a house near a school, I think Mencius couldn’t have become such a great philosopher.

In a graveyard, people move in religious rules. Religiously good people will be praised. Rich or highly educated people are not directly powerful. In our society, people partly move in religious rules.

In a market, people move in market rules. Rich people and people who have attractive goods have the advantage here. Religiously good and highly educated people don’t have direct power.

In a school, people move in school rules. Clever or highly educated people have the advantage here. Religiously good and rich people don’t have power directly.

Roughly said, our society may move based on these three complexly mixed sets of rules. Our society is part graveyard, part market, and part school.

The important thing is that Mencius had experience observing people in a graveyard and a market. He not only observed but also played. It might have given him deeper consideration. That consideration could be what made him a great philosopher.

I think “Mencius’ mother moved three times” means, “Let children experience various things.”

If the order of their moving had been different, Mencius could have become a great religious leader or a great merchant.

However, moving is a very stressful experience for a child. If you have a child, you can’t move easily. When I was a child, some of my best friends had to move to a different town for their parents’ reasons. Those are hard memories for me. Now, I am an adult. I can understand that life is difficult to control. Sometimes, we need to move and ignore children’s feelings. I think “Mencius’ mother moved three times” will encourage people in these situations. If your parenting succeeds and your child becomes a great person, you can make up a good reason for moving.

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Oversleep

Oversleep is the worst excuse for being late. An overslept person is usually scolded.

One of my favorite manga is Parasyte. It was published in the 1990s. The main character is a high school boy. But in his right hand, there is a monster who parasitizes the boy. The monster can talk. Its intelligence is no less than a human being’s.

One day, the boy oversleeps. He complains to the monster: “If you awaken, you should wake me up.” The monster says: “You overslept because you needed sleep … taking rest is a good thing.” He is a monster. He doesn’t care the boy might be late or be scolded.

A few days ago, I overslept. I was late. No one scolded me. But I was embarrassed. That was uncool.

But there was one who praised me. My smartwatch. My smartwatch always evaluates my sleep. That day’s score was better than other days. As if my smartwatch was saying, “Taking rest is a good thing.”

Dear friends, don’t be late. Don’t oversleep. But we are human beings. Sometimes, we will oversleep and be late. But if you have a parasite or a smartwatch on your hand, it will praise you.

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Walking Alone at Night

 I believe all men and women have had such an experience.

 I am a man. So, I will start the story from the man’s point of view. A man walks on a street at night. A woman is also walking ahead in the distance in the same direction. The man is faster than the woman. The man approaches the woman slowly. The woman realizes it and runs away from the man. I have experienced that many times. I was always shocked about that. I am not a pervert.

 But from a woman’s perspective, it is natural. An approaching man at night might be scary.

 So, I decided on my rules for when I walk alone at night: Don’t approach a woman. If I see a woman walking alone, I must change the way I am going. Or I should cross the street, then pass her on the opposite side of the street. Otherwise, I rest on the street for a while. When she disappears from my sight, I start going in my direction again. I should not scare a woman. I don’t want to be suspected of being a pervert.

 One night, my wife and I were walking down a street. I had never suspected we could scare anyone. We were a couple. I think couples are harmless. We walked and chatted joyfully. There was a woman ahead at a distance. We slowly approached the woman. Then, the woman started to run away. Why?

 I had forgotten some important information. My wife always wears boyish styles. She looks like a male. Her voice is lower than a typical female’s. Her voice sounds male. From a long distance, we didn’t look like a husband and a wife. We looked like a pair of males. To the woman, we were scary.

 I told my wife that I was shocked. She said, “It is always happening.” She didn’t worry about it.

 My wife does not care, but I care.

 From now on, we need to keep to my rules when we walk together down a street at night.

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Gardener

 I live at my parents’ house. My parents passed away. I took over it. This is my house now. It is a detached house which has a yard.

 When I was young, I lived in a condominium downtown by myself. At that time, I couldn’t even imagine that there was a bothersome job at a detached house. Weeding the yard.

 Weeding is not an exciting job. It is a boring and bothersome one. It is too hot in the summer. It is too cold in the winter.

 I can skip it in midwinter. But except for that, I need to weed almost every day.

 I bought coveralls for weeding. Then I try to believe: “I am a professional gardener.” When I wear the coveralls, I need to keep the yard clean for the owner. The owner is, of course, me.

 I try to imagine I am a professional gardener, but I am not. So, I listen to music through my speaker. I think a real professional gardener does not do that. It is OK. I am a fake gardener.

 One day, one of my wife’s friends came to our home. The friend took her daughter. She was an elementary school student. She saw me when I was weeding our yard. And she asked her mother: “Why is the gardener listening to music?”

 She assumed I was a professional gardener because I was wearing coveralls. Actually, I am the owner of the yard. But I pretended to be a gardener. If she knew I was the owner of the garden, I would have had to give her candy or a snack. I think the owner of a beautiful garden should give candy or a snack to children.

 It is possible to think my neighbors also assumed I was a gardener. They could think my family might be very rich because we can hire a professional gardener every day.

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Arghhh!

When I was a child, one of my favorite manga was Dokaben. Dokaben is a story about baseball teams in high schools. They play baseball to win the National High School Championship. Most of the characters scream “arghhh!” at crucial moments.

I was a child. For a child, high school students were almost adults. I assumed when I was an adult I would scream “arghhh!” at crucial moments like the characters in Dokaben.

My wife is working for theaters as a stage lighting artist. Sometimes she needs to work till night. In that case, I have to eat dinner alone. When I lived by myself, I didn’t wash dishes after meals. I would wash the dishes when I prepared to make the next meal. But I can’t be lazy like that now.

If I wash the dishes immediately after the dinner, that is OK. But if I lie on the sofa, I don’t feel like washing the dishes. It is bothersome. The sofa is too comfortable to leave. But I have to wash the dishes.

Then I scream “arghhh!” and stand up. Then I wash the dishes.

Don’t invent a time machine. If I knew I would grow up to be an adult who screams when I wash dishes, then as a child, I would have cried.

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Hiropon

 Hiropon is the name of an illegal drug, but it was legal until a few years after WWⅡended. Before that, Hiropon was very common in Japan. In an old manga, there is an episode in which a child mistakenly takes Hiropon, and she is stoned. It was a comedy manga.

The theatrical person and writer Ramo Nakazima wrote a book about his experiences with illegal drugs. He said Hiropon is the worst drug ever.

             Older people than me know “Hiropon” as the name of an illegal drug. If you didn’t know, the sound of the “Hiropon” is a pretty word. It sounds like a joyful toy for children.

When I was a script writer for not-famous young comedians, we talked about Hiropon. A young comedian liked the sound of the word “Hiropon.” She wanted to use the word in her performance. She showed the performance to the manager. The manager scolded her very loudly. The manager was older than me. He knew Hiropon is not a laughing matter.

A few years ago, I went to a theater to watch a performance by clowns. There was a shocking clown at the theater.

His stage name was Hiropon. Maybe his real name might be Hiroshi or Hirokazu. But he is too young to know Hiropon is the name of an illegal drug.

But it could be a good thing. The name of an illegal drug has been forgotten by almost everyone. A new era is about to come.

 

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Symmetry

 

I have three cats.

One morning, when I was brushing my teeth, I saw a strange cat approaching in the mirror. I assumed a stray cat had come into my home. I was surprised and looked back to see the cat.

Actually, it was my family’s cat, Konatsu.

It was strange, but when I saw her in the mirror, I assumed she was a different cat.

Her cat pattern is not symmetrical. Everything in a mirror is mirror-reversed. When I saw her through the mirror, I thought she was a different cat.

If your cat is not symmetrically patterned, please look at the cat through a mirror.

You will hardly recognize the cat.

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Handsome Effect

When I was an elementary school student, one of my favorite TV animation series was Galaxy Express 999. The “999” is pronounced “three nine.” It was very popular at that time. They made a movie version. I asked my mother to take me to the theater. I watched that, and I was surprised.

The main character, Tetsuro, had a different face from the TV series. In the TV series, Tetsuro had a unique face. But in the movie version, Tetsuro had a handsome face.

Now I am an adult and work for a kind of entertainment business, I know why it happened.

Tetsuro is a brave and gentle boy. In the TV series, they could show his charm over a long period of time. But in the movie version, they had to attract the audience in a short time. One easy way to do that might have been by changing the main character’s face to be handsome.

But I was a child then. I couldn’t accept the new Tetsuro. I was confused in my seat in the theater.

By the way, a young woman sat in the next seat to me. She looked like she was alone.

Galaxy Express 999 is a story about a journey from Earth to the Andromeda Galaxy. They take the Express 999 space train. There are two main characters. One is Tetsuro. The other one is a mysterious, beautiful lady, Maetel. Naturally, Tetsuro started to love Maetel. In the middle of the movie version, Tetsuro declared his love to Maetel in the dining car. It was a very awkward but very sincere declaration. But Maetel didn’t answer him with any words. She just kept silent with a sad face. This was the key of the main story.

At that time, I surely heard the woman next to me talking to herself.

At that time, I was a child, and I couldn’t understand what she was saying and why she was talking. Later, when I reached puberty, I understood what it was all about.

The woman next to me was answering Tetsuro’s declaration instead of Maetel.

I am a man. From the point of view of men, Galaxy Express 999 is a story about a journey with a mysterious, beautiful lady. But from the point of view of women, the story might be a journey with a young, brave, and gentle boy. If you can choose the boy’s face, handsome is better.

I don’t know if the woman next to me knew Tetsuro’s old face. But changing Tetsuro’s face to be more handsome might have increased the female audience.

Good-looking characters have the power to increase an audience. First of all, I am not sure, but if Maetel was not a beautiful lady, I might not love Galaxy Express 999 so much.

Of course, we can easily make products without good-looking people. But we need other attractive aspects to increase the audience without good-looking people.

This is a tough problem.

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Minors Should Not Drink Alcohol

 When I was a child, one of my favorite manga was Pro Golfer Saru. The main character is Saru. He is a child, but he is also a talented golfer. He plays golf with rich adult golfers for money. He needs to support his younger brothers. One of the younger brothers always has a bottle of alcohol. He always drinks alcohol and gets drunk. A minor should not drink any alcohol. But I thought that was the most interesting part.

 They started a TV animation series of Pro golfer Saru. Of course, I watched the animation. But I found a difference. My favorite character, Saru’s younger brother, didn’t have a bottle of alcohol. He had a bottle of mineral water. He always drunk the water. At that time, I felt they had lost the most interesting part.

 Now I am an adult. I know why that happened. Even in a fictional story, we should not show a minor drinking alcohol on TV. Alcohol is dangerous. If a child drinks alcohol, it could become a life-threatening situation. Japanese TV regulations ban scenes with minors drinking alcohol. Even if an adult actor plays that role, if the character is a minor, the character can’t drink alcohol.

 I am studying Chinese. I watch many Chinese dramas. I found that the regulations are not strict in China. In some Chinese dramas, there are scenes with a child drinking alcohol. I don’t know why.

 It can be assumed that Chinese regulations don’t cover that issue even now. Or perhaps in East Asia, there is a tradition of drinking medicinal wine. You can buy medicinal wine in Japanese pharmacies. I believe China also has that tradition. So, I guess the concept of drinking alcohol could be different in China.

 Japanese manga are popular all around the world now. Your Home Is My Business! and Hikaru no Go are Japanese manga. China made TV drama series based on these stories. I enjoyed both of them.

 I wish Pro Golfer Saru could be dramatized in China.

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