Hiding identity and drinking alcohol

 When I studied at university as a graduate student, one of the professors took me a bar. A barmaid asked the professor:

“What do you do for a living?”

He answered:

“I work at a university as a clerk.”

I was surprised. He had lied. He was a professor. I was an economically poor graduate student. Actually, he was buying my drink so I also told the same lie to the barmaid.

 One of my childhood friends was a government officer. He worked in central government agencies. When I went to Tokyo, we visited a bar. Before we entered the bar, he seriously asked me.

“Never mention I am a government officer in the bar.”

 I don’t know why the professor and the government officer hide their identities, because I didn’t ask. I guess that when enjoying alcohol they want to hide their identities.

 In history books, we find that some great persons observed people incognito. In fact, I guess they also just wanted to enjoy alcohol as an ordinary citizen. It is possible to imagine that only persons who could enjoy alcohol like this could achieve their great works.

 The persons who drink sloppily next to you in a bar could be great posts incognito.

Picture by palto

The brave man who went to shopping in a fairyland

My secretly favorite comic writer wrote:

“Thinking realistically, the nearest fairyland must be lingerie shops.”

When I read this joke, I was single and was living by myself. I laughed a lot.

 After my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and I decided to live with her, I faced a situation that made me realize that the joke was not funny.

 I needed to buy underwear for my mother. All her underwear was worn and ragged. I didn’t have any female friend who I could ask to buy lingerie. The only person who could buy underwear for my mother was me.

 I conducted research and concluded that the best place would be a big shopping center. They also sold underwear for males and kids on the same floor. I didn’t have any experience of buying lingerie, so I thought it would take a long time to choose appropriate underwear for my mother. However, I did not want to spend too much time in the lingerie department. I hoped the cashier-lady would not be too young.

 I finally found an ideal shopping center and a perfect cashier-lady. On that day, I didn’t even look at the lingerie area. I just approached the ideal, not young cashier-lady and said to her.

“I am taking care of my mother. She has Alzheimer’s disease. I need to buy underwear for her.”

The lady immediately understood my situation and seriously guided me to the department for female underwear. She quickly showed the recommended underwear. I said:

“Give me ten of the same kind of underwear.”

 This was because I didn’t want to go to the store again for a while.

 Finally, the mission was completed. It was the longest day in my life.

 

 A week later, our care-manager said to me.

“I recommend you let her use rehab-pants (diapers for adults).” 

I did.

I can buy diapers in a pharmacy easily.

The ten pairs of underwear I bought at the risk of my life are in a chest of drawers, unused. But you may recount the legend of the brave man who went shopping in a fairyland.

picture by perming

 

My father’s near-death experience

 My father had a serious operation on his heart. According to the doctor there was a thirty percent chance he would die during the operation. There was also a thirty percent chance he would never regain consciousness after the operation.

 The operation was safely performed, but my father did not regain consciousness on that day, so I came home. My mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, daydreamed about a flower garden. That is a common near death experience to the Japanese. I really worried about whether my father would regain consciousness.

 The next day, I visited the hospital in the early morning to see him.

 In the hospital, a nurse said to me casually.

“He has already woken up.”

I was surprised that this important information was passed to me in such a casual tone.

 I saw my father in the intensive care unit. He had still many tubes in his body.

 He recognized me. The first words from him surprised me again.

“Did the Dragons win last night’s game?”

The Dragons are the professional baseball team based in my home town. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the team.

Were these his first words after the big operation? I expected to hear about a near death experience, like my mother’s flower garden dream. He couldn’t remember anything about during the operation. He had just thought about baseball.

 Some people just can’t have near death experiences.

 

Mother’s near-death experience

 

 Sometime we hear stories about near-death experiences. Some people see a bright light. Some people meet a holy person. Is it just a dream? Is it the entrance to the other world? I don’t know.

Actually near-death experiences depend on one’s culture. Many Japanese who have near-death experiences say that they visited a flower garden.

  My father had an operation on his heart. That was a few years after my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and a few years before my father passed away.

The doctor said there was a thirty percent possibility my father could die during the operation. The doctor also said there was a thirty percent possibility my father would not regain conscious after the operation. It was a tough operation. The doctor asked me to remain in the hospital during the operation.

 I decided to wait in the hospital with my mother on that day. In those days, it was already dangerous to let her stay alone at home, because her disease had progressed. Furthermore, I thought if my father passed away during the operation, she should be near him, even if she couldn’t understand the situation or she couldn’t remember what happened in the hospital.

 The hospital didn’t have a special waiting room for patients’ families. So my mother and I just waited a few hours in a lounge for inpatients. The same as usual, I just listened my mother’s endless talking.

 The operation was safely performed but my father did not recover consciousness on that day. We left the hospital and my unconscious father who had many tubes in his body.

 A few minutes later we came home, and my mother asked me a question.

“Well, I can’t remember…what were we doing today?”

I answered.

“We visited a hospital.”

She doubted that.

“I remember we visited a flower garden. I am sure we ate lunch there.”

 Actually we ate sandwiches for lunch in the dark lounge for inpatients in the hospital.

  My father had the operation on his heart. The doctor temporally stopped his heart. He was very close to death. He could visit the flower garden. My mother perhaps was already a half resident of the other world. It is possible to imagine that my mother actually visited the flower garden with my father.

 

Photo by nobi

Police Cat

 

I recorded the voice in my room on the second floor　at my house.

My, Alzheimer’s disease, mother replied to my voice acting.

When I said

“Out with it!”

She replied from the first floor.

“I am sorry, but I don’t know!”

To record my voice acting, I have to wait her going out to day service.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGNOClGO2Ys

Distance from a document

 We need dictionaries to read classical or foreign documents.

 When I studied at university as a graduate student, my professor forced me to read documents written two thousand four hundred years ago in Greece. I needed two kinds of dictionary. It took me about four hours to understand a line. My professor was so strict. When I couldn’t understand the meaning of a document he scolded me severely. I used to prepare for over fifteen hours for his class every week but I could never understand those documents. He always scolded me. During the class I always broke out in a cold sweat. We continued the class for four years.

 Recently, I read a book written by a Japanese popular novelist who is ten years younger than me. The book was a so-called “light novel”, a style of Japanese novel for young adults. I was enjoying the book very much, but suddenly I found two words I couldn’t understand. I repeatedly read the text, but I couldn’t even imagine the meaning of the words. This experience reminded me of my professor and made me break out in a cold sweat.

 I checked on the Internet. One of the words was a technical term for a snowboard. The other was a technical term for a video game. The author was ten years younger than me. His generation knows all about snowboards and video games. They could easily understand these words. I was too old to read his literature without recourse to a dictionary or the Internet. Every language is changing. If it continues to change like this, it will be very different two thousand four hundred years from now. Furthermore, if a foreign person reads a book written today, he or she will need four hours to understand one line.

 Actually, documents which you can read without using a dictionary are precious. The writer must be close to you. He or she uses the same language. He or she must be your generation. You should support him or her right now. Are you thinking of enjoying books after your retirement? However, in the future, young popular writers will use words you can’t understand and write documents you can’t understand without a dictionary.

 It will never happen, but if a graduate student in Greece read this document of mine two thousand four hundred years from now, he or she would break out in a cold sweat. Literally it would be Greek to him or her. Oh! I don’t mean literally?

 

Photo by bee

Watching a play about a railway station with a real station attendant

 My childhood friend worked for a local railway company as a station attendant. A few years ago, I asked him to watch a play about a railway station at a theater with me.

 After the performance, I asked him:

“Did you find anything strange in that play as a real station attendant?”

Actually he also used to be a stage actor, so he knew that “the most important point about a stage play is not reality.” However he taught me differences between a real station and a station on the stage.

He said:

“Handling a flag has strict rules. It is a sign to other attendants. If a real attendant used a flag like that actor, other attendants would be confused.”

I heard a lot of interesting stories about station attendants.

 I will tell you the most interesting story.

 In the play’s climax, a station attendant discovered a danger, and rushed to an emergency stop button on a pillar and stopped the approaching train. My friend said:

“That is absolutely impossible.”

That was because all station attendants have their own emergency stop button on their belt. If an attendant discovers a danger, he or she just needs to push his/her own button. However, the audience don’t know about that. Furthermore, rushing to an emergency stop button on a pillar looks dramatic. We discussed and concluded that was a proper direction by the director.

I asked him:

“Have you ever pushed your button?”

He answered:

“Nope”

He also pointed out a good point about the play:

“The lines on the attendants’ caps were correct. The lines on the stationmaster’s cap are different from those of other attendants. They did their research well.”

I didn’t know we can tell an attendant or a stationmaster based on their caps.

 My childhood friend had children. It is possible to imagine he might worry about his lines of the cap for his children. I hope he will be a stationmaster in a near future.

 

Photo:Gohtatu