Drone

　Last week I re-watched “Cowboy Be-Bop”, an animated SF TV-show from 1998 by SUNRISE Inc. The characters in the cartoon were like my long lost friends.

 I was shocked when I watched episode eighteen, “Speak like a child”. Suddenly “a drone” appeared. “Drones” were delivering packages from the sky in “the world in 2071”.

 Eighteen years ago, “Cowboy Be-Bop” was canceled because of low viewer ratings. Its unexpected epilogue was the worst episode ever. For enthusiastic supporters including me, SUNRISE Inc. made a movie version in September 2001. But a few days before the release, 9-11 happened. Everyone was glued to the TV. In those days I lived in Tokyo. I went to a theater in downtown Tokyo but few people were watching the movie. “Cowboy Be-Bop” completely failed.

 A friend of mine was working for the Japan Patent Office. I asked him a question:

“The idea of a drone could be inspired by “Cowboy Be-Bop”. The people who get tons of money from drones have a duty to pay “Cowboy Be-Bop”. They need to regather the crew and voice actors to make sequels. Am I right?”

My friend said:

“Published ideas as works can’t have patents. They are just protected by copyright.”

 He meant that even if someone invented a “time machine” in the future, the author of the novel “The time machine” in 1895, H. G. Wells, couldn’t get any money.

 Dear my friends, creators! If you think up a good idea in the future, don’t publish immediately! Please tell the idea to a lawyer and get a patent.

I just wish to watch sequels of “Cowboy Be-Bop”. Someone do something!

Photo by KY

My father’s fishing rods

 

 

 

 

 

 My father passed away two years ago. His hobby was fishing.

 I love to eat fish but I am not interested in fishing. My father’s fishing tackle was left to me.

 My wife is from the next town to my own. Her parents still live in the town. They helped me when my father needed care.

My wife’s mother asked me:

“May I have your father’s fishing rods? I want use the rods as fences in my garden.”

My mother-in-law’s hobby was vegetable gardening in her garden. I gave her the fishing rods. My father’s fishing rods started a new life in the garden.

 

 A few weeks later, a gentleman who was familiar with fishing looked at the fences in my mother-in-law’s garden. He was shocked by the fishing rods.

“Madam! You shouldn’t use such valuable fishing rods like this!”

 Actually, I had not known that good fishing rods are so expensive. Some of their prices know no limit. Some fishermen can tell.

 Dad! You spent tons of money on those? You had a profitable job in a profitable era. You lived a modest life. But now I know why the savings you left in the banks were so small!

 My mother-in-law sometime gives me vegetables from her garden. They taste so great! It’s because the fences are so special!

 

Photo by voyata

 

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