My first meeting with Alzheimer’s

In 1988, I was a freshman at university. During the summer vacation I travelled in east Japan by bicycle.

When I approached TOYAMA prefecture, I knew a famous annual festival would be held in YATSUO town on that day. The name of the festival was KAZENOBON. All the residents of the town become traditional dancers that night.

I thought:

“I want see the festival. If I hurry, I can get to YATSUO tonight. I can sleep at YATSUO station after the festival. ”

 

Then I arrived. But I had totally misunderstood the festival. I had not realized that KAZENOBON is a dancing-all-night festival. YATSUO station was very crowded. There were no place to sleep and no silence to sleep. There was no “after the festival” until the morning. I was at a loss with my bicycle.

An old gentleman asked me:

“Where are you from?”

I answered:

“I am from NAGOYA.”

“You can stay at my house.”

The old gentleman invited me to his house.

 The old gentleman seemed to live alone. The house looked as though it used to be a barber’s.

 

 He prepared a bath for me. After taking the bath I was surprised.

 There were about ten guys wearing traditional dancing costume in the house. They were waiting for me. They glared at me. They asked me some questions. I can’t remember what they said. I just wondered, “Why are these people gathered in the old gentleman’s at night? What strange people!”

 

Recently, I came to realize what was happening that night.

 

The old gentleman was in an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease. I was eighteen years old. I didn’t even know about Alzheimer’s disease. I just thought he was the kind of man who repeatedly says the same things. Some people do that. But it was not like that.

 

Just like my grand aunt and my mother, he was being protected by his family, friends and neighbors, and I had happened to come into his house.

When people looked at the old gentleman and me in the house, they might have thought:

“A fishy stranger is trespassing!”

“The stranger has chosen the busy festival night for stealing or fraud!”

 “What an evil guy!”

 

This is why about ten strong guys were waiting for me at the old gentleman’s house. They had gathered to judge me. I can’t remember how I answered their questions but maybe they trusted me after the conversation. I was allowed to stay at the old gentleman’s house that night.

 

If I had answered wrongly, they might have beaten me up. The people in YATSUO are all well-trained in synchronized dancing. They are also strong enough to dance all night. If I had been an evil person, I would have been beaten up by these strong people. They would have been happy to band together to beat me up.

 

Next morning, the old gentleman served me breakfast. My next goal was to go to the next prefecture, ISHIKAWA. He told me the way to ISHIKAWA over and over and again. I listened over and over again.

 

A few years after that incident, I sent a new-years card to the old gentleman. But one day a member of the old gentleman’s family called me and said:

“We decided to put him in a welfare facility for the elderly. So it is not necessary to send us a new-year card.”

 I knew his family, friends and neighbors had done did their best. There was a limit to what they could do for Alzheimer’s disease.

 

The limit will also affect us. Someday I have to put my mother in a welfare facility for the elderly.

 

Photo by Takataro

 

You are a genius! But your position is just wrong.

 

 

 

 

 This is a photo I took in a park near my house a few years ago.

 The dead leaf is actually an insect. It mimics a dead leaf.

That was first time I had seen this insect. It was on the vending machine, of all things.

 It might be saying “I am tired of drinking sap, give me some soda!”

Google car has come to my town!

I found a Google car in a park near my house.

 The strange red ball on the roof must be the camera which records everything as it moves through my town.

 I looked in the car. The driver was reading a paper map. What? Are you using a paper map, Mr. Google Map? Even I haven’t used a paper map for a few years. Of course I usually use Google Map on my smartphone. Possibly his work using a paper map makes my non-paper map life possible?

 By the way, this parking area is a hidden free parking spot which is known only by the neighbors. Many businessmen eat lunch or take a nap in their car here. I don’t know their individual situation, but I wonder if this place is hidden from their bosses or managers.

 Mr. Google Map driver, you finally found this place, but please don’t put the information about it on Google Map.

 

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