Counterattack of Marmite

 

My wife and her sister love natto. If you are familiar with Japanese food, you have heard of natto. It is a traditional Japanese fermented food. Some Japanese love natto; some Japanese hate natto. I eat natto because I have heard that it is good for your health. My wife will be in a bad mood if we don’t have natto in the fridge. Her sister married a British person. They live in the UK. He loves Japanese food, except natto.

 

A few years ago, my sister and brother-in-law came to visit our house from the UK. They brought us a nice present. It was marmite. I heard some people love marmite and some people hate marmite. It might be like the UK version of natto. I heard there are many movies on YouTube of Japanese people’s first reaction to eating marmite.

 

             I had heard and read about marmite, but that was my first time seeing it. My wife and I ate it in front of my brother-in-law.

 

Actually, it did not have a surprising taste for us. We liked the taste, but we didn’t have a strong reaction to it. If you can eat marmite, you can eat natto, I guess. I was sorry for my brother-in-law: he had brought me a special present from the UK, and I should have reacted with a noticeable change in my expression.

 

If you have never tried either of those foods, please try them and react strongly.

 

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Picture by T.H

 

Stumble

When I was an elementary school student, we played our very first soccer game in physical education. The gym teacher explained the basic rules of soccer, and we started to play.

Children are childish. Most of my classmates wanted to kick the ball. They crowded around it. I was a child who didn’t want to join such a crowd, so I stood alone, away from the crowd. Then, somehow, the ball rolled in front of me. I kicked it toward the goal. There was no one between me and the goal. Everyone went after the ball, but no one could run faster than it. The ball entered the goal.

My soccer experience had started successfully. I had successfully shot the first shot. That was also the final goal. After that, I never took an interest in soccer.

When I was a high school student, we played our very first rugby game in physical education. The gym teacher explained the basic rules of rugby, and we started to play.

The high school students were not so different from children. Most of my classmates wanted to touch the ball. They crowded around it. I was a kid who didn’t want to join such a crowd, so I stood alone, away from the crowd. Then, somehow, the ball rolled in front of me. I picked it up and ran to the goal line. There was no one between me and it. I scored a try.

My rugby experience had started successfully. My first try had succeeded. That was also the final try. After that, I never took an interest in rugby.

When I was an elementary school student, we had a school performance. We planned to stage The Emperor’s New Clothes. I was looking forward to the play. I memorized all the lines of all the roles. I wanted to be the emperor or the cunning merchant. But I caught a cold and was absent on the important casting day. I was given the role of a doctor. Of course, it was not an important role. I had just one line: “Emperor, do you have headache or stomachache?” Oh, that was a shame!

I continued to pursue drama in junior high school, high school, and university. Even now, I am in touch with the theatrical community. It has given me a lifetime of pressure.

When you start something, a stumble might be a good beginning.

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Guide Cat

January 2007. My cat, Mary, passed away.

Mary was born in Osaka. When I was studying in the U.S., I took her with me. So she also studied abroad. Her airplane ticket was more expensive than mine.

Then I moved back to my hometown, Nagoya, with her. I had heard that cats hated moving. I was sorry about subjecting Mary to that, but I didn’t have a choice.

One of my neighbors told me our city crematory could accept pets. I also considered burying Mary in my yard. But I reckoned that if I could hold a funeral for her in the crematory (like I would have done for a human), that might be better for her.

I could have gone to the crematory by train. But I was not sure I could take the train with a dead cat. I felt that the other passengers might think it was spooky. In the end, I decided to take Mary in my car.

At the time, I was learning how to drive. The crematory was a bit far from our house. I needed to drive through the downtown area. I was really nervous. I thought it would be a long journey.

A week later, my grandmother, who lived with me, passed away. My mother was the chief mourner. But she already had Alzheimer’s disease, so I served as the actual chief mourner.

Thus, I found myself going to the city crematory again. But this time, I was not driving the car. Rather, I was in the passenger seat of the hearse. My mother should have been in that seat. But we were worried that the hearse driver might get confused if he talked with her. And so I watched the driving from the passenger seat. The driver might have been one of the best pro drivers. His driving was safe and polite.

My grandmother had died. A week before, Mary had died. One of my neighbors said, “The path to heaven might be long. Mary left first; now she is acting as a guide for your grandmother.”

Cats are mysterious animals, so that could be the case.

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Picture by jumsica

Important Letters

 

One of the problems we had when my mother had Alzheimer’s disease was that lots of mail was delivered every day. My mother was an active person. She had many friends and many kinds of jobs. Many people sent mail to her.

She hired a licensed tax accountant and advised me to manage the letters. I didn’t want to do it, but no one except me could. I didn’t have a choice.

We lived together, but I was really hesitant to open the letters to my mother. I felt as if I was doing something wrong.

I started to manage the letters to my mother. There were a lot of letters. A few cardboard boxes were full of them.

She ran a supplementary school, so many of the letters were advertisements about teaching materials. We decided to close the supplementary school. I called the companies and asked them to stop sending us more teaching materials. I called about 100 companies.

There were polite handwritten letters. I couldn’t throw them away. I thought they might be important letters. When I visited the memorial halls of great persons, I saw their handwritten letters being exhibited. So I kept those letters.

There were letters from public offices. Those were written ritualistically. They were boring, so I threw them away.

There were letters from financial institutions. They were made up of just numbers. I couldn’t understand them, so I threw them away.

One day, the accountant scolded me extremely hard. I believe my heart had been in the right place, but I’d done the opposite of what I should have done.

My mother had lived a successful life. She was famous in her industry. She was a great person, but she was not so great that someone would build a memorial hall for her. The polite handwritten letters had been important, but most of them had not been urgent. I should have continued her correspondence on her behalf, but I hadn’t had time for that.

The letters from the public offices and financial institutions had not been heartwarming, but they had been important. Someone should have taken care of them. I called the public offices and financial institutions and asked them to reissue the letters. It was an extremely complicated procedure.

I haven’t sent a handwritten letter in a long time. I haven’t received one in a long time either. Most people might be the same.

If I were to visit the memorial hall of a future great person, there might not be handwritten letters. There might be exhibitions of their social media correspondence.

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Picture by Tugumi Kougei

 

Maturity

The “light novel” is a category of Japanese novels. Novels that target the younger generation are considered light novels, and some Japanese animations are based on light novels.

When I was a teenager, the term “light novel” did not exist, but some publishers printed novels for the younger generation. I loved to read those novels.

Once, one of my favorite novelists made a shocking statement during an interview: “If no one dies at the beginning of the story, the product is not interesting.” I thought it was not a good thing to say.

A few decades later, the social media world dawned. I looked for the creators of my favorite animations and novels on social media because I couldn’t find some of their works on TV or in bookstores. Maybe some of them had quit creating. It was possible that some of them were not so popular anymore.

I found some creators’ accounts and followed them. Their statements interested me. I found the account of the novelist who had made the not-so-nice comment. As it turned out, he was always posting pictures of his cat. He would post only cat-related stories. I didn’t know what had happened to him. I guessed he had passed his prime.

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Exclusive Feast

 

 Yakudoshi, unlucky age, is a Japanese traditional way of thinking. All 42-year-old males might be unlucky. To avoid bad luck, people in Yakudoshi are recommended to contribute to society. Some people visit shrines and pray. Some people do charity activities. Of course, some people don’t care. There are some feasts organized by Yakudoshi people in some areas.

 My hometown has a traditionally special feast for Yakudoshi. I took part in the feast when I was 42 years old.

 When I was working for the feast, a friend of mine complained about the feast. His hometown is a different place. He came to my hometown after he grew up. He wanted to participate in the feast in my hometown. But the members refused him.

 I didn’t say anything. But I couldn’t understand why they refused him.

 Our feast was actually just one day cleaning up the shrine and one day giving people alcohol and snacks. Everyone should participate.

 The main event of our Yakudoshi was receiving a ritual for purification in the shrine on January 1. Most events were finished at that time. After that, we had a farewell party.

 All members were childhood friends. But we were all adults. We talked and reacted as decent adults until that time. At that party, we had alcohol.

 We started calling each other stupid nicknames again, which we all used to do when we were children. We started the childish games we all used to play, like pro wrestling, as if we traveled to the old days through a time machine. It was almost a dream. I enjoyed it. It might be the essence of this feast.

 But we should not embarrass people from other towns. If there was such a person, we had to act as decent adults.

 Sorry, people from other towns, our feast is exclusive. We want to drink alcohol with childhood friends in an exclusive situation. If you want to enjoy this kind of feast, please produce it in your hometown.

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Picture by masakuniterui

 

The Guard in Osaka

 Osaka is the second city in Japan. I had lived there for six years. I love Osaka.

 One of my early days in Osaka, I was looking for the Washington hotel. In those day, no one had smart phone. If you lost your way, you needed to ask the people around there.

 I asked the people there. But that was near from Shin-Osaka station for the Shinkansen. Unfortunately, most of people around Shin-Osaka station were travelers. They said “I am not a local person here”. So, I couldn’t find where it is. I walked around. I found a guard. I thought “he is working here as a guard. He might be a local person here”. Then I asked him. He answered.

“It is difficult to say.”

 I couldn’t understand. I asked him again.

“I am talking about the Washington hotel. It might be a huge building. Is that located some complex place?”

He pointed out the building in his back and spoke.

“This is the Washington hotel.”

 He was a guard for the Washington hotel. I was already there. It might be difficult to point it out to me.

 If you watch TV in Japan, you will watch many comedians from Osaka. Generally, people in Osaka love humor. This is one of reasons I love Osaka.

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Picture by Mon-chan