My father’s Buddhist memorial tablet

 Most Japanese have their funeral in the Buddhist way. After the funeral we make a Buddhist memorial tablet which is inscribed with the deceased person’s name, the posthumous Buddhist name and the date of passing away. The middle tablet in the photo is a traditional wooden type. This is for my grandparents.

 Two years ago, my father passed away. I am not sure if I am a Buddhist or not, but I made a memorial tablet for my father from tempered glass, the right tablet in the photo. This is not a common traditional style.

 One day a priest from my town came and chanted a sutra for my father. He complained about this tablet, saying:

“Fifty years from now, you need to bring the tablet to a temple. This kind of tablet will cause a problem. A wooden tablet can be burnt while chanting a sutra in the temple but this type cannot be burnt. We have to put the tablet into the garbage bin.”

 I couldn’t consider that point, but the priest also complained like this:

“These days, it is difficult to make a bonfire in my temple. The neighbors complain about the fire and smoke.”

 Fifty years from now, what kind of fate awaits the glass tablet. Anyway neither the priest nor I have any power to do something to the tablet in the future.

 By the way, my family has another transparent memorial tablet, on the left of the photo. It was made in 1924. Maybe my grandfather made it for my great grandparents. My grandfather was a teacher of Western history. He loved Western culture. During WWⅡ, he taught his students like this:

“You assume Japan will win this war, but I assert Japan will lose.”

After that he was arrested and scolded by the police. He passed away a few months before the end of the war so I never met him.

 At least he left me this transparent tablet. I showed the tablet to the priest. He couldn’t complain about this almost one hundred year-old tablet. He said:

“If it is your family tradition, it is OK.”

Right or Left?

 For killing boredom, I started to be a left-hander four years ago.

“There are many boxers who are pretending to be left-handers.”

A friend of mine who played amateur boxing taught me about this.

 Boxing is a strange kind of sport. Most boxers need to use mainly their non-dominant hand. Left jab, short quick punch. It is said that “If you control the left jab well, you can be a world class boxer.” The left jab is important.

 Because of this, some boxers pretend to be left-handers. They jab with their right hand. This can give those advantages in a match because the right hand is easy to control. Furthermore, it could be a bluff. One’s right jab is so strong that left straight (long punch) is stronger.

I asked my friend this question:

“But actually one’s straight punch is not strong, so is that not a disadvantage?”

He answered:

”Basically, a straight punch is hardly direct hit. In most of case there is no disadvantage.”

 Right or left? After I heard this information, I have thought up a new theory.

 The theory is about two famous fighters in history, the legendary gunman, Billy the Kid (1859-1881) and one of the strongest samurai, Hajime Saito (1859-1915). In both cases, no-one knows what their dominant hands were. Some people say it was the left, while others say it was the right. The arguments are inconclusive.

 The truth about their dominant hands must have been their most closely guarded secrets. No one knew about it except themselves and their close supporters. It is possible to imagine that the secret could have been the key to their strength.

 In both cases of using a gun and using a sword, the combatants needed to pay attention to their opponent’s dominant hand. Life or death depended on the judgement of a moment. If the opponents didn’t know if the deadly attack would come from the right or left, they would be in great danger.

 Even I can eat a meal with my left hand. It was possible they ate with their non-dominant hands to trick their opponents.

 Actually I am not familiar with either of these fighters but it is interesting to think about their strategy, isn’t it?

 

Photo from Wikipedia

 

Southpaw

I am a right-hander, but four years ago I started to use my left hand mainly. You know, life in hospital and taking care of my mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, at home are boring. There is no challenge in my life. Using chopsticks with my left hand is interesting. Every meal is a challenge; beans, tofu and fish are especially difficult and interesting.

People who met me for the first time in these last four years might assume that I am a left-hander. Ha-ha, I tricked you! Actually I am a right-hander!

In these last four years, I found that most people don’t care which hand I use. There was only one person outside my family who realized and pointed out that I had switched from my right to left hand.

 On that day, I was eating lunch with a big group. The person was on a different table, but after the meal he came up to me and said:

“Mr. Miura, surely you’re a right-hander. Why did you eat with your left hand?”

I said I didn’t have any actual reason. I did this just for fun. He roared with laughter.

I was interested in him. How had he known I was using a different hand to normal?

 He was an amateur baseball player. I am not very familiar with baseball, but I had heard that for baseball players, whether one is a right-hander or left-hander is an important point. He had the habit of paying attention to which hand people prefer to use.

 He really liked my hobby. After that incident, he started introducing me to other people like this:

“This is Mr. Miura. He is a practicing southpaw, but he doesn’t play baseball.”

Is this interesting to baseball players?

 

Picture by KAZU

The devil wears a business suit

About 100 years has passed since Dr. Alois Alzheimer discovered Alzheimer-type dementia. So we don’t have enough evidence to prove a relation between Alzheimer's disease and heredity. One hundred years is too short a period to prove it. However, I have many relatives who have Alzheimer's disease on my mother’s side. My dear friends, please treat me gently if I develop Alzheimer's disease in the future. For now, gentle treatment is the only remedy for this disease.

My grandmother’s sister, my grand aunt, had no children. Her husband had passed away, so she lived alone. When I found out she had Alzheimer's disease, I decided to take care of her. It took one and a half hours to travel from my house to the grand aunt’s house. I used to call her every morning, visit her every week and take her to the hospital every month. I did this for a few years until she passed away. I organized her funeral and was the chief mourner.

One day a strange thing happened when I visited her.

I usually wear worn-out casual clothes, but on that day I needed to visit my grand aunt’s house from my work place directly, so I was wearing a business suit. As usual, my grand aunt and I walked to the hospital together, but that day many neighbors said hello to my grand aunt.

“Madam, where are you going?”

“Madam, how are you doing?”

I was surprised because usually no one said hello to us. I felt these voices were nervous. Like my mother, my grand aunt had Alzheimer's disease but she could communicate. So I asked her:

“Why did the neighbors say hello to us today?”

She immediately answered.

“Because you’re wearing clothes like that!”

 I assumed I took care of her alone. Actually the neighbors realized she had dementia and kept an eye on her silently. Furthermore, it was well known that a relative who always wore worn-out clothes visited and took care of her every week. That meant me. I was famous, but that day the neighbors assumed that a stranger wearing a business suit was trying to take her somewhere for a bad purpose. It was an emergency! They thought they had to protect her by saying hello to her.

 At her funeral, I gave a speech about this incident, expressing my appreciation of the efforts of the neighbors. After the funeral, a participant came up and said to me.

“I am the one who said hello to her. Yes, as you said, I assumed you were a bad stranger. Sorry about that.”

 I doubt all bad people wear business suits these days? People who wear a business suit! What kind of bad things are you doing?

Picture: xiangtao

 

Picture: xiangtao

My first animation in English!

This is my first animation in English. Four years ago, I started to study making animation. ENGAWA KOMYU-KOMYU is my first series with narration. I have already made five episodes, but this is the only episode in English. I couldn’t make the other episodes in English because they all involved word-play. Word-play can’t be translated.

ENGAWA means a Japanese style porch. This kind of porch is disappearing now. KOMYU-KOMYU is my own coinage, derived from communication. I have wanted to make short stories that people would tell on the porch.

As I experienced when with the Nagoya Players (an English Theater group in Nagoya), acting in English is difficult to me, especially with a disguised voice. Maybe my acting voice is difficult to hear and awkward. I will continue to make animations in English. I hope someday my acting in English will be better.

This episode is a parody of Death Note. I really enjoy and respect the original Death Note. I believe you can enjoy this animation even if you don’t know anything about Death Note but I strongly recommend you to read the original comic or watch the movies. These are all translated into English.

In my animation, basically the old man loves his son but recently they have always been fighting. The old man feels jealousy for his son’s youth.

I hope you enjoy this episode. If you think up plots for new episodes, let me know.

You Tube short animation

A master of GO, Shu

 

 My name is Shujiro, but English speakers call me Shu.

One day a friend of mine who lives in Japan said to me.

“A guy is looking for you, Shu!”

Then I met the man. I have forgotten his name and nationality. He was a young English speaker and was excited to meet me.

After a short greeting, he suddenly asked me.

“Do you play GO?”

 GO is a traditional board game. It is popular in East Asia, but unfortunately I don’t know how to play. So I said “No”, but he doubted me and asked a few questions about GO. Maybe my answers sounded stupid to him. He was so disappointed. What happened?

 I was the wrong Shu. The young man was a GO player. He always played GO using a computer on line with other GO players around the world. One of them was his rival whose name was also “Shu”. “Shu” was Japanese. The young man was looking for “Shu” in the real world with these clues. He dreamed of playing GO with “Shu” on a real GO board, face to face. I was so surprised. Is GO such an attractive game that it makes people act like this?

 According to the Internet news, in the very near feature, the strongest GO players will be completely beaten by AI. Most GO players feel that is the funeral of GO. I do not think it will matter to GO.

A long time ago, someone invented horseback riding. In that moment, people who were light on their feet could all be beaten in a race. That was a few thousand years ago, but we still enjoy track and field races and respect athletes. When we watch a marathon race, no one says “if you want to move so fast, you should drive a car!” The same thing is happening in GO.

 By the way, I assumed that the young man and “Shu” are experts of GO, but I could be wrong. KASA-GO is a Japanese classic short story. KASA means sedge hat, and this is a simple but interesting story about two old GO players. They were good friends and always played GO. One day they had a big fight for a small reason. They said to each other “I don’t want to see you anymore!”, but they started to regret it a few days later. One of the old men said.

“I can’t enjoy GO without him, because other players are too strong.”

One rainy day, one of the old men approached the other old man’s house wearing a sedge hat. Both of them realized that they were very close and missed each other, but it took a long time for them to reconcile. After becoming friends again, they immediately started to play GO. Some water drops fell down on the GO board. The old man had forgotten to take off the sedge hat. Were the water drops rain drops from the sedge hat or tear drops? Nobody knows.

 The young man and “Shu” could be like this. It is not necessary to be experts. The chemistry between them just worked well, like the old men in KASA-GO.

 I wonder if the young man is still looking for “Shu” now or has already found him or her. It is possible to imagine that he finally found “Shu” and just now they have started to play the very first game of GO face to face. No one will report or broadcast the game, but it must be one of the best games of GO.

　PICTURE:xiangotao

 

If you smoke, you will be murdered!

 I have tried to quit smoking several times, but never succeeded. I want to succeed someday.

 I started smoking when I had a role in a stage play. I played a smoker. Then after the show, I just couldn’t quit. So I am interested in cigarettes as props in movies or TV dramas. The impression of smoking is changing.

 Once, smoking was cool. Can you believe this? Even Audrey Hepburn smoked on the screen.

 Next, people started to realize smoking was harmful. Only evil people smoked in movies and TV dramas. Smokers were liars, killers, thieves and betrayers. This has been a story pattern in many productions.

 Recently I was watching a new American drama. A main character suggested to a woman to quit smoking but she ignored that. A few scenes later, she was murdered by a villain with a sword. I was surprised. Is this the start of another story pattern? Smoking characters will be murdered!

 As a smoker, I think it is better that smokers are evil people.

Picture: Hanaboo