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

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