Thinking New Music is “Noise”

When I was a high school student, I loved Blue Hearts very much. Blue Hearts is a Japanese punk rock band. I often listened to their music on cassette tapes. My mother listened to some of the music, and she said, “Why is such a bad singer singing a song?”

I was shocked. I doubted my mother’s intellect. This was punk rock. The vocalist should not be evaluated as “good” or “bad.”

My mother was a highly intelligent person. Her opinion was not related to her intellect. It was her way of looking at music. When she was young, singers had to be well-trained, which meant they were professional singers. That was common sense in my mother’s time.

I listened to the Beatles when I was a child. Everyone loved them. But when I researched them, I found that the Beatles were controversial in their early years. Some of the harsher critics described their music as “noise”.

When I was a junior high school student, I studied baroque music. I actually listened to records of some of it. I felt this music was boring. But the word “baroque” meant “twisted like a baroque pearl”; that is, “bizarre” and “foolish.” The original meaning had a negative connotation. In the early modern age, baroque music was like punk rock; it didn’t follow the old rules.

I’m not saying that my mother, the critics who criticized the Beatles, and the people who called the new style of music “baroque” are all stupid.

My point is that all of us, someday, will reach an age when we hear new music and think of it as just “noise.” If we have a long life, we can’t avoid that. That is a symptom of aging.

Luckily, I can still enjoy the newest music. I have never reached that age. But I still feel that the music that I loved when I was young is good.

Someday, I will reach that age. In that case, I will never say negative things about new music. I will pretend that I also enjoy it, so younger people won’t make fun of me.

“The newest music! I like it!”

 

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Picture by K.Nakano

Blur

Since I’m studying the Chinese language, I watch Chinese TV dramas, which are easily accessible in Japan. A few years ago, I came across something unusual in a Chinese program. Part of the screen was blurred out, even though nothing shocking was going on.

It was a Chinese show about high school students. In the morning, the heroine woke up in her bed, and large parts of the bed were blurred out. It was unlikely that she had anything indecent in her bed, so I guessed the blurred objects were stuffed toys; maybe Mickey Mouse or Doraemon. In China, showing such things might be OK. But in Japan, they couldn’t show copyrighted goods without permission.

I remember a particular episode about the relationship between the heroine and a boy. One day, they had a quarrel because of a misunderstanding. She bought a pair of T-shirts, which I guessed each had a character from Tom and Jerry. She kept the Jerry T-shirt and sent the Tom T-shirt to the boy. At first, the boy refused to wear the shirt, but finally, their misunderstanding was resolved. The boy put on the Tom T-shirt, and they healed their relationship with the pair of T-shirts.

It was a happy ending to a cute story. Of course, I’m not sure the T-shirts really were Tom and Jerry, because the pictures on them were blurred from the beginning to the end.

I think this clearly showed that most people in China love American animation. Isn’t there a better way to broadcast this episode in Japan, though?

I also wish all relationships ended up as happily.

 

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Picture by Suibokuga Arai

Difficult Place

My wife is a runner. She takes part in the Nagoya Women’s Marathon every year. I visit the venue to root for her every year.

I asked her which point I should go to on the course. She answered that she needs support at the most difficult place. This place is near Nagoya Castle (Meijo) Park. It is around the thirty-five-kilometer point. The course is slightly uphill. That is the toughest for runners. No one lives in the park. On the opposite side of the park is a university. There are no students there on Sundays. So, there are few supporters at the most difficult point.

So, I go to that point when she runs every year. I bring some snacks and drinks to give her.

One year, I went to Nagoya Castle Park, and I was surprised. There was a booth on the course. They played music and served cups of drinks.

On the signboard was written “Red Bull.” They served Red Bull to runners.

The Red Bull company is great! They researched the most difficult place on the course. They found the most effective advertising point at this event.

Advertising must be like this. People never forget someone who helped them during their hardest time.

However, my wife doesn’t drink Red Bull except at marathon events. She drinks beer and lemon sour.

If you come to Nagoya Women’s Marathon to cheer on the runners, I have already recommended this viewing point. But the Red Bull booth only gives Red Bull to the runners. They don’t give it to supporters.　

Maybe they will give you wings.

 

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Picture by Robert Zsombori

My Recommended Chinese TV Drama End of the Beginning

My Chinese TV Drama Recommendation: End of the Beginning

 

I am studying Chinese language. I watch many Chinese TV dramas. These are easy to watch in Japan. I started to watch Chinese dramas in the 2000s. I am surprised because they are rapidly progressing.

Today, I want to introduce a Chinese TV drama I recommend, End of the Beginning. I don’t know the actual English title of the drama in your country. I don’t know if you can even watch the drama in your country.

Most good TV dramas in China are period plays. A lot of money is spent on making those. But End of the Beginning is a modern play. It is an exception among Chinese TV dramas. It is modern, but the story starts from 2000. It covers twenty-one years up to 2021 and an additional few years. The PHS (Personal Handy-phone System, an early mobile network system in Asia that was developed in the 1990s)  features prominently.

There are two leading roles.

One is An. He is a policeman with strong sense of justice. He is always fair to everyone. Even criminals start to trust him because he is an extremely honorable man. But he does not know how to get along in the world. He is not interested in promotion. He hardly ever gets promoted.

The other lead is Gao. He is a fish shop owner when the story starts. His educational background is not good. But he is a smart and brave man. One day, he is offered an illegal job. He can’t refuse. After that day, he needs to get involved in fighting between mafia groups. He always wins. He becomes a mafia boss. But he also loves his wife. And he is a henpecked husband.

This drama describes the struggles between policemen and the mafia focusing on these two guys with contrasting characters.

I was surprised when I watched this drama because it describes bribery. It describes corrupted policemen and politicians. These topics are very sensitive in China.

Ironically, a policeman’s enemy is another policeman. And a mafia member’s enemy is another mafia member. Policemen and the mafia have complex relationships.

I felt the scenarios were well thought out. The writers did a lot of research on policemen and the mafia. The drama introduces various tricks that the mafia use to corrupt ordinary people.

I heard that media regulation is very strict in China. I guess the scenario writers needed to rewrite the scenarios again and again to clear government regulations. In this case, I think it made the drama more profound.

I found some scenes of the story to be unnatural. I guess it is because of these regulations. These kinds of regulations are like taxes for making dramas in China. We should ignore them.

Policeman An and fish shop owner Gao are played by middle-aged actors. Makeup artists did a good job making them look younger and older to cover a period of more than twenty years. They are not typical good-looking guys. But they say attractive lines and act in attractive ways. Magically, I started to recognize that they are cool.

Thirty-nine episodes. It was released in 2023.

If you are looking for a good drama in Chinese, I recommend this one.

 

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Picture by Tetsuya Onoue

 

Hokattoite

Dialects are the most complex aspects of languages. My wife and I are from the same part of Japan, so usually, we can communicate easily. Even so, we still sometimes misunderstand each other’s words.

One day, we cleaned up our house. My wife put her CDs in a garbage bag. CDs once held so much meaning for our generation. When I was a high school student, I bought a CD of my favorite artist’s songs. For me, it was very expensive, so the CD was my treasure. But now, I have only a few CDs in my room. I download music or listen to it on demand.

I understood it was time for my wife to say goodbye to her CDs.

The next morning, I asked her, “Shall I dump the garbage bag with the CDs?” She thought for a while and answered me with the Japanese word “hokattoite.”

Hokattoite is a common dialect word in the western part of Japan. It has two meanings. One is “don’t touch,” while the other is “dump it.”

I assumed she meant the second meaning, so I dumped the bag. When I returned home, my wife asked me, “what did you do with the garbage bag?” I answered, “I dumped it.” She really told me off. She said, “I told you not to touch it.”

Luckily, the garbage truck had not yet arrived. My wife got to keep her CDs.

You know, language is very difficult.

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Picture by Pekamaro

Master of Karate

　The pandemic altered the restaurant landscape in my city. Japan didn’t experience a lockdown, but many restaurants closed down anyway. I felt sorry for them because I used to work for a restaurant when I was a student.

I still remember a restaurant that was open, but there were no customers. The clerks silently wiped the tables and chairs. Such sights were tragic.

Incidentally, The Karate Kid is one of my favorite American movies. In the movie, a boy wants to learn karate from a master. But the master doesn’t teach him fighting moves; instead, he makes the boy wax cars and paint walls. The boy assumes these are mere chores, but actually, they are fundamental training for karate.

It is possible to think that wiping tables and chairs could be fundamental training for karate. Every clerk who experienced the pandemic could be a master of karate. You should not fight against clerks. They might be strong.

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Picture by Mark

 

Celebrate the Birthdays

            When I was an elementary school student, my mother declared to all the family members: “From now on, we will never celebrate family members’ birthdays! Instead of that, we will have a gorgeous dinner in a high-class French restaurant once a year!”

 

I don’t recommend this. However, it might be one of the solutions to the birthday presents problem. Birthday presents become more difficult and more expensive year by year.

 

My mother became famous and busy during those days. She was popular and busy, but we were not rich. My mother was a creative woman. She invented the easy and cheap birthday present system. No one could say anything against my mother among my family members.

 

             Actually, from that day on, we have never celebrated our birthdays. Our family lost all the traditions of giving birthday presents. I started to forget my family members’ birthdays until I became an adult and left my parents’ house.

 

My mother was famous. Sometimes, she was on TV or newspapers. Prosperity makes friends. She was always surrounded by many “friends.” Once, when I returned to my parents’ house, one of the “friends” scolded me, saying, “I heard you never called your mother on her birthday. You have never given her a birthday present. You are an unfilial son!”

 

 I didn’t say that my mother started it. If you make a rule, you have to keep the rule. If you didn’t give birthday presents to a child, you would never be given birthday presents from the child, too. I didn’t get birthday presents from my parents. I have never given a birthday present to my parents either, but when my mother got Alzheimer’s disease, I lived with her for fourteen years and gave her care. After she moved to a nursing home, I visited her every week for six years.

 

The “friend” who scolded me vanished after my mother got Alzheimer’s disease. She had never taken part in caregiving. We lost contact with her. I don’t even know where she is now. If you know where she is, let me know. I have something to say to her.

 

When I started caring for my mother, I regretted that I didn’t memorize my parents’ birthdays. Governmental offices, hospitals, and nursing homes required me to fill out forms. I needed to write down my parents’ birthdays. I couldn’t remember. Hence, I had to check their birthdays every time. Because of complex reasons, my family name and my parents’ family names are different. All the clerks gave me a dubious look as if I were a fishy person. I believe caring for one’s parents is a good thing. However, most people doubted me. I almost lost my motivation.

 

Dear friends, celebrate your dear people’s birthdays. If you are too busy to celebrate your important people’s birthdays, your lifestyle is wrong. Remember, if you don’t celebrate the ones you care about, you will soon forget their birthdays.

 

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Picture by Kawatatsu