BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (X Kyrgyz：Bishkek to Osh -2/2-)
(Installed on 2016/12/23, No.41)
Photo:Watermelons sold on the roadside in Osh.
He got a ride on a Audi sedan and set out to Osh beyond the mountains on June 14th. Whether he paid for the ride or not is unknown.
The photos of Osh are fewer, too. Dates of the photos show he got on a bus to China on June 15th arrinving at Kashgar the next day.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (X Kyrgyz：Bishkek to Osh -1/2-)
(Installed on 2016/12/23, No.40)
Photo: Taken in the lodging at Bishkek. The notebook with back covers on the table can be the diary which never returned to my son after lending it to someone.
The photos of Bishkek starts with that of a young family of the lodging he stayed. There are a few photos of the town and all the rest of the photos, which are not many, either, are taken inside the lodging.
Highlights of sightseeing in Central Asia being over, he must have been reactionarily stagnated on top of general fatigue that accompanies an overseas trip.
I remember I heard that while they stayed in Tashkent, Mr. O worried about my son's late rising and his repeated advices became nuisances to my son and, finally, my son yelled at Mr. O to stop mothering him. It is possible that he was in poor health as he had been occasionary so in Japan before.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (IX Kyrgyz：Altyn-Arashan -3/3-)
(Installed on 2016/12/15, No.39)
Photo: My son in a hot spring bath of Altyn-Arashan
The lodging he stayed was very likely VIP TRAVEL. So I judge from a photo I found over the net. The photo showed the bathroom of VIP TRAVEL which looked the same with the one my son bathed in.
He looks relaxed there cooking in the kitchen and playing with little children of the lodging family.
The bathroom, that can be locked from inside, looks very much like Japanese one but the big tub, where hot water flowing directly from the hot spring source, occupies most of the room and you can't wash your body with soap there. It damages the whole hot water in the tub.
He stayed two nights in Altyn-Arashan and left for Bishkek on June 7th,staying there for nearly 10 days and then moved on to Osh, China and Pakistan.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (IX Kyrgyz：Altyn-Arashan -2/3-)
(Installed on 2016/12/15, No.38)
Photo: The long view of the hamlet of Altyn-Arashan
Altyn-Arashan is an isolated spa only known to the people who want such a place. I myself didn't know the name until I heard it from my son when I asked him to repeat it.
My son may have visited there a little earlier than season. Very few people can be counted in the photos. In the photos uploaded to the net, we see several tents pitched in the village. They must have been taken in season.
There are even more buildings there. I woner if the place has been gradually developed since my son visited there nearly ten years ago.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (IX Kyrgyz：Altyn-Arashan -1/3-)
(Installed on 2016/12/15, No.37)
Photo: My son onto the way to Altyn-Arashan
His night bus from Tashkent may have been bound for Bishkek, the captal of Kyrgyz, where he changed to a Ford van which took him to Altyn-Arashan on June 6th. There are photos, perhaps, of Lake Issyk Kul(Issyk=hot Kul=lake)that were taken through a car window on the way.
He stayed over night somewhere on the way but there is not a photo that hints his overnight stop.
The Ford van seemed to have started carrying several passengers other than my son but they all got off on the way except one young backpacker.
After a roadside market which may have been a regular stop for the van, the passengers were only two backpackers including my son.
After the stop the photos become different. They are all very vivid in colors. So are those that were taken even under the cloudy sky. The vividness may show the place is in hight altitude with the very clear air.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VIII Uzbekistan：Tashkent -4/4-)
(Installed on 2016/12/12, No.36)
Photo:The statue of Timur and my son.
Tashkent was the place for him where he had a rest and restored his energy for the following journey. The date of the photo, which tallys with what he told me, shows he left Tashkent by night bus on June 3 and entered Kirgiz the following day, He was in Uzbekistan for 13 days, out of which he spent one week staying in Tashkent. I gather he took time because he needed the rest in order to recover for keeping on his journey.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VIII Uzbekistan：Tashkent -3/4-)
(Installed on 2016/12/12, No.35)
Photo:My son keeping a dirary(?).
There is a photo of my son who looks like keeping a diary on a large sized notebook. His diary, he told me, was rent to a Japanese tourist when he was in London as the tourist wanted to keep and read it for a few days.
Sadly, he never returned it to my son. I deeply regret that the diary is not at my hand. I don't mind who he was but I want it returned even now.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VIII Uzbekistan：Tashkent -2/4-)
(Installed on 2016/12/12, No.34)
Photo:Dishes on the table at the B&B.
In Tashkent, foreigners were told to stay in three-star or more-star hotels but they were naturally expensive. So, my son and his friend stayed in a kind of B&B. They issued a certificate of stay which looked very cheap.
The lodging was an apartment in a condominium which was occupied by family relatives. In the apartment was an old man and in every evening other relatives called on him to pay their respects and dined together.
My son and his friend were taken to a police station
At the B&B the guests were told to come back before dark in the lodging. But one night, my son and Mr. O stole out from a window and unfortunately got a police checkup. They were taken to the police station. Mr. O had a shaven slick head then and my son blamed Mr. O that his slick head brought such a disaster but it was too late.At the police station they were asked where they were staying. They managed to elude the queries, taking advantage of not being able to speak Uzbek language. They know the police men wanted a bribe but they didn't. During the questioning, when "Oshin," a Japanese soap opera became the topic, they all livened up. Meanwhile, a superior officer of the office came in and by his direction, my son and Mr. O were released.
My son got drunk on Vodka
In one of other nights, they joined a group of young people of the town and went to a Russian bar. Somehow, the people of the town were refused but my son and Mr. O were allowed to get in. My son, heavily drunk on Vodka, went to a rest room before no one else noticed. Mr. O, finding my son was missing, sought him outside around the bar with other guests. Return to the list
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VIII Uzbekistan：Tashkent -1/4-)
(Installed on 2016/12/12, No.33)
Photo:Barok Hon Madrasasi
His photos in Tashkent, which means a town of stone, starts with the one dated on May 27th.
He took a rest from doing the sights in this city. There is Barok Hon Madrasasi in the old city area but he seemed not to have paid a visit to this building.
There are photos of a park full of green trees, State Museum of The History of Uzbekistan, the inside of his lodging, the people of the lodging and a young Japanese named Mr. O whom he might have made friends with there? Years later he visited my son in hospital coming from distant Tokyo.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VII Uzbekistan：Samarkand -3/3-)
(Installed on 2016/12/1, No.32)
Photo:My son against Sher-Dor Madrasah
My son seemed to have liked Sher-Dor Madrasah most. There are photos of the building, including a panoramic one, taken from one of the minarets of Ulug Beg Madrassah, of a grand facade and of himself standing against the facade. He looks sturdy and has a beaming look tanned with the sun, betraying he had used to the journey.
He visted Tashkent after Samarkand. The photos taken beween the two places are those taken inside of a moving car, at a railway station and insede of a train.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VII Uzbekistan：Samarkand -2/3-)
(Installed on 2016/12/1, No.31)
Photo:My son and a staff against the golden ceiling of Tilla-Kari Madressah. The camera must have been placed on the froor.
Tilla-Kari means gilded and the inside of the building is actually plated with gold. The circular golden ceiling looks like the inside of a dome but actually it is flat.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VII Uzbekistan：Samarkand -1/3-)
(Installed on 2016/12/1, No.30)
Photo:Sher-Dor Madrasah viewed from the top of one of the minarets of Ulug Beg Madrassah.
According to the dates of the photos, he moved from Buxara to Samarkand on May 26th by bus or by hitchhiking.
The photos of Samarkand begin with a long view photo of the town in the center of which are taken Registan Square and its three madrassahs (madrassa is transliterated in several other ways like madrasah, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, etc). It is taken through a windshield of a car moving on a road. The place seems the only place of his sightseeing in Samarkand.
The three buildings around the square is Tilla-Kari Madressah in front of the square and, as you face Tilla-Kari Madressah, Sher-Dor Madrasah is on the right side of the square and Ulug Beg Madrassahon on the left.
Sher-Dor means a lion is drawn. Islam forbids idolatry but lions are exceptionaly drawn on the arch of Sher-Dor Madrasah.
Ulug Beg Madrassah is named after Ulug Beg, a grandchild of Timur(Tamerlane). There is another madrassah in Buxara with the same name but built earlier.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VI Uzbekistan：Bukhara -3/3-)
(Installed on 2016/11/20, No.29)
Photo: Mir Arab Madrasasi and Kalon Minaret
In Bukhara he did the sights of the historic area(the old city area), where he visited Ark(fortress), Kalyan Mosque(Masjidi Kalon) and Minaret, and Mir Arab Madrasasi(Mir-i Arab Madrasah), etc. There are no photos of him taken with other people.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VI Uzbekistan：Bukhara -2/3-)
(Installed on 2016/11/20, No.28)
Photo: Mir Arab Madrasasi
Judging from the time recorded in photos, it took him about 17 hours to reach Bukhara. There are two photos taken while moving but none of them was taken in the car nor through a window pane. It seems he stayed overnight in Bukhara.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (VI Uzbekistan：Bukhara -1/3-)
(Installed on 2016/11/20, No.27)
He moved from Khiva to Bukhara on May 24th. How he moved is unknown.
Photo: Ark
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (V Uzbekistan：Khiva -3/3-)
(Installed on 2016/11/15, No.26)
Photo:My son in Pakhlavan Makhmood Mausoleum(self timered photo?)
The minarets, domes and mausoleums tiled in blueish color are beautiful even on small photos. My son must have had some emotion that he really came to the place he saw only in books in Japan. He looks relaxed and he looks he has got used to the journey, too, in the photos he is posing with other sightseers happened to be there or alone by himsel.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (V Uzbekistan：Khiva -2/3-)
(Installed on 2016/11/15, No.25)
Photo:Itchan Kala viewed from the Islam Khodja minaret
In Khiva, as a matter of course, he did the sights of Itchan Kala. Itchan Kala means the place inside of a castle wall. I learned it while trying to identify the photos my son took. It has been listed as a World Heritage site.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (V Uzbekistan：Khiva -1/3-)
(Installed on 2016/11/15, No.24)
Photo:An outside view of the wall of Itchan Kala. He must have been excited finding himself at the site.
He left Aktau in Kazakhstan and entered Uzbekistan on May 21st, 2008. His photos show he got off the train somewhere and hitched a ride to head for Khiva.
The photos of Khiva begin with those that show he visited and even stayed in someone's home. Was it the home of someone who was in the car with him? There are photos of a middle aged couple, a young man who resembles the husband and a little kid. The dates of photos show he stayed in Khiva for two days.
Title
(Installed on 2016/11/14, No.23)
We received an invitation to new wine of this year from Azucca e Azukko addressed to Tomohiro, our deceased eldest son. I thank Mr. and Ms Suzaki for sending him the invitation.
I don't drink but my son could drink. He was a qualified sommelier and had a wealth of knowledge of alcoholic beverages, too. While he had been under medical treatment we visited Azucca e Azukko and their vineyard a few times.
The vineyard was in the distant place from the shop but we visited it each time we visited the shop. When we visited the shop for the first time Mr. Suzaki willingly responded to our request and drew us a map to the vineyard.
We visited the vineyard in March first. Grapes were still asleep then.
When we visited it in August, big and heavy clusters of grapes were hung from the vines. The vineyard, which was in the midst of deserted hills, was with only insects flying around. We had to wisk the horse flies away as we got back into the car.
Photo: Back view of my son walking along the vineyard
I won't forget that happy and sweet memories of our visiting and walking around the vineyard with my son. It had an atomosphere of a fondly-remembered scene already then.
TROUBLES ON MY WINDOWS10 DESKTOP PC
(Installed on 2016/11/12, No.22)
I had been away from writing a blog for eleven days since Oct. 30 on accout of a trouble on my Windows10 desktop pc. It started with a slowdown of responses which gradually got worses.
I checked viruses, spywares, Cortana, startup programs, Windows services, etc repeating rebooting many times all in vain. The pc finally began to freeze as it was connected to an ethernet. I suspected that it was caused by a hitch brought about into the mother board or into Windows10 by the latest automatic update of Windows10.
So I refreshed the pc with installing Windows8, which I owned, then upgraded it to Windows8.1. Installing and updating Win8 took one full day, and upgrading it to Win8.1 and updating it to the latest revision took another full day. Luckily everything finished successfully and I'm writing this.
I will never upgrade present Windows8.1 to Windows10.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (IV Kazakhstan -3/3-)
(Installed on 2016/10/31, No.21)
Photo: My son at a local home he seemed to have been invited to.
He stayed in Aktau for two to three days.
After Aktau he set out to Uzbekistan, a country rich in historic remains.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (IV Kazakhstan -2/3-)
(Installed on 2016/10/31, No.20)
Photo: My son after bathing at the Caspian Sea
The next day he moved to Aktau on the Caspian Sea by train.
After all, he traveled across the country from east to west along the boundary to Kirgiz. It seems that Almaty and Shymkent were the towns he incidentally existed on his way to the Caspian Sea.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (IV Kazakhstan -1/3-)
(Installed on 2016/10/31, No.19)
Photo: The face monument and my son at Tsentralny Park
After staying one night at Qorghas in Urumchi, China, he entered into Kazakhstan on May 12th. He came to Central Asia at last.
In Urumchi both Chinese and Isramic buildings were seen but no Chinese buildings in Kazakhstan. He moved westward by bus, so judged by photos, along the boundary to Kirgiz, stopping at Almaty and staying overnight at Shymkent.
While waiting for a bus to Shymkent, he walked around the town visiting a park, the central market, Zenkov Cathedral, etc. At Shymkent he visited the park where there was the monument of a Mig fighter, a mosque with the golden dome near Ordabasy Square, Tsentralny Park, etc.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (III China -3/3-)
(Installed on 2016/10/24, No.18)
Photo:My son at Genjo Sanzo-in temple
Genjo Sanzo is the neme of a priest known to Japanese through The Journey to the West.
He went to Urumchi from Xi'an by train, then to Kazakhstan by bus by way of Qorghas on May 12th. That is, he stayed in China for twelve days.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (III China -2/3-)
(Installed on 2016/10/24, No.17)
Photo:My son at one of the pits of terracotta army.
He went to Xi'an from Shanghai by sleeping car.
In Xi'an he seemed to have enjoyed doing sights of the city and its outskirts.
He visted Terra Cotta Army, Watchtower of City Wall, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Small Wild Goose Pagoda, Famen Temple etc, and also a restaurant for guantangbao, too.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (III China -1/3-)
(Installed on 2016/10/24, No.16)
Photo:My son against the buildings of Shanghai
Getting visa to India and having warmed up for backpacking during ten days in Seoul, he moved to Inchon and got on board a ferry to Qingdao, China on April 4th.
He arrived at Qingdao the next day and got on a bus to Shanghai successively. He had taken five photos in Qingdao. They were all taken at the bus terminal. It seems that he didn't have time for sightseeing.
The terminal was crowded and he found it very hard to buy a ticket to Shanghai. Luckily he happened to be with a stout Swedish backpacker who dared to push their way forward and they successfully got their tickets.
He stayed in Shanghai for two days but he seemed not to have done the sights of the town. There are only a smaller number of photos, some of which were taken in the city and others at the harbour.
I suppose he felt out of sorts not having been trimmed yet for backpaking rhythm.
I'LL COME BACK HERE BY MYSELF NEXT
(Installed on 2016/10/17, No.15)
One summer, all the families of my brother and sisters including mine had a long drive to Tottori in order to attend a Buddhist service for my brother in law. On our way back home we did the sights of Mt. Daisen. We had a break at a tourist spot called Masumizu, where a rocky peak of the mountain was seen close. The peak rose against a boundless clear blue sky. The sight overwhelmed us with its majestic appearance and even made my eldest son say, "I'll come back here by myself next." Unfortunately, ten and a few years later he died without realizing the wish.
Somehow, his words remained in my memory and, after he's dead, they became the words of his regret. Mt. Daisen is located beyond one-day drive distance from my place and you need to be prepared to come back there. However, I had wanted to realize his wish some day and could do it before the first summer Bon since his death.
Unfortunately, the two days we visited the mountain were cloudy, perhaps influenced by an approaching typhoon. A precious opportunity seemed to be spoiled. But luckily, when we arrived at the spot in Masumizu, the clouds partly cleared and that majestic peak showed itself as if to greet my son. I raised the photo of his against the peak and called to him, "Here you are again!"
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (II Osaka to Korea -2/2-)
(Installed on 2016/10/14, No.14)
Photos: The bedroom he stayed.
He told me staying there didn't look hazardous but now I sympathize how he must have felt helpless. We have no further information where he stayed other nights. Only he left us photos of a clean-looking room, too.
While staying in Seoul, he met the Korean young man again whom he became acquainted with on the ferry. He was kind enough to guide my son to the noted places in Seoul as well as take him to his home. His family gave him a warm reception with Korean dishes. When alone, he idled away time watching commemoration events accidentally held in the city at that time as well as visiting the campus of Seoul National University waiting for the visa to India to be published.
He stayed in Korea for ten days. We got in touch with him then and were surprised a little to know he was still in Korea. I feel sorry for him now for not perceiving how he was feeling alone there. I understand now he needed those days during which he encouraged himself to move on forward.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (II Osaka to Korea -1/2-)
(Installed on 2016/10/14, No.13)
Photos: The common shower room.
He started his solitary journey from Korea. He got on board a ferry bound for Pusan at Osaka Port. He must have picked up the most economical route to China. He made friends with a few young men on the ferry. His only plan in Korea was to get a visa to India.
Arriving at Pusan early in the next morning, he moved to Seoul and hung around the city until evening when he looked for a lodging. Seeing a big hotel on top of a hill, he thought he could find an economical one for him near the hotel. He walked up an alley toward it through shabby wooden buildings when he was called out "Young man! Young man!" by an old woman. The call only sounded so as he didn't speak Korean. He made her understand that he was looking for a lodging and she led him to one as shown in the photos. She asked him what else he wanted. Nothing else he wanted and stayed there without meals, either.
ENGLISH AND I
(Installed on 2016/10/12, No.12)
Photo: The opening ceremony of the International Student Conference I participated. The man in the white circle is me.You may find something else about my life concerning English after high school in the blog on Oct.3rd.
As an elementary schoolboy(1950's) I was often taken to movies by my father. Going to the movies seems to have been his only pastime. The theater was always the same. It was the only theater in the city that showed foreign movies at that time. I remember I saw many western films. I don't know why but I still remember the name of a character in one of them, Ray Kincade(sp?).
A year or two later, I began to go to the theater by myself. I had become acquainted with the old bicycle keeper and once he had given me a free ticket. Every movie theater had a large bicycle parking lot then. It seems that I became interested in English later because I frequently saw Hollywood movies in my early days.
As I entered junior high I started to listen to "NHK Radio Enlish Conversation" and it lasted through high school. Also, I started to attend an English conversation class held on Sundays at a Catholic church in the city. I started these training induced by a friend but it was not he but I who gave oneself to learning English through life.
In high school days I attended another English conversation class held at a protestant church near the school, to which my younger sister atteded with me, too. I only wanted to practice Enlish and didn't care about denominations. However, the American missionary named Russel Stellwagon from Mississippi treated me as if I was a member of his family. So was his wife Hannelore(sp?), too.
BACKPACKING ABROAD OF MY SON (I)
(Installed on 2016/10/9, No.11)
Photo: My son in Kharakhorum mountains. Mt.Shishpar(7611m) is showing its peak over the peaks at upper left in a blue rectangle. The expanded peak from a different photo he took is at the lower right corner.
Let me write about my son's backpacking a bit in detail. I write this as part 1 of a series because I want to trace the path he had wended, connectiong photos with fragmentary accounts he told me while he had been under medical treatment.
When two years had passed in university, he started saving money for his backpacking journey abroad. I suppose he stopped attending classes at that time. So I suppose because he didn't tell us what he was doing. He was living alone in an apartment and the communication between us was almost ceased. In April the next year, with money he earned he set out on his backpacking. He told me fragmentarily during the last three years before he died how he had made up his mind and what had his journey been like.
Many of his classmates went abroad to study. He was stimulated by them and wanted to go abroad by himself in some way, too. He happened to see then the photos of historic buildings in Central Asia. The photos made him decide to go and see them in person. He had heard the way of going to Europe by the Trans-Siberian Railroad. But as a lover of history since boyhood, he chose the Silk Road Route to go through.
He must have been busy preparing for the journey for some weeks before the departure. That is, he hurriedly set out on his journey leaving the procedures of his apartment vacation as well as of taking years' off school behind him on us. I gladly remember now with deep emotions that we could help him even with such chores.
My wife told me she went with him to buy a backpack, but he didn't tell her nor me about his journey in detail. I couldn't wait and asked him just before the departure about the itinerary of his journey. The reply was a simple list of countries and a rough time he planned to be at London. The countries were, Korea, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, India and Turkey.
It was too rough a plan to me. My concept of an itinerary was the list of entire dates and places one would stay. I was more than ignorant about a backpacking. Or, I didn't know what it was at all. I swallowed the worries and made up my mind to see him out only with best wishes. I thought it's father's duty, too, to be prepared for the worst situation, although I couldn't imagin it clearly.
STUDYING ABROAD WAS A DREAM
(Installed on 2016/10/3, No.10)
Photo: I had it taken at the farm owned by the mayer of a city located about 300km northwest of Melbourn. The mayer was a friend of my ham friend.
As a college student, I wanted to study abroad but it was far beyond my economic power. I was told that I needed about three million yen for one year to study in US. The salary then for college graduates was less than 30,000yen. I worked part-time to pay my college expenses during vacations for 700yen per day. It was an impossible dream to be realized.
Though I couldn't study abroad, I joined a club called International Student Association and enjoyed preparing for international student conferences together with member students consisting of those from several colleges in the area. After graduation, I got a license for radio amateur and kept on communicating with overseas hams in English.
My first trip overseas was to Australia, where I traveled from Sydney through Perth visiting ham friends. I stayed a few days in each ham's home. They were salaried workers, a pensioner and farmers. One of the two farmers had a plane. They all gave me warm receptions.
As I had such a way of life, we had many overseas visitors to our home, too. An Australian ham and his wife, whom we are still in touch through mails and skype, visited us and stayed in our home a few times.
Two of my four children, the eldest and the second sons seemed influenced more than the other two by such family environment. They wanted to study abroad like I did but I couldn't afford to pay their expences and so they couldn't, either. So, they both gave up studying abroad. But the eldest, instead, planned a backpacking journey to overseas countries and carried it out. The second son, joined an Englishy speaking club while in college and kept learning English even after graduation, estimating his ability by TOEIC scores. Learning English wasn't something he had to do in regard to his job but it must have played a lot in his character building.
Gauche Questions
(Installed on 2016/9/29, No.9)
"What are you doing everyday?" and "How much is your pension?" are the questions I have been occasionally asked since retirement. They are gauche questions!
The first question should be asked to a proper person other than me. The questioners betray their real intension in their eyes, like "Your free time must have been killing you?" or "I envy you don't have to work." I respond to such questions jokingly like "Eating and sleeping." But to tell the truth, I am busy everyday.
There are many things I have to do. I have done a lot of things so far, too. During the following year of retirement, I was busily occupied all through the year with the work of a managerial position of the neighborhood association. During the second and the third years, my eldest son's desease got worse and we were busy and exhausted attending on him.
Besides, I have been taking my share of daily housework. When I find I'm free, it's D.I.Y. time during which I build, repaire and maintain various things. My D.I.Y. have covered from the small to the big, some part of which are shown in "D.I.Y. WORKSHOP." The photo shows my work desk.
The second question is typically gauche. Questioners may be innocent and are not conscious that they are poking their noses into my purse. In such occacions I pretend I fail to hear the question or, when I find the situation needed an answer, I respond like, "We live on a few thousands yen a day."
I Regret I Didn't Share The Distresses Of My Son
(Installed on 2016/9/26, No.8)
There were occasional periods he didn't go to school, I took him on one of those days to my workplace. He obediently accompanied me with a satchel on his back. He watched a video movie while I worked. He remembered he came to my workplace a few times. (The photo was taken when he was in the first grade. He, in the front. The youngest son and me in the rear. There was a reason for his gloomy look which I only know much later.)
In his middle school days, too, he repeated nonattendance to school. My wife and I worried about him a lot. One day, I managed to spare time and took him to a movie. The movie was about a boy of fifteen who stopped going to school. In a helpless situation, he sets out to Yakushima island by hitchhiking to see the Jomon Cedar Tree. The boy overlapped wity my son. Tears repeatedly filled my eyes during the movie. I could weep my heart out helped with the darkness of the theater. Coming back home he reported to his brothers that I was weeping all through the movie. I thought the movie helped me see the inside of his heart but I was wrong. I knew it later.
He told me what he remembered about his nonattendance to school. He was about 2.6kgs in weight when born but soon grew bigger. He said he felt his body was too big as if it wasn't his. He couldn't manipulate hands and legs as he wanted. There were boys who made fun of his big body and clumsiness. School life were bleak. He didn't tell parents and teachers of his troubles. He had no idea to do. He only stayed home.
In middle school, especally when in the second year, he felt the ideas in his head were incoherent. Life was meaningless. However, in the next year, suddenly the ideas began to be connected to each other and they became meaningful. It made him have a clear image of what he had to do.
I had a fixed idea that children could grow like I grew left alone. I couldn't imagine he had suffered such distresses. I regret I couldn't share them with him. A very thoughtless father I was!
The Victor of Life
(Installed on 2016/9/23, No.7)
When I was about to retire, an older man to whom I was indebted for helps and advices I received, gave me well-wishing words. He said, "Aim to be the victor of life." The words lingered in me but years have passed without my giving enough consideration to them. When I wrote about the season of life the other day, the words crossed my mind, too. Now I think it's time to put my thoughts together.
Life is not a match with someone and so, to aim the victor is a simile. In life we encounter many and various troubles and nuisances. They can be deseases, broken hearts, failures in business, accidents and disasters, or/and losing someone among your friends or families. On top of them, there might be that you be bedridden or get senile dementia.
We keep on living overcoming them. You have to fight against such difficulties. But the substance of such fightings is not a fight with someone but your encouraging your own self. There might be the case of fighting with someone but it should be temporary, not permanent so that you can pull yourself together and get back to your destined life even when lost. Otherwise you lose life. Isn't life most important?
Aiming to be the victor of life can be attained by overcoming troubles and nuisanses you meet one after another until you come to the end of your life. You can't stop it on the way unless you be bedridden or get senile dementia. With me, who take life as I have mentioned above and is in the middle of the season of life, to make efforts to keep good health is equal to overcoming troubles.
My deceased son was a man of irregular habits. Young as he was, he didn't care much about his health. However, I gather he was the victor of life. Even when the condition of his disease turned fatal, he never gave up but was positive to receive operations for improving his physical conditions. He was positive because he wanted to get chemo resumed to kill cancer and get back to his work again. He never complained about his bad luck, either. He was calm. I appreciate he was calm all the way while he was under medical treatment. It was the way in which he proved he was highly filial. He had a presence of the victor of life in his sickbed.
So far is my understanding of what the victor of life is.
One Son Returned But The Other Didn't
(Installed on 2016/9/20, No.6)
When my eldest child was in the sixth grade, we made a family tour around Hokkaido by car. It was a training tour for our future overseas tour in a motorhome. We tried to get used to an outdoor life eating out during the tour. We arrived at Otaru by ferry first and came back there to get on a ferry again to come back home. In Hokkaido, we drove to Shiretoko by way of Asahikawa and Daisetu-zan, turning back for Otaru by way of Kushiro, Obihiro and Sapporo.
We came back home safely but had one accident during the tour. It happened at Akanko Lake. We parked the car and walked to the lake on a gently descended path. After a little while, we noticed he wasn't with us. I had been utterly unprepared for such a situation. Why didn't we check the numbers of people? I regretted.
We searched for him both on the ground and in the water along the lake shore. We couldn't find him. Time passed in vain. I thought I should try different places. I traced back the path to the car. There he was! He was almost crying squatting down by the car. It happened as he jumped out of the car and dissappeared behind the car to urinate. He was too quick for no one else to notice him disappear. Lucky we were that he didn't try to look for us. We checked people each time we got off and got in the car after visiting Akanko Lake.
Our family life of six continued thereafter for more than twenty years as if it was a matter of course. But it wasn't. Our eldest son died after carrying on a struggle againt cancer for three and a half years. I was quite upset when the second son dissappeared at Akanko Lake, but we were only luchy then. We got him back. With the eldest son, he gave us time for me not to upset though, passed away never to be back to us, I felt I was left alone helpless in a wasteland, miserable and desolate.
The photo is taken during the tour at Noboribetu Hot Spring. Far right in front is the eldest son and far left the second son.
Father Didn't Know It
(Installed on 2016/9/18, No.5)
The photo is my eldest son(deseased) and his elder sister.
My eldest son had atopic darmatitis and so are his elder sister. Such disease causes itchy skin that has to be always taken care of. My wife and I had tried every possible things in order to mitigate their symptoms. But their suffering and distress were graver far more than my grasp. I knew their real burden only after he told it to me.
As his cancer got worse, he stopped working and started his life under medical treatment, during which we talked over various things we didn't touch on before. One of the topics was about his getting up late. It wasn't caused by his halfhearted way of living. I was wrong. It was caused by itchy skin which brought the rise of his temperature, a physiological consequence we have as we fall asleep. He could fall asleep only after he had endured ithcy hours every night. He always lacked sleep. Too late but I was very sorry.
The Rejected Shot of My Only Daughter and Me
(Installed on 2016/9/17, No.4)
My only daughter entered a university in a distant prefecture. Not only at the occasions of matriculation and graduation but also at a few other times, my wife and I visited her, and enjoyed sightseeings, too.
Once I drove her to her apartment as I had business to attend at a place beyond her university. It happened to be a back to school season. We had a break on the way at a big park constructed at the foot of the Seto-ohashi Bridge. It was the first time I drove with my daughter alone and I thought it was a good opportunity to take a photo of the two together. However, to my dissappointment, she rejected. I couldn't see why. Maybe, I was too innocent to the psychology of a nubile daughter? In the photo taken at that time, I'm alone against the bridge. It is the rejected shot of my daughter and me.
It was the only chance that never happened later. Only I walked with her side by side at her wedding.
I won't go home. I wanna stay here'n keep on playing.
(Installed on 2016/9/15, No.3)
One day, we went on an outing to the riverside. On the way home, as was judged we had enough time to spare, we dropped by a small park by the bank road equiped with swings, seesaws and a slide. No body else was there and my children could monopolize them. My wife and I enjoyed watching them enjoy playing.
After a while, as the sun was declining, I told them were going back home. However, my eldest son instantly rejected. I was startled with his words. He said, "I won't go home. I wanna stay here'n keep on playing." Other children said nothing, or I don't remember anything else in particular. They all played enough I thought and I wondered what had made him say that.
He was characteristic in various aspects. He grew tall(183cm) and big foot(30cm shoes size). He was atopic skinned but he never scratched on the skin. He experienced school refusals but when he was in the third year, both in middle and high schools, he was roused to a different person and dispelled the worry about proceeding to the next stage. He renounced his right to a national university and entered a private one, after a hot dispute with me.
About one year after entering the university, he left home and lived alone in an apartment. Communication between us was dying. After sophomore, he set out on a backpacking, heading for London by way of Silk Road. He visited more than twenty countries along and around the road by bus or hitchhiking. Coming back, he graduated from the university. It was seven years after matriculation. The photo, in which he is, is taken on Aug.2-3,2008 at Hama, Syria.
After graduation, he passed the qualifying examination of sommelier and was training himself in cooking but died of cancer when he was 29 years old.
(I'll be writing more about family affairs and his life against cancer, taking possible opportunities.)
Putting Yourself In The Person's Shoes You Are Speaking To
(Installed on 2016/9/14, No.2)
I have been using a bruxism protector for about a month. It's a mouthpiece that covers the whole upper teeth. It had been left unsued for nearly ten years because I couldn't stand putting it on. It was supposed to be used while you are asleep. But it was almost a sleep blocker. It tickled me on the gums and caused a lot of saliva. My dentist warned me each time I saw him saying, "You're breaking some of the teeth by nocturnal grinding." Or, "Your teeth are broken. Your chewing force is too strong." However, they were the warnings for the sake of warning because nocturnal grindings were out of my control and, who else in the world could sleep with a sleep blocker in his mouth.
Then why have I started using it? Well, I have a sister who is ten years older than I am, and recently I heard she was greatly tormented with the split in of one of her teeth. The news reminded me of the torture of a toothache as well as pains you get during the treatment. Also, the enlarged image of slightly cracked teeth which my dentist ostentatiously showed me vividly came back. I knew I was loosing my strength and so I was with my teeth, too. Such were the reasons of my surrender.
The hurdle I had to overcome was the difficulty in wearing that sleep blocker. Asking my dentist to make me a softer(if any?) mouthpiece was one option. But being a D.I.Y.enthusiast as I was, I first tried to find a way on my own. Associated with a mouthpiece, I recalled my son wearing dental braces on his teeth. I remembered he was wearing it for a long time. "That's it. That's the way worth trying." I thought. You have to get used to it. You have to practice using it. So, I started practicing.
The same old physical responses came back. It tickled and caused saliva. But I practiced during the daytime. You didn't have to sleep. I repeated the practce at certain intervals. Perhaps helped with possitiveness, the strong tight feelings gradually faded, lingering only about the front teeth. Saliva decreased, too. I ventured to go to bed the following night with the mouthpiece on. I could sleep! I had a new toothache all aroung the upper teeth, not strong though, but I bore it. The pain died away, too, in a few days.
I understand the dentist's warnigs. However, as I mentioned at the beginning, they were the excuses to me to justify he had done his duty. He lacked compassion for his patient with which I could have protected my teeth years earlier. Anyway, I have been using the mouthpiece now and I'm glad.
They say a valuable lesson can be learned from the mistakes of others. Well, I had a habit of scolding my wife highhandedly, which often led to unneccessary quarrels. But viewing your own objectively is very difficult. I was innocent until my daughter told me to stop it. Now, when I ask her to stop or correct doing something, I have been trying to put myself in her shoes. It's been successful and our quarrels decreased. Honest!
The Seasons of Life and The Season of Life
(Installed on 2016/9/13, No.1)
In Japanese, the seasons of life and the season of life are quite the same in writing. So, this English version is not a simple translation of the Japanese version. Passages about ambiguity are cut and it is differently composed.
So far, I have read the blogs of others, not writing mine. I made up my mind to balance the reading with the writing. I had better be fair before it is too late. To start with, I write someting in regard to the title above.
I picked up this title because I only realized recently that I have already stepped into the winter and my spring, my summer and my autumn are gone before I knew. I had innocently moved on forward every day not being conscious of the winter. Even now, when in good health, I have an illusion that I am in one of the former seasons except spring(I have the sense of modesty).
I remember I realized the season of my life as I was sorting old family photos one day. It started suddenly. Something deeply disturbed my emotion and I couldn't stop it. My eyes were filled with tears. The feelings lingered on a while. I yielded myself as I was alone there. The feelings were the same with those I had for my eldest son who died later. They were the feelings for the lost. Painful sorrow mixed with fondness for what you can never get back.
Well, so far about the seasons of life, let me add a little about the season of life. Winter is the season of life. It is what a writer said in a newspaper column. I'm sorry I don't remember who he was. He said as spring is the season of love, winter is the season of life. That is, winter is the season in which you put your life into the final form. It is the time you are aware of your responsibility for your life. Yes, I agree with him. But it seems very difficult to carry it out.
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