Spring 2026 Update

 

So. 

Happy spring. New starts, and all that.

And in fact, THIS spring we do have new starts!

I've retired (mainly), only keeping about five private students.

We bought our future home-on-wheels - a gorgeous, huge RV and we drove it from the car fitter in central Japan all the way north to our current home.

The cat is still having his kidney subcutaneous shots three times a week, and his blood pressure meds.

Okaasan is still in a hospital bed with tubes. She doesn't open her eyes recently, and sometimes has a fever and ragged breathing. We go once a week and sit with the bossa nova music on the smartphone. We hold her little rigid hands and stroke them. She will be 96 this summer.

OUR life is shifting to next stage: retirement.

I have much more free time. Although with 4-5 private students a week (online and here), plus the cat to the vets 3 times a week, visiting Okaasan once a week...there aren't actually many days with nothing.

Our new car is great. Very nice to drive. But it is longer than the old one, and here in the city it's quite a focus to drive safely. Parking areas are challenging and the very sensitive alarm system beeps furiously if I get within half a meter of anything. We are making some adjustments to inside the car to make it more homely and useful for our needs. Hopefully make some short trips soon. When we were away for 5 days to get the car from central Japan the cat stayed in the vets and wasn't too stressed - so we feel he could stay there again.

Our basic idea is that we will stay in Sapporo while the cat is alive. So, probably this year. He is good now - eating, pooping and can jump on the sofa. But kidney disease in cats is a downward path, so we know a 16.5 year old animal isn't going to live for years. And yes - I DO know about the miracle drug a Japanese scientist has developed that helps feline kidney disease. He is trying to get government authorisation for it now. It MIGHT be commercially available next year. But what level will his kidneys be by the time that is available?

We still don't feel our old cat is going to take to vanlife. Just too old to learn a new way. He's lived 16.3 years in this house and garden, and it would be cruel to rip him out of this life. So, we will stay. The house is too big/expensive for our current needs. But we will stay...for the cat.

Harsh to say it. But the cat and his emotions are higher in our thinking than Okaasan. With her, we feel that we could start vanlife all over Japan and come back a few times a year to sit bedside and play bossa nova music. It wouldn't make any diference to her. There are lots of cheap airline tickets to come back from anywhere in Japan to here. And as summers are bareable in Hokkaido, we will likely be here every summer, anyway.

But who knows? She may live another 6 months, a year or more. So may the cat. 

Practical things now. We are REALLY starting to clear out the house or stuff we don't need in either a vanlife or retired in a smaller home future. Recently I've thrown out/sold many English teaching textbooks/papers/files/office materials. Books. Old clothes. Getting rid of some old bits of furniture. 

The house has empty spaces.  My thinking is to imagine the cat dieing, us giving notice to the landlord/my remaining students and being able to start vanlife two months later. It WOULDN'T be that quick, of course. But all the exhausting work of clearing out old bookcases, clothes and furniture CAN be done now.

The same with Okaasan's death. We'll have to arrange funeral and taking her remains to the family temple in Saitama.  Probate. Have to sell the family house in Saitama. All of that will take time.

Overload of information. Lots of life updates.

2026....still here

 

Here's a nice Japanese New Year flower display.

Thanks to Okaasan's Hospital, which always has good flowers in the entrance hall - between the outer doors and the hand sanitizer spray and temperature check machine.

So. Yep. We are here. She is there. Another year.

The hospital was closed to visitors over the New Year holidays, and when we tried to visit on January 5 we found the door to the room closed.

Nurses told us that one of the stitches for the shoulder feeding tube had come loose, and the doctor was doing a minor procedure to make it ok. They invited us to wait a bit, but we decided to go back a day or two later.

Okaasan seems good. Her skin condition is excellent. She opens and rolls the eyes a bit. A little mouth moving. No response if we squeeze her hands. No fever.

"Life" as usual. 

We've just had a relaxed winter break - eating and drinking, watching Tv...a bit of skiing. The cat now needs 3 fluid shots a week for his failing kidneys. We tried to do it ourselves, but the whole thing  got far too stressy. So we've gone back to taking him into the vets 3 times a week. Thank god for am easy work schedule.

Onwards into 2026. A few changes a-coming. But we'll see...

And on and ON!

 Yup.

Okaasan is back. Or, appears to be.

Still in the room near the nurse station, but back on the once a week bath schedule. And then oxygen supply is down to 1 lt level.

Yesterday we went. She seemed ok. However she did have a few moments of extreme something - mouth opening and wincing/body clenching that didn't look so content.

One of the nose tubes had got into a strange angle and we asked a nurse to correct it. 

We sat. Hand held. Chatted. Came home.

I realised this week in one of my adult English classes, that 4 of us had parents/in laws who are over 90 years old. Some of them in care homes/hospitals, and others who are still in the family home and still walking/talking/eating etc. We all know what we should be doing for a long and healthy life - but the fact is: it's random. Probably down to our DNA.

Okaasan led a healthy eating and active life - the dance, the socialising, using her brain power. But still, by her late 70s dementia was setting in. And by her late 80s she needed a lot of care from others.

Dear Son turned 67 this week. We celebrated with beer and pizza.

I hope to get a few more healthy years out of him :-)

Phoenix like...

 Okaasan bounced back!

Supplementary oxygen is down to 1 lt, blood pressure meds are reduced again...she was probably well enough to be moved to the bathroom for her first bath in 3 weeks.

Amazing.

She looked good. Skin tone and condition. Just little nose tubes for the oxygen, rather than a mask. Regular breathing, combined with the involuntary eye opening that started last month.

Really...that's surprising. Two weeks ago we kind of thought it was the end.

A couple of readers have asked me about the supplementary feeding in Japan - I don't know exactly, but it appears that if the family chose nasal or arm tube feeding, that's only good for a few weeks. One of my students - she and her sisters chose "only arm drip" feeding for their mother and the doctor told them life expectancy was 3 weeks, at most.

Three? years ago we chose shoulder-entry point only feeding (rather than stomach, which we'd heard involved a small operation) - so that's what Okaasan is on. And once chosen,  you can't ask it to be stopped.

Non-resuscitation request means "no" to heart pumping, in the event of heart failure. It doesn't mean "no" to meds that keep the heart active.

I think. 

There is an NPO that offers guidance and a document to fill in to lay out End of Life treatment requests/preferences. I think I even GOT the initial documents a few years back. I should look into it all again. A major translation would be needed. Maybe I should pay for that and offer the results as an aide for other English-speaking residents in Japan?

Things to think about...when I'm not brain-dead in front of a Netflix drama, or holding down the cat for his SubQ shots to stave off kidney failure. Life gets in the way of death planning...

So. Onwards....not sure if Okaasan will stay in the room near the nurse station, where they closely monitor patients. Or be moved back to a regular room.

But. Really. Amazing.