Okaasan catch up time.

Enough about me...and beaches in hot places.


How is Okaasan doing?

Basically ok.
But the bad tooth is giving her trouble and she is eating a little. Of course not helped by the fact that she took 3 days of medicines in 72 hours. But she is due back at the dentist on Tuesday, so she can get more drugs - and Yujiro can take a firm control of them this time.


Her memory is "as usual". Patchy.


*  She's thanked me for 4 days in a row for the souvenir flowery shawl from Australia - almost everytime she saw me in the kitchen she thanked me for the present.
*  She and I met on the door step Friday night. We found a pumpkin in a bag left by a kind student (Miwako is that from you?), we came into the house together and talked about pumpkins/Halloween/weather and walked into the kitchen together....I took my work stuff upstairs and came straight back into the kitchen..."Good evening!" ????????? She had NO memory of all of that coming-into-the-house-together...and was greeeting me as if she hadn't seen me all day.
However many times I see this dementia short-term memory loss in action I am STILL amazed at this. It is such a strange concept - that she had no memory of that previous 5 minutes.

*  Hula Dance. Yujiro has talked to the NHK Culture School hula teacher and that class only has a performance event one every few years. This sounds much better for Okaasan. The Culture School is in the city center and links directly inside from the subway station. Small class. Friendly teacher. When the latest round of dentist visits is over we'll try and get her interested in going.


*  Okaasan told the dental nurse: "I stopped going to the other hula class because they bullied me!".......our old friend Paranoia. Of course they didn't bully her, but Okaasan's insecurities about being able to learn the new dances transformed into a negative feeling about the group...and now she is convinced that they bullied her. Sad.


*  While she was out yesterday we did a big clean up in her room, hence 30 plus pairs of pants to wash....and various old food packets. Thankfully the pants are pee incontinence only, hasn't been any poo for a few months now....


This weekend is a 3 day holiday weekend in Japan...again. Gorgeous weather. He and I escaped to see amovie on Friday night (Glee cos we are Gleeks), and a lot of shopping, and stuff-that-needs-doing and TV and cats....and Sapporo is gripped with the news that bears have been seen in the city. In the city, near the shrine and near the library! Sadly an acorn shortage is driving the bears in search of food, and Japan always seems to have a shoot-to-kill policy when wild animals enter urban areas - so I think these bears (one cub and mother? two cubs?) will be dead soon.


Today I am going to clear out the shed before winter and go to a kids' concert called The Imagine Music Festival. The old friend who sponsored me for my Permanent Resident visa in Japan invited me. My English classroom is called "Imagine", so it is all very fitting. October 9th is John Lennon's birthday - he would have been 61 years old today...


And finally...shh!!! Look! This is flowering outside the front door! Shhhhhhhh!!!!!!