Drip....drip...

Hot and sweaty in a Japanese summer.
Luckily, where we live in the far north it isn't so hot - or so long. About a week of around 30 C....before it dips back into the usual 26C.
The Bon Festival this year actually became a real holiday for many Japanese with the new public holiday - Mountain day - last Thursday. If you got in quick and took Friday as a day off...then hey presto - you got 4 days off for a summer break.
It's always surprised me that the Bon Festival, which is a traditional time of returning to home towns and meeting the relatives both dead and alive, isn't actually a holiday from work. But this year, it almost was for many.
And for me.
I had 5 days off work. FIVE days!

And then.
The cat drama continues. He came home from the vets on Friday, with us under strict instructions of no running/jumping/chasing butterflies. Boring walks on a lead etc
We have built new barriers at home - fencing off the living room and bedroom. We have a whole system of doors open and closed - NASA and airlocks comes to mind.
Dear Son and I are team working it - who is at home, who is on cat duty.

I got out one day in my kayak to the coast and a glorious, glorious sea kayak experience to rocks and caves and water and sunshine.

And then Okaasan.

After all, this blog is meant to be about her!

It's been a hard few weeks for her too. The apartment building construction across the street has continued non-stop - only today was a holiday for them - so every day from 8 am to 5 pm...and usually longer it is noisy.

Okaasan can't manage the whole windows open and closed, electric fan on/Off, kitchen door open/closed system. Many times I've gone into her room and found it sweltering. Windows double closed. Okaasan even with the electric heated table on. Clutching a blanket!

She's been a bit odd really. Probably the stress of all of that. One day I found her heading out for a walk with a handbag inside another handbag. And inside that were SEVEN little towels and handkerchiefs.

She sits and stares at the endless Olympics on TV, or TV shopping...but gets out every day with our prompting for a walk. This summer going downtown many times by subway. That's amazing really - often 2 or 3 hours downtown. Such physical energy.

I have tried to ease her stress with glasses of water and ice creams. Keeping the room as cool as possible. Little food treats, like melon. Dear Son chats on about stuff.

But...drip drip.....early morning when I am outside with the cat in his harness and leash I sense autumn in the air. In a month from now I am going to the US on holiday AND then the Queen and Adam Lambert concert in Tokyo.

Meanwhile. Drip. Drip.

Happy 86 Okaasan!

Happy Birthday Okaasan!

86 years old today.

Doesn't she look GREAT in this picture!!!

Last night we took her out to a fish restaurant in the city fish market for a crab feast - bowls of rice topped with all sorts of marine yummyness, AND grilled crab legs.

She enjoyed it. Quietly in the restaurant. Not much chat. Really focused on the food, getting it from bowl to mouth and chasing the bits that dropped. But sweetly, finally, taking the bowl off the table and cradling it at chest level so she could get into the yummyness easily.

But - when we came out of the restaurant and I got mother and son into this jokey face board she just lit up and gave this wonderful smile :-) We should use this picture as her funeral picture as a wonderful way to remember her?

 :-)

This brilliant Oyomesan had the idea of going to this restaurant. Past years we've gone to a crab specialty place, and had a multi-course dinner in a private room.

But I thought that wasn't so great - it takes too long, it's just the 3 of us sitting a a table with nothing to talk about apart from print pictures on the walls, the waitress is kind of formal...and the food is too much.

So - I suggested the less formal fish place in the market, with a shorter service and eating time, laid back staff, things and people to look at around us while eating.

MUCH better.  I am brilliant.

Dear Son ordered a cup of sake for Okaasan. But after watching her gulp into it for 3 minutes he sneaked the cup away and hid it behind the napkin and toothpick stand on our table, and we put water and tea within Okaasan's reach...which worked well...she never mentioned sake again and stayed happy and safe throughout the evening.

He added the sake to his drinking line-up. I was designated driver.

We ordered good choices. Gave her lots and lots of de-shelled, easy to eat, grilled crab bits. Chatted to the waiting staff and even found that the waitress shares the same birth date as Okaasan! About 60 years difference in year, of course.

At the end of dinner Okaasan told me the childhood memory about her father the truck driver, who sometimes brought crab when he worked near the sea. He'd come home and she'd be allowed, as the oldest child, to wait up and have bits of crab  with him. That happy memory is still intact.

And we strolled back to the car on a balmy, summer night. Son and mother hand-in-hand. A successful night out.

Today we both have work and things to do. But I'll probably give her some flowers and snacks.

86 years and going strong.....mentally definitely weaker than when she first came to live with us, quieter, more pliable, accepts help more, needs to focus more on walking and eating, does less personal care, does less of most things.

But still walking, sitting up and down, dressing herself, feeding herself, reading magazines, enjoying TV, shopping - and most importantly LAUGHING at life!!

Happy Birthday Okaasan.