We're home!

That's me! That's him! In Rio!!!!!

It was amazing, a real holiday of couple time again. The football (although he was gutted that Brazil were knocked out), the homestay, the city, the food, the sights....the obligatory pick pocketing (small amount of local money and about $800 taken from two credit cards)....

He called our home almost every day to check in with the carers and Okaasan. One of our friends also visited a few times to make sure Okaasan wasn't trashing the house. He called the vets to make sure the cats were ok.

That's what it's like to go on holiday and still have responsibilities at home...

We came back late on Thursday night. Okaasan was sleeping.

Next morning I met her in the kitchen as she was heading to the toilet. She just said "Good morning" and shuffled on. Did she even realize we'd gone? 

Later we sat with her at lunchtime and chatted. Souvenir biscuits etc She listened to our chat and only showed interest in our observations that Brazilians were really kind to strangers on public transport/that Brazilians eat a lot of sugar....because she could quickly relate that to something she knows about - "Japanese people were like that before the war"..."they all have diabetes from eating too much!".

But she didn't ask any questions: it is a feature of the dementia. A kind of wall of disconnect from things which are beyond HER own world/knowledge.

If DS came home and said a huge purple monster had ridden his bike taxi I think Okaasan might comment that monsters eat too much and get diabetes....

Day care people had left a report file. Everything was fine, Okaasan had been out sometimes when they came - but after they called her she came home quickly. She ate dinner, she chatted, she had one bath, they did a little of her laundry, tidied a little in her room.

By Day 3 she had taken down all the signs DS had made for her about "Don't Forget to Take When You Go Out"....and for several days she wasn't really understanding that we'd gone to Brazil...then she got the idea...but by the next few days seemed to think we'd gone to South Africa...then by Day 7 she was telling the calling friend/care staff "Oh I don't need help now, they came back already, they are upstairs..."

But basically she was ok.

Such a relief. It means we can take trips together. We really can. Because it WAS so great to be together on holiday, to remember who we were before care duties and responsibility.

I wonder a little if there will be a basic knock on effect of this experience for Okaasan. That we won't see immediately. She appears to have coped with a change in routine, but all of us react to stress some way. I hope not...but I do wonder.

Anyway...

Our first dinner as family again - pretty strange!

DS had booked day care for yesterday too, in case there was a travel disaster and we couldn't get back in time. So, rather than cancel it and let the woman have a probably welcome night off...he asked her to cook THREE dinners and feed us too!

He has a nerve. Really. I was amazed.

So was she. But she agreed to do it. Went and did the shopping. came back to our kitchen and while DS sat there chatting about his holiday....and I watered the garden...and Okaasan watched TV...this lady cooked dinner for us!

There can BE no better home coming from holiday than to have someone shop and cook for dinner.

She served us dinner while we sat at the kitchen table. We joked about booking her for every night. Okaasan looked confused about why this woman was here cooking for us all and we were all chatting and laughing and showing cat pictures on our cell phones etc.

It'll probably give Okaasan the final push into another stage of confusion :-)

BIG adventure begins.

For us: the first holiday in 5 years as a couple - via a New York transit to Brazil and Rio on the final weekend of the World Cup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For Okaasan: left home alone with 3 chirpy day service women coming in each day to take care of her.

The longest she has been left alone at home without us.

The last few days has been the usual pre-holiday whirlwind. Making lists. Making new lists. Worrying. Remembering "must do".
Work. Shutting up the classroom/contacting substitute teachers for other classes.
Preparing the classroom for an English woman who will stay there - her first time ever in Japan, so I had to think of all sorts of information she needs to know like trash sorting and how to operate the hotwater/telephone/computer.

And cats. To the pet hotel yesterday.

And packing.

And Okaasan's care.
Dear Son got Okaasan out for an afternoon walk so that when the day care team came at 5 pm she wasn't here to listen to conversations about dirty underpants and trash and money, and what-to-do-if-she-disappears...
Two women came, and a third came almost 1 hour later. All friendly.
DS had prepared a very efficient point by point information paper.
We sat in the kitchen with them and tried to describe our life caring for Okaasan. Made me realize how much we do now automatically. We showed them her room and where the lunchboxes and dirty pants lurk. Warned them NOT to tidy up her table and move stuff around....

Okaasan came back at 6 pm, just as the third woman was there.
She joined us in the kitchen, looking surprised at guests.
"Is something happening? Are you away? Is that it?" she asked.
Was a bit surprised to hear it was Brazil. Didn't really understand how long. 5 minutes later asked it all again.
"Oh Brazil! I haven't been to Brazil" she commented.
We said it was really a trip all about football, which she isn't interested in...

DS had prepped a laminated sign - 5 signs actually - with important information for Okaasan. 
He has taped them up in the kitchen and the entrance hall and on her door.

Reminding her we have gone and how long.
That women are coming every day.
That she should go walking and come home by 5 pm
That they will cook. Lunch is delivered as usual.
And don't forget: key/subway card/telephone.

Okaasan was in polite guest mode with the women here. She looked around the room and drummed her hands on the chair.
I was a bit shocked that the women all got very jokey and noisy with DS, and didn't keep it professional and Okaasan-focused. Finally, as I started making dinner, I TOLD them it was wrong and ordered them all with DS out into the hallway. 
Okaasan doesn't like groups of people standing in the kitchen laughing and chatting, by now she was in her room watching TV - but she could hear it all happening in the kitchen.

Sometimes...many times ...in Japan...I am left gobsmacked at the unprofessionalism of some people. It seemed so bad - to be noisily standing and joking with the son, while the client who has dementia - with all of the paranoia and suspicions of that condition - is just feet away trying to watch TV.
Okaasan had just been told that her family are going away on holiday without her for a long time. And that she needs these outsiders coming in to care for her.
She needed respect and focus. Not to be a side act while the group outdid eachother with chat and jokes.
Bad.

And to add to our tension.....Hokkaido had a BIG earthquake. Magnitude 5.2. Big for here. I've never had that size here in the 16 years I've been here. Of course the Tohoku quake was huge, but not centered here. This was just 100 km south of here.
The house rattled and rolled. The whole lavender bush was shaking. After shocks have continued all evening.

I hope our family life won't suffer shocks from this holiday and it's aftermath.

The day care team finally left.
I finished cooking and served dinner. We ate in silence. Okaasan didn't say or ask anything about what had just happened with the day care team. We didn't. It was so strange.
I feel we should talk about it in a nice upbeat way. But Dear Son doesn't...so I follow his lead. Okaasan doesn't talk about it.
Nothing like: "oh, so Brazil, where are you going? what are you doing? where are you staying?"
None of those quite normal questions.
Nothing.

Part of our essential prepping for the holiday was leaving emergency contact numbers with a friend.
If there is a terrorist attack, or a Brazilian street mugging - and we can't come back. What to do. Who to contact.

If we don't come back. Useless Older Brother will be getting a nasty shock.
His mother will become his responsibility..............

It's almost worth staging a fake disappearance. If I could get the cats out of the vets office and run away....

Over and out. I've gone.
I need a holiday. He needs a holiday.
We need a holiday.

;-)

Gone. 

1 week to go.............

One week from now I will be flying to this...

But for now, I am worrying about this..............

That damn fuki - wild celery. Okaasan bought it last Saturday. On Sunday I got her to prepare it - cutting and peeling off the rough bits. Then I alternatively soaked in water and boiled in water for days. I asked Okaasan and she told me to soak it and boil it some more.

We have been trying to use it. Mixing it with tofu, adding soy sauce. putting it in miso soup.

Isn't very nice, to be honest.

Celery farmers have done a better job at creating an edible vegetable from this wild ancestor.

The biggest problem? Okaasan has no interest in what to do next with it. This is one aspect of dementia - or at least HER dementia. She enjoys the shopping for something and brings it home.

Then puts it on the kitchen table.

Then: loses interest in it. Either can't remember that she ever bought it, or has no idea what to do with it next.

If I ask her. And I have tried an annoyingly number of times.

"Okaasan, this fuki that you bought. What shall I do with it? What is delicious? How do we use it?"

"Fuki? Where? This? This is very good for the stomach. After winter you have constipation, this helps clean your stomach out. What month is it now? This is very good for your stomach. very delicious. Use it? Oh...I forget. But it's very good for your stomach after winter....is it spring now.?.."

And so it goes.

We can't be bothered anymore. Our lives are full of holiday preparations and watching football. And something called work.

So today I have bagged up the damn fuki and I'll give it to some students. Okaasan won't miss it. And we can't be bothered.

Holiday preparations.

The day care team will come next week to consult about how to care for Okaasan while we are away. We have to make a list of info for them. We are already making little preparations around the house: extra toilet rolls in view, cleaning the kitchen so the team doesn't know I am a bad housewife...

And last night. The kind of incident that doesn't fill us with confidence a week before we go.

Okaasan went out at 2 pm for a walk - because I sent her early.

At 7 pm she was still downtown.

 We ate dinner as I had an evening class at 8 pm.

At 8 pm Dear Son got a phone call from the staff at Susukino subway station downtown: your mother is here, she doesn't have a subway card and she doesn't have any money. What shall we do? If we give her money, can you pay us back?

She's gone out without the subway pass. Then used all the money I'd given her for a going-subway ticket and the usual coffee, cakes, snacks....and then had nothing to get home.

It's exactly the kind of situation we worry about while she is in the care of the day care team.

They will come 5 to 7 pm. We hope Okaasan will take her phone/subway pass/keys/money every time she goes out. We hope she will come back before 7 pm every day.

We hope.

After I came back from work we sat and talked about it: deciding to make several big signs between her room and the front door, so she is reminded to check she has all the necessary things. Wondering whether to change the No. 1 Call button number on her phone so it rings thru to the house telephone. Wondering whether the day care team will end up waiting for Okaasan every day at 7 pm, calling her to get her to come home a lot etc

Wondering.

Gosh....I need a holiday.

Oh. Right. I'm going to get one once all of this stuff has been worked thru....

Dropping in...

Like a frog in hot water...I'm obviously adapting to my lot in life ....10 days since the last posting.

Life with Okaasan trundling along. No huge exciting, and blogworthy, dramas.

The weather has been awful, rain rain rain - kept her inside for days. I was also working a lot - got a whole rush of new and returning students recently - so not home for many evening family dinner-time. Dear Son did his duty. Planning, shopping and cooking for his mother. He is a good man - I am so lucky in this - that he is rare breed in this country of Men Who Do Stuff in Kitchens.

And coming up?
Our trip to Brazil for the final weekend of the World Cup.
We started getting into the mood for it all - with a 5 am Viewing Party in a Latin music bar downtown....got on Tv again - met various Brazilians and crazy fellow-fans.

Japanese newspapers are full of horror stories about crime in Brazil, I'm trying to balance that image (for both of us) with plenty of TV images of happy, friendly Brazilian street scenes.

Starting the preparations for escaping.

He's contacted day service minders for Okaasan's care. It'll be 3 people, who will take turns to come late every afternoon and stay for about two hours.
They will come the day before we leave for a meeting....and he isn't planning on telling Okaasan that we are going away until then....
Poor woman. Suddenly she will hear that a big change is about to happen and THREE women will come and sit in the kitchen for a meeting about looking after her. I think they should have a meeting away from home - at the city office maybe - and not in front of Okaasan. Although I understand they all need to meet her. But still, it seems it'll be stressful for her to be the subject of a meeting with 3 people.
We have to make a list of info about Okaasan and her routines and what we want the carers to do.
Basically: shop, cook, serve, chat and clean a bit. Help her to have a bath once or twice. Keep the laundry under control.
But we have to give a map of where Okaasan goes walking and her routines. Easy to do as she is always at the same places.

This is the longest time we have left her. Before this it was 2 nights. This time it will be 9 nights.

And cats: have booked them into animal hospital for cat hotel hell. ;-( 10 nights...poor little buggers. But, it WILL be air conditioned....which is better than home.

And. A big, scary AND.
A friend sent me a UK newspaper link last week - there is a massive passport office crisis now unfolding, with the governemnt admitting that recent changes in the system have led to a long backlog of unprocessed passport applications.
My passport is somewhere there: in a box in the passport office.
It went 6 weeks ago for renewal. And nothing has come.
3 1/2 weeks till we leave.....
The British Embassy in Tokyo told me "keep checking our website, and we are waiting to hear from London ourselves, but there is a chance of an emergency passport 48 hours before travel...."

Just adding to the pre-trip nervous excitement :-)

Before I forget...

I'd better update on the events of last week...before I forget, and before the next wave of headcold bleughhhhness overcomes me. Still not 100 %. Feeling bleugh.

Last Sunday, 40 mins before leaving for the airport I went into Okaasan's room and told her that both Dear Son and I would be away until "the day after tomorrow", and I gave her his letter describing this and the day service visits to cook dinner, and the cats away information.
She didn't seem too worried, and said she had no questions. Sorted thru the money I left her.
I escaped.

Outside the concert - we even got interview by a TV crew.

Y16,000 for seats soo sooo far away!

Post-concert ribs...

Our main event in Tokyo was to the concert - which was great. He sang a lot of Beatles music, both well-known and not, various Wings' songs and tribute songs to John and George. He played a variety of guitars and two pianos, and amazingly - his voice was okay. Good actually.

It was all worth the hassle and the expense of going to the big city. And, thankfully - no earthquakes while we were there.

But we also visited Kawagoe, a city about an hour from Tokyo. Had a dinner out with Dear Son's old work friends and a look around the old town with its historic buildings.

Kawagoe is where Okaasan was born. It's the center of most of her stories - her father had a haulage business, and local cabinet makers would bring their precious cabinets to him to deliver to customers in the Tokyo and Yokohama area. This is pre-war, when having a driving license and having a vehicle was unusual. The home and business was one, they had a telephone that local people would come to use. Okaasan was the oldest of a big family, she looked after the younger kids. She ran in the long grass by the river. She made underwear for soldiers instead of going to junior high school, she worked in the fields. She remembers an American plane crash landing and someone sending for the school teacher, because he spoke some English. She remembers the American soldiers driving around. She remembers the police opening and stealing food packages...and no food.

It's another world: the Japan of her childhood.

It was so strange to be THERE, at that place of her childhood. Dear Son's uncle still lives in the city, maybe his house in next to the land where Okaasan's family home stood. He isn't quite sure.

So, before the co-workers party we ambled thru the shopping area at dusk, a long, lively pedestrian street of shops and lights. We walked out the back of the department store, where shoppers were hurrying home - and stood for a few moments in the back street outside uncle's house. I wondered how much this had all changed since little Kazuko's days with the cabinet delivery business.

I felt sad that Okaasan now lives hundreds of miles away from this town - she lives in a cold place with snow and ice and darkness. She would be so happy to live in Kawagoe, never really very cold, with that shopping street and familiar place names.

But - only her youngest son was prepared to look after her when dementia robbed her of self-care abilities. And his life is near ski areas in the cold, wintery place.

I made a small promise in my heart that we should try to bring her here at least one more time before she dies. It would be a huge stressy time to do it, but I think we should.

And so. Home again on Tuesday afternoon.

Day Service had got their information mixed up and taken Okaasan for her Tuesday session. We'd actually cancelled it, thinking it would be too much for them to come to the house and get her ready without us. But somehow they did.

It gave me a moment of panic though: I arrived home and found her out. Assuming she was in the local shops I casually checked the phone GPS map and peered desperately at the map that popped up on the screen showing her location.

Where is this? Not the local shops? Where IS she???

Missed a heartbeat - and then realized it was the day care center.

Had a bit of a thing with the convenience store lunch box delivery people, who had brought Okaasan's lunch and found the house empty.

(Dear Son complained to the day center about it whisking Okaasan off without our permission and the center Manager and a staff member came to our front door Wednesday night to apologize in person - that's Japanese customer service! Then they went to the 7-11 to apologize in person to the delivery man!).

So Tuesday night the three of us gathered to have family dinner. Of course, we couldn't talk about what we'd been doing (concert and Kawagoe), because we were supposedly away working. And Okaasan doesn't ever ask us anything about what we've been doing. So it was a silent dinner.

Our life back again after the excitements of Tokyo. He and I had good couple time before winter comes and he disappears to the ski resorts.

Okaasan was fine with our absence. Maybe she didn't really remember it clearly. I commented that the day service lady had come to cook and chat twice, and she nodded vaguely and said something about going out in the day service car. 

Of course the woman hadn't cleaned in Okaasan's room - there were old food boxes and dirty laundry, wet towels etc. But for 2 nights it was fine. When we go away for a week next year they will need to do more.

And the cats? Chichi and Popo. How did they survive?

Noisily.

A bit thinner and very clingy and happy to be home. But they survived. SO friendly. Animals give love to us, whatever horrors we impose on them.

And then he and I got sick. Probably too much excitement and late nights in Tokyo. We are getting old. I got it first and now he has it. We are both creeping around in our pajamas, wrapped in blankets.

Thankfully my headcold didn't hit till after I'd done the narration job on Tuesday afternoon.

But now...just feel bleu8gh...

Trial run...

So. He's gone to "a ski association meeting". In Tokyo. A meeting which includes a lot of drinking and eating and a Paul McCartney concert.
And I am going to "an English Teachers' Association meeting". Which, funnily enough, also includes food, drink and an old guy with fake hair belting out songs of yesteryear.

And the cats are going to be stuffed in carry boxes and imprisoned in cages for FOUR whole days and nights at the local vets clinic.

And Okaasan? She stays snugly under her heated table with the TV, lunch delivery box will come, and at 5 pm a friendly lady from the day care service will come and cook dinner and chat. For two nights.

It's all a trial run for next year when we are going to Brazil for 7? 8? crazy nights of international flights and non-stop party for the football. We, the cats, the vet, Okaasan and day care - we all need a trial run of how that will be.

To be honest: the hardest part for me is the cats. They've never stayed in a cage at the vets. Popo is in and out of the vets with the wounds of many fights. Chichi went once for kitten injections and once for a wound check.
They are both going to be sooooooo stressed. And I'm going to be stressed trying to catch them and take them in the carry boxes. :-(

Dear Son left yesterday. He didn't say a goodbye to Okaasan. No point in adding "he's not here" into her thoughts just yet. He was "out meeting a friend" last night, maybe tonight he'll be "got a work meeting"...I'll probably move him to the ski association meeting by Saturday night dinner.
She is fine with her daily routine and me at the usual times.

He has written her a note: telling her that we are away and about the day care staff coming and the cats being away. I'm to give the note to her on Sunday morning, before I leave, so she can understand it all. By then it will only be "away until the day after tomorrow", which doesn't sound so long at all.

I'm in busy mode; so many things that need doing before going away. Work too - I got the offer of two narration/voice over jobs; and had to arrange the subbing teachers for classes I will miss, do Japanese homework, have a hair cut - AND try to plant out the spring bulbs in the garden before the snow comes back and the ground freezes.

Okaasan has been fine this week. Gone to day care happily. Went out and got caught in an early snow storm, I brought her home by car.
But me bad: when I borrowed Okaasan's telephone to boobytrap my classroom with beeps and alarms for a Halloween class, I set the phone onto Manner Mode - twice recently we tried to telephone Okaasan endlessly and got no answer! My fault.
Now, hopefully, it is ok.

And finally - just a picture I took in our local park on an early morning walk. Isn't that beautiful?! Two seasons collide. It looks like Narnia, that way is winter and the Snow Witch - this side are friendly woodland folk and muffins for tea...

Home Alone - Success!



From this.....east Hokkaido..



 

To THIS!!!! Home.

We are all home again - and the house is still standing. The pans are unburned. Okaasan isn't perched on the kitchen counter howling at the moon....


Our first real going-away-and-leaving Okaasan alone with outside help was a success. The day care people came and chatted and cooked. The cat sitters came and left food for invisable, terrified cats. Okaasan actually met ALL three people - so she probably had a more social time in those three days than she does normally :-)

Of course, she didn't clear away any lunch delivery boxes or dirty plates, or pick up laundry from the carpet...that is normal. But for 3 days it is ok.
She seems ok. A little tense maybe. Yesterday we took her downtown in the car, walked her around shoppings areas, took her for lunch etc. Family time.
Amazingly strange story about winter coat shopping: Okaasan thought she'd ordered a winter coat from a woman in Tokyo!
After lunch in a department store I tried again to get her interested in all the coats on sale, but she was so negative (cheap coats are no good, no - that color is bad etc etc) and surprised us by saying she was waiting for the coat she'd ordered.....
In her mind the coat shop woman in Tokyo (4 years ago) had said she was coming to Sapporo to visit, and Okaasan had asked her to bring a new winter coat....Yujiro told her that he'd been there with her at that conversation and that there was no such arrangement - the woman had just been making polite sounds about "oh, one day I must come and see Sapporo....".
But somehow in Okaasan's mind that polite bit of chat has transformed into a real promise of something going to happen...
Anyway. Coats on sale are all bad. We have to wait until autumn to take Okaasan shopping for a coat.

And.....in east Hokkaido...a terrifying speech in Japanese -

with the Mayor of that town, all sorts of tourism association people in suits, all very formal - 2 hours of utter terror...my Japanese no good at all for this formal situation - my head was kept above water by the interpreter...and then....outside in beautiful east Hokkaido...all of this!!!!!!

 

 

Home alone with sitters

Ok. About to go off for three days of fun in the snow, hotels, onsens....and oh my god - a SPEECH IN JAPANESE!

I just went in and told Okaasan that she is in charge of the house for 3 days.
Gave her the letter Dear Son wrote: it is the schedule every day for food deliveries and who is coming into the house to feed Okaasan or cats.
She was a bit surprised, of course, lots of looking back and forth at the letter paper and the calender..."what day is it now? when is this? What day is it now?" etc

But ok. I think. I left another of the letters on the kitchen table.
She said that lunchbox delivery is not necessary because "I can put rice and egg in a pan and cook it up for myself"...and I told her that the lunches were ordered for now, so talk to DS about that on Saturday....don't want to get into THAT topic for now...I have the burned pans in the garden shed trash box...

Gave her money for incidental shopping.

Ahhh. Hope she is ok.
Hope the cats are ok. After a few hours of nervous over-excitement they are now curled up (uncharacteristically) together on the bed...I have left all the notes and instructions for the cat sitter.

Classes are covered by another teacher.

Speech is printed out and here in my bag.

Wooly socks and warm gloves at the ready for cold east Hokkaido.

Ahhh......I AM looking forward to this really. I want to see east Hokkaido in winter and meet lots of interesting tourist business people. I've been doing Trip Advisor since 2004 and have loved it. Now is a wonderful chance to have some real enjoyment out of that effort.

Charisma is packed.
Okaasan - YOU are in charge!

(god help the kitchen pans.)

Planning for "away"

Next week Dear Son and Dear Oyomesan will be away working.
Okaasan (and cats) will be alone for two nights and a long day.

Since I haven't yet managed to train Chichi-cat in the art of cooking tofu and miso soup we have to get in help to feed Okaasan and check on her mental condition.

Yesterday the day care manager came to talk to Dear Son and Okaasan about that. I wasn't there, but DS reported later that Okaasan was a little surprised, but accepting, of the fact that a stranger will come into the house and cook her dinner. Lunches will be the usual food delivery service.

We - well I probably - will leave out the instant food mixes and the tofu/vegetables and rice boxes, it'll be easy for the carer to come in and put it together late afternoon....and give Okaasan some chat.

The longest we've both been away until now was a night and a long day....Okaasan was ok, but we kept checking by phone and she survived by leaving everything scattered all over the kitchen and not washing anything up. And sounded a bit sad. But survived.

All the stuff on dementia says that sufferers don't do well on change of routine, so we hope that these food delivery and 2 carer-visits will be ok for keeping Okaasan in a good frame of mind.
I remember a student's story about her mother a year or two back. The sister was the main carer in the family home, but when sister was away on holiday my student when into the house every day with dinner.
On the second or third night she found her mother very distressed and confused and crawling around the floor in a mess etc....

SO hope we don't end up with THAT!

Now to get Chichi to focus on the tofu and soup recipe...I'm sure I can train him up enough for next time.

Day 7. Rescue....zzzzzz

I'm not doin' it alone anymore.
He's home from the "ski instructors' meeting in Tokyo", and even remembered to buy a box of cakes made in Okaasan's birthtown Kawagoe. What a Dear Son!!!

He got back just in time. I was exhausted. Still am. Somehow, knowing that rescue is at hand makes the last 24 hours harder.
Okaasan was fine, to be honest. But I was having a busy work week, and what with the weather and the cats and all the other bits of life....shattered.
By the time I got home and got dinner on the table I was almost incoherent. So good to have him chatting along all jokey.

How did Okaasan feel about his week-long absence this time?

Well, in the morning I mentioned that Dear Son was due back around 4 pm.
"Oh? Isn't he back yet?" she said vaguely looking at the calender...

And when he arrived at the door he didn't have his key, so he rang the bell. Okaasan came into the hallway asking: "Who's there?" and opened the door.
"I'm back!"
"Oh, you aren't upstairs?" she replied.

;-)
So, Okaasan not really stressed this time about his absence at all really!
Last year she was more aware of his absence and asked about him several times. Not so this time. Good really. Shows she is basically ok with me looking after her.
And the mystery doorbell ringer didn't make an appearance either.

So. His holiday is over. Before work start at the ski resorts (opening this weekend in Hokkaido!!!), he has important stuff to do. 
Change the car tires for winter. Number 1.
Fill out all the paperwork from the city office for DAY SERVICE. Number 2.

And! Apparently I read the paperwork wrong. Okaasan's level is higher than I thought - meaning even MORE care/service is possible. ;-)
There are two Low Support service levels or 1 and 2, and then the 1-5 of actual Needing Care ranking. Okaasan is Level 1 in the second stage.
Excellent.

And. More good news: yesterday was my final day at the physiotherapist for the latest knee drama. My left thigh muscles are now so super-strong I can maybe do ski jumping on one leg....please come back if you have problems...but continue the exercises at home.
Good.
Now I can get onto the next health problem - I've reached the age where it is all falling apart - next is this potential polyp in my stomach. I need the stomach camera and I've found a hospital where my student swears they will knock me out senseless before forcing tubes down my gullet.
In my working week I don't have time for more than one Japanese hospital wait-for-hours routine - so now the knee is super-strong it is time to move to the next problem....

And. It is a long weekend. Three glorious days of no work. I need it. Rest time. This week was tiring. I need to get energy up for the whole Christmas/End of Year....and I need to ski.....ski ski ski ski....

This is a video of Niseko one of our famous ski resorts earlier this week. Some guys from a local company went up to enjoy first runs in a deserted ski resort with no lifts working. Oh.....look at it...look at that powder....oh....