Autumn ends...

 

Okaasan enjoys autumn. :-)

What could be more perfect? A seat in the sunshine with this view, a cup of coffee, loving family members and leaves/dogs/babies/happy people?

One of our city parks yesterday was glorious. Everyone was out to enjoy the day - which may be the last warm day of the year. We walked with the wheelchair around it and saw two of our friends (Okaasan had no idea who they were, but enjoyed the feeling of meeting someone). Okaasan was happy and smiley..very little conversation - apart from observations about sunshine and leaves...and cute dogs.

It was a lovely day.

And now? It's 4.30 am Monday...and HE and I are going on a couple holiday!!!!! Camping car trip in mainland Japan....here we come!!!

Autumn windfall..

So, Dear Son finally got all the paperwork together to go along to a post office and close two of Okaasan's old accounts so he could transfer the monies into one account.
When he took over her affairs he discovered that she had multiple accounts, multiple seals for identification etc. Took a bit of time to sort it out. A fine day and time to take her along to a local post office to show that she was in agreement with closing the accounts etc.

The staff came to the counter with the print out of the accounts. Nothing had happened in them for over 10 years. All the time she had been living with us.

The combined amount in two accounts was close to what I earn in a YEAR! That kind of money. Just salted away into these accounts and forgotten.

Dear Son was stunned.

Now the money is all together in her main account.....and Okaasan is very comfortably off :-)

I bet this is repeated in banks and post offices all over Japan. The elderly who opened accounts, stashed away monies and then forgot. And I wonder what will happen to my generation, because we do so much online - when passwords get forgotten and family members don't even know what we have.

Anyway. A happy occurrence.
Autumn is really here now...the leaves are glorious. Starting to clean the garden for winter.
I've done 3 tour guiding jobs. All fun. Now is apparently a quiet season, before winter holidays start.

And WE are having a holiday! Next month Dear Son will be 60 years old. I am taking him to the mainland of Japan for a 5 night camper van trip. He loves the idea of camping cars - hit the road and stay anywhere - so we will see if the reality matches his dream.

Hi-sa-shi-buri....

Or...long time no see :-)

Thanks to Kentucky Lady for prodding me with her "Are you ok in the typhoon?" comment...to make me realize...haven't been here for a whole month!!!

Yup. Hokkaido now has earthquakes and typhoons. Really amazing. It never did before. Well, the odd shake which made everyone comment on it for days afterwards and stray typhoons that after causing destruction in mainland Japan - came up north for a rare visit.

Not in September 2018.
2? 3? typhoons...and then the big earthquake...and many many aftershocks. Last week, just as I'd stopped my daily checks of the Earthquake section of the Japan Meteorological Agency website...came 3 large aftershocks - magnitude 5 and 4 at the epicenter - and considerable shaking 100 km north here.

Sigh. A new norm.
Luckily the last two typhoons slipped south of Hokkaido and here in Sapporo it was just rain and some wind. But bad for the earthquake devastated areas.

So.
Okaasan.
And me.

Well. Okaasan is fine. I can now, guiltily report that. Because since the earthquake day when I hauled myself up 10 floors of stairs to check on her...I didn't actually go and see her for almost a month! Yes. I am that bad.
Dear Son went, of course. Once or twice a week. Took her out for walks in the wheelchair. Good son.
But me? I only actually went 2 days ago - after one month of not visiting!!!!
We drove her to a local park and walked all over it pushing the chair and looking at autumn colors and kids playing. She was mellow. Not so communicative now. But seemed happy enough. Laughed to watch the kids play. Commented a lot on the sunshine.

She also comments on any old person she sees who is walking slowly, or walking with a stick. Kind of smug comments about: "look at her, that's terrible to see old people like that, I'm not like that! I can walk....look at that..."....all the while sitting in a wheelchair and huffing and puffing when it comes to stand or walk a few steps.

She IS physically weaker for sure. Despite the day care and physical training...she is never going to walk unaided again. A year of bed and wheelchairs...all the old muscles are gone. It is sad, because she loved walking. But that fall changed so much in her life.

I guess for most elderly people it's the same. The families say: "Oh, he/she used to be so fine until that fall...that bad cold...that slip..." So we all gotta do as much as we can to keep our muscles as strong as possible.


Ok. That's the Okaasan update. As much as I can....for someone I've seen once in the past month.

Me.
Well, hold onto your hats....my life has taken a turn for the exciting...

I have got a part time job as a tour guide!!!

OMG. And all that.

It's the reason I have let family duties slip. Been busy and a bit stressed. One extra day a week of work....

But for me: a dream coming true??? I kind of think so.

It's been a bit of a dream for me, after years training tour guides and writing and advising on Hokkaido tourism. To actually be out there, in-person with visitors.

Last year the guiding laws changed in Japan, and now unlicensed people can work as tour guides under the management of a registered company. For ages I've followed a small local company on Instagram etc - because they had great pix of their tours in nature and it looked fun.
Then, in early September they suddenly said they were hiring full and part time guides. I recommended several friends and students to apply. Then...what the heck...actually: "What the fuck? I think I could do this? What have I got to lose by applying...."

So I did. Took a whole weekend of stress at the computer to rehash my resume, angling it all from education and writing, to tourism and writing. Applied...just as the earthquake hit...my interview was delayed because of the power cuts...then interview...job offer...training tour day with another guide...and...and...

I have now taken two day trip tours with family groups from the Philippines and Singapore. Driving the company car and visiting local beauty areas, delicious food...flowers, volcano, history...
Think I love it. I can only do weekends and holidays as my main job IS still English teaching. But OH WOW!!! I think I love it.

I feel it's a kind of khama too. For the long, stressy years looking after Okaasan. Now is MY time. Something I want to do. :-)

Funny how life goes...

Hi. Here we are.
All ok.
Okaasan.
Us.
Cats.
Friends and students. Neighbors.

The city....so-so.
The whole area of Hokkaido? not so good...7 dead and 30????? missing in landslides about 80 km south of here near Tomakomai and the epicenter of the Magnitude 6 earthquake that struck at 3 am on Thursday.

Huge. Biggest I've ever felt.
And this was 24 hours after the strongest typhoon I've ever felt....so two sleepless, shocking nights.

Our home and neighborhood has no damage. Stuff fell down - mainly from the Dead Family memory drawers..the pictures of his brother/father; my parents...the old cat.....the plants...

But many areas of Sapporo city are still without power and water. Roads have been ripped up. Subway and train services..and buses are stopped for a 2nd day. The airport will open...
And beyond, in the rural area south of Sapporo a lot more damage and a whole village gone under large scale landslides.


We jumped from bed at 3 am with the shaking and rumbling. One cat ran outside. The other returned very nervy about 2 hours later.
We watched TV...and then 20 minutes later the electricity went out. Only the emergency lights in the subway tunnel next to the house were on. Fantastic stars...

Many aftershocks...

We had smartphone connection at first...and then that weakened as the phone company system got overloaded. Our work was cancelled - my NHK Culture School work was cancelled by a phonecall from NHK in Tokyo...because local staff couldn't do it.

Strange day.....we helped our 93 year old neighbor....who spent ages wondering why her TV wasn't working...and why she couldn't call her family. Luckily we could call her son on the smartphone...
Helped a friend charge her ipad from my car battery...
Cut off from information really - as the rest of Japan..and then friends abroad...started seeing TV pictures. We didn't know...

Traffic lights out. Long lines at shops which were open, but dark....standpipes for water...helicopters...ambulance and police sirens. The subway line next to the house silent (today too).

Mid-afternoon I drove to a friend's home to get give her ipad charging from the car...and we drove carefully to Okaasan's care home. I climbed the stairs to the 10th floor...lights out, but they had a pump for water for toilets and drinking.
Okaasan and her friends and staff all gathered round the living room in the gloom..no TV...but happy enough.
"The weather is bad today...so there are no lights" Okaasan told me....

I stayed about 10 mins to chat brightly to them all...and then left. The care home staff were doing all they could...

Back home Dear Son and I had an impromptu BBQ because the meat in the freezer was defrosting and our cooking system is electric. So, amid disaster we are sitting in the garden in sunshine, eating sirloin steak and warm beer....

This is what happens at times of disaster....humans do seemingly strange things...because...well...we are human and life goes on...we get on with it.
100 meters away residents of the apartment were taking cooking pans to the nearby water stand in the park to get water...we offered them our water...but the park was closer...

About 5.30 pm our power came back on and we could join the disaster-watching-on-TV with everyone else. And realise how lucky we were.

helped the elderly neighbor again...get her rice cooker going..and the TV....and contact her family by phone. (Although we were impressed - 3 lots of day service/home visiting staff came to check on her during the day!!).

The aftershocks go on and on...jolts...vibrations..rattlings...

The biggest earthquake i've experienced. Even more than the quake/tsunami/nuclear crisis a few years ago - because the epicenter of this was much closer to us.

But we are lucky.
Today, maybe I have work. A Couch Surf guest may come...if his flight can land...I have Wifi...water...some gas in the car...and all-important electricity.

Onwards!