Karaoke (reprise)

Added a few more songs to my repertoire for the care home karaoke.

Last week kicked off with "My Way", then "Top of the World" and then forced Dear Son, by handing him the spare mic, to join me sweetly in the Neil Sedaka song "Close to You".

Las Vegas dates will be announced soon.

Our audience loved it. I think. Clapped along, bobbed heads, smiled when it was done.
That "My Way"...of course well known in Japan. In fact, at karaoke parties it is often the only English song many Japanese men will try. It also has a Japanese version.
But the lyrics. As I warbled my way  thru it to a room of elderly, I realized the lyrics are all about imminent dieing! "the end is near....the final curtain".

Anyway. Okaasan isn't near dieing. At all.
We've visited her twice in the past week. She is sleepy and pretty silent. But fine.
Yesterday, as we sat in the empty cafe area of the care home and hared a can of coffee she really didn't say anything, but looked from him to me and smiled, pulled faces, laughed.
Once she commented on the blue sky out the window, and twice  she appeared about to say something else - but it was gone in a moment. We prattled on about winter and snow, and can coffee companies and karaoke....

Corona Virus has arrived in Japan this week. Many more cases now, and worryingly among people who have had no apparent China contact.
We are washing our hands and hoping to stay healthy.
Of course, if either of us thinks we are at all at risk we won't go to see Okaasan, at all. For us (we hope) it would just be a week of bad sickness and then recovery. For her and everyone in that care home it could easily be fatal.



Meanwhile....here are some pictures of the winter festivals in my part of Japan.
Dear Son and I have enjoyed a rare winter of together time (he is still off ski work), so we've taken in ice and snow statues.



It's been fun to do this kind of stuff. 
I've also done a lot of teaching, a little bit of tour guiding and even the main voice of an upcoming NHK television documentary. If you see a programme about the head chef of the G8 Summit hotel in Mie. Her voice...is my voice!
It was a fun job to do, specially because there were many scenes of gorgeous food being tested and prepped. It was my 2nd main voice job for NHK. Hope to get more.

Anyway. Dear Son and I are off today on a road trip adventure. Camping car and skiing. Hopefully.
But a blizzard is coming, so we don't know how far we will go. Maybe even just our own parking area tonight, if it is very bad!
Maybe time to practice a few more songs for our next performance.

On top of the world...wooo...hoooo

Such a feelin's coming over me....
wooo hoooo!!!!

Karaoke star.
In the care home twice-a-month karaoke club.

We've been going to the Sunday afternoon club...in the staff canteen...with about 12 residents...listening and applauding performances of mostly enka - Japanese, ballads about missed hometowns, rain, bars, women who wait and snowy scenes...lost love, regret and unfulfilled lust.
All of THAT on a Sunday.

Okaasan really seems to enjoy. She claps along...we went to a concert event with two volunteers in kimono singing...and Okaasan loved that too...apart from the three trips we had to make to the toilet with her. The staff had given her an enema in the morning...and we got the results as she relaxed.

Anyway. Suddenly, the organizer of the club approached me yesterday.
Would I like to sing?
Ahhhh...my singing is best done and listened to with a lot of alcohol. Which wasn't available at 3 pm on a Sunday.
I scanned the karaoke machine for something I knew. For something this generation of audience would know...
Madonna? Maybe no.
Queen and Adam Lambert?
Disney songs?

Chose the Carpenters...On Top of the World.....
Which is how I came to be chirping along a la Karen Carpenter in a solo performance in the care home canteen. Dear Son completely refusing to help me out, even though he as a far better voice than me.....Okaasan head bobbing and swaying along.

The oldies seemed to love it...clapped along...it's a popular song in Japan...even people in their 80s have probably heard it somewhere.

I reached the end. Relief. Finished. Done.

Oh...........................da da....Such a Feelin's coming over me...

WHAT???
I'd pressed the Song Choice button twice on the machine.
Pressed by the organiser...I had to do it all a second time...


agggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am thinking of some Sinatra next time..."My Way"???

Happy New Year!

YES!!!   Still here!!!

Somehow we slipped  from 2019 into 2020 and I never even blogged about it...furiously busy actually doing tour guide work over the so-called winter holidays and hardly time to change socks.

Okaasan. Fine. Hasn't got the influenza yet. Pretty lively when we go to see her.
Not much talking...and walking is shaky.

The last month or two we (or usually Dear Son) has taken her to the karaoke group that meets in the staff dining room of the care home. It is organised by one of the residents, and usually about 10 people get together round the big TV and a few of them sing songs with　microphone.
Okaasan claims she doesn't know any of the songs, but since the average age of the group is 80 and all Japanese, it&S a fair bet that she does know them. She nods her head in time to the music, even claps...and looks happy.

So good.

Dear Son has had some health problems this winter. Not serious, we hope. But he hasn't worked so much and so Okaasan has had weekly visits from him. With me occasionally. 
Near Year Day we went and had sweetened sake and chat. The care home had decorated the walls, finally! And there was special food on the menu.

So. Onwards into 2020. The Year of the Rat!

Really I should blog more. But working life is busy with the teaching and the guiding. So I hardly sit here calmly at the computer and think about this blog. But I WILL try harder this year to average more than once-a-month blog....

Who am I? :-)

Comes a time in every dementia story when recognizing loved ones becomes a problem: the vague feeling that the smiling face is connected...but not sure who...

Okaasan's take on this was a winner.

"Who am I?" asked Dear Son recently.

"You are Japanese!" countered Okaasan.

Brilliant.

Mainly she still know us, actually...a few  times she thinks Dear Son is her brother...so all is pretty ok still.

I've been away from the family for almost 2 weeks. Had a wonderful holiday in south central Japan - driving around in a camping car to explore the beaches, forests and tiny villages. Met friends to do two days hiking on the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trails...oh...it was wonderful.
Living in Japan...but I don't explore it enough. Domestic travel used to be very expensive, and with family in the UK my holidays were locked in to the Return to Uk mode for years. 

But now, thanks to LCC air tickets...and Dear Son staying home with the cats - I could get away and have a real holiday in the country that has been home forever.

It was a great holiday. The Kumano Kodo trails in particular, now World Heritage, so there is lots of online free info to help plan. I managed two days of NINE mountain miles each day...which with my knee history was great.

Back home in Sapporo....changes are happening in Okaasan's care home..
The whole two-care-companies-in-one-home  thing finally imploded and droves of families appear to have left...presumably moving their elderly to a care home run by the old staff?
Okaasan's floor has 30 rooms. At the last count there are only 12 residents, and the old care staff - who were not allowed behind the nurse station and operated out of an office down the street - they are nowhere to be seen.

So, that is the result, inevitably, of all those angry meetings last year when the hospital/care home dropped the bombshell that they'd switched owners...and switched care companies...without telling any of the customers.
We decided to switch to the new care company...because it seemed to be the way the thing was going anyway...but many families didn't. We also didn't want to move Okaasan...she is settled there now and knows the environment and staff.

I guess she is having GREAT service now. Only 12 residents!