ESSAYS IN ENGLISH

Writing something in English is a challenge for me.

So let's try!

CONTENTS

☆　My Short Autobiography                                                 ☆　Strangest Dream I've Ever Had　

☆　The Life of Takejiro　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　☆　Bunraku

☆　Caravaggio　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　   ☆　My Soccer Memorial Day

☆　How to Recover from Feeling Down　　　　　　　　　☆　John Lennon's Memorial Day

☆　Mini-Retreat?　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　☆　Discrimination

☆　Sometimes Dreams Teach Me Some Important Things   ☆　The History of Oshima Island                         

☆　Animation                                                                        ☆　When I was a kid

☆　Zoos                                                                                ☆   If people were more compassionate toward the elderly

My Short Autobiography

I was born in Osaka City, the second largest city in Japan. I was a child who loved reading books. I used to get lost in the imaginary world of my books. For me it was difficult to differentiate the world of the book from the real world. I was a teachers’ favorite child. I preferred to be alone but I could get along with other children. I always belonged to a main group in a class even though I didn’t want to.

When I was in high school, I met my best friend. She and I were classmates and her desk was in front of mine. When we started to talk to each other, I noticed she was completely different from other friends I’d ever met. We were born on the same day. We talked a lot about everything, such as our dreams, the issues of the world, books we read, the Beatles, family, religion, the meaning of life etc. I loved to think a lot about abstract issues and I was very unstable at that time. If I hadn’t met her, I wouldn’t have survived that sensitive age.

I didn’t pass the entrance exams of universities except for one, which was far from my goal. I didn’t like studying so I decided to go to that university. That university was for Buddhists. My parents were Buddhists and I was taken to some temples when I was a child. However, i actually had no knowledge about Buddhism.

“What am I here for?” has been my biggest question since I was a child. When I first read the Priest Shinran’s words, “Even a good person can be saved, not to mention a bad person must be saved.”, I felt relieved because I could believe I would be saved. At that time I felt guilty about people who were suffering from many things because I had everything, family, love, health, stable life etc. even if I was not a good person. So I sometimes donated money to orphans’ organizations.

After I graduated from university, I became a government officer of Osaka City. I learned a lot through the jobs I had there. When I became a director of the Cultural Division, I had a chance to learn how to manage organizations including helping my team/staff develop/improve. I also learned that every experience I’ve ever had has been essential for me.

Now I understand the world is beautiful and filled with love even if it sometimes doesn’t look so. The shape of love has a lot of variety. If we find our real highest selves and believe in the strong connection between the highest self and the universe, the world becomes more simple.

Now I am retired and spend every day relaxing. I have a dream. To tell the truth, I don’t worry about it. Of course it is better if my dream comes true, compared to a poor result. However, I know the process of approaching the goal is much more important. To continue the journey towards the dream and experience a lot is the true joy of life.     

Strangest Dream I've Ever Had

When I was in my early twenties, I had a strange dream one night. That was a dream of "Spiritual Enlightenment".

I was in a dark cave with some load on my shoulder. The cave was very large and many people of all ages and both genders were there, bearing some loads on their backs.

I don't know why, but in this dream all the people in the cave had to achieve spiritual enlightment until the settled date and the deadline was almost coming.

I was very hasty because I had no idea about how to approach the awakening. i looked around at other people and understood that everybody was in the same situation as me.

Suddenly I noticed a young man sitting with his back against the wall. He closed his eyes with a peaceful smile and he didn't have any load.

Just then I understood that he must have the answer . i rushed to him and begged him. "You know the answer. Please tell me what is awakening."

He smiled at me but didn't say anything, Then he stood up and began to walk. I followed him and some people around us followed me.

He stopped in front of narrow stairs and started to climb them up. I chased him and found that we were in a lofty building. At the end of the stairs, there was a large room with wide double doors on every wall. As they were opened, i could see wide views of outside.

The man, standing in front of one door, pointed to the view from the door. I walked to the door and looked at the view spreading out beneath my eyes. It was spring. Trees were in bloom. Birds were singing. Green rice fields were spread and their tops were nodding in the breeze.

The man wrote an poem and handed it to me. It expressed the view itself in front of me.

Suddenly I completely realized what he was showing me!  "Yes! I got it! "

The man smiled at me and I smiled at him.

A piece of cloud appeared in front of us. He walked on it and faded away in the sky.

This is the strangest and most impressive dream I've ever had.

You may want to know what was the answer I got in that dream.

It is difficult to explain exactly.

What I felt this was the enlightment in that dream is "Let the world be as it is and just accept it as it is. Let myself be as I am and accept me as I am." 

The Life of Takejiro

This is a true story which was introduced by a TV programn.

More than 200 years ago, in Edo period, there was a man, who bore a baby. His name was Takejiro. The government at that time left a record of him.

Takejiro lived in Edo, nowadays Tokyo. He made a living by selling fish. Because of his good looking and pleasant attitude, many women wanted to buy fish from him.

One day he was pregnant. It sounds strange, however, the fact was full of sadness.

Takejiro was a woman. Her original name was Take. Since she was a child she had been feeling uncomfortable about her gender. After her parents died, she left home and moved to Edo as a man. She had been wearing men's clothes and men's hair styles. She changed her name Takejiro, a man's name, from Take.

One day one of men in her neighborhood had noticed that Takejiro was a woman. That man had threatened her and raped her.

Because of her pregnancy, everyone around her knew Takejiro was a woman who had been pretending to be a man. They blamed her and turned their back on her.

The Bugyosho, a kind of police in Edo period, arrested her one day, because she had corrupted public morals. She had done nothing illegal. She just had done what she wanted to; to be a man.

After she had benn allowed bail, she hadn't stop wearing men's clothes. She had been arrested three or four times. At last she had been exiled to Hachijojima Island where political prisoners were sent to at that time.

According to the record of Hachijojima Government branch, Takejiro had been lived there as a smith and died there in the middle of thirties.

Maybe she was so called "trans gender". She could have chosen easier way of life, however, she always had been following her inner voice. That's why the government had feared her and tried to isolate her from others.

A person who has strong will and can judge by his/her own idea is difficult to be manipulated by any powers.

I don't know if she was happy or not, however, the fact that she had been still living as a man in Hchijojima was her answer.

Bunraku

Have you ever watched "Bunraku", the traditional puppet theater of Osaka? 

Like many other Japanese people, I used to think Bunraku was boring, because "Tayu", the narrators, tell the stories in an old Osaka dialect, which is difficult to understand even for modern Osaka people. Moreover, one play-or-performance usually takes four hours including short breaks. That's too long!

However, when I watched the scene "Terakoya~at the private elementary school" five years ago, I was moved so much.Since then my opinion of Bunraku has completely changed.

The story of "Terakoya" is very complicated just like other Bunraku stories.

Matsuomaru serves Shihei, however, he respects Shihei's rival Kanshojo and wants to quit his job. One day Shihei trapped Kanshojo and the emperor got mad at Kanshojo and expelled him to Kyushu from Kyoto.

Shihei also found out about Kanshojo's seven-year-old son, Kanshusai, who was hiding in Genzo's "Terakoya", the private school. Shihei ordered Genzo to kill Kanshusai and show him the boy's head.

While Genzo was worrying about what to do, a strange woman with her child visited his school and asked him to teach her son. Genzo looked at the boy's face and accepted her request. After this, she left soon.

Genzo decided to kill the boy in place of Kanshusai. Soon two men from Shihei's house visited Genzo to receive Kanshusai's head.

One man of the two was Matsuomaru. Genzo showed them a boy's head. Matsuomaru looked at it and closed his eyes for a while and said. "Yes, this was Kanshusai. I certified this." Genzo was surprised at his words, however, he was really relieved. The two men left with the boy's head.

Then the dead boy's mother came back to the school and asked Genzo, "Was my son helpful as a substitute of Kanshusai?" Matsuomaru also appeared and said "How was our son's last attitude?"

They sacrificed their only son to save Kanshusai, who wasn't Matsuomaru's master's son. Genzo was surprised at this fact and grateful to them from the bottom of his heart.

He answered to them. "Your son was just smiling at me and said he was very very happy because his life was usuful for his parents and others." Matsuomaru shouted. "Oh, well done, my boy! That's my son!" His wife was only crying. They left from the school with their son's body.

I was also crying with parents' puppets and I got angry. Why should their child have been sacrificed for Kanshusai? Why did the poor boy accepted his death?

The story was too unreasonable, too ridicurous and too absurd for me, but at the same time it was very sad and beautiful story.

Most of Bunraku's stories were made in Edo period, more than 300 years ago. The society at that time might be filled with unreasonableness, unfairness, unjustice and unnatural things. People might get angry, cry, endure, give up and accept them, while they were watching "Bunraku".

After watching the scene "Terakoya", I became interested in Bunraku and wanted to know about it more and more. Since then I've sometimes visited the Bunraku Theater.

Caravaggio

Have you ever fallen in love with paintings?

I have. One of the paintings I really fell in love is "Bacchus" painted by an Italian painter, Caravaggio.

I saw this picture for the first time more than 20 years ago at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. I couldn't move from the painting for a while. It was very captivating.

Bacchus in the painting was a young man with a boyish face. His black hair was decorated by bunches of grapes and leaves. His black eye brows were curving like two arches and his eyes were a little drooping. His pink lips were plump and thick. He was wearing a long white sheet baring one sholder. His left hand was holding a big beautiful wine-glass filled with red wine. And there were some fruits in a basket and a bottle of wine on the table.

He looked like an innocent good looking young man if I didn't notice his look, which was very impressive. He looked like he was trying to appraise us calmly and he also looked like he was temptating us into his world - epicurism.

I couldn't keep my eyes from his eyes, however, I felt nervous and restless.

I didn't know the painter's name, Caravaggio, so I bought a poster of "Bacchus". After that I read some books about Caravaggio and visited some museums in Europe to see his other works.

Caravaggio was a short tempered person and had a lot of fights with others wherever he visited. He killed a person and he was arrested and was kept in a jail, however, he escaped from it. He died of illness when he was 37 years old.

As a person he was a hopeless wild fellow, however, the many troubles in his private life never affected the quality of his paintings. People at the time loved his dramatic and immpressive works.

I really fell in love with "Bacchus" and at the same time I was scared of his captivating eyes.

My Soccer Memorial Day

I like watching soccer.I remember the day I fell in love with soccer clearly.

I was a highschool student.

One day, I watched a TV program which was rebroadcasting the World Cup Soccer final match in 1974, West Germany VS Netherland.

Although I had already known about soccer through my boy classmates playing during lunch time, I couldn't believe the players on TV playing the same sport, soccer.

I was shocked and moved. They looked like not sportmen but also artists. I hadn't imagined people could play so freely and so fluently without using hands.

Afterward I found that that match was very special because two of the best players abiding in soccer history played as a key player of each team.One was Franz Beckembaur who was called "the Kaiser" and the other was Johan Cruijff, named "the Flying Dutchman".

Even though I hadn't had any knowledge about soccer at that time, I noticed they were completely different from other players. Especially Cruijff's play amazed me very much.

In the middle of the game, I noticed one small German player who tried to stop Cruijff playing freely. His name was Berty Vogts. He seemed to have less skill than Cruijff and in fact he lost the Flying Dutchman again and again. However, he had never given up. Whenever Cruijff had left Vogts, the German stood up again and began to run to catch up his target.

At last Cruijff looked fed up with his chaser and lost his concentration little by little. In conclusin West Germany beat Netherland with 2-1 score.

Since then I've been a fan of soccer.

How to Recover from Feeling Down

During quarantine of COVID-19 it is easy to lose mental balance. I have some ways to recover from feeling down.

For example, going back to the innocent world makes me always feel warm and melt my tension.I have some books which I read again and again, especially when I feel blue. They are books for children. Many of the characters in these books are very pure, truly childlike. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they are wiser than adults and they know the value of “love”. While I’m reading them, I always feel like I am surrounded with perfectly innocent and beautiful things. They heal the invisible wound of my heart. I stay in this world for a while and wait until I can recover to face the real world.

 These days I’m strong enough. However, I used to be more sensitive and easily hurt by someone’s casual words. I closed the door of my heart, stayed alone, and read these books again and again. I thought that was a kind of retreat from reality and I felt guilty at that time. Now I understand these activities are necessary to protect myself and feeling down is very natural as a human,I don’t need to think of myself “weak.” Even though I have accepted my sensitivity, I still read children’s books when I feel down.

Watching videos of baby animals also makes me cheer up, especially kitten videos. They are very cute and melt my heart. They look so innocent and lovely that I can’t stop smiling even if I am tired or feel bad. I’ve never taken care of cats because their lives are shorter than ours and it is too sad to lose them. Watching cat videos posted by someone is better for me.

Meditation is another method to get over feeling down. It helps me calm down and not hurt so easily. During meditation I sometimes notice that I pretend like I am a poor victim. However, that is not true. I’m not a poor victim who is hurt by someone. I myself choose and enjoy that role. I shouldn’t blame my feeling on somebody else. I create that feeling by myself. Once I realize that, I stop feeling sorry for myself and start to think about why I am hurt. Sometimes I find that my stupid pride is the reason. Sometimes my lack of thoughtfulness for others and their feelings makes me feel as if no one understands me. Meditation helps me  learn about myself.

Playing video games is good for relaxation, too. To tell you the truth, I am addicted to them. I know they aren't  good for my eyes or my health. However, I can’t stop playing them. Since I am retired, I don’t need to go to work, so I always tell myself, “Now let’s enjoy relaxation time!” 

These are my ways to recover from feeling down. I think they are good except for the last one.

John Lennon's Memorial Day

December 8th was the 39th anniversary when John Lennon was shot and killed in New York in 1980. His wife Yoko Ono said on that memorial day, "Over 1,400,000 people have been killed by guns in the U.S.A. since John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8,1980. "

I wonder if he had lived in his home country, of England where having guns is restricted, would he be still alive? I don't know.

It is difficult to give up things we have once we have them, such as money, rights, status, posessions, guns and weapons. On the other hand, there are people who don't have these things, even though some of them really want to.

It seems that the world is filled with unfairness. Is there something we can do about this situation?

I think the first thing we can do is to be aware of unfairness, when it happens, how  it happens and why it happens. Having an interest in unfairness and avoiding supporting it may help to change the situation.

Second is to keep our own peace of mind. I believe peace in the world is based on peace in our minds. If we can keep our mind peaceful, we will be able to be more tolerant of each other. I think one of the ways to keep our mind peaceful is to stop listening to others' opinions, believe in ourselves more, and love ourselves more. Because we have great wisdom in ourselves, we should use it more.

I know there is a disparity between the ideal and the real, however, if we don't do anything, nothing will change. We should do what we can do, even if that is a very small thing, the attitude of doing something is more important than whether we do big or small things.

I like John Lennon's song "Imagine", especially these lyrics.

"You may say I'm a dremer, but I'm not the only one. I hope you"ll someday join us. And the world will be one."

I agree with him from the bottom of my heart. 

Mini-Retreat?

I stayed in a hospital last week. I had an adipose tumor on my right back and had it cut.

I stayed in the hospital for a week. First I imagined these days would be boring, however, I enjoyed them actually. If I hadn't been in pain, it would have been like a mini-retreat.

I stayed in a private ward. I didn't watch TV. I didn't browse any internet sites nor play computer games. I didn't do any house work, such as cooking, cleaning the rooms, washing clothes etc.

What was I doing while in the hospital? I was reading a book, which I had stopped reading to keep 400 pages unread. I read it up! I was listening to an audio book of Harry Potter in English. I was looking inside myself, looking at my feelings, my hopes, my fears, my abilities, my limits which I made by myself and so on. I wrote down what I noticed.

I noticed I have too many things. Maybe I will be able to get rid of the things I don't need. I noticed every problem is just a challenge to help me improve and grow. So I shouldn't judge it as good or bad. I should just beleave in myself and do my best. It is a must for me.

I noticed I hadn't had enough time to listen and talk to myself. My interests were always out of myself and mixed up other problems with mine. I have my problems, my challenges. Others have their own problems, their challenges. I should concentrate into myself, my challenge.

It will take some time to recover the surgery. However, I think I had a good time in the hospital. No experience is meaningless even if you have some pains. 

Discrimination

These days I have some opportunities to think about discrimination because of some knews, such as attacking Chinese or Asian people for Corona Virus spreading, racial discrimination chants in soccer games etc.

It is easy to say we shouldn't discriminate against anybody or anything, however, I wonder who has no such feelings. I myself have some kinds of biased thoughts.

Why do we discriminate against others? I think there are several reasons.

First, fear or hatred againt people with differences from ourselves, such as colours of skins, religions, races, cultures etc, cause us to have feelings of discrimination.

We are taught at school, diffeences are individualities and it is important to respect each feature. Maybe many people will not show their discrimination against someone openly. However, once some dangerous things happen, such as terrorism or Covid-19 pandemic, people start to express their hatred openly. Even though only few people were terrorists, this connects to all Muslims. Fear makes us open and obstinate.

Second, rulers and governments sometimes use people's dicrimination agaist minorities. When people have a lot of complaints against rulers or governments, these governments try to let people's head turn away from governments' own domestic failures. Using citizens' discrimination against minorities is a useful deception tool for politicians. It is easy for them to control citizens by separating them or isolating them.

Third, many people need some people who are lower than themselves in order to protect their pride and their confidence. Because we are social beings, we cannot live alone and when we live in a society, we start to compare ourselves with others. If we lived alone, we wouldn't think that we are superior to someone or we have less than someone. If we feel "I am the lowest in the world," how can we survive? That's why we need to believe there are some lower people.

I have discriminated against some people. I know some kinds of fear which I don't want to face, which creates is discrimination.

So whenever I notice these feelings in my mind, I have to face myself.  

Sometimes Dreams Teach Me Some Important Things

Some people say dreams are messages from our subconciousness. I agree with that because I have had some experiences with dreams that taught me very important things. I will tell you about one of them.

I was in my early twenties at that time. The dream started as a story of two famous historic men in the sixteen century.

One man was Nobunaga Oda who was almost unified the whole of Japan for the first time. The other was Mitsuhide Akechi, Oda's important follower, who betrayed Oda at the end and lead him to kill himself.

Oda was a very strong and clever but a short tempered person. Akechi was reburked for his way of dealing with things by Oda again and again in public and he had been enduring this for a long time.

One day Oda reprimanded Akechi with a loud voice as usual because he prepared the wrong sized dishes. Oda started to insulting him in front of many people. Akechi was listening to his master's words in protesting silence. 

Suddenly a voice sprang up inside himself; "That's enough! I can't stand it anymore!" Akechi decided to kill Oda. He drew his sword and tried to stab Oda.

Then the dream changed scenery unexpectedly. Oda turned into my mother who was washing clothes and Akechi became myself, holding a small knife in my right hand standing by my mother.

I tried to stab her abdonen, however, I was so upset that I stabbed her with my left hand, which had no knife. My mother noticed what I tried to do. She stared at me with her eyes opened. Then she told me calmly. "It's not too late."

I understood what she meant. She said this because she didn't want me to commit matricide. She didn't think about saving her life. She only thought about saving my life, my future. What she meant to say was, " It's not too late because you haven't killed anyone yet. You shouldn't become a murder."

I was thinking about my future for a few seconds. I was sure my mother wouldn't tell anyone about this. Ever. I would not be arrested. No one knew what I tried to do except for my mother. Yes, except for her. She wouldn't be able to forget that her daughter tried to kill her. We might live together as if nothing happened between us. However, I was sure I would see her fear and doubts of me in her eyes and attitude again and again for the rest of her life. That made me crazy and living unbearable.I decided to kill her. I stabbed her with the knife in my right hand and she fell down in front of me.

Then I woke up. I was really relieved it was just a dream. I learned two things from this dream.

First, at tha time I had been feeling I was being suppressed by my mother's scoldings. However, I understood she scolded me because she loved me. Her only wish was my happiness. Even now it's a little bit difficult to accept her way of thinking, her way of life, however, I have never doubted her love for me.

Second, I realized that anyone can be a murder. No one is born as a murder. It's only good luck or bad luck that devides us ordinary people and murders. We have all the ability inside ourselves. How to use our potential is up to us.

When I was young, I was so unstable and sensitive and I think my subconciousness helped me to see different ways of thinking to survive through these kinds of dreams.

This is why I agree that dreams are messages from our subconciousness.

The History of Oshima Island

Last year I visited Setonaikai Islands to see the Setouchi International Art Festival, which has been held every three years since 2010 in many Setonaikai Islands.

This is the third time for me to visit this event and this time the most impressive thing was not their arts but the history of Oshima Island.

Oshima Island used to be designated as a nursing home for victims of Hunsen's disease, which was actually a quarantine facility for the patients of the disease from other citizens. In 1907 the law for prevention of Hansen's disease was established to isolate the victims of this disease from others and patients were sent to the national sanatoriums by force. There were 13 facilities in Japan and Oshima Island was th only place that the whole island was a sanatorium.

There used to be over 700 patients in this small island. Once a person was sent to this island, that person couldn't escape even if he /she was cured completely. When a woman became pregnant, she was forced to have an abortion.

In 1996 the law for prevention of Hansen's disease was replaced and in 2001 the national government duty of the compensation for the violation of patients' human rights was admitted.

I read the news of this judical decision at the time, however, I didn't understand what it meant exactly before I visited this island and saw how the victims used to live there. If I were them, I'm sure I couldn't survive even one year because my pride as a human would be denied.

People of Oshima have participated in this art event from the first time in 2010 because they wanted to let visitors know their history. "One picture is worth a thousand words."

I'm very embarrassed because of my indifference. These days we are surrounded with a lot of information, including some that is fake. I should be open, but at the same time check it's importance carefully..

This trip to Setonaikai Islands gave me a good opportunity to learn the shadow of our history. 

Animation

I like animation very much. It sounds a little childish for a sixtyfour-year-old woman, however, compared to books or live-action movies, I think the balance between imagination and visualization of animation is just right for me.

I like reading books. While I'm reading I use my imagination a lot. I imagine a girl's decayed milk tooth or a stain on an old yellowish table cover or a hoot of an owl in a dark forest.

Sometimes what I imagine is far from what the author discribes. For example, when I watched the movie "The Brothers Karamazow", I was very surprised because the scene of Rossian tundra area was for beyond my imagination. It was so huge and desolate that I understood how this land affected people.

Another example is before I saw the first Harry Potter movie, I couldn't imagine what Quidditch, an imaginary sport in the book, was like.

On the othe hand, live action movies are sometimes a letdown for me. When the actors' or actresses' own personality is too strong, it is difficult to empathize with their roles in these movies. When their performance looks unatural, I also cannot immerse myself in the movie's world.

Talking about animations, I think its degree of our free imagination is the one between books and live action movies. They are realistic enough but we can still apply our imagination to their pictures. Moreover, compared to normal actors and actresses, voice actors and actresses don't have their own images. They always support  their roles' personality.

This is why I like animations.

When I was a kid

When I was a kid, I imagined an adult would have more knowledge and capability to deal with things, especially difficult things. Of course that is not true. I'm over sixties years old and I still don't know a lot of things and how to deal with them, especially related to human relationship.

 When I was a child, I imagined that when I become an adult, I would be a more perfect human. This never happened to me. All I know is that I don't know anything at all.

What have I been doing for more than fifty years? Can I say I am a good role model for children and young people? Unfortunately, no. The only things I can offer to them are my experiences including good and bad, successful and unsuccessful ones if they ask me to do.

If I were to relive my life one more time from the beginning, could I change my present life dramatically? I don't think so. I'm afraid I would do similar things to what I've already done because I believe all my experiences are essential. In other words, I think i had to go through some wonderful or bitter or stupid experiences because they taught me what I had to learn in order to improve myself.

Everybody has some kind of milestone experiences in their life. He or she may think, "What if it didn't happen?" or "What if it did happen?". However, he or she has already chosen something and that's why that experience became a milestone event in their life. There is no other choice because that experience is essential for the person.

My life will continue a little more. Some things that I didn't imagine when I was a child will happen some more. I'm looking forward to experiencing these things.

Zoos

I didn't like to go to the zoo when I was a child because the animals at the zoo didn't look happy, which made me sad. I still don't like to see animals in zoos now. I think it is unacceptable for me to keep animals in zoos. There are two main reasons.

First, living a whole life in a small cage is very stressful for animals, especially big animals such as elephants, lions, tigers etc. We should respect and protect animal rights. Imagine if we were these animals. If I were an animal in a zoo, I couldn't stand it even if I didn't have to worry about food.

Some people say zoos are important for children's education, however, animals in zoos never run at full speed nor hunt in front of children. I wonder what kind of educational worth we can expect from zoos. I think it is important for children to know how difficult it is for wild life to survive and what kind of wisdom they have to survive. We can learn about them not from zoos but from documentary films and TV programs.

Secondly, wild animals are not pets. We shouldn't make use of them as our entertainment. I know one important role of zoos is to protect endangered species. For example, tigers are an endangered species and many zoos keep one or two tigers. Is it necessary to put them on display in order to protect them? Can we call the animal which looks a tiger but has never lived in wild life "a tiger"? I'm afraid they aren't tigers any more. Is this the right way to protect them from extinction?

In conclusion, I don't agree with the idea to keep animals in zoos. I think we shouldn't involve ourselves with wild life so deeply. Let them live peacefully in the place where they originally in habit. Maybe we can learn or know about them without disturbing their lives by using high technology. 

    Q: If people were more compassionate toward the elderly, what do you think would be different about society in terms of policies and how public money is spent?

    A: If people were more compassionate toward the elderly, I'd say and I hope the society would focus on their mental issues more than now.

Before I start to explain about this opinion, I'd like to mention my basic stance. I think people basically are compassionate toward the elderly, and don't treat them badly, at least in Japan. I also think the basic policies about managing an aging society have already been addressed in terms of certain budgets by the government.

On the assumption of these perspectives above, then I will explain why I think we should focus on elderly people's mental support.

As a member of the elderly, I think the present policies focus on wlderly people's physical issues such as health care, health insurance etc. too much. Of corse I understand being healthy physically is one of big reasons people feel happy, however, we all know it is not enough.

If you were more compassionate toward the elderly, please imagine; You are old: People around you treat you politely and take care of you kindly, however, they don't depend on you at all. They recognize you as a weak,old and useless person, which makes you feel that you don't belong to their society. The only fun thing is chatting with other elderlies at a waiting room of a hospital. Now, do you think you are happy?

When we have enough food, money, house etc., then we start to think that we want to contribute to others, societies or the world, because we need our own value in society. Even though the elderlybecome weaker phisically, they need some places where they can feel they are useful for someone or something. They have gone through many experiences, and have learned a lot from them, which young people would have in the future.

This wisdom used to be taken over to next generation in their extended families, however, due to the nuclearization of the family, these days it is difficult to hand over to younger generation.

Therefore, I'd like to suggest to establish communities or some kind of networks with diversity, like psuedo large families, as a place for elderly people to share their skills, wisdom and knowledge. Maybe it wouldn't need a big budget, however, it would require excellent personels with leadership and patience. Our education system might be changed to produce these kinds of people. Am I a day dreamer?