Turning Back the Clock —時計の針を元に戻すこと－

“I am very happy, because I am now two years younger than I was yesterday,” said one Korean man. 

South Korea has just decided to stop using a traditional East Asian system for counting a person’s age.  Until this change, Koreans were considered to be one year old at birth, to account for the time spent in the womb.  And, instead of getting a year older on their birthday, Koreans were considered to get a year older every time the calendar reached January 1^st.  Thus, someone born on December 31^st was considered to be two years old a day after they were born. 

South Korea now joins other East Asian nations in switching to the more internationally standard system of starting at age zero, and adding a year every time the calendar reaches your birthday.  Japan switched to the international system in 1950. 

I just pity the poor person who was happily going to night-clubs, drinking alcohol, and having all of the fun available to an adult yesterday, who is now two years younger.  Put that cocktail down, son.  It’s not a drink for children.

 

Vocabulary:

the womb – the part of a woman’s body in which a child grows, before it is born

 

The Curse of Sadim —サディムの呪い－

It is cold here in the fridge.  I chose to live in the fridge because it is cold.  I bought an extra large fridge – the kind used by large restaurants – and I had the shelves removed, so that I could fit comfortably inside. 

I don’t live in the fridge all the time.  When the weather is cool, I come out to meet my family.  My son hungrily awaits these times when he can meet me again. 

Of course I must come out every now and then to have my hair cut, or my nails cut, when they grow too long.  My wife carefully collects the clipped hair and nails, packing them in a beautiful box.  I sometimes catch her licking her fingers when she has finished. 

It’s not such a bad life. 

The problems started when my six year old boy was walking to school with his friend, Sadim.  They saw a large spider walking along the pavement in front of them.  Sadim, being a wild boy, wanted to jump on the spider and crush it, just for fun.  My son, who is basically a good boy, if a little greedy, stopped Sadim from killing the spider. 

“No,” he said.  “This little creature hasn’t harmed us.  Let us leave it in peace.” 

So the two boys passed by the spider without doing it any harm. 

And later that evening, my wife got a glimpse of a large spider in our house.  My wife just hid in the bathroom for twenty minutes, and hoped that the spider would be gone when she came out. 

The spider was indeed gone.  But the next morning, my son reported having had a strange dream. 

“The spider came to visit me in my dream, Daddy,” he said.  “Except that it wasn’t an ordinary spider, but a visiting alien from another planet.  The alien was so grateful that I had saved its life that it decided to grant me one wish.  It said I could ask for anything, Daddy!” 

“Never mind about your silly dream just now, son!” I said.  “Just explain to me why you are all covered in chocolate.  It’s sticking to you everywhere!  What have you been doing?” 

My son started to explain, quite excitedly.  But I wasn’t really listening.  I just reached out to wipe some of that chocolate from his body.  The sweet smell of the chocolate was overpowering, and it was covering my son all over, like a half-melted pair of chocolate pyjamas.  What on Earth had he been up to. 

If only I hadn’t touched him.  It was his wish, you see – the unfortunate wish of a six year old boy.  He wished that everything he touched would turn to chocolate. 

A little chocolate tear rolls down my cheek as I remember. 

I catch it, knowing that my wife will want to box it and sell it to a luxury chocolatier with whom we have a lucrative contract.  It’s nice to be able to contribute so much to the family finances. 

My son was able to persuade the visiting alien to remove his chocolate making powers, for safety’s sake.  But he couldn’t turn the chocolate already made back into the things they had been before – the chocolate pyjamas, the chocolate bedsheets, the chocolate pillow, the chocolate Daddy. 

It’s not such a bad life, here in the fridge.  My wife leaves the radio on just outside the door, and the muffled sounds reach my chocolate ears.  And it’s nice and cool in here, away from the horrible melting heat of summer. 

“Oh!”  I think I just made another chocolate teardrop. 

On Libraries —図書館について－

Are libraries still important now that so many books can be accessed over the internet?  With e-books, audio books, Youtube videos and Netflix, is there really any need for libraries any more? 

I recently listened to a speech by British writer, Neil Gaiman, about the need for libraries. 

He said that reading was a vital escape for him as a child.  He hated his boarding school, the random acts of violence that happened there, and his lack of power in a world dominated by bigger boys and adults.  But he could always escape into a book. 

His parents knew that he loved reading, and seem to have been quite busy and at times inattentive parents.  So at weekends and on school holidays, they would just take their young son to the library in the morning, and leave him there by himself all day, to read whatever he found. 

Gaiman says that librarians have warned him not to tell this story, in case many more parents get the idea that a library is a free daycare centre for their children.  But in any case, a library can be a place of calm for people to escape to.  It can also be a place of warmth in the winter, and air conditioned coolness in the summer for local residents to escape to for a while. 

And not everybody has access to e-book readers, or the ability to connect to the internet at home.  Libraries have the wonderful advantage of being free, and available to everyone. 

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”

Albert Einstein

 

Vocabulary:

a boarding school – a school at which students are able to stay overnight during the school term

inattentive – tending not to pay attention

 

The Odd Lunch Out —異質なランチ—

The son of one of my English students is a fourth grade elementary school student.  During the school’s spring break, he joined a club for elementary school students to take part in daily activities from Monday to Friday, from the morning to the afternoon.

The students had to bring their own lunch boxes.  Every student brought a lunch-box which their mother had prepared, except for one boy.  The students who had lunch-boxes had different dishes of rice, vegetables, fried chicken, and so on.  The odd child out came every day to the club with a cup of instant ramen. 

Maybe that boy eats very nutritious meals for breakfast and dinner.  Or maybe not. 

The story made me think about what a great thing it is in Japan for schools to offer every student a nutritious meal for lunch every Monday to Friday during term time.

 

Vocabulary:

the odd one out – the title of the blog comes from the expression, “the odd one out.”  The odd one out is the exception in a group of otherwise similar things.  (e.g., He has six children.  He has five daughters, and his son, Taro, is the odd one out.)

On Power —力について－

There is a famous proverb about how access to power can change someone’s character for the worse: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

If this proverb is true, then even a well intentioned, moral person must be given only limited power, and their use of the power watched carefully. 

Plato discussed the problem thousands of years ago.  He imagined two magical rings, which could make the wearer invisible at will.  If one ring were given to an unjust and immoral person, it is clear that they would commit crimes without fear of getting caught.  But what if a just and moral man was given the other ring of invisibility?  Plato wondered for how long a just and moral person could resist stealing what they wanted from the marketplace, and lying with whatever women they pleased.  If even an initially good person had such power, wouldn’t they quickly become indistinguishable from the bad person? 

I was thinking about abuses of power because of a news story I read this week.  In India, a powerful politician took a boat out onto a reservoir.  He took his mobile phone out to take a selfie.  Unfortunately, he dropped his phone into the water, where it sank to the bottom of the deep reservoir.  The politician ordered scuba divers to be sent into the water to retrieve his phone.  When they were unsuccessful, he ordered water pumps to be brought in to drain the water from the reservoir so that he could find the phone.  He was eventually stopped when local people complained, and the media made the story public, and ridiculed the politician. 

[Poof!]  All of a sudden, the magic ring of invisibility ceases to work, and your actions are exposed for all the world to see.

 

Vocabulary:

to corrupt someone – to cause someone to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain

[eg. Drug companies sometimes try to corrupt doctors into over-prescribing their medicines, in return for valuable gifts]

indistinguishable – Of two or more things, impossible to tell apart

[eg., the two identical twins are indistinguishable, and they sometimes have fun swapping clothes and changing places]

a reservoir – a deep body of water kept in reserve for a public use, such as for drinking or irrigation

[eg., Because of the long, dry weather, the level of the city’s reservoir has fallen.]