Things to do When I’m 50

When I turned 50 last year (2020), I was more shocked than when I turned 40. The average life expectancy for healthy Japanese males is 72.14. That means I only have 20 years left. Therefore I began to do as follows;

Use memorabilia

I have a lot of memorabilia of musicians, video games, manga characters, T-shirts, mugs and old magazines. Until now, I've kept them and never used them because I don't want them to get worn out.

Now I have begun to use them because my body might wear out sooner than the memorabilia.

Get excellent earphones

Your knees, chest, ears and eyes. Different things wear out for different people. As for me, it is my ears. I find myself asking the speaker to repeat what they've said more and more in conversations.

This means that I'm in my final days of being able to listen to music in high-fidelity sound, I think. Therefore I've bought excellent earphones (SONY WH-1000XM3). It makes my favorite music sound even more brilliant. I really enjoy them.

Get a good desk light and computer display

Fortunately, I don't feel any problems with my eyes, except for being near-sighted (since my teenage years) and my aged eyes (since my 40s). Nonetheless, it may be good for my eyes that I have prepared a good desk light and computer display (EIZO EV2460) which is equipped with non-flickering, auto-light volume control.

Using a new desk light and display, I feel it has reduced the tiredness of my eyes when I finish my work in my room. It isn't a dramatic change, but it must be good for the health of my eyes because this change affects me every single day of my life, in particular on these telework days due to COVID-19.

Changing my career

I've been in charge of sales for over 25 years. The work gave me a sense of fulfillment and a lot of time. For example 400 hours overtime per year for my last 10 years of this career. After 45, I feel seriously tired in this work environment. Therefore I consulted with my boss and a manager of the personnel department about this problem and we agreed about changing my career.

My current work involves the management of our fiscal plan and contracts with suppliers. My overtime work is reduced to one fifth compared to when I was a salesman. This situation gives me much more free time.

Organising my room and playing the electric drums

Right around the time of this career change, the coronavirus catastrophe started affecting everything. This had me staying in my room for longer periods of time than ever before. Therefore I organized my room from top to bottom.

It provides not only a clean and neat feeling for me, but also a more free space in my room. I recalled that I once wanted to play drums but I gave up because of little space of my room, so I put an electric drum set in the empty space and I practice playing them every day since February 2021.

Time with my mother

All of the above-mentioned topics are about myself. However, more important topics are the time with my children and parents because they are limited.

Five years ago, I asked my father to visit our family's home town (100 years ago, my grandfather left the town. I had only one opportunity to visit there 40 years ago). My father and I visited the temple which has our ancestors' cemetery and other memorial spots. Two years after the visit, my father died.

I also asked my mother to go to the town where my mother lived until her wedding. She seemed to really enjoy this visit so I made an album of this visit and gave it to her it. Now she told me, "It was a very good memory, thank you my son for asking me to go there. Because of my current old body problems, I can't go there anymore"

Spending time with my children isn't difficult because they live with me, but spending time with my mother who lives far from my house isn't easy.

One of the most important things to do for me in my 50s is to have time with my mother, I think.

Why is Osaka called Osaka (big slope) with even no slope?

An American man who lived near Osaka asked me: "Why is Osaka called Osaka (big slope) even though there is no big slope?" This question is difficult for me, even though I've lived near Osaka for over 50 years.

Osaka is a big slope

Look at this picture.
This is a current topographical map of Osaka. Red means high elevation (114 metres from the sea), yellow is moderately high, blue means sea level.
A ; Umeda area, which is the most densely populated area in Osaka
B ; Osaka Castle

From this picture, you can see that Osaka is a big slope, which is from Umeda or the seaside area to Osaka Castle. However, this big slope is so large and is beneath many tall buildings, therefore people have trouble to perceive that this area is a big slope.

quote from Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, addtional captions by Yoshiteru

FYI: The Osaka City official website explains the origin of the name of Osaka is not clear, however the oldest paper in which "Osaka" appeared was the letter written by the high buddhist priest "Ren-Nyo" in the 15th century. (He was also the establisher of the temple Ihiyama-honganji which was located in the same spot of Osaka castle)

Geography teaches us about history

Osaka castle (B)

Osaka castle was the most important spot in Osaka among the leaders in the Age of Civil Wars (around the 16th century). You can realise the reason why by looking at the picture above. The location of the castle is easy for both offence and defence during a conflict.

Daisen-kofun (C)

Daisen-kofun is the largest tomb in Japan (the length is 840 metres). The era the tomb was constructed was the 5th century. That means the pale blue area of the above picture was the sea at the time. It shows the reason for the location of the tomb. The leaders at that time had intended to show this big tomb as the power of Japan to people on the ships who were from Korea or China.

High elevation spots (D and E)

D and E are the unique points in the picture. What are they?Both spots are manmade mountains.

D is Tsurumi-ryokuchi park. Now it is a popular green park, also the site of the International Garden and Greenery Exposition in 1990. Before that, however, the spot was a large accumulation of the rubbish. The park is 39 metres from sea level, the highest spot in the entire Osaka city area, constructed by old rubbish.

E is chishima park, also the manmade mountains. It was constructed with the soil from subway construction in 1970.



Geographical features teach us both the origin of the name of the city and the history, even though native people don't know.

The traditional Asian manner of counting one's age called 'kazoedoshi'（数え年）

What’s kazoedoshi（数え年）?

Photo by Jisun Han on Unsplash

Age counting method

When you’re born, you are 1 year old

When the new year comes, you turn 2 years old

ex. You’re born on the 31st of December in 2020, you will be two years old on the 1st of January in 2021.

History

Old custom from China

In 1902, the Japanese government made a law that set the rule "a man gets one year older at the last moment of the previous day of his/her birthday" ("man-nenrei"（満年齢） system)

However, Japanese people continued to use kazoedoshi

In 1950, the new law, which said "obey the 1903 law system, not kazoedoshi" took effect

Why?

Kazoedoshi includes the period of development in the womb

Some people say "the first number is one, not zero". For instance, the 1st day, the 1st grade, the 1st century, and so on.

Getting one year older on new year’s day for the viewpoint "elderly is respectable" in Buddhism and Confucianism

Some people say the reason why is the lunar-solar calendar which Japanese society used till 1872. The calendar has a "leap month" due to a complex calculation method (7 times in 19 years). Therefore kazoedoshi system is easy to count age. Source: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan(in Japananese)　

Still used in modern Japanese society

"nenki"（年忌）; the anniversary of the death of family in Japanese Buddhism. The third anniversary is held in two-year-after of the family member death, the seventh anniversary is held in six-year-after of the death. All Japanese people hold nenki under kazoedoshi count.

"Shichigosan"（七五三） (Seven, five, three);　festival in November for 3-year-old boys and girls, 5-year-old boys and 7-year-old girls at a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple. Some people count their child’s age in kazoedoshi, others in man-nenrei

Embed from Getty Images

In the world

In the past it was popular in other east Asian countries; China, Korean peninsula, Vietnam

South Korea is the only country that usually uses kazoedoshi system now

Crime nation U.S.A. or earthquake nation Japan: which is safer?

The U.S. sees around 15,000 victims of murder every year. 

Japan sometimes sees vast number of victims from a single earthquake; 6,437 in 1995, 22,252 in 2011. 

If you wanted to live a safe life, which would be the better choice: the U.S. or Japan? See the following slide.

 (In 2020, the following slide was presented at the Earthquakes and Disaster-Prevention Research Study Group, at Kanazawa University in Japan)

See all PDF slides;