Granny, 12, reflects on aging
Midori Matsuzawa Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
In Japan, turning 60--an age known as kanreki (period of completion)--is regarded as a special point in one's life, as the traditional sexagenary calendar cycle has been completed, thus marking a rebirth for the senior citizen.
Chieko Yukawa was just about to turn 61 when she was invited by her daughter to spend Christmas 1995 with her family in the United States. This foreign sojourn helped to give the Nagoya resident a new perspective on this peculiar Japanese custom.
"I found that it was such a wonderful, positive way to view the aging process," the 72-year-old homemaker recalls. "I realized that I could restart my life and spend each and every day looking at the world through new eyes, like a baby."
In fact, the epiphany led her to decide to study English in Ann Arbor, Mich.--the city in which she was staying. She graduated with a master's degree in 2003.
"This way of thinking kept me going throughout my days of studying in the United States," Yukawa said.
After returning home, she wrote a book about her experience. The title of the book, published this summer by Fuzanbo International, is Watashi wa Nisai no Obaachan (I'm a 2-year-old Grandma), which refers to her age--62--at the time she enrolled in the university.
In 1969, Yukawa lived in Denver for a year while her husband, an expert on metallurgy, conducted research there. She was interested in studying English, but instead spent her energy focusing on raising her four children.
Yukawa describes her English skills at that time as that of a "young child." However, she says, "I could make do because I didn't have to speak much--my husband did most of the talking."
A major turning point in Yukawa's life came in 1991, when her husband died of cancer at the age of 61. She spent the next three years writing his biography.
After the book had been released, Yukawa was at loss about what to do. "I didn't know what it'd be like living on my own," she said. It was about this time when she received the invitation to visit her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
Yukawa had what she calls a "fateful" encounter with a woman in her 70s at her daughter's apartment complex. The woman, she recalls, was "full of intellectual curiosity."
"She wanted to know about Japan, but I wasn't able to say what I wanted to," Yukawa recalled. "It was really frustrating--I rarely felt like this when I was with my husband."
There is another saying in Japanese: "rokuju no tenarai," literally "learn something new at the age of 60." In other words, "never too old to learn."
"I thought it'd be nice to start studying English, just as a baby learns a new language," said Yukawa, who did so by attending a local language school in the summer of 1996.
At school, Yukawa would explain the concept of kanreki whenever she introduced herself. "Everybody found it interesting, referring to the idea as 'Oriental wisdom,'" she recalls.
More than just a good ice breaker, the thought helped Yukawa as she struggled to develop her English skills. "I was only 1 year old [according to kanreki], so I didn't mind studying with classmates who were actually much younger than me," she says. "I also didn't care if I made a lot of mistakes with my English. This way of thinking really set me free."
Yukawa's quest for study continued even after her daughter returned to Japan in May 1997.
Two months later, Yukawa had her first go at the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), scoring a 463. Toward the end of the same year, she decided to apply to Eastern Michigan University (EMU) and extend her student visa.
Because her TOEFL score was lower than the 500 points required for foreign students in applying for the public institution, Yukawa started her university life in the English as a second language (ESL) program.
When it came to deciding on a major, Yukawa initially considered gerontology because she had become interested in the lifestyle of American seniors. She wondered, for example, why many of them lived alone, even when their children lived nearby.
But gerontology was only available at postgraduate level, forcing Yukawa to decide on another major, "therapeutic recreation," the study of applying recreation to rehabilitation and education.
But 3-1/2 years at EMU did not quench her thirst for knowledge. "Just before graduation, I had finally become comfortable using English to study other subjects," Yukawa says. This feeling was an impetus to her matriculating to the master's program in social work at the University of Michigan in 2001.
Degree in hand, the 68-year-old Yukawa returned to her Nagoya home. "I learned what it was to be free after living on my own for 7-1/2 years," she says. Just like many of the American seniors who inspired her, she is now living close to, but not with, her children.
Now, on the verge of becoming a "teenager," the energetic woman is looking for a way to apply her studies in Japan. Writing the book seems to be paving a way for that, as it has led some eldercare experts to search her out.
(Nov. 15, 2007)
Midori Matsuzawa Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer
In Japan, turning 60--an age known as kanreki (period of completion)--is regarded as a special point in one's life, as the traditional sexagenary calendar cycle has been completed, thus marking a rebirth for the senior citizen.
Chieko Yukawa was just about to turn 61 when she was invited by her daughter to spend Christmas 1995 with her family in the United States. This foreign sojourn helped to give the Nagoya resident a new perspective on this peculiar Japanese custom.
"I found that it was such a wonderful, positive way to view the aging process," the 72-year-old homemaker recalls. "I realized that I could restart my life and spend each and every day looking at the world through new eyes, like a baby."
In fact, the epiphany led her to decide to study English in Ann Arbor, Mich.--the city in which she was staying. She graduated with a master's degree in 2003.
"This way of thinking kept me going throughout my days of studying in the United States," Yukawa said.
After returning home, she wrote a book about her experience. The title of the book, published this summer by Fuzanbo International, is Watashi wa Nisai no Obaachan (I'm a 2-year-old Grandma), which refers to her age--62--at the time she enrolled in the university.
In 1969, Yukawa lived in Denver for a year while her husband, an expert on metallurgy, conducted research there. She was interested in studying English, but instead spent her energy focusing on raising her four children.
Yukawa describes her English skills at that time as that of a "young child." However, she says, "I could make do because I didn't have to speak much--my husband did most of the talking."
A major turning point in Yukawa's life came in 1991, when her husband died of cancer at the age of 61. She spent the next three years writing his biography.
After the book had been released, Yukawa was at loss about what to do. "I didn't know what it'd be like living on my own," she said. It was about this time when she received the invitation to visit her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
Yukawa had what she calls a "fateful" encounter with a woman in her 70s at her daughter's apartment complex. The woman, she recalls, was "full of intellectual curiosity."
"She wanted to know about Japan, but I wasn't able to say what I wanted to," Yukawa recalled. "It was really frustrating--I rarely felt like this when I was with my husband."
There is another saying in Japanese: "rokuju no tenarai," literally "learn something new at the age of 60." In other words, "never too old to learn."
"I thought it'd be nice to start studying English, just as a baby learns a new language," said Yukawa, who did so by attending a local language school in the summer of 1996.
At school, Yukawa would explain the concept of kanreki whenever she introduced herself. "Everybody found it interesting, referring to the idea as 'Oriental wisdom,'" she recalls.
More than just a good ice breaker, the thought helped Yukawa as she struggled to develop her English skills. "I was only 1 year old [according to kanreki], so I didn't mind studying with classmates who were actually much younger than me," she says. "I also didn't care if I made a lot of mistakes with my English. This way of thinking really set me free."
Yukawa's quest for study continued even after her daughter returned to Japan in May 1997.
Two months later, Yukawa had her first go at the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), scoring a 463. Toward the end of the same year, she decided to apply to Eastern Michigan University (EMU) and extend her student visa.
Because her TOEFL score was lower than the 500 points required for foreign students in applying for the public institution, Yukawa started her university life in the English as a second language (ESL) program.
When it came to deciding on a major, Yukawa initially considered gerontology because she had become interested in the lifestyle of American seniors. She wondered, for example, why many of them lived alone, even when their children lived nearby.
But gerontology was only available at postgraduate level, forcing Yukawa to decide on another major, "therapeutic recreation," the study of applying recreation to rehabilitation and education.
But 3-1/2 years at EMU did not quench her thirst for knowledge. "Just before graduation, I had finally become comfortable using English to study other subjects," Yukawa says. This feeling was an impetus to her matriculating to the master's program in social work at the University of Michigan in 2001.
Degree in hand, the 68-year-old Yukawa returned to her Nagoya home. "I learned what it was to be free after living on my own for 7-1/2 years," she says. Just like many of the American seniors who inspired her, she is now living close to, but not with, her children.
Now, on the verge of becoming a "teenager," the energetic woman is looking for a way to apply her studies in Japan. Writing the book seems to be paving a way for that, as it has led some eldercare experts to search her out.
(Nov. 15, 2007)