Yokococo's Blog

My dad loved food shopping. Food shopping was a pleasure part of daily routine for him. He always got the seasonal vegetables, fruits and fish etc.....

Every time I went to a supermarket or a food market , I can't help remembering my dad..."Oh, he loved this...and he loved this one so much...!"
Especially in spring there are so many of his favorites in a market.

Hi dad, are you still enjoying yourself in a market somewhere? I think you are!

My dad loved reading newspaper. He subscribed two different newspapers. One of them was delivered quite early so he took it and read in his bed. And he read the other when he was having a breakfast.Sometimes he wanted to go toilet during the breakfast and he couldn't stop reading newspaper in a toilet and ended up spending such a long time in a toilet.He looked very serious at that time but we were in a trouble!

My dad was a big fan of Japanese baseball. He never missed to watch his favorite baseball games.
He kept on saying that he was an amazing pitcher when he had been young and he loved pitching practice (without a ball) anywhere.
He couldn't help pitching practice when he had to wait for a transportation for example buses, trains etc…and yes he was wearing wooden sandals…! (he tried not to do if there were so many people though…) You can imagine how embarrassing to be with him when he started pitching practice when
we waited for a transportation….but now I miss his pitching…it is nearly one year since he passed
away.

My dad loved watching baseball and also playing baseball.
He kept saying that he had been an amazing pitcher when he was young.

The problem was that he started pitching( of course without real ball just pretending as if
there was a ball) whenever and wherever he had to wait for something for example
trains, buses or subways etc and if there was any space for it.

Only we could do was just trying to pretend we were not his family...

My dad was such a hard worker. He loved studying, researching his study (reading TONS OF BOOKS and visiting places and interviewing people etc….) teaching at an university, giving lectures and of course writing books and articles etc…

Usually men can't do many things at the same time but my dad was different.
He listened to the radio ( Hiroshima Carp was his favorite baseball team. It was quite difficult to see their games on TV in Osaka area. So he needs to listen to the radio instead.) ,
watching a baseball game of the major teams on TV,
reading some books and
eating one of his favorite sweetened beans jelly at the same time.
Normally people cut beans jelly into small pieces and eat gradually but my dad ate beans jelly like a chocolate bar or something….probably because of that I don't really like beans jelly so much...

My dad loved eating food as well as food shopping and cooking. In particular
he loved having guests at home and treating people his cooking and looking the people
having the treat happily.
Most of the time when I was a kid, he invited dinner some people at home.
Almost everyday his students came to my house and ate dinner and talk till midnight….
Even they called my dad "Daddy" and called my mum "Mummy".

But he never ever tidied up after dinner....He used all the pans and dishes for cooking…
The kitchen was such a mess after dinner...poor my mum!

My dad loved to commute by bike to an university where he used to teach. He also loved to wear wooden sandals which were not so popular among Japanese people anymore at all.
And he went for food shopping on the way back home. At that time it was so rare to find a man who
went for food shopping.
When I was a  teenagert, it was quite embarrassing to bump into him with lots of plastic bags from a
supermarket and sometimes flowers etc...on his bike (and wearing wooden sandals! )  especially when I was with my friends. I tried to hide somewhere...but he always found me and called me 'YOKO!'
quite loudly....!