We have twelve cats, three dogs four turtles and one fish for our pets in the house.
Toshi Twelve cats!
Chie
Yes. Twelve cats. It’s because my parents and my sisters also love cats. An animals in general. So we usually rescue cats that we find on the street.
Toshi
I remember that , as a small child, I was always a lonely boy. I had no friends and I was so shy. I didn’t want to go out and interact with people. I don’t know why, but I felt more secure, more at home at home. And one day, my mother brought home a small cat. And then we began to live with that small cat. Since then I gradually liked that small pet because when I was in the living room the cat come and sat on my knees and then began to sleep. Or when I was watching TV, the cat came to me , sitting side by side with me . I don’t know why, but I felt so loving, so affectionate about cats and since then my craze for cat began. This is my personal story. Thank you for listening.
Chie
That is a great story, Toshi-san. Thank you for sharing. Is it OK if I ask more about that? So do you remember what name you gave to the kitten?
Toshi
Actually I didn’t give, but my parents gave. The cat had a black hair. So we gave her the name KURO.
Chie
Do you remember how long you had the cat with you? How many years did t live?
Toshi
If my memory is right, it didn’t live long. There was a kind of accident or something and it died.
Chie
That’s too bad.
Toshi
My dad didn’t want to show me the dead body., because that would be too shocking for a 6 year old boy.
Chie
True
Toshi
He took away. Maybe he buried the body in a mountain or somewhere I think.
Chie
Thank you for sharing that now after you had kuro when you were a boy did you have other pets growing up?
Toshi
Yes. My mom brought me another cats and so we lived together. About half of my lifetime was spent with a cat. My dad, my father did not like cats so much they do eats a lot and not so sanitary. However, when he got older like 60, 61 two he began to love cats. I think he was also lonely. He wanted somebody to live with.
Chie
True. Cats make great companions at any age. They are good companions for older people because they don’t require a lot of maintenance. You don’t need to take them on a walk they’re always sleeping. And very relaxed.
Toshi
I want to know how many hours they sleep. Maybe 16 hours? What do you think?
Chie
You’re actually quite right. Cats actually sleep for almost 12 to 16 hours a day depending on how old they are. So that’s a very long.
Toshi
I remember that when I was a school student, I woke up washed my face , brush my teeth and I was having breakfast. Then the cat woke up too and he ate some food and he began to sleep again. WHY? It’s in the morning. “Why do you sleep ? I shouted.
Every minute I hear you, you speak like a real professional celebrity.
C.A.
You’re very funny, Toshi-san.
Toshi
Am I?
It sounds like you are on TV. You are quite used to speaking to strangers or any kind of people, I think.
C.A.
A little bit. I think flying experience actually helped a little bit, I hope.
Toshi
So did you get training about how to talk to the passengers or difficult people?
C.A.
Yes, because we had some training and especially but mostly our trainings are based on service. So it’s like how will you offer this kind of food or this kind of service to them. But yes it was different.
Toshi
OK, I heard that serving food or serving coffee during the bumpy flight is very tough because you have to be careful not to spill coffee on the passengers.
C.A.
Or, yes, that’s right.
Toshi
Could you share with me some of your memories or experiences about serving food or coffee? Any memory?
C.A.
Actually, that’s a good question. I tried to remember my experience. I think if you will ask a flight attendant, he or she will always say an experience about spilling something to the passenger. So yes, I think I have one experience, but I still juice because it was turbulent. So yeah, that’s it in afterwards. I just gave a couple of blankets to the passenger just to keep her. How do you call this? To keep her clothes dry. That’s very embarrassing. Yes, but I had no experience of spilling a hot beverage. That’s very scary.
Toshi
Oh yeah, but didn’t she request for compensation for the laundry or dry clean ?
“Hey you spilled juice on my clothes.!”
C.A.
But you know what? You know what I did, because I think that was one of my first few flights, so I bought her some chocolates at the duty free shop. And then I gave it to her. For my apology, yes. And then Luckily she was kind. She didn’t come to Lane and then she accepted my.
Toshi
OK, yes. If she had the opposite character, like a demanding woman, what would be the result? “Buy me a new one, OK?”
C.A.
The result would be I think she’s going to complain. Or yeah, it’s going to be a tough flight, but Luckily I was, you know, I’m still quite lucky because she was very kind.
I’m trying to remember the title of a song I used to enjoy listening to.
Now I feel like listening to it but I can’t remember its name.
Also I can’t search it in YouTube.
Arvin
Oh I have a good app for you . It’s named Shazam. Shazam is an app that helps you search for a specific song with the use of the melody or rhythm from the background sound. You can usually search for the song by simply humming or by just putting you phone near the source of the music to identify the song.
Toshi
Alright! Why don’t I download that right now from the App Store.
(Downloading Completed)
Now I am ready, Arvin.
What am I supposed to do?
Arvin
Just sing a song to your Cell
phone microphone.
Toshi
I have tried three times already and got no matches.
Are you sure this is a reliable app?
Arvin
Yeah I tried and made it several times before.
Toshi
Then why doesn’t it work for me?
Am I too tone deaf?
Arvin
I can’t say for sure. Why not go to a music school and ask a teacher there? LOL!
Toshi Hi, Arvin. I remember you told me that you have a friend who is a Hokkaido University student, right?
Arvin Yes. I met him when I visited Sapporo last year. We had ramen together.
Toshi According to the newspaper, Hokudai will start a surprising venture together with some other organizations.
Arvin What is it?
Toshi I’m not good at Biology, so allow me to use layman’s term. They are going to find ways to use baby teeth in order to help regenerate bones of the elderly. As you know, people’s bones get fragile and more likely to be fractured as they get older. Milk teeth are full of cells young enough to regenerate.
Arvin I think I get the idea. I think they are trying to correlate the science of stem cells regeneration with the osteoregenerative power of the bones. They are tapping the possibility of being able to use the restoration prowess of a new born infant. That’s just my guess though. I think it has a good relation with that.
Toshi I remember my father had a bicycle accident. He slipped over a wet road and had his leg bone fractured. His doctor said it wouldn’t have happened if my dad was younger.
This story tells that milk teeth might prevent old people from breaking bones.
Arvin I think that this technology will be very useful in the future, especially for those people who fall victim to severe bone fractures and physical accidents where bone regeneration is a must.
Toshi I’m sure that the researchers deserve Nobel Prize if they are successful with the technology.
Arvin I think so too. And I guess, this is what they are after – to be recognized worldwide by many medical institutions and to bring home the bacon for the most famous university and research center in Hokkaido.
Toshi Do you know what time it is here? You woke me up.
Craig It has been a long time since I’ve not come to Asahikawa. I miss it greatly! How are things going there!
Toshi I’m doing good, but on the whole, businesses are slow.
Craig Same here. People are just waiting for the economy to turn around. Do you think economy will recover soon?
Toshi Well, I’m not an economist. But many people, including me, think that it’s just a matter of endurance. Things will be back in normal once the COVID-19 is gone.
Craig I agree, but how long do we have to wait? We have very few sick people just positive testing numbers. No one is sick and hospitals are empty on Covid floors!
Toshi So you want businesses to reopen? But President Trump failed after trying to get businesses back on track.
Craig I know but I just can’t get paid for sitting on my ass all day long. I was listening to a doctor on a radio program that told me that this is a farce. She said it’s the first time in any disease that we count cases not deaths. A nurse told me that in her hospital in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, they have a Covid floor with maybe one or two people. It’s been that way for months. No one is sick.
Toshi Well, I know you’re frustrated. You want to get the ball rolling. But it’s still not a good time to do so. Also it’s not a good time to keep on talking. It’s 4:00 AM down here. You gotta let me go back to sleep.
Craig Oh sorry, Mr.Nomura. We’ll talk again later.
Toshi E-money related scandal. Many people throughout Japan complained that someone stole money from their bank accounts.
Arvin How did that happen?
Toshi E-money service was taken advantage of by a third party.
Arvin Who is the service provider?
Toshi It’s a big firm named NTT docomo.
Arvin I’ve heard of the name. It’s one of the major mobile carriers. How much is the total damage that goes through?
Toshi So far eleven cases have been found, totaling up to 18 million yen.
Arvin How can such a heist happen in Japan with advanced technology? In the Philippines, two-way authorization method is widely used for a secure money transaction. Have you heard of that, Toshi-san?
Toshi I’ve only heard of it by the name.
Arvin Most of the banks are using OTP or one time password.
Toshi How does it work? If I shop online for something, and I want to pay by e-money, what happens?
Arvin The bank will send OTP to your cell phone and you need to input it on the e-money webpage for another authorization.
Toshi That sounds very safe and secure. I wonder why Japanese banks don’t adopt it. Anyway, NTT docomo will incur a heavy reputation damage as their name is repeatedly broadcasted on TV news.
Arvin Trust once lost never returns easily. The first thing they’ve got to do is to compensate for the losses suffered by the victims.
