7. října 2023

TETSUGAKU 64 : OLD AGE, CHILDREN, ALCOHOL

 


– Is the matter of old age on your mind at all?
[Nah, I’m not even sure when old age really starts, and I’ll be working until I’m at least fifty, and I want a fun lifestyle after that. You can still have fun after fifty. Yeah, I’d like to try a luxury cruise around the world.]
– Have you ever thought about the age at which you’d want to die, if it were possible to choose?
[Nah, I want to live a long life. I want to live long, but if I caught a disease, then I’d want to die before I had to suffer.]
– Die of old age? That would be ideal, wouldn’t it.
[Mmhmm. Or die while having sex…… I’m kidding! (laughs)]
– Ahahahaha, that would be cool in it’s own way. But, can you even imagine yourself at age fifty?
[Hmmmm, I don’t think I’ll change too much. My appearance probably will change, though.]
– You aren’t anxious about ageing at all? Wondering if “you’ve become all you could be”?
[Nah, everyone’s a little anxious about what’s coming up as they get older, right? So, you have to think about it. No, even though I said I don’t think about it, I really do, of course. There are lots of things that would be good to simulate. Yeah…… In my case, anyway.]
 You once mentioned that you like children. Did you mean playing with them, or do you prefer simply seeing them?
[I like playing with them. It’s tiring, but I like it. It’s kinda nice to take care of them.]
– As surprising as that is to hear, it’s also understandable. According to you, tetsu-san, what is it about children that makes them cute?
[Just the fact that all their parts are so tiny, that alone is enough to make anything cute. But see, these kids, like my nephews and my friend’s nieces, I only see them once in a while. Since it’s not that often, I’ll play with them, but if it was 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, then it would be terrible. Since I haven’t had that kind of experience, I don’t think I can really say what’s cute about them.]
– Well, we’ve discussed marriage, or not getting married, before, so do you think you’d want to have kids of your own?
[Hmm, I’ve never thought about it, really. I don’t especially feel like I want them, but don’t absolutely not want them, either. You know, as far as people’s children go, it seems like lots of people think of them almost like pets, so they’ll have kids just as easily as they’d raise a pet. I don’t think it’s that simple. And so, it’s a principle of mine not to keep pets. Then, when it’s a human child, they can’t keep up their previous lifestyle, so people say things like “Oh well, I had one so it can’t be helped,” right? I can’t stand that sort of thing. There’s an economic side to it, too. To raise one person until they graduate from high school takes tens of millions of yen, doesn’t it? You need to have the right income. Then, in daycare centres and nursery schools, where they take care of one and two year olds, sometimes those kids die, you know? Like, they fell asleep while lying face down and suffocated. But I can’t understand the nerve of those parents, letting someone else take care of their one or two year old children. For one and two year olds, the parents alllllways have to take care of them, or else. There’s no way they can get away with having someone else do it while they go to work. I think that if you can’t live on just the father’s earnings, don’t have kids yet. At least until the child is three years old, if the mother needs to work because the father’s earnings aren’t enough of an income, I think they shouldn’t have children.]
– Ah, well, I think that’s correct. You at least need that much preparation, planning, and foresight, right.
[Right. However, I’m not saying they need to grow up overprotected. They should be left alone when they need to be, but I think it’s best to also have strict rules. But of course, there needs to be love in it for it to work.]
– I think that if you ever had children, tetsu-san, they would grow up very happily. Oh, yes, tetsu-san, you’ve often said that you’re a child yourself, so in which specific ways do you see yourself as one?
[In every possible way (laughs). In the end, of course, I love myself, I think I’m the cutest. If I had a child, that would become someone I’d throw my life away to protect if necessary, but I’m still a complete child. I don’t think children can raise children. I think I’d feel sorry for the kid. I’m still not a complete person, a complete human being, yet.]
– I understand.
[No, but if I ever have children, then that’ll be that, everything will change from the moment they’re born, probably. But right now, everything down to my way of thinking is childlike. My bachelor life is fun.]
– You quite like alcohol, don’t you?
[I do like it. Well, maybe? I guess I don’t really like it all that much.]
– Well, I guess you don’t drink your way to a pounding headache then? But, it is fun to drink a little, right? Did you start drinking a long time ago? I somehow get the impression you didn’t drink much in the past.
[I get told that by everybody but I haven’t changed much, really. It’s just that before, I didn’t open my heart much at all, so I didn’t go out drinking with people. Even when I did go, I didn’t get all that casual, did I?]
– I see. What kind of alcohol do you drink the most? I’d guess beer?
[I start off with beer. “Beer first” (laughs) (1). While I’m drinking my “first beer” I think of what to have next. Which way to go. Well, it depends on who I’m with and on the time zone, too. Sometimes I stop after that one beer, sometimes I move from beer to wine. If there are wine drinkers among the group I’m with, then we’ll get a bottle. That or shouchuu(2). If nobody else wants to get wine, I’ll drink shouchuu by myself.]
– You must drink a lot of ume no oyuwari(3) and the like, right?
[Yeah. But I was a late bloomer for shouchuu. There was a shouchuu fad just recently, too. Lots of young people drank it, right? It’s image used to be that it was the drink for old men who did manual labour. But now it seems like even young women drink it, it’s become a refined drink. I’m sure that’s how I got around to drinking it. At first, I wondered what was so good about it, and now it’s like shouchuu doesn’t get me drunk, so it’s nice. It doesn’t leave a single trace the next day. Ever since way back when, drinking barely leaves a trace on me. It’s not one of my weaknesses. I can drink up to a certain amount without getting drunk, and without it lingering.]
– I suppose you don’t get hangovers, then?
[Nope. At most, I’ll get maybe one in a year. More like one every two, three years. I regret those times. “Dammit! Why did I drink so much and make myself sick?” (laughs). Basically, I drink because it’s fun. Because I want it to be fun. I’ve never gotten drunk out of despair. I don’t change when I drink. Since I don’t change, it’s like nobody can tell I’m drunk. I just get a little more talkative, I think. I talk a little more than I usually do, or something.]
– But, the corners of your eyes start to droop, and you get a little cuter……
[I get panda eyes, right? (laughs)]
– I think the time I saw you most drunk was at the party after the TETSU69 first live “Sweet December” right? You were pretty drunk that time. You even had trouble climbing stairs.
[Oh, yeah, I did drink a lot that time. But, wasn’t the mood rather drunken anyway?]
– You seemed to be having a great time. Even at the party, you kept singing your songs.
[I was still singing even though the live was over, right? (laughs)]
– That’s right. So, you should have made the live a little longer! Or something (laughs). Now, how do you feel when other people are drunk around you, but you aren’t?
[I like happy drunks. But, I hate when people walk around with that look in their eyes that says “Wanna tangle?” In the end, it just makes me think they can’t hold their booze. It’s like, usually I control myself rationally, then I hear all these stories people only bring up when they’re drunk, and I can think about them. So, I think that people who get violent when they’re drunk are actually just holding back the rest of the time, and that’s their true self. I’m glad I’m not like that. For better or for worse, I don’t have much of a hidden side. A lot of painful incidents happen that way, though.]
– So, you claim that even when you’re drunk, you can still exercise calm judgement. Deep down, you must admire calm, sensible people.
[Yes, I think I do. I think so, but I really do think I’m that kind of person myself, too. It’s no different when I’m drunk. You know how hairy people get a lot of pity? I think it’s because they say humans originally evolved from apes, so being hairy = being primitive. Primal and instinctive. Well, I’m particularly hairless (laughs). So, I guess that means I’m not primitive, and I think I’m a more evolved person. I’m not talking about whether that’s good or bad. It’s just that rather than give pity, I’m the type to coolly analyse things, staying very cool to think about them. If that means I’m cold, then I guess I’m cold.]
– I see. We’ve gotten a bit off topic. Let’s see… Do you ever drink when you’re at home by yourself?
[At home, I make Ditamonis (4). By myself. Consistently. I don’t keep that much alcohol at home, though. Beer and Dita and Kahlua and that’s it?]
– That’s a lot of sweet drinks.
[Cause I’m still a kid (laughs). I don’t drink every day at home, though. Maybe three or four times a week. When I want to reward myself for a good day’s work and so on. “Otsukarechan!” (5) (laughs). Oh, and I don’t sleep much, so sometimes I drink a little and sleep. I have awful sleeping habits since I’m such a night person. Well, alcohol is the lubricant of life, right? I could live without it, but it seems like having it makes life move along more pleasantly.]

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