＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
<Added on September 15, 2021> The number of Japanese people aged 100 or over reached a record high in 2021
As of 9/15/2021, there were 86,510 persons aged 100 years or older nationwide, a record high for the 51st consecutive year. The oldest is a 118-year-old woman, and the oldest man is 111 years old.
<Added on 7/31/2021> In 2020, the average life expectancy of Japanese people reached a record high
The average life expectancy of Japanese men in 2020 was 81.64 years (81.41 years in 2019), the second highest in the world after Switzerland, and for women it was 87.74 years (87.45 years in 2019), continuing to rank first in the world.
1. correct meaning of “50 years of human life
We often see on television the scene in which Oda Nobunaga, faced with the rebellion of Akechi Mitsuhide at Honno-ji Temple, ends his life at the age of 48 in flames while performing the Kōwaka dance “Atsumor,” saying, “Fifty years in the human world is like a dream or a vision compared to the passage of time in the lower heavens. If this is so, there is no way that anyone can be born into this world and not perish.（＊）”
（＊）「人間（じんかん）五十年 下天（げてん）のうちを比ぶれば 夢幻（ゆめまぼろし）の如くなり 一度（ひとたび）生を享け 滅せぬもののあるべきか」（幸若舞の『敦盛』）
This “human (jinkan) 50 years” does not mean that “the human life span is only 50 years. Also, some people sometimes mistakenly believe that the average life expectancy was about 50 years at that time, perhaps because of the association with Oda Nobunaga’s death at the age of 48.
In Buddhist terminology, “fifty human years” means “fifty years in the human world. A day and a night in “Keten(「化天（けてん）」)” is equivalent to 800 years of human life, and a day and a night in “Geten(「下天（げてん）」)” is equivalent to 50 years of human life. Compared to the “Keten(「化天（けてん）」)” and the “Geten(「下天（げてん）」),” the human world is a fleeting and fleeting world.
If you do not believe in Buddhism or other religions as I do, you should imagine the “eternal history of the universe. From the perspective of the history of the universe, the history of humankind is a recent event, and even a single person’s life is just a “shyuyu(「須臾（しゅゆ）の間」)” (a moment in time. It is only a “shyuyu” (a brief moment in time; it is also a tiny numerical unit of 10-15 (one thousand trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth)(一瞬のこと。極小の数字の単位10-15（1000兆分の1）でもある).
Among the heavenly realms(天上界), the six that are still caught up in desire are called the “Six Desire Heavens(「六欲天」),” with “Keten(「化天」)” (properly translated as “Kerakuten(「化楽天（けらくてん）」）”) ranked fifth and “Geten(「下天」)” (properly translated as “Takejizaiten（「他化自在天（たけじざいてん）」）”) ranked sixth.
The Six Desire Heavens are the six lower heavens in the celestial realm that are closest to the human world, and from top to bottom they are the Four Great Kings of Heaven(「四大王衆天（しだいおうしゅてん）」), Trayastrimsa Heaven(「忉利天（とうりてん）」), Yama Heaven(「夜摩天（やまてん）」), Tushita Heaven(「兜率天（とそつてん）」), Kerakuten Heaven(「化楽天（けらくてん）」), and Takejizaiten Heaven(「他化自在天（たけじざいてん）」).
By the way, the “six paths(「六道（ろくどう）」)” are the heavenly realm(天上界), the human realm(人間界), the asura realm(修羅界), the animal realm(畜生界), the hungry ghost realm(餓鬼界), and the hell realm(地獄界). They are also called the heavenly path(天上道), the human path(人間道), the asura path(修羅道), the animal path(畜生道), the hungry ghost path(餓鬼道), and the hell path(地獄道).
2. “100-year life period” has arrived.
Shigeaki Hinohara (1911-2017), who passed away at the age of 105, was an “active doctor for life. He wrote many books and was often seen on TV continuing his medical practice and speaking at lectures even though he was over 90 years old.
Aside from the Sengoku period(Warring States period), even in 1947 (Showa 22), shortly after the war, the average life expectancy of Japanese people was 50.06 years for men and 53.96 years for women. However, by 2016 (Heisei 28), this had increased astonishingly to 80.98 years for men and 87.14 years for women.
Even if the recent popular saying of “100-year life period” is a bit of an exaggeration, there is no doubt that the “80-year life period” is upon us.
In 2018, there were more than 69,000 people aged 100 or older.
Soseki Natsume died at the age of 49 while writing “Mei An(Light and Darkness)
” and this was the last book he ever wrote. The fact that Soseki was able to reach the state of “Sokuten kyosi(「則天去私」)” (meaning “To abandon oneself to nature and to cast aside personal thoughts and selfish desires”) at the age of less than 50 shows the intensity of the life he led. In comparison, I am ashamed to say that I seem to have grown old without any remarkable achievements.
Meanwhile, even during the Sengoku period, Tokugawa Ieyasu lived to be 73 years old. Ieyasu’s last words are, “A man’s life is like walking a long road carrying a heavy burden; one should not rush. If one thinks of inconvenience as a normal thing, one will never lack. If one is filled with desire, one should remember the times when one was in difficulty. Patience is the foundation of longevity and safety; one should think of anger as the enemy. If one only knows how to win and does not know how to lose, one will end up harming oneself. Do not blame oneself but blame others. It is better to fall short than to exceed.” I think this shows his outlook on life well.
Ieyasu spent his childhood as a “hostage” under the Oda and Imagawa clans, so he was accustomed to a frugal lifestyle. He took special care of his health and continued his frugal diet as a warlord even after becoming a shogun. He preferred barley rice and fish, and often ate boiled vegetables and natto (fermented soybeans). The results of his diet probably contributed to his longevity of 73 years, an astonishingly long life for that time.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the main topic.
3. How to live after retirement in the “100-year life era”
In my father’s time, the retirement age was 55, so his “old age” lasted 25 to 30 years. In my case, I plan to retire from salaried life completely at the age of 70, so if my remaining life expectancy is the same as the average life expectancy, my “old age” will be about 10 years. However, the average life expectancy may still increase, so if I live for 100 years, my “old age” will be 30 years, just like my father’s generation.
I think the right time to start thinking about your post-retirement lifestyle is around age 50. I hear that some American businessmen “retire early” before age 50, but for the average Japanese person, before that age they are in the prime of their working lives as active office workers, so I think 50 is a good age to start thinking about your post-retirement lifestyle.
Some people say they feel uneasy with a completely blank schedule, but if you have too many schedules, you will have no time to spare, and I don’t think you can call it a “happy retirement life.” If you go back to being a “workaholic,” there will be no point. During the run-up period, try out various things, and if you feel that they don’t suit you, you can quit quickly and find a different hobby.
However, it is important not to overdo anything. If you damage your health, there is no point. Just do it in moderation, without being mocked as “an old man’s indiscretions” “Too much of a good thing is bad.” I also want to remind myself…
Below I will introduce some of the activities I am currently involved in. If you have any other interesting activities, please let me know.
(1) Reading
When I was working as a businessman, I was always suffering from lack of sleep and chronic fatigue, and I didn’t have time to read leisurely. However, when I started to see my career as a businessman improving, I stopped reading newspapers on the train to work and started reading paperback books instead. At home, I would read two or three other books borrowed from the library at the same time. This is the reading method I still use today. I don’t know how many books I read, because I didn’t count them, but I’m sure it was quite a lot of reading.
(2) Cycling
In my case, it is not a “road bike” or “cross bike,” which are full-fledged cycling bicycles, but a so-called “mama-chari. Even with this, I went to Kyoto City along Route 171 and to Osaka City along the left bank of the Yodo River. Recently, I have not been so energetic, so at most I cycle around the Settsu-kyo Gorge, west to Tonda area and Ibaraki City, east to Minase area and Yamazaki area, and south to Hirakata City and Neyagawa City. Even cycling this distance is quite a good workout, and I highly recommend it.
In the past, I joined a sports gym and did swimming, biking, and strength training, but I didn’t keep it up for long. I got bored of biking quickly because it just involved pedaling a stationary bike. So, if you’re going to ride a bike, it has to be outdoors.
However, there has been an increase in accidents with pedestrians recently, so you need to be careful not to go too fast. There also seem to be a lot of collisions between bicycles at scramble intersections, and accidents at dusk, so it’s important to be careful.
(3) Swimming
I have been enjoying swimming in civic pools for more than 20 years, although I have recently taken a hiatus because I have been busy starting a blog. Takatsuki City’s civic pool and Suita City’s Katayama civic pool also have outdoor 50-meter pools available in the summer. In addition to Shibo, Takatsuki City has heated pools in Maeshima and Banda, both of which are within bicycling distance. All pools are equipped with a sauna room, so it is nice to sweat in the sauna after swimming. I hope to go swimming again when my blog is finished.
(4) Volunteer Activities
I can’t lead a life of “dedication to volunteering” like super volunteer Haruo Obata, who recently found a missing two-year-old boy in Yamaguchi Prefecture, but I continue to do my little bit of cleaning up around my house twice a week. As I get older, I have knee and back pain, so I don’t know how long I can continue, but I want to continue as much as I can.
(5) Blog
I started this blog in July of this year (2018), and already have over 3,000 articles. At first, I was full of worries, wondering “How long will it last?”, “Will I run out of things to write?”, and “Will no one read it?”, but I’m relieved that the number of readers is gradually increasing.
However, this is not a blog that aims to write articles that will appeal to the general public; rather, I write about my thoughts, things that interest me, and things that I wonder about, choosing these as article topics based on my own personal opinions and prejudices, so I don’t think the number of regular readers will increase significantly.
My direct impetus for starting a blog was that my oldest son started one, but another impetus was that my father kept a “diary” for many years.
I believe he used to keep “three-year diaries” or “five-year diaries,” which were “multi-year diaries.” I say “seems” because I don’t have them on hand right now.
After my father passed away, I sorted through his belongings and discarded many old books, including “History of Railroads” and “Local History,” which I thought would not be popular with the general public, and had used bookstores buy art books and gorgeous illustrated books. I think there were more than 10 “diaries,” but I just skimmed through them and found that they were just two or three lines of notes about daily events and impressions, so I put them in the junk pile. When I think about it now, I feel sorry for them, but at that time, I didn’t have the heart to read them carefully.
So I started writing this blog, partly as a kind of “testament(last words)” to my wife and sons, because I thought that by reading it, they would understand what I felt and thought during my 69 years of life.
In addition, I try to provide useful and interesting information for general readers, so I hope that the number of readers will increase little by little. If you have any opinions or comments, please leave a comment.