My cousin "Ricky" in Tokyo keeps in contact with me by a texting app called Line. Line works best for sending photos and texts, etc. while overseas as well as at home. In fact, I use a different texting app for different groups of people. I do Line with Japan and family here on Oahu. With my children in Maryland and Illinois, I use Google Hangouts. My tai-chi sewing group and I as well as my teacher friends in Illinois use regular texting.
OK.... There I go, getting distracted.
I was actually planning to write about the opposite thing. SNAIL MAIL
My mother and her sister in Sendai send regular letters to each other by snail mail. In fact, my mother was a little upset when she learned that you couldn't find aerograms here in the US anymore. Aerograms are very thin folded letters. I guess you can still get them in Japan because that's what mom is always waiting for from my aunt.
I suggested to Ricky that we could have our mothers write letters, scan and email them to each other. We could even send them on LINE.
But no. My aunt insisted that she wanted to get her letters in the mailbox. She wanted the anticipation and to feel my mother's pages and see the texture of her strokes, etc.
So... OK... I finally convinced mom that she could write as much as she liked up to about three 8.5 x 11 inch papers and it would cost the same as an aerogram these days.
Nope. She wanted us to find paper about the size of the aerograms. So we did. Sigh...
Well, Ricky told me in April that his mom had sent my mom a letter. Mom waited and waited and waited and it didn't come.
Last week we finally got Auntie's letter. And then! The following day we got another one!!! Apparently, the post office in Japan had told her that the coronavirus was impacting mail.
All right... You know where this is going, right?
I convinced them that at least until the virus is under control, we should try the email method.
I've learned long ago that the Japanese letter size is different from ours. I discovered that when I bought some plastic folders in Japan that wouldn't fit regular 8.5 X 11 inch papers.
So....
Despite the fact that my math brain is not great, I had to figure out what would be the correct ratio so that printing would be easier for my uncle to do in Sendai.
Ricky can't do this for them since he lives in Tokyo.
Anyway, my mom is on the program with us and really likes the idea of mail traveling faster although she says letters are meant to go in the mail.
I told her it's progress. This is why she can have a treadmill for exercise in her family room. This is why she has a big screen TV. This is why I can show her photos from her grandchildren and great grandchildren almost nightly.
Sigh...
"I guess so," she said.
OK.... There I go, getting distracted.
I was actually planning to write about the opposite thing. SNAIL MAIL
My mother and her sister in Sendai send regular letters to each other by snail mail. In fact, my mother was a little upset when she learned that you couldn't find aerograms here in the US anymore. Aerograms are very thin folded letters. I guess you can still get them in Japan because that's what mom is always waiting for from my aunt.
I suggested to Ricky that we could have our mothers write letters, scan and email them to each other. We could even send them on LINE.
But no. My aunt insisted that she wanted to get her letters in the mailbox. She wanted the anticipation and to feel my mother's pages and see the texture of her strokes, etc.
So... OK... I finally convinced mom that she could write as much as she liked up to about three 8.5 x 11 inch papers and it would cost the same as an aerogram these days.
Nope. She wanted us to find paper about the size of the aerograms. So we did. Sigh...
Well, Ricky told me in April that his mom had sent my mom a letter. Mom waited and waited and waited and it didn't come.
Last week we finally got Auntie's letter. And then! The following day we got another one!!! Apparently, the post office in Japan had told her that the coronavirus was impacting mail.
All right... You know where this is going, right?
I convinced them that at least until the virus is under control, we should try the email method.
I've learned long ago that the Japanese letter size is different from ours. I discovered that when I bought some plastic folders in Japan that wouldn't fit regular 8.5 X 11 inch papers.
So....
Despite the fact that my math brain is not great, I had to figure out what would be the correct ratio so that printing would be easier for my uncle to do in Sendai.
Ricky can't do this for them since he lives in Tokyo.
Anyway, my mom is on the program with us and really likes the idea of mail traveling faster although she says letters are meant to go in the mail.
I told her it's progress. This is why she can have a treadmill for exercise in her family room. This is why she has a big screen TV. This is why I can show her photos from her grandchildren and great grandchildren almost nightly.
Sigh...
"I guess so," she said.
Once again America is out of touch with the rest of the world. We use a system that nobody else does. Thus the problems with your sizes. We must join the rest of the world and use the normal system. Look at the anguish in your household The United States must come out of the dark ages. I plan to write to my congressman about this problem.
ReplyDeleteDear DavidH, in other words, America is not (yet) in lock-step with the rest of the world. Can ya spell "Tower of Babel?" That, of course, was globalism some 4,300-ish years ago.
ReplyDeleteWe are the only major country that refuses to use the metric system. I do not know why. The British system we use was abandoned by them decades ago.
DeleteI identify with your mom . . . a reluctant adapter of new technology.
ReplyDeletelol, we have that problem in our retirement community where now our church meetings are on zoom and many of our members don't even have a computer!
ReplyDeleteI love this essay. It's picture perfect. Could you suggest texting?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how to text in Japanese. I know I could get my nephew’s wife to teach me... maybe. But that’s OK. I’ll stick with what we have.
DeleteI am chuckling with your amazing patience to teach your Mom an alternative. Gosh, I didn't know those thin paper Aerogramme's were still available: I thought it was a WW2 item that had disappeared.
ReplyDeleteI guess using the Japanese writing font on a computer wouldn't help much, would it.
Maybe the grandkids in Illinois could use one of her letters to translate into English for a class project? Might need an on-line interview with their wise elder.
Linda in Kansas
I have no idea how to get the Japanese font on my computer and even if I could.... uuuummmmm... I don’t think mom could handle that. I believe my aunt prefers seeing her handwriting and wouldn’t appreciate machine written letters.
DeleteSuch a loving family you have. I was surprised there were still Aerogrammes too. I have a couple of old ones my Dad sent to my Grandmother.
ReplyDeleteI for one, do not miss snail mail. And it isn't working well here now anyway.
ReplyDeleteShe's so sweet!
ReplyDeleteThese are different times...
I had my grandies send cards to their cousins. It was fun!
This was a dear read, technology is wonderful but it's also bittersweet. 15 years ago I got a Canon photo scanner & scanned some older letters my mom, dad & grandma sent me when I moved to Pittsburgh. I like to look at them sometime and appreciate the stationery, distinctive handwriting. They feel much more personal than texts or emails.
ReplyDeleteI understand the appeal of a handwritten letter. Can't remember the last one I got cept on my birthday but there is something so much more personal in them. Glad though that she is caving and letting you do the faster way for her.
ReplyDeleteSome changes are easier to accept than others. That is so funny in the cute kind of way. I have one friend in Florida with whom I exchange handwritten cards and letters. SHe did send me an email for the first time this past winter -- she had to use her husband's account and computer
ReplyDeleteThere is something about a handwritten letter in the mail. For one thing, it takes more time and effort. However, it then becomes a dilemma - to keep and pile up or toss after reading. I prefer email or text acknowledgements but on the very rare occasions that I get an actual letter from my son or daughters, they are more special.
ReplyDeleteThis post is a great column about living with seniors and about the techno information you share. It is interesting, Kay. I like Google Duo and have it on my phone. There is an Android version and one in the Apple store too! So everyone can use it hi. With the push of a button I'm talking face to face. Very easy, when I'm at the store I can show how be the choice of items. ALOHA
ReplyDeleteworld has changed forever
ReplyDeleteI don't write or receive snail mail letters. It's been so long that I'm not sure I can even write cursive any more! :-)
ReplyDeleteAwww, it's so sweet that your mom and her sister want to get their letters in the mailbox. I love this story, Kay. It's so precious!
ReplyDeleteOh, you are a clever one, daughter. How sweet of mom to acquiesce.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's very hard for the old heads to get around new technology.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to adjust to changes.
ReplyDeleteI don't hand write letters any more, but I do occasionally send cards by mail. I really like getting cards in the mail box.
ReplyDeleteI was never the letter writer even in my youth. Now writing letters to meals on wheels folks and relearning. And yes, the sizes are different but they shouldn't be measurably different. I can force a size a4 paper into.a business envelope...all those years of living in Germany. And I can use zokn and FaceTime but dinr love wither one.
ReplyDelete