What a Five-Hundred-Yen Coin Carries

My father back home turned eighty-two this July.

Having taught world history at a high school in the past, my father
has not stopped learning even now that he has retired.

As long as I can walk on my own two feet

He says this as he attends open university lectures,
taking classes alongside the students.

When I returned home, my father told me this.

As you get older, even if you want to remember things, they slip out of your memory. It's frustrating.But that is a treasure.I don't want to give up.

When I heard those words, I thought it was just like him.

The way he enjoys knowing things and continues to learn
has not changed at all since I was a child.

On lecture days, he eats lunch at the university cafeteria with the students.

The casual conversations he has with young people while eating his favorite katsu curry or the daily special seem to lead to new discoveries and energy for him.

That cafeteria meal costs about five hundred yen.

I want to support my father in that endeavor, even if just a little, so I have been saving up five-hundred-yen coins little by little.

It is not a large amount.

But in those five hundred yen,

Please keep learning and staying healthy from now on 😊

I quietly tuck those feelings inside.

My father will surely continue to walk forward
while encountering new things.

Like my father, I also want to be someone who can
see the world a little more broadly than yesterday.

And from here on out, I want to continue
quietly supporting my father's back as he keeps on learning. 🤗🍀