In Japan, there is a profession called housewife.
As the name suggests, this position means that a woman takes care of the family full-time, doing housework without going out to work, and the main object of service is her own relatives.
Most people don't like to do housework, they think it's a tedious and uninteresting job, and they might as well play mahjong or dance!
However, in a Japanese variety show, we saw a Japanese housewife's daily life, and the show was praised by millions of people!
Japan's 74-year-old housewife's day stings most Chinese women, this is what it means to enjoy the later years of life
The main character of the story is called Sakai Junko, who lives in Yezan-cho, Kanagawa Prefecture, a small, quiet, slow-paced city.
Born in 1946, Ms. Sakai is 74 years old, which makes her a grandmother, as they call her at home.
But the grandmother is not in the least bit old-fashioned, at least as we can see from the way she dresses, and she lives a hip life!
Imagine, we usually see granny's dress on the street, is there always a sense of "heaviness" and sense of incompatibility? There is always the feeling that the old and young people's lives have a distinctive sense of hierarchy.
As the saying goes, "You're only as good as your clothes", and if our grandmothers had Ms. Sakai's sense of style, they'd be walking down the street with a new sense of style.
After all, there's no rule that older people can't be trendy and beautiful!
Ms. Sakai met her husband when she was young, and after she got married, she became a housewife.
At first, Ms. Sakai didn't have any experience, and barely managed to do even the most basic household chores, rather than doing them well.
But it was only with time that Ms. Sakai became what she is today!
Every day, the alarm clock goes off at 5:15 a.m., and the first thing Ms. Sakai does when she gets up is to open the window and enjoy the first rays of the morning sun.
Then she makes a fresh cup of coffee, and during the time it takes for the coffee to cool, she washes up, washes her hair, and sits in the living room to watch TV and drink her coffee.
At 5:30 p.m., Ms. Sakai would begin her first chore of the day, which was to put away last night's washed towels and clothes.
As a good habit, Ms. Sakai likes to wash and dry her clothes in the washing machine at night when she takes a bath, so that she can easily clean them up in the morning.
At 5:40, Ms. Sakai cleans the living room.
While technology is now so advanced that many Japanese families have purchased sweeping robots, she enjoys her chores as her entertainment.
Twenty minutes later, Ms. Sakai is preparing breakfast.
In the documentary, Ms. Sakai makes sandwiches for her family, a breakfast that requires a lot of ingredients - bacon, butter, jam, pickles, etc. - as well as chopping and assembling them, which isn't as easy as french fries or soymilk.
This shows the importance that the Japanese place on breakfast.
After breakfast, the time comes to 7:00 a.m. Ms. Sakai begins to clean up the mess, as well as cleaning up around the house, leaving the exact chores up to her.
①Sometimes Ms. Sakai uses the morning to get dinner ready ahead of time so that dinnertime is a little easier;
②Sometimes Ms. Sakai wipes down cabinets and scrubs floors, and she's come to a realization about housework, "Instead of picking a day for a full-scale cleaning, it's better to clean a portion of the house every day when you're in the mood. "
In the documentary, Ms. Sakai also shares with us her secret for cleaning kitchen crevices: toothpicks.
"Just wrap a bamboo stick in a paper towel and you can clean the hard-to-reach grease in the crevices of the stovetop with absolutely no dead spots."
After these chores are done, it's exactly 8 p.m. Ms. Sakai next packs her bag and heads out the door.
She might go to the market to buy ingredients;
or she might go for a walk in the park;
and she might go to a craft store to learn how to knit, or to a clothing store to help a loved one buy clothes.
This is Ms. Sakai's morning, unchanged for 44 years!
So what is Ms. Sakai's afternoon life?
Ms. Sakai has a couple of children, and when they were studying abroad, Ms. Sakai held cooking classes in the afternoons to pass the time, where she would teach her students the skills of cooking good food and organizing their homes.
When it comes to cooking, Ms. Sakai conveys the notion that
"Eating at home isn't about haute cuisine, it's about creating an aura of peace."
In 2017, the Sakai family had their house redecorated, and there is a small yard outside the house, in which Ms. Sakai also grows flowers and fruits and vegetables in her free time, so that she and her family can enjoy a bath in nature.
That said, many people in China have a wrong perception of housewives, thinking that they only do housework at home and cannot help their husbands earn money.
In fact, most housewives choose to work odd jobs to supplement their income, and Ms. Sakai is no exception, having been a part-time writer of columns in her youth, and now an author of books such as "A Remedy for Life".
As a result, Ms. Sakai has her own group of fans, who often come over as guests.
On top of that, Ms. Sakai goes surfing at the beach and hangs out with her girlfriends, but no matter how much fun she's having on a given day, she always chooses to be home by 17:00 to prepare dinner.
Husband would get off work at 18:00, and she would make dinner to reward these hard-working relatives.
Referring to her husband, Ms. Sakai said with a smile,
"There are times when I will sleep separately from him, not because of a bad relationship, but because I feel that old age requires a certain amount of distance, so that both of them will have a private space, and I can avoid conflicts that occur when I get too close."
Ms. Sakai's house is a small three-storey building, with Mr. and Mrs. Sakai living on the first floor, her daughter's family on the second floor, and her son's family on the third floor, so does Ms. Sakai get into conflicts with her daughter-in-law?
In response, Ms. Sakai says, "I don't interfere with my children's education of their grandchildren, which naturally reduces the number of conflicts between me and my children. Intergenerational parenting is not something to brag about, but a sign of absentee parents."
In the country, many elderly people also watch their children, but they may treat their grandchildren in the same way as the older generation, which may cause resentment among their children.
So Ms. Sakai will accompany her grandchildren and take care of them, but she will not interfere in their education, let alone spoil them.
After dinner, Ms. Sakai will read in her study, or perhaps do her own writing, before taking a bath and doing her laundry before going to bed at 22:00 sharp.
This is a day in the life of a 74-year-old housewife who has turned her life into poetry, living each day with a special repetition that she considers a blessing despite the repetitive nature of what she does every day.
Soul-searching question - why are there fewer housewives in China?
1. Different backgrounds, economic bases, and social status
"One side of the soil and water nurtures one side of the people", and although our country's comprehensive strength has become stronger, the gap with the developed countries is still not small.
In Japan, many men are able to provide for their families, so women choose to be housewives.
But in China, even if a woman prefers to be a housewife, her family's financial strength won't allow her to do so, and if she doesn't go out and earn money, the whole family will have to drink the "northwest wind".
Of course, we can't say that Chinese men don't have the ability to do this, but rather that the different backgrounds lead to different life situations.
Besides, the status of housewives is different in China.
According to a U.S. research organization, a housewife's job can translate into an annual salary of 750,000 yuan.
In Japan, men have great respect for housewives, according to statistics 49% of men are willing to pay their salaries to their wives, and they respect their wives' contributions.
But in China, many men don't respect the contribution of housewives, they feel that doing housework is all easy and housewives have no value.
2. Different personal values
Of course, many Chinese women are envious of Japanese housewives because not only do they have to do the same thing, but they also have to go out to work, and they're so tired that they're like bulldogs all day long, they don't have the body and mind to move around, and they don't have the heart to jump around like huskies. "The company's newest product is a new product that will be available for sale in the near future.
What does Ms. Sakai's day teach us?
1) Husbands and children need to realize how hard it is for women
Ms. Sakai does her chores very quickly, and it certainly has something to do with her methods, such as cleaning up after herself whenever she can, and cleaning up the messes in a timely manner.
But if her husband, children and grandchildren did not cooperate with Ms. Sakai's work and always gave her trouble, I believe she would not be able to do housework so fast.
So, all husbands and children have to understand the hardship of women, you can not help them to do the housework, but at least you can not throw things and arrange things randomly, this may be the best help.
②Middle-aged women and the elderly should learn to enjoy their old age
In this regard, the elderly have progressed very quickly!
For example, many women like to "square dance" to relieve stress, although this way is a little "disturbing", but "go your own way, let others say so".
Besides, the elderly should also learn to enjoy their old age and not tie themselves to their children and grandchildren, which would make retirement meaningless.
Ms. Sakai often parties with her girlfriends and holds cooking classes to pass on her ideas, and she even chooses to enjoy life by planting flowers, traveling and writing, which is something we can learn from.
At the very least, it's much better than playing mahjong or taking a walk and chatting.
③Elderly people also need to learn to be "hip"
Many people subconsciously refuse to accept new things when they get old, and they feel they are old and unnecessary.
This has led to many of the country's elderly getting on public transportation and not even scanning the Ankang code.
Of course, we can't blindly blame the elderly, but also the sons and daughters, who have failed to pass on the right concepts to the elderly.
Ms. Sakai is 74 years old, but she doesn't dress like an "old-fashioned" person. At least this is something that women can learn from, so that they don't let their old age be defeated by old ideas.