my mom sent me a box full of my old diaries, essays, letters and poems. this is one of the picture diaries that i had to keep as an assignment during summer vacation when i was in grade one. it looks like i drew it with crayon. the summer vacation began on july 20 and ended on august 31. i wrote a diary entry under the drawing.
JULY 21, TUESDAY 1981 SUNNY
“i was forced to take medicine by mother yesterday. so i threw up. after i threw up, my throat hurt.”
what a touching story! can you feel the maternal love?
medicine in japan is very bitter. Kong Qiu said “good medicine tastes bitter in the mouth…”. for that, japanese pharmaceuticals are doing an excellent job.
even the kid’s medicine i had to take was also bitter. they came in liquid and powder form. my mom used to wrap powder medicine in “オブラート （oblaat）”, which is a tasteless water-soluble gel made of starch. that way, i wouldn’t taste the bitterness of the medicine. liquid medicine, on the other hand, had no way to distract from its bad taste — a sickening mixture of cola, cinnamon, dirt and toothpaste in a purple-brown color. as i got older and more mischievous, i would pour the liquid medicine down the sink and tell my mom that i took it. i was successfully “taking” the medicine happily in this way until one day when i poured so much down the drain that my mom noticed and figured out what was going on.
i learned that i should never EVER tell a lie to my mom and to stay healthy so that i wouldn’t have to take medicine.
canadian kids don’t have to go through such a rough childhood.
children’s tylenol in canada is flavored cherry, bubblegum, or banana — you name it. elijah likes the super-sweet medicine so much that he asks for a second helping — saying “more, more” — a red carpet to happy drug addiction.
i can’t wait to introduce him the king of bitter medicine, the original “SEIRO-GAN“!
