"You know kanji, right? I can read them still with no problem, but I cannot remember them at all to write them."
The woman she was addressing was a picture. She had taken the time in the morning to put on makeup and bobby-pin her black wig like a hat atop her hoary hair. She replied, "I can't write them at all anymore either, but that can't be helped. Look at us! We're in our 90's! We're completely different from young people as far as that goes. We should just be very thankful to have lived so long, don't you think?"
At another locale, a beautiful 100 year old woman with an angelic halo of white fluffy hair told me that each day when she wakes up, she is filled with appreciation. "My ears can hear, my eyes can see, I am alive, I am healthy. I have so much to be thankful for." "Kansha, kansha," she said. "Gratitude."
