World's Oldest

[TQR 14,395]

On 25/02/2018 at 21:27, Dalai Lama said:

Go go go Nabi Tajima.

 

You know her personally, Tenzin?

[123jeff 57]

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[123jeff 57]

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[123jeff 57]

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[Joey Russ 7,227]

That's quite cool actually. Apparently, one of my many great great (not sure how many greats though) grand uncle according to my parents is former US president James K Polk. I definitely would not have guessed that if I had to guess famous people that I'm related to, so it's especially cool to know someone that is related to one of the few living relics from before 1905. Next time you get to chat with her, tell her that one of the posters from another forum said hello to her.  

[123jeff 57]

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[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

2 hours ago, 123jeff said:

 

Thanks! I agree it is a really cool feeling to talk to someone born 100 years before you. Even cooler if they're related to you!

 

She tells me a lot of stories from the early 1900's as she was in her early teens then and remembered quite a bit. She has an album of clippings of ancient news articles ranging from the 1910 to the 1980's. One of them even covered the sinking of the titanic and another covered the assassination of the Russian Royal family in 1918 (which she believed to have been the most important event to have occurred in her life). My favorite was a clipping that said, "war has been declared!" (referencing the start of the first world war) in Japanese. Her memory is perfect so she's just a trove of information that can only be found in textbooks nowadays!

 

She was a teen during ww1, a middle aged adult during ww2, nearing 65+ during the cold war, etc etc. She lived in Canada for a couple of years in the '40s to avoid the hardships of WW2 (she did not agree with the Japanese regime at all) and still speaks fluent English to this day. This was when she converted to Christian.

 

You can discover many things by creating a family tree and although I'm not American, it's pretty cool that you have a president as a distant relative. You can probably discover relations with a lot of famous historical figures the more you search!

 

BTW, she's old enough that she has to lie about her age if she ever wanted to register social media like Facebook, or Instagram! They only go as far back as 1905, which is a faux pass to the 20 remaining people born before 1905!

Great post!  When you think she was born in a world before the invention of aeroplanes and with telecommunications in their infancy, using Skype is an achievement indeed!

 

"6) I'd say my chances of at least reaching 100+ are quite good too based on heredity and genetics." - make sure you're not hit crossing the road tomorrow now after saying that... 

 

"I should expect to reach the next century. (I'm currently born May 2001, age 16) " - pity you weren't born a few years earlier so you'd have a chance of spanning 19xx to 21xx. Awesome that you are exactly 100 years younger than Great Aunt Chiyo though and that she lived past the 100th anniversary of that photo! 

 

"... covered the assassination of the Russian Royal family in 1918 (which she believed to have been the most important event to have occurred in her life)."

- No wonder. The Russo-Japanese War would have been one of the defining events of her early childhood.

 

" ... to avoid the hardships of WW2 (she did not agree with the Japanese regime at all)"  - What was her reaction when she heard about Hiroshima and Nagasaki? 

 

I'll just throw out some basic questions you can ask her:

1. What is the biggest technological change she has seen? (Aeroplane, telephone, television, refrigerator, penicillin, internet, etc)?

2. What is the biggest cultural change she has seen?  (Let's remember Japan is a VERY different place now than it was before the war). Is it too materalistic/Americanised for her?

3. Does Abe worry her?  Is Japan going back a little in a more martial "1940s" direction?

4. What was her favourite decade to live through?

5. Are people becoming more or less civilised or is human nature basically staying the same?

6. What would the people she knew as a child think of the world today if they were still around?  Good points, bad points?

7. Which famous person has had the biggest impact on her life?

8. What are her favourite improvements to the way people live over the last 100 years?

9. What changes does she like the least?

 

That'll do. There are thousands more questions I could ask but I will restrain myself...

[123jeff 57]

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[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

Thanks for the great answer. She sounds terrific. I think she and I would see eye to eye on a lot of things.

 

"You have no idea how many voice recordings I’ve accumulated and questions I’ve asked her!" With her consent, you should put them up on Youtube as they will be a treasure trove for people interested in social history.

 

"... when she was in university..." It would have been rare for a woman of her generation to go to uni.

 

"She always jokes that based on what people eat today  her longevity records might never be broken, so she thanks McDonalds." I made that very same joke a while ago somewhere in this same thread. I think it was about the proliferation of Yank supercentenarians thinning out as the  McDonald's generation hits old age.

 

"1990’s. She hated the war periods and in between the wars there were too many economic depressions for her liking. The economy in the 1990’s was booming and in her opinion, the culture was great. " Yes, the Asian Tiger economy  period would have been good. Yes, the 1990s were a fairly good era in retrospect before the Yanks lost the plot completely after Sep 11.You'd be too young to even remember that world.  There were a lot of economic problems for those of us not living in Asian economies though. Depressing that that decade might be as good as it gets and we might not see anything as good in the rest of our lives...

 

"She says that hygiene was the biggest imrpovement. In the early 1900’s, the thoughts of washing your hands, brushing your teeth, and taking showers were almost non existent! " That's why she outlived them all.

 

"She hated the developement and progression of the atomic bomb. " Absolutely.

 

"I think she also has a crush on Yuzuru Hanyu." Well, you can't blame her because every man in the world is a toyboy from her perspective now.

 

"This is also when she started driving (she got her first car at the age of 92)" She's Supergran!

 

[123jeff 57]

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[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

@123jeff

 

Some more questions I thought of overnight...  I'll be good and limit myself to just 10:

 

1. What does she think has been the biggest/most exciting change in whatever field it was she specialised in at Uni?

 

2. Question about perceptions of time: when she thinks back to something she remembers clearly from 100 years ago, such as the assassination of the Russian Royals or the day that photo was taken, does it seem just like yesterday to her or does it feel like a really long time ago?

 

3. This question is on behalf of the Poms on this site who are wondering about Brexit...  When she was born, it was less than 50 years since warmongering tosser Admiral Matthew Perry's gunboat diplomacy forced Japan open to the world.  Looking back, which does she think is better:  a closed society, with little foreign trade or immigration that is able to preserve its traditions, culture and social structures, or today's open, post-modernist, global society with free movement and trade? Have benefits outweighed costs or vice versa?

 

== Don't know how relevant these next two questions are to Japan, since I am not sure about  how they impacted on the country.  ==

 

4. What are her thoughts on the waves of feminism that emerged in the 1960s onwards?  Good things, bad things?

 

5. What are her thoughts on the counter-culture that emerged in the 1960s? I imagine that, at least, she is in favour of the anti-Vietnam and anti-nuclear protests. What about other aspects of the counter culture.

 

6. What does she think about North Korea?

 

7. If she had a time machine, what is one thing from the present day she would go back and tell her parents and family about in the early 1900s?

 

8. Have people today got more or less compassion than people in 1900?

 

9. What are her favourite artistic movement(s) or artists of the last 100 years? Was she open to developments modern art, for instance? Also, what are some of  her favourite films?

 

10. Fun question to end: I guess she would have grown up with traditional Japanese folk music and maybe some exposure to European classical and opera. What, then, did she think of rock music like the Beatles when she first encountered it? New and exciting or unlistenable trash? 

 

Cheers.

 

 

[123jeff 57]

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[Davey Jones' Locker 1,324]

Thank you. I like her more and more. We have a fair bit in common, despite the huge age gap!

[Dalai Lama 10]

On 26/02/2018 at 23:11, The Quim Reaper said:

 

You know her personally, Tenzin?

Shut your mouth negro.

[TQR 14,395]

4 hours ago, Dalai Lama said:

Shut your mouth negro.

 

“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.” 
― Dalai Lama XIV

[123jeff 57]

 

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[Spade_Cooley 9,526]

World's oldest priest, Jacques Clemens, dead at 108. Was apparently still conducting mass at 105.

[msc 18,466]

Got to feel for Pedro. He's picked him in all 3 rounds of the Deathlist Cup he's ever played, and now the sod's gone and died without him and became a List of the Missed alumnus.

[Dalai Lama 10]

My hero.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Arvin_Overton

[Sir Creep 7,070]

2 hours ago, msc said:

Got to feel for Pedro. He's picked him in all 3 rounds of the Deathlist Cup he's ever played, and now the sod's gone and died without him and became a List of the Missed alumnus.

I shouldn't laugh, I feel anyone's pain believe me.  But gotta admit there's more than a hint of amusement at someone else's suffering on a 'miss'.

SC

[msc 18,466]

Huguette Masson at 113.

 

You live that long and aren't the oldest living Frenchie (Lucile Randon), top 10 oldest in the world or even in the top oldest living Europeans. Almost a bit of a waste, really.

[Pedro67 232]

5 hours ago, Sir Creep said:

I shouldn't laugh, I feel anyone's pain believe me.  But gotta admit there's more than a hint of amusement at someone else's suffering on a 'miss'.

SC

Of course you should. I did when I saw the announcement. I few weeks earlier, and my 1st round slaughter by The dead cow wouldn't have looked quite so bad. Shame no one nabbed a unique with him for this round.

 

[TQR 14,395]

On 27/02/2018 at 01:27, 123jeff said:

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On 27/02/2018 at 01:41, 123jeff said:

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On 27/02/2018 at 01:48, 123jeff said:

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On 27/02/2018 at 02:08, 123jeff said:

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On 27/02/2018 at 05:25, 123jeff said:

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On 27/02/2018 at 21:44, 123jeff said:

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On 28/02/2018 at 04:58, 123jeff said:

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On 01/03/2018 at 07:23, 123jeff said:

 

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Err...where's the intriguing old people facts gone?

[Death Impends 7,975]

Was he pulling a fast one on us?

[Sir Creep 7,070]

2 hours ago, Death Impends said:

Was he pulling a fast one on us?

Photos and all.  Would be like Howard Hughes joining DL!