 and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers. I'm Liz Wade, and this is Adam Navas. Hi, Adam. Hello. I was going to make you introduce yourself as like a surprise introduction, but I decided not to do that because it might be awkward. And we have a good thing we avoided that awkwardness. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, welcome to our conversation program, where we discuss this week's Spotlight English program. And this week's program is called Telephone of the Wind. And without talking too much about it right now, this is one of my favorite programs. And as I was just telling Adam before we started, this is also one of I think one of our most difficult programs for me. So I am really excited to talk about it with you, Adam, and to talk about it with our listeners. Now if you are watching this on YouTube, we'd really love it if you would just click like a second and then subscribe if you haven't already. 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I think many people can they can connect with this program really well. And yeah, I think it is really going to hit you in the feels. Yeah. So let's dive in. And even the title helped me understand telephone of the wind. Like if you if you haven't listened to this program and you're sitting there and you're thinking, you know what, I'm just going to keep watching this because, you know, those people are so wonderful. Telephone of the wind, Liz. So telephone of the wind is actually the English translation of the Japanese words, which would be kaze no denwa. And I'm sure you are Japanese and listening to this. Please forgive my my translation errors. But we applaud your attempt. Yes, exactly. So this is actually a story from Japan. And it happens. So there's this man, Itaro Sasaki, and he lost his cousin probably before before 2010, maybe around there. When you say lost, you don't mean he can't find him. His cousin died, right? And he really missed his cousin. And so what he did is I think was there a telephone he yeah, he built he built a telephone in like a corner of his garden, right? And so he didn't connect it to anything. But it is a telephone like you pick it up and you can speak into the telephone receiver and there's a telephone box. And I believe there is even like a like an actual booth, like a telephone box booth. And you go in there and it's not connected to anything, but you can speak into the telephone. And so I think this is really common for people who have lost someone. Maybe you want to tell them something you want to tell them about your day you want to pretend that they can hear you or that they can have a conversation with you again. And but it's it's hard to do that and just talk to yourself, right? Right? So you're sitting there and you're you just kind of talking to yourself and and that's you might feel strange. So this was a place where Itaro Sasaki, yes, could go and just talk to his cousin. He'd go to this telephone and he would pick up the telephone. I see him make this little telephone with my fingers. I would talk in the telephone and just tell his cousin things. Yeah. And I know, you know, and it goes, it's not a telephone anywhere. It's a telephone of the wind. Your voice goes out to the wind. Yeah. And I think what was it, you know, he did this thing for himself, right? Yes. And maybe a few people in his community, but after this large disaster where a lot of people died in 2011 with the with the earthquake in Japan. Yeah. People were drawn to this. It wasn't it wasn't just Oh, this is invited them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What I'm saying is it's he did something for himself, but it found resonance. Other people related to it in a way that they were drawn to it. They still had to choose to go and talk, talk into this or there was a notebook. They could write down some things if they didn't want to talk. Right. And I of course, so many people had lost people in the earthquake or the tsunami that followed and the town that he lived in was quite it was not destroyed completely, but there were there was a lot of damage. And so many people just left the town. So, you know, they're feeling lonely. They've lost people and stuff like that. Well, of course, because when you lose someone like that, suddenly you don't even get to say goodbye in the way that that maybe you wanted to or we long those connections are still there. Yeah. Our heart is still connected to their heart in a way that we still want to we still have needs and we don't have a lot of good ways of of doing that. And that's what I was so touched by this program to see like, oh, how how could I do that? How I don't even think about talking to the people that that I have lost grandparents or or otherwise, but it did really make me think about, you know, what what could I do? How could I are there things I still have to say? I don't know if that struck with you. I actually I heard about the Telephone of the Wind first in a different podcast called This American Life, which is, I mean, obviously, this isn't about America. But I heard about the Telephone of the Wind in this podcast, and it really it really touched me. And I found myself and I still I would love to go to this Telephone of the Wind in Japan. I heard the podcast just a few years after my mom had died. And it was very sudden how she died. None of us, I have three sisters and my dad is still living. And none of us got to say goodbye. And so I often even even today, 12 years later, I have been 12 years. Yeah, it has been 12 years. Even today, you know, I want to I want to tell her about things that happened during my day or about her grandkids. And and all of those things, right, like just normal parts of my life. And I can't. I can, you know, I can talk to the I can talk to the wind. I can, you know, write, write it down. But I feel like there's a special, there's a special connection with going somewhere to talk to that person. Yeah. Like, maybe that's the only place that you exactly like Sasaki, right? Going to that place to talk to his cousin. And so when he has that urge to talk, he can go there and then have that conversation. Well, and of course, a lot of people visit the place where the person is buried. Right. Yeah. Either on a birthday or a significant grave side. And and do talk layflowers or or say a few words. I think that's different, though, because when you do visit a grave site, you see a very specific symbol of death. Yes. Right. You're reminded of the death, for sure. That person is definitely gone. You're not you're not talking to them there. It's just a stone in the ground or, you know, or whatever the whatever. However, that person is buried. But going to a telephone, you can almost you can almost imagine that you are talking to that person. Yeah. And so I think there's something very different from visiting a grave site to going to this telephone booth and having this conversation. Yeah. I just think it's there's something so beautiful about it. Yeah. You know, it's I wonder, you know, because we're obviously not in Japan, like how how we we find those places in our lives, those special alive places, not just ones that remind us of death. I had a small and this is not it will seem kind of silly, but it was meaningful to me as so I was playing the Nintendo Wii. We still have a Nintendo Wii. Yeah. Okay. And I was playing the baseball game. I love the basic, you know, this is 2006. And so my grandfather was still alive. So we had created a little character for him in that and he his character came up to bat and it was just touching to be like, Oh yeah, he he played this this system with us when we did this. And before he died, my mom's me as well. Yeah. And it's kind of nice because they're not dead. You know, that's it doesn't remind you of that it reminds you of, oh yeah, they moved and they were here and they and it's it's obviously not them. It was never them. It's just a computer, you know, yeah, drawing of them. But it was very nice. And it was this it was just this moment of like connection that I really I appreciated in that moment. Mm hmm. Yeah, I, I really love this program so much. Even though whenever I listen to it, it does make me cry, especially if you if you read through or hear the quotes that people have left. I don't know, maybe I could read some without crying. I have one right here. Okay. It says we were all so sad. We did not think we could make it through. And that is why we never talked about dad until now. But talking to him on the telephone today, it changed something. Yeah, see, that's why I just think it's so beautiful. Like it really is different, you know, remembering someone and then talking to them on the telephone. Well, it's very hard to hide your emotions when you have to talk. Right. You find, you know, if you've ever had to do public speaking, you know people who give speeches and I didn't think I would cry. I didn't think I'd get on this very conversation program before. So yeah. Yeah, talking. And I have given speeches where I have cried. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's a, you know, mostly on spotlight, we talk about hope and positivity. And there is, there is a, there is a level of it here, like taking something that is very difficult and finding a way to channel it in a positive way. But no doubt, no doubt it is hard to lose someone you love. And I think one part that we touched on before that I really love about this too is that, you know, he, like you said, he made this for himself and really opened it up because he saw that it was so important and I love that part of it as well. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, I would love to hear, you know, what our listeners think about this program or about this idea and how you think about the special people in your life that you have lost. How do you, how do you think about them? Do you, do you write to them in a journal or something? Do you visit a grave site? Would you love to visit this telephone of the wind like me? Or if you are in Japan, have you visited it? I would really love to hear your stories. And if you feel like you can share them with us, yeah, write a comment. I would love to read that. And then maybe you will love this program as much as I do and find meaning from it as well. Yeah. So I think, like you said, this is kind of a sad program, but there is some hope. And I hope that you have seen this program either on YouTube or on our website at spotlightenglish.com. You can listen to it wherever you find your podcasts. And I think that I have also included this on my list of my seven favorite programs playlist on YouTube. So if you would like to check that out, you can check out what my other favorite programs are. I am pretty sure there's one about smallpox. There's this one. I'll have to think. Honestly, we have so many favorite programs. It is really hard to get them down to seven, but I promise you those seven are really worth it. And Adam has put together his own seven favorite programs. Mine are not as dark as yours, but dark. This isn't dark. It's beautiful. I didn't say dark isn't beautiful. Mine are more. Yeah. So yeah, check out those playlists on YouTube. And yeah, let us know what you think. Our email is contact at spotlightenglish.com if you want to send us a message. And yeah, check out joining as a member or if you want to get all of the scripts delivered directly to your email, then check that out on our website. And until next time, we hope you listen, watch, practice and learn spotlight out.