Finding Yoyu

Yoyu is a Japanese word used to express one's capacity to deal with or handle a situation. When you have yoyu, it means you have enough of whatever you need to be in control and at peace with the situation. When you don't have yoyu, it might be because you don't have enough time, energy, money, experience, or even peace of mind.

Yoyu is a handy concept that most Japanese speakers take for granted. We have the same concept in English when it comes to time and money, and it's easy to translate. I can't afford that car (I don't have enough money). I can't help you with that project (I don't have enough time).

What if you don't have enough oomph to deal with a situation? What if you don't have enough peace of mind? What if you're too stressed, too tired, too overwhelmed?

If I say to my Japanese friends that I don't have yoyu, they get it immediately. They know I'm not always talking about time or money.

Gauging my yoyu and learning how to bring it back into balance helps me survive and enjoy this Earth experience.

A few years ago, we moved my husband's parents from a rural part of Japan to live with us in Tokyo in our tiny 800 square foot (73 square-meter) condo. My book is about what it took to decide to move them. It’s also about navigating the Japanese health care system and finding an appropriate nursing home for my mother-in-law while helping my father-in-law transition from a lifetime of farming to retirement in the big city. It’s about how we discovered he had Alzheimer’s and my husband had stage 3 colon cancer. It’s about how I managed to support these two men and keep (or find!) my yoyu all while going through a career change.

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