Have you ever thought that you knew someone very well and then found out that you hardly knew that person at all? This happened to me with my father. I thought I knew him well, until one day something happened that changed my attitude toward him. Let me explain how I used to see my father, what happened, and how it changed me. As a child, I was always closer to my mother than to my father. As is traditional in Japanese culture, it was my mother's job to take care of me. She fed me and played with me every day. On the other hand, I hardly ever saw my father. He would often work until late at night, and he didn't talk to me much when he came home.He got angry at me sometimes, too. I thought he was a tough, cold man, and I was a little afraid of him. Then one day, my mother got sick. My father came home from work to take care of her and told me to go to the drugstore to get some medicine. When I returned, I took the medicine to my parents' bedroom. I looked in quietly before entering and saw my mother lying down with her eyes half-closed. My father was kneeling on the floor next to her, slowly and patiently feeding her some soup. When she finished, he put the bowl down and softly kissed her forehead. On that day, I realized that my father was really a kind and loving man. From then on, I saw only kindness and caring in my father's eyes. As a result, I learned two important things. First, I learned that even thought my father seemed rough, he was a kind man. Second, I learned that one must be very careful not to judge people. A person might look hard on the outside but be quite different on the inside.