A step back for a step further

I believe in that it is not only your will that shapes what you are, but also your environment and verbal and non-verbal behaviour. It is also the case with how you think. Being back in my hometown, I feel something fragile, nostalgic and sad. It is hard to remember how you grew up exactly and what you were thinking then if you’re busy working in another city. However, the smell of moist windchill, an oil heater burning and the taste of the stew reminds me of them so vividly that I feel as if I had left the town yesterday. Of course, it’s not and it’s not with the people. People age. No matter what we do, it is inevitable. I’m deeply grateful for the people around me growing up; my grandparents. They always welcome me with a huge affection whether I’m back from the elementary school or the university. They’ve formed what I am. Every time I come back, I realize they’re aging and ironically the more I realize it the bigger my gratitude becomes to them. Even though they surely age, their affection never changes and I do feel it. I might not have this feeling if I lived with them as I did until a high school student and I might not remember exactly how I’m feeling now when I’m back to my ordinary life, and yet I couldn’t stay on here. Well technically I could but it’s not for neither me and them.

Time is money. It seems I knew its meaning but didn’t realize it. The time left I have is not only for me and not given by the God, but by the people around me. Without them, I wouldn’t feel and think as I do. It is them that enables me to do so. Here comes my this year’s resolution; To appreciate the people around. I’m not saying to neglect my own life. I’m saying to appreciate them by doing what they will proud of me about. I know doing something for both myself and others has more powerful motivation than that only for myself. Now that the half of my 20’s is over, it’s time to return something little by little.

 

Oroshi Soba!

 

Zeietgeist 2017

The Year of 2017 is coming to the end. Time flies faster year by year. To make the next year better, I wanna have a quick look back at the year.
1. Bachelor thesis
Though I feel it as if years ago, yeah it was this year May when I graduated with BEng. The last few weeks until the deadline was kind of the most horrible I had ever had, and now it was just one of them. So scary haha This experience of writing the thesis gave me a confidence that at least I accomplished something, which I hadn’t had then, and willingness to go further.
2. Er ist wider da.
In der Semesterferie, bin ich nach Deutschland zurückfahren. Dort habe ich viele Freunden, die beide in Deutschland und Japan kennengelernt. Ich sage nicht, dass alles gleich war, aber die Leute waren! Ich habe mich gefühlt, dass ich da vor einem Tag war. Ich bin sicher, dass es ist die Leute, für die ich ins Ausland reise.
3. Multi-task
Most of the time I was doing multitasks at the same time; research, interdisciplinary course and social innovation.
4. Toronto
I can’t talk about this year without this. Indeed it is a little bit hard to do research in another field in another country, but I got much more. Not only the research, but also the culture and the idea did I experience. Besides, I had much more free time to explore around and ponder the future. As I was a bit busy with multitasks in Japan, this 2 months made what to do a bit clearer, which helps me here in Japan a lot. One thing I want to complain about this exchange program is that it’s too short!
5. Research, research and socialize
Back in Japan, I spent most of the time on research, which made me isolated from the society lol That’s why I enjoyed a lot social innovation class, in which we discover social issues and make a business plan and a prototype to test to the people. I enjoyed it because actually I had never tried to make a prototype to test in a project, although I had done many this kind of workshops. Indeed the multitask of research and the class was hard but they motivated each other.
6. Overview
One of my initial goals for this year is to enjoy the process. I’m not really sure I did it. I was so irritated that research didn’t go well. I did enjoy, however, the moments when I got to do something new that I wasn’t able to do and when I created something after huge struggles. I guess the next year will be also like those, but surely will be better year by year, otherwise, I would make so.

Japan Weeks

It’s been 2 weeks since I came back to Japan. There are several things I had taken for granted but now find a bit wired.

1. Diet with too many carbs
   They say Japanese food is healthy. Yes it is, only if a word “traditional” comes before “Japanese food.” What Japanese eat daily is not traditional ones of fish and vegetables, but ones with deep-fried stuff, which contain lots of oil. Indeed I ate lots of oily and junky North American food in Canada, but they’re mostly cheese and meat, which are more or less protein! This is good for me, who needs more fat and muscle.
2. Too little portion
   Another thing about diet. A portion of a meal is too little. I thought eating out in Japan is cheaper than in other western countries I’ve been to. Taking into the portion of a meal, however, it’s not always the case. Usually I didn’t have to order side dishes to get full at a restaurant in Toronto, but I have to in Japan, ending up paying the same amount of money as I do in Toronto. Can I get used to Japanese portion of a meal as I stay here longer?
3. Homogenized businessman
   Compared to the most diverse city in the world, most of the cities on the globe would be categorized as this one, but still I find the society homogenized. I had a conference in the downtown Osaka and had to take trains that other businessmen use to commute. The first question: Why do we have to wear suits in this humid climate? Suits are originally from the UK, where it has a milder climate and less humid. It feels a bit even overwhelming to be on a commuter train in Japan, seeing a bunch of businessmen wearing the same suits and playing with their smartphones.

Although I’ve written these negative things, I still like to live in Japan. However, after living in a much more diverse and of freedom city, where your individuality is respected and your own will as an individual is realized if it’s reasonable, I’d have to say I want to try myself in the west in the future.

P.S. A thing that is clear to me from the last two months is that at least for me, I should choose where I live based on what I do, not simply because I want to go somewhere else. North America seems to let you try what you want to do whatever it is unless it’s illegal, while some countries don’t.

Already missing “The best metro system in North America”

 

Canada Week 7&8: Review

I’ve just finished the research there and I’m waiting for transit in Detroit. I’d like to share with you briefly what seems important. I said “share with you” but it’s mostly “share with me in the future.”

1. Vitality
   It’s quite simple. The more energetic you’re the more things you can try, regardless of whether it’s about your work or leisure. Be curious about anything around you and don’t stop challenging. Of course, your lifestyle and accustoms are important to keep the motivation. I’d like to pay more attention to my both mental and physical health.
2. What you do
   Be proud of what you do. Because I haven’t had any specific thing I want to do from the bottom of my heart, I’ve value more on how I live rather than what I live on. However, most of the societies we live in are not designed for those who have such a vague idea. If you don’t have any specific things you want to do, like me, get to like what you do because it is what you do, whether it’s work or study, that you spend most of your time. Those who have a specific idea of what to do can make what they do what they want to do, but if you’re not one of them, make yourself like it. If you cannot make yourself like what you do by any means, try something new.
3. Appropriate self-evaluation
   Don’t overestimate yourself, and don’t underestimate yourself. Overestimation gives you rubbish proud and takes opportunities to grow away from you. Underestimation makes you feel powerless and gives you excuses to give up challenges. Personally, I feel I underestimated myself and used it as an excuse. No matter how powerless you seem, don’t be hopeless and start doing what you can do.

As for the city of Toronto, I love it. It might be because I haven’t experienced winter there. Still, I want to come back here someday. 

 

Canada Week 6: On my own

I knew little about North America, and to be honest, I wasn’t fascinated with it very much because of their short history. Living in Toronto and visiting several cities in the US, however, I found it totally wrong. Indeed our country is one of the oldest nation in the world with a long history and deeply-rooted culture, but this also means that we tend to rely on the legacy and started just following the past. Eventually we cease to proceed on our own under the name of tradition. Briefly speaking, I think American history is a history of the people who’ve been seeking for freedom or happiness and creating their own history or culture. An example might be found in differences between French Revolution and American War of Independence. Freedom is not a inherent right but the people’s creation. Happiness is not a gift from the God but your feeling on your life. They are energetic and curious about their own lives with the sense of ownership.

These are what I was thinking of when I was walking in the city of Chicago this weekend in a shiny weather. I’m grateful to the friend of mine to give me a change to come to the city and showed his enthusiasm about his dream.

Goose Island

 

Canada Week 5: Off

I can’t believe more a month has already past, which means my journey in Canada is at halfway point.

To be honest, I didn’t have any specific (academic) goals of this stay, and I don’t rally feel I’ve achieved something. Only vague goal I had is to experience totally new things. Partly because I thought two months is too short to achieve something valuable in my research and mainly because I was too busy to spare much time on finding laboratory to stay, my mindset was to explore a new world, both in terms of research and life. This doesn’t mean my laboratory here is totally irrelevant to my research, neither does it mean I’m indifferent to the current research here. I like the research here and love the people. While I feel sometimes that I have to do something to proceed and that as if I was wasting time, I’m really glad to have two month “off.” I know two months do account for not small term out of 24 months of master program, especially taking it into account that job hunting starts soon.

However, I believe this two month “off” is worth taking, just as  I feel about my one year exchange in München. First, experiencing a new world gives you more options to take and helps you thing what to do in the future. Of course more options don’t always lead to more content result, but at least it gives you more freedom. Second, you have more free time to contemplate. If you keep staying in the same environment and keep doing something, you’ll get used to it and get not to think carefully anymore, which often ends up with choosing majorities’ options (at least for me). Finally, most importantly, you can literally see and experience this world. In another world, you can travel around! Yep, I went to Niagara Falls!

 

Looking up breathtaking fall

Light up at night

Overwhelming scale and the amount of water falling took away my breath and kept me pushing camera shutter, although any of the photos doesn’t express completely how it is actually.

Canada Week 4: Sense of Purpose

I titled this post “Canada Week 4,” but this post has little thing to do with Canada. It’s just random thought that came to my mind when I’m in Canada.

A friend of mine shared on Facebook a movie of Mark Zuckerberg’s address at Harvard’s 366th Commencement. The friend tagged me on the post, saying the content of the speech is similar to what I talked to him about the ideal society and what we need for it. Honestly I didn’t remember well what I talked then because I was a little bit drunk, but watching the movie, I vividly remembered it and reassured the idea doesn’t miss the point. Because to share my ideas is one of the purposes of this blog, I’d like to share what it is like.

The idea is to realize environments in which everyone can have their senses of purpose in their own lives. Having sense of purpose includes finding your value in the society, and of course different people put their value on different criteria. Therefore, there should be different metrics to evaluate the people and society besides economic growth, which is now only clear metric today. I think this phenomenon is caused by the conventional idea where leading a stable life comes first, which is a lot of things to do with economic growth. The more things we have, the happier we can be. With the progress of automation, however, economic growth is no longer the most important in developed countries. Pursing economic growth could even cause misery, loneliness and emptiness. Because sense of purpose is not directly connected with to work to survive, we need to find purpose on your own to satisfy and justify yourself, and we need different metrics. Finding your purpose is always accompanied with failure and trial and error, therefore people have to be prepared to be wrong, so is the society. That’s why we need such an idea as basic income for all the people to be able to pursuit their dream, holding the safety net in case of failure. Many people may say it’s impossible, but that’s is my motivation why I’m interested in engineering such as automation and artificial intelligence. In introducing basic income, one of the concerns is obviously how to have purpose and dream. There are a lot of prediction that people would stop working and the economy and humankind would stop progressing. Not afraid of being misunderstood, I’d say that it’s okay, as long as they are satisfied with it, because this is what they chose. Furthermore, this pessimistic prediction is based on the current education, so what if we change from standardization to encouraging them to be different from others? I’m not sure yet what education it’ll be like, but one important thing I’m sure is to have ownership. In the movie, Zuckerberg uses many times a term “our generation.” Yes, it’s us that create the world. It’s us that make the world better for us. Don’t leave it all to others, otherwise your world wouldn’t have a metric that measures your attraction properly. In the current era, critical point is not money gap, but motivation gap.

P.S. I finally came across a raccoon in the city! He was stuck in walls at a bar and got out eventually. So cute!

Looking for food…

Canada Week 3: Time flies

btw full-time student can enter ROM for free on Tuesdays

@ Royal Ontario Museum

I knew 2 months would fly away quickly, but it’s much faster than I expected. Indeed I’m enjoying my stay here, but sometimes wonder whether I’ve something with which I can prove I lived here, something I can bring back. The exact same feeling I got in Munich, where I found one in language. Here, however, it won’t be, so what can it be? Of course 1 year and 2 months are totally different, but still there should be something.

Regarding this, I find that people and atmosphere support “just do it” attitude, even when the result is obscure. Just give it a try and you’ll see. Of course it is important to firm fundamental policy to make actions, but the order doesn’t matter a lot, especially if the policy bother you from making actions. Do it and Think it.

Canada Week 2: Identity

“Canadian identity”
Now that it’s the 150th anniversary of Canada, I expected this would be more and more important. Asking and looking at the people, however, this expectation seems totally miss the point. When I ask the people what Canadian identity is, a person told me it’s not having identical one, but accepting as they are different. I knew that Canada is a country of immigrant and culturally diverse, but knowing it is quite another from experiencing it. Although I’ve been here for 2 weeks, I’m amazed every time 10 minute walk takes me from the mid of China to the campus of university with medieval European buildings. This is only an example and there are other tons of places like this.

Here comes another thinking; this identity of accepting diversity as it is can affect individual’s identity. As your ethnicity is taken for granted here, it doesn’t shape who you are. Arguably what defines you as you is yourself. Your personality, your ability, your will. I’m surprised with what a plausible idea I result in, but this realization made me sure that this 2 months will be totally different from one year in Germany, where I was one of the international students and being a Japanese helped me who I was. Here, on the other hand, I’ll be one of them, and I’ll find a way not to be “just” one of them.

Nevertheless, I’d say watching baseball with a piece of pizza is quite north American culture.

Pizza with Pineapple

Canada Week 1: Arrival

Long time no writing here! As I’m in another country and more free time, I’d like to write down what comes to my mind. (I titled this article week 1, but I’m not sure how long it lasts…)

This is my first visit to Canada, and found closer to Japan than Europe as I expected. Probably because our westernization was based on the US rather than Europe and because it’s just downtown, the scenery and the atmosphere in the city is somehow familiar. There are, however, some differences I noticed.

People:
I heard that people here are more friendly and easier to talk to, but the degree is beyond my expectation. (Or I’m simply not used to it.)  I guess  this culture has been growing as a country of immigrant. As there are always people coming in and out, they always talk to new people and can’t go without it. How to be friends with new people has been one of the keys to be successful in this country. This culture is good especially for exchange students like me.

History:
I watched an interview asking German people “Was ist typisch Amerika? (What is typical America?)” and remember one old man saying “Dumm und geschichtlos (Stupid and with no history)” I though he was just making fun of America, but I’d say it is indeed the case a little bit about history. (I won’t say America is stupid.) Canadian/American culture is collection of cultures from the globe, which is now making another culture. Having little culture doesn’t mean being stupid, but having vitality to build up their own country on their own, which we Japanese might be lacking of.