I feel so depressed with Social Media but…

Dear Social Media,

I’m so tired using social media and now I think I’m not in a good condition. 3 days of continuous holidays totally killed me, I mean too much rest can kill sometime. Too much holiday can kill you mentally and make you so depressed. Then you think of all the faults are on Social Medias. Why I need to worry about notification every time? Why should I watch worthless videos on YouTube? I admit there are some good videos, but I cannot remember them all. I have no idea how many videos I have watched, but that would be so depressing number.

Then I think I can finally understand the feeling a person who try to quit cigaret. They always say to me how hard it is to quit cigaret, but I couldn’t imagine what would it be felt. However, now I can totally understand that. Social Media is a new addiction. Social Media kills you. It’s so unhealthy. Sometimes, I suddenly feel so sad because I’m nobody in the social media. I feel like I have no impact in this life and world. But, it’s actually not true. In the working place, you’re shining in an actual human relationship. You can realize how you are contributing to the world.

However, if you use too much social media, you can’t think of you positively. World seems so dark in the bed, you felt so alone. You would be overwhelmed with the endless information like tsunami. Am I highly sensitive person? Maybe so. However, I can definitely say the over using smartphone can kill people mentally much worse way with smoking. I really think this is wrong. Why you try to prohibit smoking but social media or too much using smartphones? I know many people are suffering from this kind of mental trouble.

So, I’d like to quit watching YouTube seriously. I used to declare the same thing here, but it didn’t last for 2 months. So, this time, I’d like not to break the promise at least until 3 month like October. I don’t want to use smartphones as much as I can. Then, I ensure that I can change myself to the positive ward.

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

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When was the moment you knew you were “grown up”?

Summer’s cloud is sometime shown as a metaphor of growing here in Japan. It expands quickly and the summer is the best season for students shine in each fields. Today’s question is “When was the moment you knew you were ‘grown up’?” Actually, I cannot say anything about this question. I’m still so childish in a way, and so old in a way.

There was a time everything seems new to me. There was a time everything was unknown. I couldn’t imagine how do I feel when I travel in New York, be in a relation ship with a cute girl and walking with drinking a cheap beer can in a foreign country through the night. But, by accumulating these kinds of experiences in my life, I found myself feeling a bit bored against my life. Or, maybe this is because I live in a country side which is totally unlike to Tokyo kinds of place.

I’m afraid of becoming a boring person by growing up. Becoming matured sometimes can work in a negative way. Grown up can mean stopping growing. There are words “developed country” and “developing country”. Perhaps I live in the latter country now, but I sometimes dream if I could live in the atmosphere in a developing country where everyones think tomorrow is the better day like I felt in Vietnam 10 years ago. I want to be grown up someday, but I never want to be grown up in the future.

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

Have you ever wished you’d made a different choice?

Hello and I’m 29 years old now, and becoming 30 in this December 23rd. Becoming 30 sounds like becoming a new creature or “evolving” thing in the Pokémon world. However, I still don’t know what kind of person do I want to be or what is my life goal. That’s 30 to me. You are nobody but want to somebody. That’s what 30ish me thinking these days.

A professor whom I really respect once told me that the most students would have realized their calling or ideal life style around 30 years old, then that became a kind of curse to my life. I need to find out what I want to aim by 30 or like that. But, please laugh at me. This is so funny but I still don’t see anything in the coming future.

Have you ever wished you’d made a different choice? My answer is yes and no. I can say that I’m happy living this life. But sometimes, I dream of myself being a totally different kind of protagonist of my life. What if I couldn’t have met my precious friends? What if I was brave enough to go New York and live as a standup comedian. What if I didn’t have a steady job like I have today? What if I became a cafe owner? What if I got married with ex girlfriend? What if I haven’t followed what my parents said to me? What if…

Actually, the process dreaming of my imaginary choices is such a fun thing. I’m feeling so good dreaming of different types of me in the same age to me, and wonder, do I have any kinds of regrets? No I don’t. I can’t say it with 100% of my confidence though. I can say with 75%.

Our life is created by countless choices or decision makings of my or somebody. We maybe are affecting each other everyday. We have no idea when we would die. So, maybe we need to try to change our life during we live, not after dead.

Let’s celebrate every choices more. Our life is full of choices and that makes the life much more interesting or fun to live. As long as not a crime, we can do anything that we want to choose. And for that, thinking about today’s question would be a meaningful one. Please try with your version.

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

Analysis of Japanese Song Lyrics: “水平線(Suiheisen: horizontal line)” by backnumber

Hello everyone. It is terribly hot these days in Japan. I’m OK because I live in the northern part of Japan, but if you live in Tokyo, the temperature can kill you. Every person seems like soft-boiled people in Tokyo when I visited a week ago and of course including me though. The funniest and confusing scene I saw in Tokyo was everyone wore masks even in the station in outside. WHY JAPANESE PEOPLE…? Then I thought they will die soon due to not COVID but heatstroke.

Anyways, recently I’ve received an email of inquiry. Since I could hardly have received such email so far, I was so happy by receiving email(you can send me from the “contact” page in the menu). Then I was so happy that I asked the person what do you want me to write about in this blog. Then the person kindly suggested me that the analysis of Japanese song lyrics can be a good topic since the person feel something important can be lost through Google translating.

Then I thought, that would be great! And the person said “Perhaps some of back number’s would be great!” Great! I love back number too! So, let’s start with the latest hit song: Suiheisen!

“Suiheisen” is loved by many people especially by Japanese High schoolers.

Listing to the song, we can feel some sad and happy, such mixed feelings. But to me, a sad atmosphere outweighs the positive one. Watching the MV, a Japanese female high school student throw everything away and walk into the sea, I couldn’t understand what the MV wants to describe. Bullying or something? I thought. However, the song was actually dedicated a certain kind of people. You can check the caption by the artist just down below the video page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqEr3P78fz8&ab_channel=backnumber

Here is my brief translation.

The spreading of COVID-19 gave a huge impact on our daily lives, and we were forced to have had a tough decisions as a back number. And then, Inter-High School Competition (High School national tournament for sports clubs) has canceled for the first time of its long history, and some high school students who strived for holding the tournament gave a letter to us. Mr. Shimizu, who worked hard for the tournament of track and field when he was a high school student, realized that the tournament was supposed to be held in his home town Gunma prefecture, and their band’s song “SISTER” should have been played in the opening ceremony, and then he tried to do something for them and suddenly he created the song “Suihensen” We would like to publish this song today of October 18th, when the opening ceremony of the tournament should have been held.

Then, everything made sense to me. That’s why the song is such a moving song.

Here is a song lyrics in English and Japanese. The song lyrics are so deep to get simply for even Japanese. The words are simple though, the combinations are so poetic that it can be understood easily. Absolutely, the song is a kind of song that the interpretation can be dedicated by each of us, but mainly the core of the song is to embrace the sadness or darkness in our lives. Here is my translation of the chorus part, which is very difficult to translate and understand.

水平線が光る朝に In the morning when the horizon shines
あなたの希望が崩れ落ちて Your hopes collapse into pieces
風に飛ばされる欠片に While the broken pieces are blown with wind
誰かが綺麗と呟いてる Someone is saying those pieces are beautiful
悲しい声で歌いながら Singing with a sad voice
いつしか海に流れ着いて 光って Those pieces would reach the ocean and shine someday
あなたはそれを見るでしょう You would see it
あなたはそれを見るでしょう You would see it

Above all, my analysis of this song is that this is a kind of a fight song for the people who somehow disappointed deeply with something in their life. Generally speaking, we don’t say it’s beautiful when somebody is collapsing, but the song seems to say such kind of things. In short, as long as we live, we face many kinds of difficulties and sometimes we overcome or lose or collapse. However, as long as we live, the song would tell us our lives are still dazzling like sea glasses found in the sea shore.

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

I’m Finally Back!

About three months of being absent, I could finally come back to this site. What happened in these months? Who cares. I was just spending so lazy time that I couldn’t even remember how to log in this site and have many troubled time due to my laziness. However and fortunately, I could come back now. The theme is “REBORN” now. I’d like to write about anything that I think worth to write and what I want to write!

https://www.instagram.com/official_upsidedown/

by the way, this is my new instagram account with my sweetheart living in Tokyo. We live in the total opposite sites in Japan. So, you know, upsidedown. This account is our challenge to make our dreams come true. If you could follow us, you would glimpse interesting and humorous way of our living in this era. Thank you for reading!

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

Friend in need is Friend indeed

I have a wonderful friend who really care about me, my dream and my ideal life. I’m not talking about my girlfriend thing, but true best friend. She comes from Illinois, US to Japan as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). Fortunately I and she have been teaching English together for more than a couple of years. We are the same age, so we can share a lot of unique thoughts without any generational gaps. I have never seen a foreigner whom I can talk with more friendly or without any stress.

She is of course a genius and inspirational English teacher, and at the same time, she seems to have great talent to make a wonderful gifts. In the last time of my birthday, she gave me a cool, leather touch black notebook and pen. I thought she gave me this because she was disappointed with me, who is always talking like I want to be a writer or novelist, and haven’t finished writing a decent story. However, the moment I opened several pages of the book, I was so surprised because there was memos inside of the book, the topics for me to write about. There are topics I would never hit upon but wanted to write about somehow. And the first memo was like this.

Tomo’s Idea Notebook Happy Birthmas! (*my birthday is December 23rd)

I hope you enjoy writing in this notebook. I found some writing prompts for you that I thought were interesting. I hope that they inspire ideas for you to write about.

This gift isn’t just a notebook, it’s also an invitation for you to let me check your English any time you want, and a promise that I’ll always support your writing journey! Even when I’m in Sapporo, even when I’m in America (or the moon or wherever there’s wifi)

I believe in you as a writer and I hope you do too. I really enjoy reading what you write, and I can’t wait to buy your book someday!

The first memo inside the notebook

You can’t imagine how happy face did I have at the moment I found the memo, and I realize how am I fortunate. Thank you so so much. I’ve been in lazy for these several months. But from now, let me write about the topics you gave me. Thanks to you, I think I can start to write.

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

Rocket Start Type vs. Last Spurt Type

End of the fiscal year makes us really busy and stressed out. There are so many things left to be done. Murderous March is literally killing us in Japan. March is also known for the season of hay fever, so the creativity of Japanese really drop seriously in this season.

We all tend to think like “why should I do this with crying… I should’ve done this much more earlier” in this time. So, how can we change this kind of regrets? There is a “Parkinson’s law”. Let me quote from Wikipedia.

Parkinson’s law is the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”^[1] It is sometimes applied to the growth of bureaucracy in an organization, but can be applicable to all forms of work.

In other words, we tend to put off our works as much as we can. When you asked a work and it’s deadline is April 1st, you would try to check if it’s 16:45 or 23:59. Then, you suddenly realize it’s Thursday, you would offer him/her alternative deadline of Friday 23:59. Moreover you could think like he/she cannot check the work on Friday night, so how about April 4th? Or like that.

The most of us, sadly, are such kind of type of people. We don’t want to work hard naturally. A book author once called this kind of people “las spurt type person”. Hmm… maybe so. And he also says, if you really want to be a person who will do things as soon as possible, you should become a “rocket start person”. This is the person who will do a 80% of work immediately and try to do 20% in the rest of time until the real deadline.

Do you want to change? No pain, no gain.

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

Spring is a Cruel Season in Japan

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Such a beautiful Sakura in this season

Long time no see folks. I can’t even remember when was the last time I posted an article. Somehow, I couldn’t write anything because of my laziness. But, my life was somehow good these days. The season of Spring has finally arrived even in this Hokkaido prefecture. We can feel the warmth of the spring breeze, and bugs look re-enjoying playing outside.

Anyway, Spring is a farewell and welcome season for the Japanese. Maybe because our fiscal and school year begins in April and ends in March. And March is often symbolized by “Sakura (the cherry blossoms)”. So when we see sakura, we have a mainly great possibility of a new start, and slightly a hint of farewell and sadness to say goodbye in this season.

I said goodbye to a very precious colleague today. He was such a great co-worker. He has almost three times as much working experience as I have. His back looked very huge to me. There have been many troubles or problems in my workplace, but thanks to him, I could somehow overcome them.

I shouldn’t write this, but there is certain kind of people I don’t work with due to their ass-hole attitude or character. I really hope I don’t want to be such people who are longed to be relocated as soon as possible by colleagues. But on the other hand, there are people who I don’t want to say goodbye to.

This is Spring, and this is where I am right now. Spring is sometimes cruel to our lives.

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

How To Be A Real Writer (Novelist) In Japan?

Unlike to the other states, it is winning prizes with authority that you need to to be a real writer in Japan. Of course you can be an essay writer if you are famous in some territories or genres. However, it seems necessary for you to win an important literature prize in Japan if you really want to be a fictional writer.

There are several important literature prizes. The most famous ones are “Akutagawa Prize” and “Naoki Prize”. Former prize is thought to be the most important literature prize for pure literature, and the latter is for entertainment literature in Japan. These are the most important prizes so that you could be immediately become famous when you win the prize.

As for the Akutagawa Prize, you can receive a special watch and 1,000,000 yen as an option. Once you win the prize, everyone would call you as Akutagawa Prize winning author or like that. I’m fond of reading the prize laureate fictions, but I have no idea how can you get the prize. The winners are people from very young to very old. When you really get the literature and describe with a solid fictional world, maybe you would receive the prize.

It’s one of my foolish dream though. I hope someday I can win it.

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.

Tips for a Very Cold Day- How to Enjoy in the Real Frozen World

Good evening dear readers. To be honest, it’s very cold right now here in Hokkaido. The outside temperature is around -10 to -15 degrees Celsius. But of course, it doesn’t mean the temperature inside my house. It was 13 degrees Celsius when I came back home 30 minutes ago. I turned off my stove at 10 o’clock and then it was 20 degrees Celsius. Anyway, I turned on it again so it’s 17 for now. Much better. But my hands typing this is freezing and a bit shaking.

Today is a Japan’s National Founding Day. Compared to the United States, we don’t have the exact founding date, so it is set as the enthronement day of the Meiji Emperor in 1872. Anyway, it’s a holiday for most average Japanese people like me. But, it’s just so cold here. However, anything has Brightside, right? So, let me list up the bright things to do in this very cold winter season.

1. Enjoy Winter Sports
   I don’t own TV, but the real important information just flow into me in the right timing. I’m talking about the winter Olyimpic in Beijing. There, many athletes representing each nations shows great battles which I am not that interested in. People seems to be very happy when some athletes get gold medals, and seems to be unhappy when they get 9 places. But they often argure like “We are not pursuing the number of medals but the athletes moving great performances.” How dare you. Anyway, absolutely those athlets arouse our motivation for winter sports. In terms of that, I’m highy motivated, so I’m enjoying snowboarding (it really hurts when you are teh very begginer and fall down many times though). Since I started snowboarding, I began to hope more snowy days.
   
2. Drinking Hot Drink in Cold Place
   How about drinking a Hot Milk or Hot Chocolate or Cocoa. The air of winter is very sevear, but at the same time, it is ultimately sophisticated air, and never be more pure in all seasons. You would definetly love the taste, and you can only enjoy the ritual only in this several months.

Sorry but this is all I hit upon with. You can add your own tips in this comment section. Thank you very much for reading this and I hope your winter would be the great one. My hands are still cold but I’m excited to go snowboarding from now♪

Thank you very much for reading the article. I would prefer your comments or some other topic requests for me to write. Please write a comment or give me an email through contact page.