Answering 100 questions to know myself

What is your name?
Tomoharu Watanabe
When is your birthday?
December 23
Sex?
Male
Age?
29
Astrology?
Capricorn
Blood type?
Type A
What is your favorite food?
There are many favorite foods, but I’m addicted to Big Mac.
What is your favorite drink?
Coca Cola. Especially Malibu Coke with a sliced lime.
Any favorite novels?
“Slaughterhouse 5” by Kurt Vonnegut
Any favorite manga?
“Crayon Shinchan” is all time best.
Any favorite movies?
This kind of question really bothers me cause I have a plenty of. But, the kind of atmosphere of “A perks of being a wallflower”, I like it.
Any favorite anime?
“Damon Slayer” is my favorite one.
Who is your favorite actor?
Takuya Kimura
Who is your favorite actress?
Masami Nagasawa
Who id your favorite voice actor?
I like Tanjiro’s voice in the Damon Slayer. It really cheered me up.
Do you have favorite models?
I’m not sure about models.
Who is your favorite comedian?
Conan O’brien.
What is your favorite song?
Deer in the head light by Owl City.
Favorite TV program?
Late Night Shows.
Where is your favorite shop?
I like a fancy cafe which is not that crowded.
Where is your favorite place?
Cafe or any places which is fancy, and has some good atmosphere.
What do you do?
A high school English teacher.
What do you do on holiday?
Get up late and read books and find myself sleeping soon.
When do you usually get up?
Around 6 am.
When do you usually go to bed?
Before midnight.
Where are you from?
The Northern part of Japan called Hokkaido.
Where do you live?
I live in Saroma, Hokkaido.
What is the structure of your family?
I’m an only child.
Do you think the relationship with your parents are good?
I guess so.
What is your feeling for each person of your family?
What kind of question is it? It’s pretty normal I guess.
What kind of child were you before going to elementary school?
I don’t remember much. How was it?
What was your dream before going to elementary school?
It was “to become a tire”. My mother secretly told me before.
What kind of playing did you like?
I liked maybe hide and seek kind of playing.
What kind of person were you when you were an elementary school student?
Somebody told me that I had a certain leadership. I belonged to a baseball club but I really would afraid of catching a ball.
What was your dream when you were an elementary school student?
There used to be so many dreams, but if I only choose one, I would say to be a pilot.
What kind of playing did you like when you were a kid?
I used to like Spy Kids kind of playing. Using a model guns or a toy transceiver, spending a whole day outside. I’m not familiar with APEX thing though, it seems pretty much the same thing to me.
What kind of person were you when you were a junior high?
I was really popular with girls. In a brass band club, I used to play the drums.
What was your dream then?
I was really into the club activity then, so maybe to be a better drummer was it.
What kind of playing did you like?
There used to be many funny senpai then, so I liked to hang out with them often.
What was your club then?
A brass band.
What kind of person were you when you were a high schooler?
Somehow, I didn’t enjoy the high school.
What was your dream then?
I had no idea, and felt school boring.
What kind of playing did you like then?
I used to belong to a band, and we made some original songs. That was fun.
What was your club then?
A tennis club. But I quit in the middle of the season.
What is the best experience ever?
Maybe traveling to the foreign country. New York seemed unbelievably amazing place.
What was the most outrageous experience?
So called, love trouble? That was terrible.
What was the saddest experience?
Sad memories with a lot of tears and without tears. Anyway, I forgot them all.
What was the most frustrating experience ever?
There are some, but I’ll retry soon.
If you need to put order Family, Friends and your girlfriend?
If I’m engaged with my lover, she would come first, and then, my family to friends. This is an order for me to protect strongly.
Work, Hobby, Human relationships, Status, Money, how do you put priorities?
It seems so dull to put into priorities. Things that I love the most at that time would simply come first.
What are you interested in now?
Anyway, reading books. I have plenty of books that I want to read.
What are you into now?
I’m becoming a type of person who loves entertaining guests. I used to feel losing something before, now it seems so meaningful to do that.
What is your trouble?
Tiny troubles there are everyday. Basically, worries about tomorrow.
What is your dream now?
To cheer up somebody with my writings.
What is your recent goal?
To live with peaceful mind everyday.
What is your vision of a year later?
I want to be reading many boos in the future.
What is your vision 3 years after now?
Want to travel a lot of places.
How about 5 years?
I’d like to be a father of a great family.
How about 10 years?
I want to live in a fancy house.
What is your biggest regret?
I should have been more aggressive and honest to my feelings.
Have you betrayed somebody?
Yes.
And have you ever been betrayed?
Of course.
Have you ever fell in love?
Yep.
When was the time you felt friendship the best?
Friends in need is a friend indeed, eh?
When do you feel a huge stress in your daily lives?
When things don’t go well as I thought. I’m such a small person.
When do you feel relaxed?
When I eat something.
When do you feel happiness?
When I eat something, too. And when I am appreciated by somebody else.
Outdoor or Indoor type?
I guess, Indoor type close to Outdoor type.
S or M?
What is this question? I think it depends.
Are you positive or negative?
I’m positive and negative.
Extrovert or Introvart?
I think I’m extrovert.
How to deal with your stress?
Sometimes I drink a lot and eat a lot. Hanging out with friends is a great medicine sometime.
Do you have any science fiction technologies that should come into reality?
For instance, a gate, thorough which you can completely be new and healthy body.
What do you wish for only one thing?
I wish my family in good health and be happy.
If you can wish 3 things?
What? I will achieve by myself then.
What do you use your money for?
Books and foods.
What do you spend money on most?
Books and foods.
So, what do you want to cut for saving more money?
Books and foods.
What would you do on the last day of the earth?
Hmm… Let’s have a big party.
What do you want to eat on the last day of your life?
A dish somebody cooked.
If you can travel to the past or future, what would you do?
I would go to past and see myself objectively.
What animal is your metaphor?
I’m not sure. But I like to be birds.
What color is your metaphor?
Maybe blue.
Do you have things about fashion?
I prefer simple style.
Which do you require, stimulation or peacefulness?
Maybe stimulation. I love peace but sometimes a bit boring.
What do you require to your friends?
If it’s interesting or not during talking with me.
What kind of person would be your friend easily?
Interesting talking person.
What is your requirement to your lover?
Of course whether you can be happy or not.
What kind of person you fell in love with?
A beautiful smile.
What do you want to do before you die?
I want to have a dinner with a very important people like a US president.
Do you have any goals you want to achieve within a year?
I’ve just thought about the question. It’s the same.
How about within 3 years?
To get 3 dan of Kendo.
In 5 years?
To be in good health.
In 10 years?
To get 4-5 dan of Kendo.
Who do you respect?
People with solid styles or uniqueness.
Whom you are not good at?
Not interesting people.
What do you think you are looked?
A man who do idiotic things.
What kind of person do you want to be?
I want to be an odd person in a good way, but to be cool at the same time.
Do you have some specific thing about your life?
I’m always trying to create a cozy environment for my mental health.
What is your theme for life?
Traveling

Thank you very much for reading.

My Summer Vacation Plan

So, the summer vacation season has come. We feel we can do almost anything in this season. Especially as a teacher, being free from daily classes and coaching club activities or any kinds of disappointing troubles is the biggest attraction of it. That’s the beauty of summer vacation. However, without any kinds of plans, we can go nowhere. Therefore, I’d like to list up the thing that I want to achieve in this summer vacation to make the most of it.

To Read 5 English Books
Teachers in Japan is said to be a busiest teachers in Japan (I’m an exception though), so they sometimes doesn’t seem to have enough time to read books in the daily lives. They are simply overworked, and doing too much outputs to me. However, excuses doesn’t create anything. During summer vacation we don’t need to the classes, so less outputs and more inputs we can do. Moreover, I’m an English teacher who wants to publish an English book someday, so I need to input more English. Actually, it was really difficult thing for me to finish reading a whole book even in Japanese until I became a university student and realize how great the reading habit is. After reading difficult and deep 10 books, I came to realize it, so maybe after reading 10 English books, can I be good at reading English books?

Prioritize Actual Experiences
I used to check the smartphone every 30 minutes or less than 30 minutes to check how many like I’ve got so far and messages (50% chances no messages). Checking after coming home, eating with watching video contents, lying on the bed with smartphone and waking up with alarm of it. Then I realized I have been totally manipulated. Then I thought, I wanted to read more and more actual books which has the true value proved by the history (by the way, what YouTube or Instagram content would still be watched in 2200s future world?). I want the real experiences. Not a virtual one. If I wondered what should I do in free time, I would have chosen watching videos on YouTube lying on my bed, but from now, I will rather choose to move and go or travel somewhere I’ve never been to.

Write a Fiction
This is really shameful confession. I’m always feeling and thinking of writing a fiction. However, I haven’t created even one descent chapter. Hmm… Actually, I’m always thinking like I should do this before writing a story, or I can’t find enough time to tackle with a story or like that. I need to be brave enough to write for now. There was an impressive quote from a really famous Japanese musician “There are people who want to do something, but people who become somebody has already begun doing something”. This is it. No excuse anymore.

Anyway, I hope you will have a great summer vacation!

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.

We Should Spend More Time for the Real Experience, Not For Social Media’s Virtual, Free and Cheesy Experience

These days, I really feel something wrong on my usage of social media, or you could say, the relationship between me and my smartphone. Coming back from my workplace with exhausted feeling and lying on the bed without having supper, start watching a video clip whose thumbnail says “You Must Watch This Otherwise…”. Actually these videos are not boring in a way, but you can easily forget the content because you don’t even pay for it, and you are lying on the bed. Since YouTube might recommend you the next video like forever, YouTube videos hack your dream and you realize you fell asleep during watching and the sound of a video still go next to your pillow. Then I think, how awful, meaningless life I have lead these days.

Since it’s almost free to access any contents which seems worthy at the time, at one glance, smartphone is definitely a magic tool human has ever invented. It can be a TV, movie theater, book, newspaper, game, phone of course, radio, calendar, reminder, mail, dictionary, …you name it. So, you can fulfill your satisfaction with 5G speed. However, on another level, can’t we say these are “virtual” experience? We used to enjoy a kind of real experience. We needed to turn on the TV and watched one program with family members, we needed to rent a video from a video shop, we needed to look up a dictionary and found interesting words. However, these experiences has almost gone now. We can’t make a failure, which would be the best part of our experiences and learning.

If you are happy with today’s 5G, IoT kind of environment, that’s just great, so go for it. However, there must be people like me who feels rather uncomfortable for today’s too convenient, less experience situation. We can learn most from stupid and shameful mistakes. When you find yourself checking customer or viewer’s review, it can be said that you lose the opportunity of the real experience because you would never make a big mistake as long as you check the review. I do love review things, but you know, basically our life can be evaluated by any Amazon customer’s reviewers. So why do we always try to avoid making mistakes which is actually the only way for us to make our life really meaningful?

Then, here is my solution. I deleted almost all Social Media apps from my iPhone.

I felt I really need to do something for me to lead a meaningful life with real precious experiences. So, My decision is like this. I will spend more time with the real experiences which can be troublesome or a huge mistake. But then, I realize I can get much more healthy and great information for my life. I would not watch Spain’s sightseeing videos, but I would rather try to go to Spain. Instead of watching boring video clips, I would rather read books, travel with my car, and have lunch with my friends and family. That must be the best solution to have a good relation ship with social media or smartphone in this era I think. If you feel the same way, why don’t you try it together? Let’s face our life experiences more that is much much cooler and more interesting than virtual experiences.

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.

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.

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

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ↑↓Hokkaido | Tokyo (@official_upsidedown)

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.

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.
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.

Sleep well and live well

How long do you need to charge fully yourself? I think I need about 8 hours. However, these days,y sleeping time is around 6 hours. I think it’s not good to keep my heath, so I would like to go to bed early today. Actually, today was really tiring day. We argued much and felt really sad. I’d like to accept that we have such days sometimes. Good night.

Yona Yona Dance

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.