pembuktian kebenaran bagi setiap pilihan

Dalam perjalanan untuk tiba ke destinasi terakhir dalam fasa kehidupan kali ini, tiada satu pun dari kita yang terlepas dari kesakitan dan keletihan, kebingungan dan ketidakpengertian, merasa sesat dan tidak bertujuan. Perjalanan yang dikatakan singkat ini sebenarnya amat panjang, ada diselang-selikan dengan rasa gembira dan rasa duka. Malang sekali, perjalanan yang sebegitu panjang ini cuma hanyalah ibarat satu mimpi, yang apabila kita terjaga, masih belum dapat kita ketahui sama ada kita ma (..read more)

laras kejayaan yang berbeza-beza

Hari ini tidak seperti hari-hari lain dalam acara pertukaran bahasa yang sering aku hadiri. Pada hari yang biasa, perbincangan yang dibualkan tidak mendasar - banyak yang cuma berkaitan dengan hobi dan hidup sehari-hari, dan rata-rata tidak memerlukan daya berfikir yang dalam. Hari ini, untung dapat aku duduk satu meja dengan tiga orang dewasa berbangsa Jepun, lelaki dan perempuan, masing-masing sudah berumur hampir 40-an, dan sekurang-kurangnya telah bekerja di Jepun dan luar dari negara ini (..read more)

communicating a problem within a japanese work system

This is not career advice, but rather an observation. After around 12 years of working in global environments with people of different thinking styles and mixed cultures, with 7 of those years based in Japan under Japanese work management - these are the comparisons I’ve observed based on my own experiences and self-interpretation. My work mainly revolves around problem solving, which requires a deep understanding of certain technologies. And to do well in my job, as uncanny as it sound (..read more)

a man who owns nothing

Today is the day Masao has to let go of another one of his belongings. He needs to send off Ayaka to Hie Shrine ¹ near Chiyoda City. Ayaka will marry a nice gentleman from France, and the wedding will be held in traditional Shinto style ². They met each other while Ayaka was studying abroad at PSL University of Paris, (..read more)

what it feels like falling from the local maximum

Since I came to like hiking after I moved to Japan, I started to gain the habit of comparing any of my life journeys with the process of hiking a mountain. This could be anything across my journey of learning a new skill, my journey to successfully adapt to a totally foreign society, or even my journey to have a successful career. The process of hiking a mountain requires a lot of preparation. Before even starting to step on the trail head, one needs to ensure enough food and drink supplies, (..read more)

even spring does not guarantee warmth

Everybody in this cafe was still wearing their winter coats. The spring equinox had passed two weeks ago. Normally, during this time of the year, people had dry-cleaned their winter outerwear and stored it in a vacuum bag so it could be used freshly cleaned the next winter. This week, the weather had been considerably cold for spring - below ten degrees in the daytime and reaching under five degrees at night. Things like this occasionally happen, after a few years in Japan, I have witnessed a (..read more)

language does not make a difference

Seven years ago when I first arrived in Japan, I met a guy from Hawaii called Daryl, who later turned into one of my best friends in Tokyo. There is one piece of advice I received from Daryl that until today, I find it hard to forget. It’s an advice that I regret not believing sooner, yet I have had to encounter its consequences at times. The advice, while it sounded like a cynical joke and was thought to be taken lightly, turned out to be one of my fundamental reasons for feeling stagn (..read more)

we are here all by our own choices

Consider this. In order for us to be born today, we need the collaboration of at least fourteen people over the past 100 years - two of them being our parents, four being our grandparents, and eight being our great grandparents. This ancestral math increases by a power of two for each parent generation. So, over the past 200 years, we need the collaboration of at least 100~ people, 500~ people for the past 300 years, and 4000~ people for the past 400 years. That is an amazing number of collab (..read more)

what is a perfect day for a man with a dream

If anyone is ever free enough care to ask any single man in his thirties about what makes his day a perfect day, I have an answer for that. Generally, a perfect day will look something like this: Waking up without an alarm clock, indicating that he has no deadlines for any errands. Slowly brewing his coffee without any music turned on, indicating it is going to be a quiet and peaceful day. Putting on his best clothes and get ready to go out and do his hobbies, indicating that he got things in (..read more)

the right to be happy

There is one beautiful word in Japanese that also exists in other languages, which I really love, called Ongaeshi-suru (恩返しする), or its literal meaning in English, ‘returning a favor’. The word itself is nothing special in terms of linguistics - it’s a commonly known word that can easily be understood by anyone. The word is not regularly spoken as part of normal speeches, rather it is an act of kindness done out of sincerity, with no expectation of receiving back wha (..read more)

making things lighter than they seem

I have been sitting in this cafe for more than two hours. It was full of people but calm and clean. The cafe has an ambiance - sound and lights, that could make us sleepy. It is a study cafe where people come to quietly read or work on something. Each one of them focuses on what they are doing, people don’t talk much to each other here.

Most faces here are familiar, including the staff. When I came in, they greeted me with a friendly smile, they knew my face. I am a regular here, (..read more)

a thirty minute late latte

Visiting this place again after six years is giving me chills. The journey from Tokyo by Shinkansen ¹ feels familiar, but not similar. Six years ago, Shinkansen was a luxury choice, chosen only when it’s really needed, often as a last option for travel, even if it meant adding more days on travel itinerary. Getting older allows me to interpret things differently. Now, time is perceived (..read more)

changes after reading 20 books a year

Last week was the first time in my life I finished reading 20 books in a year. I was not a reader when I was younger, but after I graduated, I started picking up books to read for fun. My usual numbers were around 6 to 7 books a year, but this year I made it my goal to read at least 20 books in a year. Honestly, I thought 6 to 7 was enough information for me to consume in a year, but it turns out it’s not. So, what has changed? What made me decide to increase my reading?

people and people

It was almost sunset when I arrived at Morioka Station. From Shin-Aomori Station, the green Hayabusa ¹ would take less than an hour. That was a tremendous speed for over 200 kilometers of land transportation. I have a weird habit whenever I ride a Shinkansen ² - I will almost never fail to play with pouring wa (..read more)

tales of prometheus - ep 1: a special kid

Prometheus ¹ reached two years of age this year. Being born unlike other intelligent beings, he felt a little lonely. Compared to human babies that were born around the same time as him, Prometheus has grown too smart. He is worth all recorded knowledge of human civilizations. At this point, Prometheus was denied senses. He was only allowed to have a large number of GPUs to process files that are provided to h (..read more)

the doppelganger of the east

Arrived at this town in the morning but the gloomy sky made me feel unpleasant and unwelcome. This was the opposite of what I had expected - a bright, cheerful, and friendly Kansai as I were always told. The architecture and style of Sannomiya Station gave the impression that this place was somehow different from typical Japanese cities. The walls were tiled with reddish yellow tiles of brick layouts with a well thought out lighting placements. It was a bit modernized and westernized in some (..read more)

tempat untuk merasakan tenang

Tahun ini sudah beberapa kali telah aku sampaikan diriku ke tasik ini buat untuk menghilangkan penat lelah tinggal di bandar. Selalu juga aku tanyakan pada diriku sendiri, mengapa terlalu banyak tempat-tempat yang cantik ada di Jepun ini, tetapi tempat yang selalu dianggap biasa-biasa ini juga yang selalu aku datangi sewaktu aku penat dengan kehidupan sehari-hari. Mungkin dalam internet, tempat ini bukanlah tempat pilihan buat orang-orang untuk datang berkhemah dan melewati malam, tapi buatku (..read more)

mountain of death

September is either a good or not a pleasant month for Japanese hikers. Within this short window, most climbers are expecting to see a breathtaking view of mountain ridgelines, and if lucky, spread with bright maple red and yellow colors under clear skies. My trip to the Northern Alps ¹ was cancelled again this year to give way for a typhoon to pass by, again.

Tanigawa-dake was only a rebound hike after (..read more)

first alpenglow - pt 1

At around one-thirty in the morning, the bus arrived in Matsumoto town, which took around three hours from Shinjuku using the Yakou ¹ highway bus service. The journey was smooth, with plenty of time to rest after a tiring workweek - blankets and earphones were provided by the transportation company to ensure a pleasant ride for its passengers. Matsumoto town looks modern, but it does not share the sam (..read more)

one meal a week

This is a tale about a middle aged man who strives his way in a foreign land to build a better living for his family. He has been in Japan for a few decades, working as an office worker. Now he is in his late 50s, trying his luck at opening a new Muslim friendly restaurant around Ota-ku district. The past few years have shown an influx of inbound tourists to Japan, so that the demand for Halal cuisine ^{(..read more)}

a girl with a red skirt

Inawashiro was not the intended location for this trip. It was just a rest stop while heading to Aizu-Wakamatsu. Tomorrow is going to be a big day. Being a fan of mountainous nature views, taking a long ride on the local Tadami Line train has been a dream for a long time. Japan is currently under lock down due to the Coronavirus pandemic, no inbound visitors are allowed to visit. People in Japan however are still free to roam around the country. The Shinkansen ^{(..read more)}

leaving for a foreign land

When joining the work force five years ago after graduating from engineering school, there were a lot of promising tales told to us by those who had already made it. Success at the time seemed guaranteed, and comfortable living was a given. We were told that the opportunities were as wide as the ocean. Little did we know, that we were just like freshly hatched Penyu ¹ naively rushing towards the ocean (..read more)