Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Western-style partying often involves drinking and partying it up with complete strangers, allowing people to enlarge their friendship circles in rather random ways. The Japanese, on the other hand, generally tend to be rather private on these matters, preferring to drink and go crazy in the comfort of their own separate spaces . So, those who do party Western-style in Japan has to be very, eh, different and not conforming with the social norms...must be an interesting crowd just by that. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to find out for myself this weekend. This Saturday, as I was lounging around at home, slowly finishing up some company tasks, a friend from San Diego suddenly called and said he is in Tokyo and wants to hang out. Sure, why not, especially since God knows when I will be in San Diego again. So we met up and headed for Shibuya. As we were discussing what to do over a dinner, the guy started talking about his clubbing experience in Roppongi. And here I was, been

People get bored of doing the same thing over and over, being in the same situation, and seeing the same people. For one to stop doing something after starting it may take only a day (like I am with computer games ), or maybe a few years (hopefully, as I am thinking nowdays ). But even for something of as much personal value as a significant other or high-paying employment, and no matter how difficult and how elated it was for one to get in the beginning, the day will come when it is no longer desirable, and worse, a bit disgusting. Of course, unless one finds a continued reason for keeping up the excitement for it. Often it involves a whole new aspect of the matter or object in question that was completely overlooked before. A hidden stage in a game (forcing programmers to be more and more sophisticated these days), a sudden new responsibility at work, and a newly discovered common hobby with the partner are all considerable for preventing that natural human curiosity from buyi

Sometimes, the greatest adventures (or stupidities, depending on how you think about it) occurs under the most unexpected circumstances during the most unusual timings. And yesterday was definitely one of those once-in-a-lifetime out-of-the-blue experiences that I will probably never have the chance to do again (nor would want to do again). The story starts with my visiting my relatives up in Saitama Prefecture for some dinner and conversations. I depart around midnight, expecting that, since it is the New Years holidays, the trains will run much later into the early morning than usual. In a way I was right, I managed to catch the empty last train from Saitama to Asakusa in northeastern side of Tokyo at about 5 minutes past midnight, drifting in and out of sleep as the train slowly pulled itself toward Asakusa terminal. The arrival time was half an hour past midnight, and the little historical neighborhood was deserted. The subways (the only public transportation in and out of t

As a new year opens up a new page for this blog (its 7th month in existence), it is time for me to continue reflecting on the potential direction my life will take for the next twelve months and look ahead to what may (and may not) happen in the next 365 days. The continued doubts about the correctness of where I am going with life aside, the calm (or put it in a better way, boring) few days of this 5-day break has really given me the time to rethink the possibilities and limitations facing me right now, without excess ideals or pessimism. To be honest, one year really is a long time. Given my love of traveling , come to think of it, I have not had a year since junior year of high school (5 years ago) that I actually stayed in one country for an entire year. The mental and structural freedom I get from these travels , especially foreign ones, often act as the energy and fuel for me to continue productive work with decent level of motivation. And with utter fear I have to say tha

With Dec 31st steadily approaching its end, I would like to reflect on my experiences during 2010, a year of undoubtedly major transitions from college to work for me that is bound to have major consequences for my future careers. But in the back of my mind, there always seem to be that thought of "am I really doing the right thing? Am I really moving in the right direction?" as listen to more and more complaints from my fellow coworkers, words of doubts from prospective employees, and most importantly, stories of major responsibilities and progress from my classmates back at Yale. Well, first, lets see what we, the new employees here in Rakuten, have done for our first three months since entering on Oct. 1st. We have been subject to continuous lectures on the core values and ideologies of the company from Day One, our hopes of being identified as the leaders of English-nization at the company and working at our own favorite departments are mostly dashed for the time-be