Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

It is a genuinely odd thing to be tasting injera  in a nondescript suburb of Tokyo for the very first time in my life. But the fermented spongy flatbread made with Ethiopian staple grain teff was certainly the star of the show at the small Ethiopian restaurant. The place certainly was not easy to find. Located among rows after rows of mass-produced two-story residential buildings, interspersed with noisy highways overhead and little-used rivers, there is a small house that was only notable for the small menu board outside and a colorfully printed menu on its front wall. 

You have seen the advertisements. "A job that you look forward to a Monday!" "We are a workplace filled with passion!" "Grow together...toward the same goal!" Every job advertisement seems to beckon potential new hires with the promise of motivation to do the job. And recruiters, consultants, and each college professors seem to agree with the passion-centered outlook. They encourage individuals to seek out jobs that prioritize personal growth through enjoying the job and the relevant learning process, over salary, stability, work-life balance, and other operational knick-knacks.

My wife often complains that my writing is not concrete enough. To her, my articles always seem to be circling around concepts and theories, with a dearth of concrete details that can make those abstract ideas grounded in the realities and experiences of day-to-day life. It is a point that I have to grudgingly concede on multiple occasions. Ideas are great to think about as mental exercises of "why" and "how come," but if they have any relevance as grounds for actionable plans, supplementing them with the "what" and "how" is imperative, and frankly, quite difficult.

みなさんは「旅」という言葉を聞く時、どのようなものがまず頭に浮きますか？見たことのない美しい街並み、食べたことがない料理の味、そして想像もしていなかった運命の出会い。それが私にとってまず思いつくことです。旅からは、日常生活では得られない未知と触れ合える刺激を期待し、出発から遥か前よりその期待でワクワクを感じています。実際に旅でその期待が満たされるかどうかはわからないものの、ただ単に何か違うものを経験できる可能性があるだけでも毎日のルーティンに久しぶりの新鮮さが現れることを感じます。

Doing sales to potential clients has never been my strong suit. Fresh out of undergrad, I used to work in sales for the Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten, where I truly struggled with the high-pressure tactics and the rigorous performance evaluation based on KPIs. It was no wonder that I left Rakuten less than a year after I happily joined the firm, directionless and somewhat traumatized by the experience doing sales for the firm. Ever seen then, all of my jobs have been "back office," handling operations and content creation with no direct interaction with end clients.

虽说我常常以“三种语言同样流利”自居，中文绝对不能说是我的强项。自从五岁离开中国后，我的中文教育大部分都是通过阅读不同教材自学，加上在家里随便讲讲。除了几个月在台湾的工作，以及大学假期在北京和上海的实习，我从不成在完全说中文的环境里长久居住。

The French-style village on the southern shores of Chiba prefecture tried its best to look out of place. Even though traditional Japanese wooden houses are visible from its backyard, its colorful houses, uniformed staff, as well as pools and baths interspersed with European decor attract plenty of Instagrammers seeking to create a sense of a Frech holiday just a few hours drive outside Tokyo. The fact that the little French-style resort established in 1980 is booked full on the weekends despite lack of public transportation show that the average Japanese citizen's desire to go abroad remains strong.