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。