Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Among one's friends, there are often a few oddballs that decide, one day seemingly out of the blue, that the careers that they have been building for years actually do not interest them anymore.  They decide to give that all up, go back to school and learn brand-new trades.  Upon graduation, they stay once again, in perhaps their late 30s or 40s, at the bottom of the hierarchy in a new industry that they have never been professionally involved before.  I, for one, admire the willingness to forego the comfort of the known and enrich one's life by plunging into the unknown even at an age when people avoid risks and instability.

Humans are social animals, and social animals have a tendency to put themselves into social groups to define who they are.  And if humans are to use social groups to define respective individual identity based on belonging to certain groups, then it becomes necessarily the case that they define what are the differences among different groups that they belong to and they do not.  By distinguishing the major contracts between the groups that they belong to vis-a-vis those that they are excluded or voluntarily exclude themselves from, humans can, in turn, make sense of who they are and who they are not.

Japan is noted for convenience for shoppers , and the focus on convenience is also very much present when its legions of salarymen go out for their lunches on any working weekday.  In major business districts are arrays of different dining options, ranging from take-out microwaved meals in convenience stores, street carts serving up quick freshly cooked meals, and various fast food options ranging from noodles to burgers.  In such a competitive market to feed hungry workers quickly, traditional sit-down restaurants should have little advantage to speak of.