To guide someone who travel in Japan

In my free time, I sometimes guide foreign travelers who contacted me via the Internet.

I started this interesting hobby about 1 year ago.

The first website I registered with was Hi Everywhere!

Untill now, I have guided or just had dinner together with many people who were from America, Singapore, Peru, Sri Lanka,England, Bhutan and so on.

It was a very exciting experience, but I stopped it while my mental condition was not good.

About 2 weeks ago, I restarted doing this interesting hobby.

Another Singaporean couple contacted me via Hi Everywhere!

I invited them to my house to eat lunch together after we had exchanged emails several times.( I think it ’s better to exchange emails and get to know each other’s personalities before meeting )

Actually, I had made some mistakes in the past by meeting someone too quickly.

At first, I volunteered to guide them, as I just thought that I wanted to speak English and enjoy exchanging cultures with them.

So I didn’t think about their personalities very much and what they wanted me to do for them.

Some guys think that  Hi Everywhere! is a dating site. It is stupid!

That’s why I became to think the most important thing for me when volunteering to guide them( I don’t know other people’s thinking ) is to treat them like my friends.

I need not only exchange cultures, but also become friends with them.

Several months ago, my favorite friend, a Japanese American , recommended another website which is called CouchSurfing.

I think CouchSurfing is more useful than Hi Everywhere!

Around at the end of winter, some people contacted me via CouchSurfing .

And last week I met a guy who was from Finland.

We exchanged emails several times and discussed some topics.

He was a very kind, gentle guy! So I was very happy to see him.

Later I checked other users’ comments about CouchSurfing.

I guess the user quality of this website is good, specially for women to meet men via the Internet is dangerous.

I’ll write the details of my new experiences of guiding new people in the next article.

Frost/Nixon

I went to the theater with my colleague to watch “Frost/Nixon” in Shinjuku.

My friend recommended me to see that movie.

It was so nice even though I didn’t know the importance of the Frost/Nixon interview.

I’ll write about some parts of that movie, so if you have not seen it, and want to watch it from now, please don’t read this article.

I think the most important thing in this movie is character’s emotional struggles.

Both Frost, an interviewer, and Nixon, the President had the same mental problem.

At first, I thought, this movie was a complex political movie, but soon I noticed it was an interesting human drama.

Frost wanted to have a acclaim especially in America even though he was already famous in the UK and Australia.

So he tried to interview President Nixon who had committed a huge crime.

When Frost saw Nixon on TV by accident, he noticed Nixon’s complex expression.

At that time, Nixon did not admit to his crime, but Frost thought, if he could get a confession out of him, he would get both wealth and honor.

But he was a mere TV host, so nobody thought he could succeed.

On the contrary to everyone’s expectation, at last Frost could succeed in getting a confession out of him.

Why was Frost able to do it?

I think the key point was the same emotional complex that both Frost and Nixon had.

They didn’t trust other people, and were never satisfied with anything.

They were both very greedy and lonely.

So Frost could notice the loneliness and guilt Nixon was feeling.

The process of their two lonely hearts that became close to each other was very interesting.

I really like this type of movie.

Next time, I’ll watch “Slumdog Millionaire”.

My Aunt

I have not written this blog for about 1 year, even though I have continued to study English.

I decided to restart writing this blog from now.

At first, I want to write about my recent life.

Last summer I gave up  Awa-odori( traditional Japanese dance ), which I had done for about 4 years.

I belonged to an Awa-odori group, but I couldn’t agree with the senior leader’s instruction.

I tolerated the situation for a long time, because I really love Awa-odori. But finally, I insisted on expressing my opinion to them.

So they said that they didn’t want to dance with me any longer.

I felt really sad, and did not to want to remember them or Awa-odori.

As a result from last summer to the beginning of this year, I lost my passion for everything.

Even the shamisen( traditional Japanese instrument ), which I had played for the same time as Awa-odori, I lost my passion like I did for Awa-odori.

I don’t know why?

Concerning my job, the situation was same.

I guess, no one could notice my bad condition except my husband.

I was really tired at that time.

Regarding my job, I even tried to change company, and registered with many recruiting agencies.

But from last October, the Japanese economy became very bad, and at last I gave up to change my job, and decided to stay at my present company.

At the end of last year, I cleaned up my apartment, and threw away many things.

I imagine from then, I started to recover from the situation I had gotten into.

Now I leave my office around 6:30pm, and after work, go to the super-market and buy meat, eggs, vegetables and so on for the next day’s lunch.

When I reach my home, I usually do some house work, and after the house work, practice the shamisen for about 1 hour.

And after practicing the shamisen, I start to study English, and go to bed around 11:00pm.

Every morning I wake up around 5:30am and study English again for about 1 hour and eat breakfast with my husband.

I go to my office before my colleagues.

This regular life style brings me stability.

The biggest change for me is not to feel anger against someone’s behavior.

And I feel my attitude is becoming positive.

I think I was tired from everything, and I needed to take a rest.

Now my dream is to improve my English more and practice the shamisen everyday, and to become a  shamisen master within 2 years from now.

It was  my past dream, but I had lost that dream.

Today, I got a letter from my favorite aunt.

She is my mother’s elder sister and I often went to her house and talked with her about many things.

She is not married and doesn’t have children, but she really enjoyed her life as teacher.

She started her job as a music teacher, and 38 years later when she retired, she had become a principal of an elementary school.

I can’t imagine what kind of effort she required, and what she had to sacrifice.

As soon as I received her letter, I called her and said congratulations.

I’m proud of her; her way living to fulfill her dream and her will power.

Through the process of trying to change my job, I could know my lack of experience and skills, and could come to understand what I want to do now.

I probably I can’t live like my aunt, but I want to live as I like.