try to start liking something

The only music genre that I have been listening to for the last 6 years is Hip-Hop. I just didnt feel like listening to other kinds of music. It's simply because I didnt think other music is not cool at all and I couldnt understand what is good about other musics.

But, I started thinking in this way. I can probably enjoy my life more if I like other kinds of music as much as I do to Hip-hop. So now I'm trying to listen different genre of music. The one I'm listening to and I found it cool is The Velvet Underground. I started listening to them just because thier CD jacket was pretty cool. And Music is pretty cool too, as I learnt later.

By the way, the reason why I started thinking in this way is because I like all foods and I always think it's nice no matter what I eat unless it is too bad in its quality. And I enjoy eating everytime. So I apply this way of thinking to how I think about the music.

Shinto

Many people in Japan believe in Shinto. They go to a Shrine to pray. I was never interested in religion. So I never thought about my religion. Although I used to go to shrine to pray on the New Year’s Day, that’s just because it is traditional thing to do in Japan. I also used to go to shrine to pray for good luck before the exam or something big events. Despite the fact that I didn’t know who I was praying to, I just did that because everyone does that.

But now, I know what Shinto is and I like the beliefs. I knew it because I saw TV program “Lonely Planet” on SBS. And it introduced a bit of Shinto. Shinto people believe in 8 million gods. They believe that every natural things have god in their inside. And all shrines belong to one of them. For example, the one Lonely Planet introduced was the Shrine of cucumber. They believe in god in CUCUMBER. So people living in that shrine don’t eat cucumber at all. It’s a bit extreme example but I like the belief that every nature things have a god inside. I like it because if people think in that way people would not waste the things.

The greatest has retired.

Hidetoshi Nakata is someone who all Japanese people might be proud of and respect. But right after this soccer world cup he told us his retirement. And now he is trying to get into Harvard University to get MBA degree.

He had been a key player in Japanese national soccer team and a key person for development of Japanese soccer. He played in the National Under-15,-17, and Youth team before playing in a professional league, called J-league, in Japan. After few years playing in J-league, he moved to Europe. He played well in Europe and gave other J-league players broader opportunity to play abroad. He proved that Japanese players have enough ability to play abroad. Some other Japanese players followed him and play abroad now. Japanese soccer wouldn’t have been developed this much without his contribution.

It is obvious that he was a great player by only looking at his career introduced above. But I think he was not just a good player. Things that we really have to look at are his efforts. I’ve heard that he started studying Italy by himself when he was in high school. This is because he dreamed about playing soccer in Italy. At that time, no Japanese player had succeeded playing soccer abroad. Who could imagine going Europe to play soccer? Probably no one except him. So what I respect about him is the actions that he took to make his dream happen. It is easy to just tell your dream to others but difficult to actually start doing something to make it happen. What’s even more difficult is to continue doing it. Of course he sometimes must have felt depressed cuz everyone feels depression. But he believed in his possibility and kept making efforts. This is why I think he could have succeeded.

Just believing in yourself is not enough to make your dream happen. But it might help us to work hard when we feel depressed. We can achieve and gain nothing without constant and great efforts. So I believe in myself and my possibility to make my dream happen. This is Hidetoshi Nakata taught me.

When I say I’m gonna be Japanese Spielberg, people probably laugh at me. But I will laugh at people laughing at me. Cuz I think we have a huge possibility. With confident and constant great efforts, we can be anything as Hidetoshi Nakata proved it.

What are you gonna be?

It isn't so bad.

I take a bus and train to travel from home to school everyday. It takes at least 40 mins and average 1 hour. It might sound so trouble to people living in city. But it isn’t so bad. I can read books and listen to the music with looking nice views. It’s also so interesting to watch people on the bus and train. This is one of my hobbies now.

There are many people having different styles and they are from different countries and different age, doing different things to spend the time of traveling. One time I remember that a lady was putting mascara on her eyelashes all the way through from I got on the train till I got off. Her eyes kept half-opened for such a long time, of course.

As I’ve been living in the same place and traveling the same route for 2 years, I even have favorite old couple. I saw them on the bus today. They are probably 85 years old or more. Since they are so old they walk at a speed that turtles walk. But this is not the reason why they are my favorite(it's part of the reason though). The main reason why they are my favorite is because they are always walking with holding their hands. And the husband always gives his hand when his wife gets on and off the bus. It’s probably just a cultural and normal thing to Western people. But I just like seeing them doing that. Cuz I think It’s beautiful thing to be able to be in love no matter how old you are. Every time I see them, I feel happy. How woderful is that they are happy and make me happy too!!

Chiune Sugihara

I've watched one documentary on SBS on the other day. It was about Chiune Sugihara who was Japanese diplomat. During World War II, he kept issueing visas to refugees and saved the lives of more than 6.000 Jews. In spite of that , he was sucked because of that reason. Actually, I don't know much about the history cuz I didnt study when I was supposed to study at school. So I dont know the relationship between Japan and other countries at that time. What's more, I dont even know what he did affected the world in what area and what ways and how controversial it was. But only I know for sure is what he did was something that all people should do in everday life. He didnt save the lives of Jews out of any expectation for something in return. In this documentary, people asked Chiune 'why did you just keep doing that with taking a risk of your carreer?' but this question didnt seem to make any sense to him because there was only one thing in his mind that was 'Do what right cuz it's right'. There was no reason for him to do that. It is so hard to do somthing for people with taking a risk but it certainly does make this world better.