The Olympics

Every athlete looks super cool and it looks like that they are telling us how we should achieve our own dream without any word. Go Go Japan!!!

Kx

8:15am 06/08/1945

Hiroshima is sending a message to the world that such a tragedy should never happen again.

Wish world peace!

Kx

Discovery of Future

What do you want to be in your future?

When I was asked this question, I used to be clearer about what I wanted to be.

But in the reality, making a move into finding "future" is more difficult than telling my vision about the future to other people.

Of course, "boys be ambitious" is a very important attitude to achieve our own dream, but we, or at least, I have to be mentally tough to face the reality. I got a few jobs offered but I want to take more time to figure our what I really wanna be and where I wanna be for my near future, because I still have a plenty of time to do so.

Apart from job-searching, my life back home has been great. The life has been pretty hectic, but I've also been meeting with lots of my friends in my free time. Many childhood friends and Hiroshima friends... friends from abroad... the origine of my vitality!

Today, my friend took me to her university (Waseda) and I witnessed the life of university students in Japan. My uni life is as cool as thier life, but I enjoyed the difference between. I thank Kana-chan for bringing me into the new world today!

I'll probably be back in Hiroshima in a week. I haven't had enough family time since I came back so I'm looking forward to hunging out with my family. Of course with friends in Hiroshima as well!

Kx

house-sick syndrome

I've been surviving in Tokyo for a week. Well, this is where I grew up, but it looks different from what I remember. I didn't know that Tokyo was that busy. People say London is always busy. I don't think those who say so can survive in Tokyo. It's super. But since I came here, many of my childhood friends gave me a call and would remember the old days together, which reminded me that Tokyo is also my hometown. HATE TRAINS IN THE MORNING THOUGH! They can never be worse!

I'm living with my uncle couple. He was sorta old when he got married and he had been like my big brother in my childhood, so I'm still close to him, and his wife is very friendly too so I don't have to be conscious of being polite to them and am enjoying living with them. They wanted kids but they could not, so I think they are enjoying having me here too.

One thing that I'm learning by living with them is "house-sick syndrome". My aunt is allergic to any artificial smell, so everything we use in the apartment has to be organic with no artificial smell. It's so weird that soap doesn't have any smell and also I can smell nothing after shower. She told me that when they moved to Tokyo, they had to change everything in the house to sweep away the exisiting smells. I guess I'm having a very healthy life for definite though. Everything is organic! hmmm... very interesting though!

Go go Kaori!

Kx

http://www.kiseki-symphony.com/

I met up with my friends from home in Shinjuku today; two of them are working in Tokyo and one is finishing uni this year and she is going to work for a property company from next April.
We went to see the film that I wanted to see so badly! August Rush... such a great one!

Also I saw "Once". I really liked the film itself but more than that it was great to see the city where I live through screen.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=CoSL_qayMCc
Check them out!

Kx

Home

Hello from the world

One year to go!

4 years ago, I thought that being out of Japan for 5 years was way too long, but here I am, I have only a year left till finishing the college. As I grew up, I started sensing the speed of time; I reckon being an adult means being given more choices for my own life, which is constrained by time, so that we always have to care about time when we choose to do something. The more I want for my life, the less the time of my life seems to be.
Until so far, my decisions have been conditional on what my parents answer to them, and they were never turned down. I could always do whatever I chose and I could always try whatever I was interested in, because my parents would always allow me to do so. But the solution to my future is entirely dependent on what I decide, which I did know, but I have been pretending not to know.

When I decided to do my degree in UK (I decided to come to Ireland when I was studying in UK), my mum kept telling me to come back to Japan when I finish the college, but recently, she’s been telling me,
“I still want you back, but I now don’t know if it would be the best for you to come back here for good; by listening to your story in Ireland and seeing how you are over there makes me feel I have to stop you coming back. You would definitely get re-culture shocked again and I don’t wanna you to regret leaving there”

During the exam period, I went to London and had a long long long interview with a big Japanese company. I think they liked me a lot, but the company was not my first priority, and I was there just to get myself prepared for other interviews in near future; but the other applicants who were also chosen until the last stage were those who wanted to work for them and had themselves fully prepared for the interview. I felt my undetermined attitude was really rude to those who really wanted the job. I was taken to the dinner at night and could talk to many of the company’s staffs; I did enjoy being there and it was a great experience, but after that, I re-thought whether it was where I wanted to be in my future or not. I don’t think it was. This answer was really hard to face, as I thought that I would love to work for a big Japanese company and that would be the place for me to be, but by witnessing how it is really like, it made me re-think about my viewpoint toward job-choices. Of course it is very wrong to think all the Japanese companies are the same, but I was very shocked to know that there are some situations to which, before anything starts, I can tell that I could never get myself adjusted. I guess I was too confident in my adaptability to any environment.

Also, I’ve realized that I would want to work for a company who can value what I’m studying in the college rather than where I go to study. It is true that Japanese companies tend to care about the fame of universities rather than the context of experience as a student unless we are science students. To a great extent, I knew they were like that, but facing this reality was harder than I expected. I like studying Economics and for my future, I would like to take advantage of what I have learnt in the university not just from the social life but also from the academic aspect. I would like the society to value what I have achieved as a student. I guess this is just an ideal state and I know everything can’t go in the way I want it to be, but at least I definitely want to find the best solution to my future. I want to figure out what I really want for my future, and I want to find a place where I can see myself being happy and smiling all the time.

Anyway, this is what I have been thinking.....

I had a great time in Dublin after the exam for a week, and went to London. I was Rondonning with my favourite people over there. It was super cool to catch up with them and it was great just to chill without worrying anything.

I loved the weather too. I came back to Japan a few days ago. It's always great to be back home but the weather sucks. I don't like Japanese summer in terms of the weather as it is too humid, which makes the heat worse. It feels like the air is really heavy,,, Apart from the weather things are great though. I stayed at my best friend, Ayaka's apartment in Kobe on the first night. I love my monkey Ayaka! And then I came back to Hiroshima. I haven't done much, just have been hunging out with my mum, which is though really cool. The food is wonderful! Many of my friends gave me a call and I cannot wait to see them soon! I will be in Tokyo from the next week for job-hunting! But I am also planning to enjoy myself there too!

My mum is correcting my weird Japanese... hmmm,,, My English will be totally messed up after the summer I guess,,,Ah well!

Kx

In a month

I always get homesick this time during a year. My mum rang me last night and gave me a good luck for my exams. Her call always makes me happy.

Looking back, she has never ever forced me to study. She always pushes my back with a "soft touch", so that I don't feel any pressuer. Well, both of my parents have never ever forced me to do something. They always make me decide what I want to do. I think, in some way, it must have been sometimes difficult for them to do so, as both of them are from such academic-career-based and somehow very consarvative families. Many of my friends even used to tell me "your parents are so generous about what you are doing. Don't you think?".

My mum is the best listener and advisor in the world. I've realized that when she gives me advice, she never uses the term "should" and she never uses the subject "you". I mean, she never tells me what I should do. She always tells me what she would do, in which way, she gives me some hint that leads me to decide what I should do. Someday, when I have some room in my mind to think about some advice to somebody important to me, I would love to follow my mum's way.

Anyway, I was soooo happy to talk to my mum and I'm very motivated now!

Okay, study time! More to do than I have done.

Kx

Trinity Ball

http://youtube.com/watch?v=F7F4FgwYkbM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-LQ-KLzLG84&feature=related

I wanted to go to Hide's 10th memorial concert.....!!!

By the way, last night was really really fun. I wish I had another Trinity Ball tomorrow again!

23th

Your happiness is my happiness. This is what my parents told me on my 23rd birthday. My happiness is still my happiness but it's my parents and my friends who made this happy happy Kaori. I really felt so this year through meeting new people, talking to my friends, and spending time with family. I don't know if I can ever make somebody happy, but I want to hope that I can be part of making happiness for my important people this year. I still haven't figured out how, but I want to. My friend Mariko told me, "spread your smile in the world. It will be contagious!" (This was in Japanese, and the way she said to me was so impressive!). This is what I think I can do for other people. I like looking at people smiling and I recieve a lot of energy from that. I know I'm selfish, but through my 22, I kind of understood what it means by "caring people". That's why I think I could honestly express my feeling by saying "I'm happy" or "I'm so excited!" and I could honestly thank people for caring me for the whole year. I'm still on my way to find myself, but hopefully I can find different parts of myself and continue smile catch-ball with people around me;)

Stay sexy people!!

Kx

Evidence

The proof of our efforts!

Smile

The Irish weather can be very very very annoying, but sometimes, he shows us his greatest smile. I wish this would last forever.

Friendship

Friendship is something that cannot be changed by any outside force. Anytime, anywhere, once friendship has been made, it cannot change forever. This is how what I call friends are, and I cannot tell you how important they are to me. What I know is I'm not the way I am without them.

After the painful exams, my fun fun easter holiday started. Especially, I'd been looking forward to two things.

My best friend Ayaka came over to Dublin just for 5 days to see me before she enters the hectic Japanese labour force. It must have been a hard trip in such short days with long distance, but she came to see me, which made me so happy. We are so different, but ever since we knew each other, we have been great friends. We had some fights when we were younger, but our friendship is what it has been since it was made first time we met.

We went around Dublin; went to the Guinness factory, Howth, Pubs, The Dublin Zoo, went for a walk, went for tea in a nice french cafe...Greg invited us to dinner, which was really really nice, and we also had so much fun on the Paddy's day. The time indeed fries. It has been four years since we graduated the same high school. It had been such a long while after we spent much time together. It was a great fun to have her here, and I really thank Ayaka for coming to see me in Dublin.

And another important friendship here. I went to Berlin with four lads from the class, and we all met up with Deirdre there. The coolest thing we did there was we went to a massive techno club in the east Berlin! It was fantastic!!!!!

They are the friends who made me forget the barrier of language and culture. We are different nationalities, and we all are pround of what we are, the way we are, but friends are friends. This is the fact that nobody can change! Wherever you are from, it does not matter to make friendship. I still think that it is a difficult thing to do for someone from a different country to get into a group of a different nationality, but my Irish friends here broke this barrier that I was putting up first of all and taught me how to make real friendship. This trip made me re-realize how important they are to me. Great friends.

I thank everybody who is supporting me every time I am in need of help, and I also appreciate all the friendship I have with you.

Kx

Oh man!

The pain is still present...one pain has gone, yes I'm done with the project! Finally!!! Another pain will be there from Tuesday...hmmmmm.... I really can't wait for this to be over! EXAMS!

My laptop is totally dead now, and it's even making weird noise...! I'll wait until I go home for summer to buy a new laptop but whenever I lose technology, like mobile phone or laptop, I feel, something is missing, which really tells me how much I depend on technology in everyday life! But this is not only the case for me, I think to a great extent, it's a social problem; well for those industrial economies at least. I think dependency on mobile phones in Japan is even worse than anywhere else.
I do think improvement in technology is necessary for our society to grow, but on the other hand, too much dependency makes people so boring.

Well well well, I should be studying more..!!!

KAOPAIN

In the last economist, Japan was depicted as "Japain" becuase of its present economic disorder...


At present, the amout of Kaopain exceeds that of Japain in that, I'm already in recession (hehe) whereas my country is just about to go into...(Some say it's already been, but as a Japanese, let's hope not!).Kaopain is definitely caused by this project that is more painful than Japain!!!!! Oh man, Kaopain is sick! I really want to finish this up ASAP! To make things worse, thinking about having to study for the exam for the whole week adds extra pain to Kaopain!


But after the exams, my best best best best best friend is coming over from Japan! Whoooooooooop! AND! I have a trip to Berlin with my boys;^) These will be a good cure for this bloooooody Kaopain!

Only medicine now is goooood food! hmmm,,,, I wish my mummy were here though!

Hope everyone had a gooood craic over the weekend!

kx

Funky Kaory

In order to make myself more productive.....

Yes, making some change around me is always a good way to concentrate myself on what I want to achieve at the time being! I always change my hair for a change of pace... yes, I'm back to THE FUNKY KAORY!

NEW

One of my besties, Deirdre, has just started a new life in a new place! She went over to Germany for her erasmus (how can I know how to spell such an unusual word to write down!?) last Saturday. I kept telling her not to go until the last minute, but she has goneee!! (I was only joking, I was very excited about her new life too, but on the other hand, I knew I would miss her so badly like I do now!)

It must be a big adventure for her: living by herself in a different country, meeting new people, speaking a different language, having to encounter some culture shock...all that sort of things I have experienced, but I'm pretty sure she will have a great time over there. Hope she is missing me and the other lads as much as we do though!

I already cannot wait to go over to Berlin!

Ah,,,,, I will achieve the promise with Greg that we will finish our projects until this Friday...the life is still not easy at all/ Probably that's why the life can be cool though. Put it in that way!

Kx

Gogo!

Go Syunsuke!

Happy belated Valentine's day!

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend.
I attempted to make some chocolate for the Valentine's day but I couldn't make a “good shape”.....Thanks to my nice friends, the chocolate was praised as “delicious”.It's really nice of them, at least my efforts made for the chocolate paid off! haha I thought the taste was actually really good too though!

When I was in primary school, when the Valentine's day got closer, my friends and me would make some chocolate together for boys, and would go shopping to get some nice wrapping for the chocolate. It was great fun;-) Sweet memory indeed!

Selfishness

I love the moment when the reading week gets closer, but I hate it when it's over...it makes me realize how little I've done;(

“To Live”

I saw a story about a girl who died of a incurable disease yesterday.

Then, I could not sleep at all last night because I thought about the story too much. There have been many opportunities for me to think about “life", but when I think about my life, it has always been life equal to the future. I often force myself to think“now”is more important than tomorrow, but what I'm doing here today is, after all,in order to have “nice tomorrow”.

Maybe, this is the way we all economic beings are, and maybe it cannot be helped. But I think those who face the difficulty in seeing the future could come by this ability to comprehend what the present gives us.

What I've said above may not make any sence, but I had to write down what I thought last night, otherwise I would not be able to go to sleep again;(

Good night kx

Not any longer

No femine anymore!

It is the...

Yes, it is the real "BLOODY HELL!!!"

I was hiding myself behind my coat to see this film at the cinema...;(
Good though!

Damn my laziness

I feel the 3 mins walk to the library is far away...How could I possibly be that lazy? Blame it on where my room is located ...!

Memory

Clever!

Yes, I'm in the middle;-)

Hopeless

Ireland is a fantastic country except for one thing...

The WEATHER!

Here is a teru-teru-bozu; this is made of paper, but you can make it with cloth as well. In Japan, by hunging this outside, we hope for the nice weather...

I wonder if our custome works here... I wouldn't get surprised if it won't though!

Happiness is...

From the state of "Bloody hell!" to the state of "Deadly!"

2 days to go!

Yes, this is what I'm missing...Nothing can be more yummy than my mum's food!

When coffee does not work anymore...

Yes, I depend on this to keep myself on sticking to the essay...

This time in three days, I will be having more attractive drink... with loads of fun:-)

You know what is UNcool?

My dad gave me one of his laptops (or you can say I took it)...

Having two laptops is cool and really handy.

But having to use them at the same time is the UNcoolest thing... Oh dear;-(

Cheesy

This is my current favourite(^0^)

Yum!

Gift

I found a cute flower shop when I went food shopping this morning. It's always cool to find something new;-) I've found a new friend in this shop.

Let me introduce him.... His name is Tsuntsuku-kun!

The gift from the nature..... Having some green in my room is something that I've been longing for;)

Crazy...

I guess my life is not easy at this point.
I can't wait for next Friday!

I wish I could have stayed back home a little bit longer to relax like this cat...

Ah well! Work work work...

;(