Summer Break this year part 4

I finally came back to Japan after a long flight from Malaysia on May 24th.

I spent the first week with meeting my friends from junior high and high school and just being relax in my home.
It was a busy year, and I was so tired by the trip to Indonesia.
So, I took a break for a week.

Then, I decided to work for internship because I got bored after a week.
So, I tried to be productive for the rest of summer break. I applied for an IT company which is famous for hard work. I filled in the 6 or 7 pages application form, and had an interview.

The Interviewer first said to me that it's least possible that they can hire me because I planned for only 3 months. Usually, students work at least for a half year at the company.
It's not a place where students experience the job, but they work as an employee.
So, some of them were absent from the school for a year and start the internship, and other college students spend most of their time for the internship, not for their study.

The interviewer started with such word, but he seemed to show interest on me after the interview proceeded.
Fortunately, I could pass the interview and would to start working from the day after the next day.

I was glad that I could find a place where I can be involved in for three months.
Three months after, I would notice that the experience of the internship here is very important to myself.

Summer Break this year part 3 (in Malaysia)

This is the third post about my summer break this year.

I've written on my short stay in Indonesia.
This post is about a short trip at Kuala Rumpur, Malaysia.

I took Malaysia Airline for Japan.
So, I needed to change the flight at Kuala Rumpur.
It was only two hours flight from Jakarta. I had 4 hours until the next flight to Japan.
So, I decided to go to downtown and quickly come back to catch the flight.

I had to check the body temperature because I had stayed in US by 6 days before. After that, I finally finished the immigration.
First, I was astonished with seeing the airport. It is huge and looks well modernized.
To tell the truth, I didn't know that Malaysia (Kuala Rumpur) is such developed.
I knew only Twin Towers in Malaysia. But, the society looked developed much more than I imagined.




At the airport, I took a high speed train to the center of the city.

← inside of the train












I got to the main station of the city.

I was surprised by the atmosphere there again.
It was as if I am in Tokyo.

But, the biggest surprise was that the society consists of many ethnic groups: people from India, China, some other South East Asian countries.
I became so interested in this country.
I've wanted to live "on the Earth" and still I want to.

That is the biggest reason I chose to study abroad in US. I expected to meet many people from many countries and to spend with them. In my stay in US, I could make friends from other countries, such as India, Italy, Taiwan, South Korea, China and also many other countries.

I realized immediately that Malaysia is also like US.
Although the Malaysian government adopted Bumiputra policy in which Malaysian are treated well, I could regard this is very the small world or Asia.


Anyways, I came to the center of the city to see Twin Tower!
You might know that Twin Tower is the second tallest on the Earth next to Taipei 101.























Although I could stay there only for less than 30 minutes because of the flight schedule, I enjoyed a lot.
But, I hope I can come there again next time.
I will be able to know more about this country and like this society more.

Summer Break this year part 2 (in Jakarta)

This post is the part 2 of the title "Summer Break this year."
This time, I'm going to write on my stay at a volunteer center in Jakarta, Indonesia.


On May 20th, I finally arrived at an international airport in Jakarta.
It was the longest flight I'd ever had.
I changed three flights to come to Indonesia. I changed the flight from San Francisco at Hong Kong International Airport, and then I changed in Singapore. I think it took 20 hours or more in total. Besides that, I had a big jet lag when I got to the airport.


Before I left US, I already got Indonesian visa for 2 months. So, I didn't have any problems at the immigration.
Just after I passed through the gate, I saw so many Indonesian people trying to get us as their customers. They were taxi drivers, bus drivers, and money changer.

I did travel China two years before, so I was a bit used to seeing such scenes. I knew it's not special to see crowd and merchants like this in developing countries.

I took a taxi, and headed for a volunteer center where I would work at.
However, it was a heavy traffic in Jakarta.
There, many children walked on the highway and sold bottles of water and snacks.
At this point, I realized that I came to a developing country.
Even 5 or 6 years old children were trying to get money by themselves to survive. I was heart on my mind to see such children.
To tell the truth, I was not sure if I would be able to live there for 4 months then. Everything around me was changed so suddenly.
When I was in US, I had really fun time with my friends. It was a lot of fun every day.
Also, a day before, I was with my friend at Palo Alto where I'd wanted to come for a long time, but a day after, I was in a country where poor children walked on highway.


I could get to the volunteer center where I would work for 4 months after two hours after I left the airport.
There, I met two volunteers and 4 children whom I would teach and support for. One of two volunteers is 30 years old woman from Philippines, and the other is a about 50 years old man from India. I introduced myself to them and they taught me the policy at the volunteer center. After that, I filled in forms which are all necessary for volunteer.
They noticed that I was exhausted because of the long flight. So, they said to me that I can go to bed. I slept in airplane the day before, and I finally could sleep on the bed.


I got a strong loneliness and a sad feeling on the second day at the center.
Itry to be honest and am going to write on what I felt and did there.

It was holiday in Indonesia on my second day. So, my work was off all day.
I woke up in the morning. After a couple of hours, I felt big loneliness. I couldn't imagine that I would work there for 4 months.
I don't want to say this, but I was so confused by the sudden change of the environment. Everything was changed so quickly as I mentioned above.
Before I came to Indonesia, I really wanted to live in a developing country. I thought I am a kind of special in the world. It is because I know only Japan and US which have two of the most powerful economy in the world.
I wanted to know other world and I even thought it's necessary to know those things.

However, I admitted then that it is easy to only imagine but it is not easy to act.
I'm not saying any special, but I didn't know that before that.
And, the stay at the volunteer center in Indonesia was way over my limitation.

I realized that I am not special at all, and am also weak.
I knew I would be depressed if I had stayed there. And it was mentally impossible for me.
It was very shameful of me, but I had no choice except for leaving Indonesia.

Actually, I talked with my friends whom I made in US a lot on Skype. They tried to understand me and helped me a lot.
I couldn't stop crying while I was talking with them.

Then, I truly decided to go home in Japan.
It was only a five-days stay at the volunteer center.
I explained about my problem to other volunteers, and I apologized for that many times. Literally, I couldn't accomplish anything there.
Then, I headed for the airport.

However, I learned a very important thing. That is I am not strong mentally.
Before I came to Indonesia, I thought I can do anything I want and I was confident to myself too much. So, I misunderstand myself that I don't have any impossible thing.
But I was not.

I'm sure that I could develop myself from this experience. I failed, but I could know about myself more.


Sorry, I don't have any pictures of my stay in Indonesia.
OK, next post is about a short stop in Kuala Rumpur, Malaysia.

Summer Break this year part 1 (in Hong Kong)

I'm going to write about how I spent the summer break this year.

You know I studied in US between the last year and this year.
Yes, I studied at College of William and Mary for 9 months by mid-May this year.
And then, I flied to my friend's place at Stanford.
I stayed there for three days, and I headed for Jakarta, Indonesia, for a volunteer work.
So, I think I should start telling about my summer break from this point.

I changed my flight first at Hong Kong. I remembered it was very early in the morning that the flight from San Francisco got to Hong Kong's International Airport.
I had almost 4 hours till my next flight, so I went to the downtown in the morning.



There was no one at the station at this morning time...

The train runs every 20 minutes even almost no one uses.

Anyways, I was hurried to go to the center of Hong Kong because of the time for the next flight.







I could see so many tall buildings through the window in the train.
Also, they were packed in a tiny space...

I had heard that more than 40 of 100 tallest buildings on the earth are in Hong Kong, but I truly understood it soon after I took the train.

At the same time, however, I imagined their life. It's good for me to just travel, but it would be so stressful for people who live here.




It was early in the morning, so there are only a few people even in Hong Kong at this time.

When I took this picture, I felt that I came back to Asia. In Asia, there are many artificial stuffs, and many things are in a small space compared to US.
So, I still remember that I felt a bit strange with seeing this place.




















That is the downtown across the river.
This is a famous view of Hong Kong.
I didn't have enough time to come the downtown, so I came by this place and took a pictuere.

After I took pictures, I run to come back to a nearest station...
I could stay here only for 10 or 20 minutes, but it was a good memory now.


Next post is about the short stay in Jakarta...

Letters from Iwo Jima

I watched a movie "Letters from Iwo Jima" by Clint Eastwood.
Many of you know that the movie is famous for describing the Pacific War from Japanese side.
However, it doesn't mean that the movie was made by the Japanese point of view of the war.

I mean,
if the movie is made by those both, the movie would be different.

In this movie, main characters are all Japanese, such as Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Tsuyoshi Ihara. maybe you don't know those actors....(some might know only Ken Watanabe who played for the Last Samurai with Tom Cruise)
Japanese soldiers fought for their country and family.
In many scenes, they remember words of their mother and the time with their family.
Therefore, Americans are enemies for them.

However, one of commanders saved an American soldier's live.
Also, Saigo was saved his live by American soldiers, though they might have wanted to use him as a troop in this case.
Anyways, they were both saved their lives.

I think......
the filmmaker didn't want to decide which is bad or right in this movie.
This is really a hard topic in making a film because they both have an enemy. US is an big enemy for Japan and also Japan is an enemy for US.
This is written from Japanese side, and I haven't watched a movie "Flags of Our Fathers" yet, but I think those two movies which are opposed to the other want us to see the war from the both side and have the idea for that.

You know, I'm Japanese.
My grandfather fought for the war in the time.
He was, I think, 18 years old, and he worked for navy.
He said he lost some of his friends in the war. So, I'm not totally a ignorant to the war.
But, I don't justify the war. I try to be neutral in this matter.
Therefore, I don't want you to misunderstand the meaning of what I wrote above.
I wrote that the filmmaker didn't want to decide which is bad or right in this movie.
I mean the filmmaker wouldn't conclude which is totally bad in this fight.

After the war is over, we are cooled down and can think which was bad in the war.
But, this is too broad. We can only think about the war as a country (countries) v.s. a country (countries.)
In the war, they all were full of stress with thinking when they would be killed.
Also, they fought not for themselves, such as the Emperor, country, and family.
We can blame countries which led to the wrong way, but we can never blame people who worked there.
I think this movie all emphasized on this part: soldiers who worked.


Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War began since that.
This is true and nobody cannot deny this.
However, no one could stop the war after it started.
The Japanese government manipulated people and they fought for the country.
At the time, they believed they are right and they had to fight for the Emperor, the country, and their family, otherwise Americans would invade them.
So, they had to fight.

A guy, Saigo, was not loyal as much as other Japanese soldiers. He had to follow the rules, so he played to be loyal when he faces commanders.
Saigo and Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) showed us especially an important thing.

They are skeptical to the Japanese discipline of the war.
Saigo hopes to come back home with alive more than others.
Kuribayashi thinks it's wasteful to die by suicide, so he didn't admit his members to kill themselves.
At this time, many people killed themselves when they realized that they would be killed by Americans. They thought it's shameful to be killed by Americans.
Moreover, they gave three cheers every time for the Emperor before they kill themselves.

Now, people say the North Korean government is gone crazy, and they can't understand their behavior.
The government controls people and all information.
However, I think we should admit we had the same period which was only 65 years ago in Japan.
Japan is the second richest country by National GDP in the world now, and everybody has right to express their idea.
Only 65 years ago, however, we had none of them.
So the society rapidly changed.
The important thing is we should not think that we are different from people in countries having strict discipline that we can't even understand, such as that of North Korea and even China.

We should thank what we have achieved, and should think seriously about the problems of other countries.
We don't need to change the system of the countries which have strong rules in society. It needs a lot of efforts and also it's impossible only for us to change the country.
But, we can think back about the past and think seriously about the matter.
Once we acts like that, we won't say it's not our problem.

Feel the messages from cities

I explain the meaning of the title.

First, my boss at work told me that. He read a book and he was interested in a word in the book, and he explained that to me.

It's very interesting even for me.

Take an example of US.
If you are ready to sacrifice your life and want to make money, you should go to New York, not Boston or Silicon Valley.
If you are a high school student and are to start choosing a college, you should go to Boston.
If you want to doing something interesting, you should live in Silicon Valley. Instead, you can expect to get high salary.
You shouldn't live in Boston with thinking to make a lot of money.
You shouldn't live in New York with thinking to invent something new or interesting.

I think it's exactly true.
We need to choose places which match our lifestyle.
We should change the place when our priorities change.

What is the best place for you?

iPod classic

I bought iPod classic!!
I spent a part of my salary I got in the internship.

I came back home yesterday.
I have spent so much time with my iPod and computer yesterday and today.

I bought iPod classic and I will need huge space in my computer.
So, it was a good time to clear my computer.
I'm going to put a lot of movies on iTunes, so I moved all music data to my external storage.
And, I changed the main storage from C Drive to D Drive.
Also, I deleted some data.

Now, my computer works faster!