The landlord of my place invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner last night. This is the second time to have a Thanksgiving dinner here. He also invited his cousin and some friends of his. It’s always good to meet new people.
Oops, some people were moving, including myself. I prefer taking photos without flash because the color is better in this way. But you have to stay still.
I don’t know where I will be on Thanksgiving day next year, but hope I will have a nice day like this.
Of course I know the obvious answer. The fall. It was cool today, but I remember that last October was hot! I’m wondering what this October will be like.
My favourite colour is green, but I like seeing trees with their leaves turning yellow or red. The best timing is when green leaves and yellow and red leaves coexist, but that period does not last long. Let’s enjoy this for a couple more weeks (or less).
In ancient times, Japanese people thought that objects would acquire a spirit if people use it for a long time. If you throw it away, its spirit would become a ghost… Of course it’s not worth discussing whether objects have a spirit or not. It’s about how people deal with objects. But some incidents, which must have happened coincidentally, made me think if objects really have a spirit or not. For example, the rechargeable battery of my BlackBerry was running low; I often had to charge it twice a day. A few days ago, I went to an electronics store to buy a new one, but they ran out of it. I went to a nearby cellphone shop, but they ran out of it too. I did not look for other stores and went home. Since then, the battery has worked fine. Did it want me not to throw it away??? I have seen some other incidents like this.
My family had used a TV set for a long time, and it often did not work properly. We decided to buy a new one. When the new one was delivered to home, the old one suddenly stopped working completely.
Did it try to work hard until its successor was delivered?
I had used a wrist watch for a long time. It worked fine, but I just wanted a new one, and went to some shops to look for a good one. But I could not choose one, and went home. On the next day, the old wrist watch stopped working.
Was it jealous?
They must have happened just coincidentally. But people should not dispose of things easily for sure. Recycling is not as good as reusing.
FYI, some information of Japanese folklore can be found on Wikipedia.
Now I’m doing a job called job hunting. I spend a long time on job search, send tons of email, and get almost no reply. How discouraging is it? In such a depressing situation, I was lucky today though I did not get any good news; two small events encouraged me.
I went to a bank, and had a little time to chat with a bank clerk. I told her that I’m now looking for a job and it is hard to get one. She doesn’t know me, doesn’t know what I have done, and doesn’t know what job I’m looking for. But she said “I’m sure you will find a good job”. Probably she says that to anyone in the same situation. But even such an ordinary conversation encourages me now.
In the afternoon, I went to school to teach sketching. It was only one hour, but some students showed improvement. I don’t remember how many times I heard “thanks Hiro”. Can you imagine how encouraging it is? It does not do anything for my job hunting except for adding one line to my resume. But knowing that I contribute something encourages me while no employers need me so far.
I won’t have any special event tomorrow. I wonder how I will manage to avoid getting discouraged.
Welcome to my blog. “Tsurezure naru mamani…” is the first line of a collection of Japanese classical essays named “Tsurezure-gusa” written by a historical monk, Yoshida Kenko. It literally means “as I have nothing special to do…”, followed by “write down whatever I come up with”. But I cannot be as humble as Yoshida Kenko; I am pretty busy and have a lot to do! But I just want to write whatever thought which can be shared with other people, as Yoshida Kenko did.