KOMOREBI

When I thought about the quote for the first time, I was trying to come up with something that I can do for numbers of people living in developing country like what Novogratz did: investing money in companies or organization which try to help people in developing countries. But, I realized that the approach requires time and commitment, and it is not easy for me and others to take the approach even though it is ideal to do that. And then, I remembered our high school motto, "Love your neighbor as yourself" and thought this could be the first step to make a better world. I went to a Christian high school in Japan and I learned a number of great teachings of Christianity even though I am not a Christian. At our high school, we had short services twice a week. During the service, we read the bible and listened to a lecture given by minister or teachers. One of the parts of the bible they often talked about was "Love your neighbor as yourself". This is also our schoo...

As you might be realized by this point, there are few international students from Japan comparing to the number of students from other countries like China, South Korea, and India. Not only at USC, but in most universities, Japanese students represent a small part of the entire international student community. Although there are a lot of Japanese university students chose to study abroad, the majority study in other countries for less than one year. In other words, it is not common to receive a degree outside Japan. In this post, I want to share why I decided to come here to study while most university students remain in Japan. To be honest, I was not interested in studying abroad in America. After finishing an exchange program in Australia when I was in high school, I decided to go to university in Japan. The experience I had there was very meaningful and valuable, but at the same time, because I had struggled so much to accustom myself to the culture and lifestyle in Aust...

As a sociology major, I have taken a class covering a topic of inequality in the United States and tried to understand the issue from a sociological perspective. However, I did not have a lot of opportunities to learn about stories of individuals living in a society with huge disparities. This book not only see the issue from a view of the poor but also from the rich and it was eye-opening to me. What I have learned from this book is that both 1% and 99% of the population often misunderstand the each other. Some rich people believe that the reason poor people cannot get rid of the poverty is because they do not work hard, but in reality, it is very difficult to climb up the social ladder once they are on the bottom. It is because they do not have an access to higher education due to the financial difficulties, and in a result, they can only get a labor work. In sociology, this is called Culture of Poverty. If 1% is born on the third base, the poor are standing in the batter box wit...

When I was assigned to read this book, I had no idea what this book is about. Simply because I did not what "born on third base" means. I googled and found out that it means that people receive wealth without their efforts thanks to their parents. After knowing the meaning of the title,  I was discouraged to read the story about a rich guy. However, reading the first part of the book completely changed my impression of the book. This is not a book about a wealthy guy bragging about himself, but it is about a guy giving up a gift which everyone desires to own and trying to bring a change to this society.    Even though I was not born on third base, I can relate myself to him as I grew up without experiencing financial difficulties. Thanks to my parents, I have a lot of choices with my life that many do not: going to a private institution, learning instruments, and studying abroad. I also could finish my college education without having any debt like him. ...

After writing several posts, I have realized that I did not mention that where the name of my blog comes from.  Unfortunately, there is no special story behind and I picked this word just because I like it. But, I should at least tell you what's the meaning of the word. Although there is no direct translation for Komorebi(木漏れ日）, it basically means that sunlight filters through trees. Not only I love the sound of the word, but this single word well captures the beauty of nature. Living in LA, I sometimes miss being surrounded by a lot of thick trees. It is such a healing moment for me to walk in the bush on a sunny day. Since I talked about Komorebi, I want to introduce some Japanese words which Japanese people use in everyday life, but there is no English equivalent. いただきます＆ごちそうさま (Itadakimasu& Gochisousama) Before Japanese people start eating, we say Itadakimasu to show appreciations for food and people who cooked the meal.  Similarly, after we finish...

I would say that this book was way more interesting than Growing a Farmer overall, not only because I was tired of Kurt's explaining how much he loves farming regardless of him failing in almost everything he tried for the first time, but also Gloria knows how to attract readers. My most favorite part of the book was when she explained why she prefers to take a flight, train, and bus rather than to drive a car. As she says, it is true that traveling by public transportation can connect people while going on a trip by car isolate people. I know some people go for a drive to enjoy the privacy and freedom, but I personally enjoy the interference from others — it always makes my trip special. Even if an interference becomes unpleasant one like Gloria experienced when a racist taxi driver started yelling at people, we still chose traveling by plane, train, and a bus just because we appreciate a new encounter. Another reason I liked the book was that she did not forc...