KOMOREBI

Have you ever thought that you want to do something good for our society? I am sure that most of the people have thought that way at least once. I was also no exception to this. However, whenever I wanted to do volunteer, I did not know where to start. Also, it is hard to make a big commitment to volunteer works while I was busy with school work and my life. I believe that there are a lot of people like me who want to reach out to people in need, but they do not what they could with their limited time. This is why we created this organization. Our mission is to engage more people in their community and make a positive change. They can start with something small to help the community like cleaning the street and beach so that more can join without worrying about sparing much time. We also do not force them to attend any community services and it's completely up to them to come to events. How our organization works is that we have our website where we post in...

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...

I love to travel and I have traveled many places in the world. But, I cannot imagine myself having no place that I can call a "home". When I start reading this book, I was wondering how she and her family could travel all the time. After few pages later, I found that the parents did not have regular jobs and they lived as travelers. What shocked me the most was that the author, Gloria, did not go to school because they kept traveling all the time.  I believe that I have an appreciation for travel just because I like to explore somewhere that is different where I live. If I hadn't had a house and contentiously traveled like their family, I would have longed to live a house with my family just like she did. Despite the fact that she was afraid of being like her father, she still went on a trip. Instead of traveling with her father which the least thing she wanted to do, she chose to go to India by herself. I found this ironic because people, who never trav...

One night, I was watching random videos on YouTube and I found a video of a Japanese girl eating tons of food. She does nothing but eats and talks in the video, but I could not stop watching the video because she looked super happy while eating and the way she ate made food look so good. Since then, I started to watch those types of videos called Mukbang(eating broadcasting) which a person talks and eats large quantities of foods. Mukbang firstly started in South Korea and it was done through Afreeca TV, an online live streaming service. It increasingly became popular in both South Korea and other countries and those who gained popularity through Mukbang had made a lot of money. These days, many people film themselves eating and talking and then post the video after they film everything instead of doing a live streaming. Some people may think there is no point watching videos of someone just eating and talking, but what they eat actually look very delicious and the ...

Why Non-Koreans are into K-POP Last year, an artist, who won the Top Social Artist Award at Billboard, was not a world top star like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, but a Korean male group called BTS. It is probably your first time to hear their name, and you may wonder how they could beat those famous stars even though they are not as well-known as the top stars. Well, BTS is indeed very popular not only in South Korea but also in many other countries.   Besides BTS, many K-POP groups have successfully gained popularity worldwide. But, what attracts Non-Korean people like me, who do not have any Korean background, to K-POP? I cannot tell why at this point, but you will find the reasons as you continue reading. The rise of K-POP in the World When you think of K-POP, you may imagine an Asian guy dancing like a horse. You are right. PSY is one of the most famous K-POP artists, and K-POP might have not been popular without him. However, K-POP ...

Even though I am interested in neither farming nor this book, I would say that the author taught me important lessons about food and business through this book. I love food. I love to eat and cook. I am always thinking what to eat for lunch and dinner during classes. In spite of my passion for food, this book made me realize that I have no idea what kind or food I put in my mouth. I believe most of them are produced in large quantities with chemicals which the author calls "plastic". It is not possible for a person like me, who does not own a farm to grow vegetables and meats by myself and do not buy anything from the supermarket. However, I can bring a small change to my life. I could buy food and products at the farmers market on campus. I also can avoid products containing a lot of chemicals. I also found that I lack appreciation for food after reading the slaughter part in this book. Since I was small, I was always told not to waste food, and  I rarely threw foo...

  Preparatory School Tutor Can you imagine yourself going to school to study after you finish school? You may not even want to think about doing extra work after school, but that’s what many children do in Japan. I was working at this type of school called "preparatory school" during last summer. At this point, many people wonder what a preparatory school is. There are actually two types of schools which children attend after school. Some go to schools to review what they learned in their school or to prepare for their classes ahead. Others attend schools which focus on preparation for entrance examinations. This type of school is what I am talking now, preparation school. In Japan, high school students must take entrance examinations to go to university. The big difference of the process of getting into universities between the United States and Japan is that earning high marks at entrance examinations is everything in Japan. However, universities take account f...