KOMOREBI

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 ...