My obituary (an imaginary one :) )

Arisa Ono, of Kanagawa, Japan died Monday, November 7, 2089 at her house peacefully.

Born in Mutsumi cho, Yokohama, on 21st October 1989 to Yoko and Masato Ono, Arisa was an overly energetic but also a talented kid. She showed her talents in music, sports, academics. Her special interest in language made her to go study abroad in Canada and France, where she found great love in English and French. Also, her ambition to always be engaged with the outside world made her to go International Christian University, where she  graduated in 2014.

From 2015 to 2045, she worked as a buyer for an international trade cooperation which locates in London. There, she had chances to travel around the globe and it was in 2020, when she met her husband, Julien Pinot, in an open air market in Paris, France.

After her retirement in 2045, she choose to move from France to Japan with her husband.
She was an avid traveler and enjoyed traveling across the country from top to bottom, with her beloved cat, Jiji. After the journey, she started to travel around the world and she found great love in Africa and Southeast Asia, where she resided for couple of years. However, she always went back Japan because she loved her home country, where she could not spend much time when she was young.
Arisa is survived by her husband, Julien, her daughter Melody, her son Louis and her cat Jiji.
The funeral service will be held at 2:00 December 25, 2089 at her house. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the International Cat Association.

chop chop chop !

Cooking is something I like to do, but it is also something which I have't really been keep continue doing. There were times when I tried to make it as a part of my daiy routine, but it didn't work out because I am from a small family of three, and our lifestyle doesn't really require much cooking. It doesn't mean we buy food that are ready-to-eat or we eat out a lot. It is just that because we have such a small number of people at the house, and each one of us doesn't eat a lot, it is enough for us to cook two or three times a week to prepare and preserve food for our obento. For the dinner, we cook and eat separetly due to our schedules, so again, we do not cook a large amount of food at once, since there is no one to share the food. The reason I started to think of practicing cooking again is my boyfriend. He lives alone and when I saw him cooking by himself, it made me want to help him and also to cook something together with him. So I dug out my cooking scrap book, and looked through all the recipes from different newspapers and magazines. In the book, I found the ones which I really want to try cooking. Since I love eating and have a great interest in things related to eating and cooking, I think I have a potential to be, maybe not a good one, but a modest cook. So I will start my experiment from now on, and I hope my families and boyfriend won't be victims of it.... fingers crossed !

spend and save

Last week, I was too busy with shopping that it almost felt like I went to shopping for Christmas or something...
The fist and the biggest thing I bought last week is a brand new MacBook Air, which I had been looking for so long. Now it's on my lap, looking pretty and smart :)  My old laptop was really a mess ... It suddenly turned off and I had serious trouble doing my works with it. So I am so happy that I have a new laptop which actually works and looks pretty at the same time. The next thing I　bought were presents for my best friend from elementary school. I　spent great amount of time choosing her presents, and at last, I　decided to buy a can of tea, which is rapped by a pretty Furoshiki, and chocolate candies which goes nicely with the tea. I also wrote her a card to tell her how thankful  I　am for her being my friend. When I gave her the presents, she looked very happy and her smile really made my day. I also bought a new lunch box, which I think is the prettiest lunch box I have ever seen in my life. Maybe I am exaggerating a little but in any case, I am looking forward to use it. It might seem like I didn't do so much shopping, but because I don't usually shop a lot, I felt like I bought a lot and spent a lot of money... I also became so tired after going to shopping. From next week I have to start saving and earning money because I have my granma's and mom's birthdays coming up... and it's gonna be my mom's 50th anniversary this year, so I　wish to prepare something special for her !  I will start with stop buying coffees at the school cafeteria...

"So, what is your religious belief?"

When I was in high school in Canada, I was taught by a teacher not to talk about politics and religion at parties. It is because these topics, especially the latter is very controversial and sometimes too sensitive for certain people. As of a Japanese myself, it was a bit hard to imagine people actively discussing and fighting over religious point of view, but I saw real examples of these on TVs and also at classrooms. There were many TV programs on religious issues and at classrooms, religion was a popular topic to talk about. So when I came back to Japan, I was surprised how religious is treated differently from North America. In my point of view, in Japan, it is considered too radical to devote oneself to particular religion. It is true that in Japan, it is not so common to see religiously active people compare to overseas, but because I have been brought up in christian schools from kinder garden to University(and surprisingly, I am not Christian !!), religion is not a special thing to pay attention. I thought it was something everyone accepts, until when I realized that for some people, it can be a object of fear. I don't really know the reason behind it, and I am very eager to investigate about it, but for me, religion is a guideline for people to determine their ways in their everyday lives but also in times of difficulties. For example, I can see that some christian beliefs, such as 10 commandments and messages from stories from the bible,  are ingrained in myself. It doesn't mean that I follow the 10 commandments and things that are written in the bible. However, I believe that it is important to respect and love my neighbors and to be nice to people around me without expecting something in return. When I came to university, I realized that these ways of thinking are not necessarily respected and I was very shocked by the ways people react when they encounter with any kinds of religion. Even at this university, some people despite Christianity without any reason, except for it being a religion..... and it simply makes me sad, not because I am familiar with the religion, but because these people are unconscious of the possibility that their actions can be hurting those people who believe in Christianity. Whether you believe in religion or not, I think it is very important to respect different beliefs and to treat people who believe in these beliefs with respect. I know I am talking about something really difficult to be achieved, but I believe sincerely that it is something we should aim for, for the better of the world.

ICU festival

This is the second day of ICU festival 2011. I hope whoever there had lots of fun ! I　went to the festival yesterday and had a great time with my friends from other universities. To be honest, I didn't expect the festival to be fun and therefore I wasn't thinking of attending it... but becasue I heard that my friends are participating it as event planners and my friends from other universities are coming to visit us, I decided to go to the event. The festival turned out to be so much fun and I am really glad that I attended it. As I wrote before, I wasn't doing anything as an organizer of the festival. So I was able to relax and to have good time talking and eating with my friends. They seemed to enjoy the event also the atmosphere of our university, which made me really happy to be a student of ICU. They said that the ICU is more realxing compare to their universities, where there are less space and nature but more students and buildings. I also enjoyed watching my friends who were busy working at their shops. Some were selling spring rolls nearby the main entrance of the school and some were cooking yakitoris right infront of Shin-D. There were also friends who were working at different cafes inside Honkan, busy selling coffees and hand made cakes. They all looked so busy and when I talked with them at the end of the day, they were dead tired. But they also looked satisfied and happy at the same time, which also made me feel very happy. I think being able to participate in school festival is a privilage of student and this kind of memory will be very precious in the future, when we become adult. So it might be too early to think, but I am thinking of doing something for the next ICU festival :)

what love means to me

When I first saw the blog theme, I got confused because I thought I had already wrote on the same topic... but it turned out that I defined love as the most important thing for me and I wrote my thoughts about it in my previous blog entry. So as I have already mentioned, love is the most important thing for me. I was a bit surprised that other members in my group also think love as the most precious thing for them. It was funny how Gen refused persistently to share his personal thoughts about love. I think it was because his personal feeling towards someone is very special and important for him, and I thought that was very very sweet. It is easy to say love is the most important thing in my life, and I think it is true, but when it comes to thinking about keeping or protecting love, I suddenly lose my confidence for saying this. I think I am incapable of protecting people who are important to me, such as my family, friends, and boyfriend, and I wonder if that still makes me relevant to say that I truly love them. I think it is irresponsible to say "I love you"to someone when I can't take any responsibility for the relationship with the person. However, taking responsibility is really difficult especially when the relationship is between someone who is very close to you. For example, from the bottom of my heart, I love my mother, and so does my mother. However, while my mother is taking responsibility of me by feeding me and providing education and other things necessary for my life, I am not doing anything in return. Some say that it is enough for a child to love their families back in return to their love and care, but I don't think that is true. I am her child and of course I love her so much, but I am definitely a financial and also an emotional burden for her. Also,  I believe that the best way to alleviate her stress is to provide financial leeway, which I can not do right now, and it makes me feel disconsolated. I believe that providing financial support is one way to show one's love towards someone and that is something I　want desparately to do in the future. I want to be a person who can actually show my love towards someone by being able to halp that person in substantive ways. So I　think my definition of love has changed a bit from something precious and important to something more substantive. I think the definition will be on constant change until the last day of my life, but I wish to keep thinking and wondering about the meaning of love.

plans for this weekend

Time flies and we are getting closer to the end of October ! I cannot believe we are having ICU festival this weekend... I am not participating in any of the activities at school, so this year, I can just walk around without caring about being late for work shift. I really do hope that we will have a better weather this year. I still remember the terrible storm we had last year during the festival because I had to sell these Nachos under the pouring rain and it is not an exciting thing to sell something like Nachos in such a bad weather. I think there was only one customer who came to buy Nachos while I was working, and I am sure that it made not only me but also other members feel a bit miserable being there. November is one of my favorite month of the year because there are important birthdays within the month. First is my grandmother's, and there are also birthdays of some of my closest friends. I am still not sure what to get for each one of them, so I have to spend some time at town to see if there are something special and suitable for each of them. I love this time for choosing something for someone who is important to me, because getting something really makes me to think of the person, and reminds me of the memories I shared with the person. I also love to write a card for someone's birthday, and it always takes me a lot of time because first, I have to find a right card for a person and it is very difficult when you take this process seriously. There are literally millions of cards out there, and even if you think that you have found the right one after a long search, the feeling of doubt rises immediately and then you start to think that there might be a better card at the next store. Anyways, I guess my weekend will be spent on finding birthday cards and presents.