What Would You Like to Do If Money Were No Object?

The following is the script:

"So I always ask the question: What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life? Well it's so amazing as the result of our kind of educational system, crowds of students say 'Well, we'd like to be painters, we'd like to be poets, we'd like to be writers' But as everybody knows you can't earn any money that way! Another person says 'Well I'd like to live an out-of-door's life and ride horses.' I said 'You wanna teach in a riding school?'

Let's go through with it. What do you want to do? When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do I will say to him 'You do that! And forget the money!' Because if you say that getting the money is the most important thing you will spend your life completely wasting your time! You'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living - that is to go on doing things you don't like doing! Which is stupid! Better to have a short life that is full of which you like doing then a long life spent in a miserable way. And after all, if you do really like what you are doing - it doesn't really matter what it is - you can eventually become a master of it. It's the only way of becoming the master of something, to be really with it. And then you will be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don't worry too much, somebody is interested in everything. Anything you can be interested in, you'll find others who are.

But it's absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don't like in order to go on spending things you don't like, doing things you don't like and to teach our children to follow the same track. See, what we are doing is we are bringing up children and educating to live the same sort of lifes we are living. In order they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to bring up their children to do the same thing. So it's all retch and no vomit - it never gets there! And so therefore it's so important to consider this question:

What do I desire?"

- Alan Watts

Pay It Forward

Things I used to be shy about.
I'm grown-up enough to be able to speak out loud.

Google Commercial

love the google TV commercial.

Essence of Learning English

Mogi Kenichiro is one of the most admiring individuals in Japan. At least to me.

He talks about the essence of learning English in his recent blog post.

I like his perspective and attitude toward the world.

Please check his blog post here: Reading for Pleasure

茂木健一郎氏は日本で私がとても尊敬する人の一人です。

彼の最近のブログに、英語学習者に是非知って欲しいエッセンスが書かれていたので紹介したいと思います。

ブログへはこちらから：Reading for Pleasure

Buy from Independent Artists

I respectfully support independent creators and their products and services!

You know, San Francisco is famous for this! Look at their less-Starbucks city! There are many independent cafes, restaurants, shops, artists, creators, and fabulous people in the city. 

I do respect them and really want to support those people, and I wish there are more people like them in Takao, too.

Worst X'mas Ever...

This is so cute and funny.
Hope they got a real present for the X'mas day!

とても可愛いです。
クリスマス当日には本物のプレゼントがもらえるといいね....

Nick Vujicic

I love the moment when High school girls give him huge hugs in the video, and of course he is hilarious.

このビデオの中で、女子高生達が彼に大きなハグをする瞬間が好きです。
もちろん、彼のジョークも。

You Are What You Eat

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the restaurant named Roppongi Nouen, literally in the middle of the Roppongi area, right near the Roppongi Hills building.

It was my first time to go to fancy restaurants in Tokyo, so I didn't expect much but just really expensive stuff.
After walking through beautiful Tokyo Midtown illumination, we were cold, tired, thirsty and pretty hungry. As soon as got there, I started off with a glass of orange juice, and that just orange juice was amazingly fresh and flavorful! I silently exclaimed. "Oishi!!!" Then the simple raw salad. I didn't know until then the raw Japanese carrots are so sweet and tasty. Another silent exclamation. Then we had Japanese yam John which was soft and "mochimochi", and yu-dofu in lotus root's soup. Tofu had a touch of sweetness of soybeans. Then there came the main dish, pork shabu-shabu. Since I am not a big fan of shabu-shabu or any kind of meat, I told Kanta "you can go ahead and take all the meat," but I picked a small piece to at least try. And that meat, called "Miyaji-buta", was the first pork to make me say "Oh my goodness!" actually out loud finally this time. Soft in mouth, rich in fat, so juicy even after shabu-shabu, it was just heavenly good! We had really happy time there with heavenly great food that lasted for all that night.

So, during and after this dinner, all we were saying was "good food don't just make a good body but great soul." Though it might cost a bit more than fast foods, you get much more eventually. "You are what you eat" I saw the slogan on other restaurant's webpage, and now I realized they meant not just physically but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

先日六本木農園というレストランに行きました。六本木のど真ん中に位置し、東京でお洒落なレストランに行ったことの無い私は、高いだけでしょ、とあまり多くを期待はしていませんでした。
夕食の前に東京ミッドタウンのイルミネーションを見に行ったり、結構歩いたせいでレストランに着いた頃には、寒いし喉は乾いたしお腹も減ったしで、とりあえずオレンジジュースをオーダー。そしたらそのとりあえずオレンジジュースのおいしいこと！「おいしー！」と目を丸くして、かんたにひっそり声で訴え、次に頼んだのは、よくある生サラダ。これまたスライスされた人参や赤かぶなどがすっごく甘くておいしくて感動。それから山芋のちぢみ、れんこんスープに入った湯豆腐をいただき、もうどれもこれも素材の味がし〜っかりしていて甘い。でメインの豚しゃぶしゃぶ。私はもともとそんなに肉狂ではないので、肉はかんた食べな〜と言い、でも一応一切れ食べてみると、まあ脂のおいしいこと！ジューシーでやわらかくて甘くて、お肉の脂をこんなにおいしいと思ったのは始めてでした。お肉はみやじ豚と言って、お米で育てられているんだとか。（ここの店員さんは、全ての料理に対して、どこでどんな風に育てられて収穫されたものか等を丁寧に説明してくれ、お米一粒、葉っぱ一枚残っていたらお皿を下げないのです。農家の人に対するリスペクトなのだそう。）その後雑炊に出て来た卵も、色がすでに全然違って本当においしかった。レストランを出てからも後をひく幸せを提供できる食事というのは、お金や時間と引き換えにできないものだなぁと感じました。今度は家でみやじ豚を取り寄せてみよう！
以前他のレストランのウェブサイトで「You are what you eat」をいうメッセージを見ました。つまり、「あなたは食べた物できている」と。身体もそうですが、心や魂も食べ物が大きく影響するということなんでしょう。ファストフードも便利でいいですが、たまにはそういった考える時間を持つことも大事なことかもしれませんね。

Logical Reasoning?

You think you are discussing with the idea which is derived from logical reasoning?  Reason first, then the result?
Well, brain scientist, Mogi Kenichiro, says the different.
People are tend to rationale the idea based on their original biases or emotional prejudice.
Read the whole article: Here is the website (The article in Japanese) ... and I just found out that the URL was invalid. So the part of the article is below.

みなさんは何か議論をする時、正当な理論の上に、自分の意見や立ち位置があると思いますか？理由が先で結果が後？

実は脳科学者の茂木健一郎氏は逆を唱えています。

人は論理的に考えているようで、実はその論理は感情や先入観の後付け論であることが多い、と。私自身、思い返してみると、大人になって自分の立ち位置や立場が確立され始めて、その傾向は自分自身でも強くなったような気がします。

こちらから全文をどうぞ：Here is the website ...と思ったらURLがすでに無効になっていましたので、一部抜粋で以下に載せます。

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ＴＰＰに限らず、どんな議論でも、多くの人は、こういう点がある、ああ
いう点がある……と論点を挙げていき、「だから私は賛成である」「だか
ら私は反対である」という結論を導き出しているつもりになっているわけ
ですが、実はそうなっていません。

はじめに、「感情」から導かれる結論が決まっていて、そこからその結論
にあった事実を選択的に選び出している人がほとんどだと思います。

例えば今、インターネットなどの文明の発達によって、グローバリズムが
否応なしに押し進められているわけですが、このグローバリズムに対して
「適応できないんじゃないか」と将来に対して漠然とした不安のようなも
のを感じている人がいるとします。実際にこういう人は多いでしょう。す
ると、そういう人は、自分の心の「不安」を、「それは不安に思っても仕
方が無い」とみんなが納得するような情報なり論点を引っ張ってくること
になる。

We Are With You

And responding to this video, tons of message videos from all over the world were uploaded. 
One of them is the below.


これに対して世界中からたくさんのメッセージが寄せられました。
次のはその一つです。