Item: Tomomi, English Teacher
Description: Upon my arrival to Japan for the second time, I found myself questioning my return. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I realized that this return was a huge step in my life. The first time I excavated to this country was purely for experience reasons; I was a fresh college graduate with no idea what to do and where to do it. However, when I initially returned home, I thought that my time in Japan was over and that it was something I would just talk about using past tense. My return forced me to find a perspective of my goals and to realize that this wasn't simply a doe-eyed approach towards what could be life - this is life. This could be the very last place I ever move to again. This new perspective frightened me quite a lot and I found myself desperate to find the reason for me to be here again.
Tomomi, while perhaps not the only reason, is surely one of them.
Her desire to teach, her passion for dance, and her interesting outlook on her own life and life in general has dawn a new hope of sorts to my re-birth as a Japanese resident, and I find complete comfort in knowing that my meeting her was completely destined, and will forever be an important milestone/mile marker/indent in my life - one of which will be cherished if I ever tend to leave here once again.
Q: Name, Hometown, Current City
A: Tomomi, Kyoto, Kyoto.
Q: What can you not live without?
A: These Adidas pants, more like workout pants I got when I was 12. They're blue with 3 white stripes on the side.
Q: What is one thing you always carry around with you?
A: I always bring around those workout pants when I travel, and when I go to bed. I never even wear them anymore; they're too worn out, but I "touch" them when I sleep!
Q: What is your perspective on the materialistic youth of today?
A: I think it's natural - it's the 21st century. These things make their life more convenient and that's natural. Those items make their life, I don't know... more fruitful. It allows them to do more things that they couldn't do before. But, when I travel, I realized humans don't need so much to live, so if people become too materialistic or needy then they won't fit into a foreign country that doesn't have the same stuff as (home). It'll make them close-minded.
Q: If you could rid the world of one physical item, what would you get rid of?
A: Definitely not cookies (laughs). ... Insects. I really, really don't like insects.
Q: What is your New Year's resolution for 2010?
A: Discover myself.
A: Tomomi, Kyoto, Kyoto.
Q: What can you not live without?
A: These Adidas pants, more like workout pants I got when I was 12. They're blue with 3 white stripes on the side.
Q: What is one thing you always carry around with you?
A: I always bring around those workout pants when I travel, and when I go to bed. I never even wear them anymore; they're too worn out, but I "touch" them when I sleep!
Q: What is your perspective on the materialistic youth of today?
A: I think it's natural - it's the 21st century. These things make their life more convenient and that's natural. Those items make their life, I don't know... more fruitful. It allows them to do more things that they couldn't do before. But, when I travel, I realized humans don't need so much to live, so if people become too materialistic or needy then they won't fit into a foreign country that doesn't have the same stuff as (home). It'll make them close-minded.
Q: If you could rid the world of one physical item, what would you get rid of?
A: Definitely not cookies (laughs). ... Insects. I really, really don't like insects.
Q: What is your New Year's resolution for 2010?
A: Discover myself.