活在童话里

来到日本以来，身边不少朋友都表示羡慕，毕竟日本是很多人心目中童话般的世界吧？我们都被一部部浪漫的日剧搞得对日本充满期待。
日本的确是一个美丽的国家，但是真的在这里生活，真的跟童话没什么关系……没有什么帅哥，没有什么浪漫的邂逅。夏天会热，冬天会冷，人~ 会感冒…… (= =)
每天在学校看到超级可爱却又超级调皮的小孩，踏着雪路搭巴士还是被巴士跑掉了~
在这里的生活很踏实，很实际。

The Japan Heart

My principal said to me when he was totally wasted... "The thing I like best about you is that you are Asian, you understand my Japanese Heart". It is somewhat true that I find it easier to be around the Japanese than the other foreign language teachers from the west... Our frequency match better. I love my teachers when they are totally relaxed after some drinks and some good food. And my school teachers sing damn well!! Even when they are drunk!!! I'm jealous.

5 months have past in a flash... is it gonna be another 7 months or another 19 months? Dou kana~~~~ ><

Karma

Many Japanese asked me this question: Do you believe in afterlife?

I told them I don't. But to be honest, I don't know. Unless I see it or experience it for myself, I guess I will never be able to say yes to it. But not seeing/experiencing it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. So the actual answer is, I don't know.

And so... when I told them that I am not sure or I don't believe in it, they will very often give me a look and say "It exists, you should believe in it.". And so... "What's the point of believing in it?" I asked. The answer is... "if you do good things, then you will go to heaven and be borned into a good life,if you do bad things, you will be punished in your afterlife".

Something seems wrong in the logic. The reason why you don't do "bad things" is because you are worried about punishments in the future? And it's punishment in the afterlife! Do we need a reason to be nice to people? Do we need a reason to not do things that harm others? Maybe the reason to be a nice person should just stem from a desire to see the people around you happy.

Managing Desires and Temptations

It's amazing how we desire things that may be bad for us. It can cigerettes, it can be meat, it can be a wrong love. Just like how the moth flies towards the burning light, we get attracted to things that are not necessarily best for us. Our desires override our minds to let us make decisions that we may regret 10 years down the road.

The power of self-control is probably not related to age but more related to being able to be satisfied with what we have. Afterall, when one learns to be contented with what he has, he will have less desire to seek more and hence will be able to more objective decisions.

But as a friend of mine often says, what wrong with being emotional? What's wrong with doing things that you like? Maybe being happy is the most important thing.