ビール一杯だけ。

Japanese Only...

ボクは男子校の出身である。だから、同性愛者の人を人生で初めて見たのはそこでだ。その頃の僕は、偏見があって同性愛という存在そのものがちっとも良く分かっていなかった。少なからず、遠巻きにその様子が「異常」であるかのような視線で僕はそのカップルを見ていたはずだ。この世のものじゃないかのように。

それから10年弱経つ今。イギリスに来て、ゲイの友人ができた。彼らカップルの様子を見ていて「愛は確かにそこに存在するのだ」そう思った。昔、女の子の顔は好きな男の前だと変わる、そういう投稿をしている。その時書いたような柔らかく、そして優しい表情を二人が僕の前で見せてくれた。そこに、愛はあるのである。

昔の自分は、学校内のカップルを見て、なぜそういう観察ができなかったのだろう。恐らくその二人を見るためのメガネは色づいていて、まっさらな状態で見られなかった。周りの友人の雰囲気？あのカップルと友達になると自分も変な目で見られるかもしれないという、心情。いろんなもので曇っていた。

イギリスに来て、同性愛者である友人たちを目の前に僕は、目の前の二人のその幸せ溢れる雰囲気に包まれると同時に、昔の自分を恥じた。その自分の2つの感情を客観的に見れた時に、僕に同性愛者に対する偏見の目は無くなったと思う。

今まで、どれだけの人をあの色眼鏡で見ていたのだろう。たぶん、知らぬうちに多くの人をすごくすごく傷つけてしまった。人間の視線は、言葉がなくても暴力になることくらい、今の僕はきちんと理解している。でも、これからの僕はそういう偏見なく生きていけるはず。

ボク自身は、同性愛者ではない。だけど、目の前のグラスを傾ける二人が、お互いを心の底から愛している姿を見れば、暖かい気持ちになるし、素敵だなと思う。僕もいつかあんな素敵な関係を築ける人と出会えるだろうか。

Love is blind, complicated, and difficult. 

だけど、現実そんな甘くない。

冷静になれば、好きじゃない人がしたら不快に思うような振る舞いでも、好きだという理由で自分のプリンシパルを見失う。気を使わない存在でいるはずなのに、いつの間にか気を使いすぎて疲れてしまう。好きで付き合い始めたはずなのに、別れるときは「もう二度と会いたくない」という心持ちになることもあるかもしれない。はたまた、お互い嫌いではないけれど、これ以上付き合わない方がいいことにふと気づいてしまう時もある。

僕はかなり理性的だし、やっぱりどこかで冷静な自分がいないと僕は不安だから、ブレーキがどこかで作動する。つまんない男、そう思われることもあるかもしれない。

だけど、自分を見失うくらい恋をすることも素敵かもしれないと思うこともなくはない。あまり後先考えずに、好きだという想いに素直に従える人を見て羨ましいと感じる瞬間は確かにある。

国境や国籍、宗教や偏見などを軽々と超えられるような人を目の前で見ると、人間やればなんとかなる。想いは実る。そんなことを感じながら愛についてぼんやり考えふけった。

Keep a good relationship

English Only...

Everyone cannot be always perfect. Even though they know what an appropriate behaviour in terms of human relations is, they cannot do that in all the times. Sometimes they behave in not proper way. It's natural. But, I think that if they continue to do, or if they are lack of consciousness, they will lose the trust on themselves from people around them.

Recently, I was asked to introduce a person to my friends. The person is a kind of a junior of my university. Thankfully, my friend welcomed to talk to the person. So, I sent a message to my friend ccing the person. I hoped that the encounter between them would be fruitful.

Since connecting them, 3 weeks has passed. The person hasn't said anything to me. I don't know in other country, but in Japan it would be common that the person should show its gratitude with me in this case. It's because the person was able to talk with someone with whom the person was keen on having conversation.

Frankly speaking, I expected some message from the person because introducing someone to my network has a risk to lose a trust between people from my network and me. Moreover, if the person has some insight from my friend, it is great that the person thanks to me. But no message has got to me. From my perspective, I don't wanna force the person to appreciate my introduction.

But, yesterday, I met the person accidentally in a library. So, I asked "you did talk to my friend, didn't you? How was that?" The person responded like "that was nice and I felt sympathy with your friend because we have a same interest in social issue."

Okay, I was waiting for the next word - appreciation. But, unfortunately no. I gave a chance to the person to say it by starting talking about that. The response shows that the person doesn't have a different mind from me. Hmm...

Recently, I've experienced such a case twice. I think that if you get an insight, moreover, and an opportunity to do something from a person that you reached by your friend's network, you need to appreciate for your friends to connect you with his/her network.

Liverpool

English Only...

Yesterday, I visited Liverpool known as a city where Beatles was born. This was a trip organised by Residential Association (RA) students. Unfortunately, it heavily rained, and sometimes it was like a storm.

Before I visited the place, I thought that Liverpool would look like similar to Manchester. However, it was totally different. Although some of local people at Manchester might have an opposite view to me, I reckoned Liverpool is more developed than my city. Since my first visit to Liverpool was in such a bad weather, you know I got the argument fairly.

We got off a bus at a dock, and went to some museums around the harbour. I think these were okay, neither more nor less. After these museums, we had a plan to go to a cathedral, which is one of a largest ones in UK. However, at the same time, it stormed. We gave up doing so. Despite of it, we decided to go to Beatles street. There is a bar/club named The Caveran Club. This is a place where Beatles started their performance. It charged the entrance fee when we arrived there.  Nonetheless, many people were following a long queue.

Yup, we didn't stepped into it. Instead, there was a sister pub of The Cavern Club which lives on the opposite side of it. So, we looked at the inside of the sister's one. It was impressive because there was a token of the fact that not only Beatle but also other famous musicians had their performance. In Japan, it's quite tough to maintains such places because the natural disaster often occurs. We have to sometimes renew buildings to apply them to a new building standard law. Actually, the last time when the law was revised was around 20 years though as far as I know.

Anyway, we left the street, and started looking for a restaurant. I went around the city with some Indian friends. As they have something which is not edible due to their religious, we have to find out a religious-friendly restaurant. Usually, it's not hard to look for such a restaurant because UK is a melting pot. But, we had a trouble in this time which took a long time to find.

While some friends was being frustrated, I was thinking "if my these friends visit Japan, can I easily bring them to a restaurant? Certainly not." If Japan wants to be a good tourist site, a lack of diversity/religion would be a barrier to bring foreigners to Japan.

With thinking that, we finally found a good one. Had a late lunch and enjoyed a chat. After the lunch, raining stopped. So, we visited one more museum and then time came to go back to the dock where we got on the bus for Manchester.

人に紹介をお願いするときの覚書

Japanese Only...

自戒を込めて。

登場人物
・自分
・Aさん 話を聞きたい人（軽く挨拶程度の関係・連絡先は知らない）
・Bさん 自分とAさんと共通の知り合い（Bさんと自分は普通に話せる仲）

　1) 自分で直接、Aさんにコンタクトを試みる　
自分で直接コンタクトを取る方が良いと考える理由。挨拶したことあることなら、相手も覚えている可能性あり、スピード早い。Bさんの手を煩わせない。Bさんのことを気を使わなくてもすむ。以上の3点。
この3点を頭に入れつつ、それでもBさんの紹介からの方が直接コンタクトを取るよりも良いと判断したのなら、2) へ。

※ 1) 前にBさんへ、自分からAさんへ直接コンタクトをとって大丈夫か良さそうか確認しておくのもあり。

　2) Bさんに紹介をお願い
この時、BさんになぜAさんを紹介してもらいたいのか理由を伝える。じゃないとBさんも困ってしまうので、Bさんとのコミュニケーションは大事。

　3) Aさんと会うまで
Aさんに自分から直接コンタクトを取る際は、いついつ会った、なぜ会って話が聞きたいのかなどを簡潔にまとめメッセージを送る。このファーストメッセージに先方の都合のいい日時まで教えてもらえると良いのでは。

Bさんから繋いでもらう場合は、手短に要件を伝えるとともに、日時設定を速やかに行う。

※直接・間接にせよ、Aさんが快諾してもらえる場合、Aさんは「いついつ以降が良い」などと伝えてくれると思います。

その後、改めてきちんともらった時間内で何を聞きたいか質問を考える。事前に調べられることは調べておく。事前にわからないことと共にメモ。（このプロセスは、本来 1) 前にもしているのですが、再度）

　4) Aさんと会う・その後まで
事前に用意したことを聞きつつ、掘る。きちんと準備していたら、自分が疑問に思っていることは解決できるし、それ以上のことが聞けることが多いと思う。

会った後は、Aさんに感謝のメッセージをすぐ送る。
もし、2) の紹介のステップを踏むのであれば、きちんとBさんにも紹介を頂いた感謝のメッセージをきちんと、すぐに送る。そらにその後、自分とAさんと仲が深まるのであれば、その変化をBさんに伝えてあげると尚良し。

Rethink Maslow's hierarchy of needs

English Only....

When we touch upon topics about personality, psychology, and so forth. Everybody studies Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Although there has been tons of criticisms on this theory, it can be said that this is one of the masterpieces with regard to personality studies.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow)

Taking a subject about organisational psychology,  the lecturer showed us one picture. She used the picture to make students laugh as a joke. But, for me, it's not joking. Maybe I think that many Japanese, who experienced the biggest earthquake and tsunami in 2011, can agree with me. The picture is below.

(http://boingboing.net/2014/09/03/addendum-to-the-modified-maslo.html)

When this picture came out to us, many students laughed. But, I was entirely persuaded by the picture. Let me explain why in following. I remembered two things. First one is that the Internet access can be seen as one of human rights. Second is that social networking services through the Internet access can become a lifeline in an emergency.

Looking at the first point, in May 2011, a special rapporteur submitted a report that accessibility of the Internet is one of the human rights. From the link of the report, you can see the following statement. This meansthat the broadband access should be seen as a human right. 

The Special Rapporteur underscores the unique and transformative nature of the Internet not only to enable individuals to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, but also a range of other human rights, and to promote the progress of society as a whole. 
 

Many media has taken this news, but it seems misreadings of this report. Although they reported that UN approved the Imternet access is a human right, I think it doesn't. When you search this topic on google, this report shared above is just submitted by the special rapporteur to UN human right council. After that, many organisations not only UN but also other institutions about the Internet have seriously discussed this topic though . 


But, anyway, I personally think that we can say that the Internet access is a human right because it removes many asymmetries in terms of information. Moreover, it allow us to participate in social activity. 



Before the access to the Internet, what do we need? Yes, charing a battery. Without the battery, any electronic devices such as a tablet device, a smartphone, a laptop, are not only useless but also taking places. We all know how important the battery of these devices is. 

Moving on to second point, readers of this blog maybe know the access of the Internet with the battery can help our lives because I shared a video by Mr. James Kondo, a head of Twitter Japan, in this blog twice. Yes, let me share the video once again here since this video shows these importances of the Internet access and the battery to help us practically with an example of Twitter under the biggest earthquake and tsunami in Japan. 

In the video, he raised two questions: how to collect the critical information and how to map issues and find solutions.

On to the first question, as he mentions in his talk, many TV which is widely used to get information was broken by the biggest earthquake in 2011. So, the government, local authorities and many medias send out real time information through Twitter because SNS was available even in this emergency. 

Next, people don't know how to reach you in order to rescue you when you are in danger. It's because we don't know where you are in an emergency. 

Mr. Kondo shared one amazing story to answer the second question. A lady, who was in a damaged area and an user of Twitter, tweeted "although I rushed into a building to escape from tsunami, it's approaching. Scary. Please help me." One guy in a safe area,  who didn't follow the user, came out with an idea to integrate information about needs under the emergency.

He made a hashtag "#j_j_helpme" - Japan Jishin (earthquake) help me. And then, the other user who followed both these users above spread out her situation with using this hashtag. These following actions allowed people to call a rescue centre. Next day... yes, she who was in danger of tsunami was rescued! 

Through this example, you can realise how importance of charging a battery of your gadget which allows you to access to the Internet is. Do only people, who live in an area where the natural disaster often occur, have a sympathy with me. I hope that YOU can realise how vital these aspects are through this blog post. Thus, I reckon that it is worth adding these two facets on Maslow's hierarchy needs. 

Unexpected collaboration

English Only...


When we organised TEDxKeioSFC, how many organisers expected a collaboration between speakers? When I checked Facebook, one amazing news approached to me. The news is an announcement for a talk session by Shunji Yamanaka and Shiho Fukuhara.

Let me briefly introduce them. Mr. Yamanaka is an industrial designer and professor at Uni of Tokyo. He is very famous as a designer of IC card ticket machine called Suica/Pasmo. You can feel how generous his design of the machine is when you use a ticket machine gate in London. The interface of the device designed by him is very user-friendly.

Ms. Fukuhara is an bio artist. When I listened to her idea, my eyes were largely opening with the surprise. Her art is very philosophical. For instance, DNA of your grandparent who has passed away can be infused into a tree. From the moment, the tree can be seen as a monument of the grandparent. This is an art, but at the same time, allows us to recall the existence of the departed and memory with it.

These outstanding two people are in design and art field. But, I didn't expect that these line would cross. Around 4 years has passed since our TEDx event. The unexpected but exciting collaboration makes me thrilled in a good way. Looking forward to their activities.

You can watch their TEDx talks below.
and their event link is here.

人の愚痴

Japanese Only...

最近、人の愚痴や悩みを聞くことが多い。女の子からの相談が多いのだが、なぜだかは分からない。だけど、やたら多い。友達関係から始まり、仕事が嫌とか、失恋したとか、悩みの種類は事欠かない。みんな世の中悩みだらけだ。

だけど、話を聞いていて、あまりにも自分がコメントできない事項ばかりで聞くことしかできない。あまりにも自分が関係のないところにいたり、あまりにも理解できないシチュエーションに彼女らは遭遇しているから。

だからこそ、男の僕に相談をしてきているというのはあるかもしれない。「女の子は基本的に共感してもらいたいだけだか。アドバイスなんていらない」いつの日だか、そう友人に言われたのを思い出す。まあ僕も、1年目で職場関係で悩んで転職考える女性友達を前にして、「悩んでるとか、お前ヒマだな。目の前のことやれば」などと、おおよそ男に向けるような言葉を発したりすべきじゃないと心得ている。


でも普通、この手の愚痴を聞く場合は、お互いよく知った間柄である場合が多いのかなと思う。もちろん、仲の良い女の子の友人から相談を受ける場合もある。だけど、初対面の人に恋愛相談をされたり、数回しか会ってないのに転職の相談をされたりすることが続いていて、少し驚いている。

自分の人生を振り返ってみると、自分も思い当たることがある。一人旅の最中にたまたま出会った人と話し込むうち、なぜか失恋話をしたり。「相手が知らないからこそ、話し易い」そういう感情が湧くときもあるのである。

だけど、僕が相談を受けた上記のケースと一人旅なんかでしちゃう下記のケースは随分と違う。それは二度とその人に会うか会わないかだ。前者のケースは、もう一度会う可能性が存分にある。共通の友人もいるし、風の噂も入ってくる。よく相談するよなぁと思ってしまう。まぁ別に僕も何を周りに話すわけではないけれど。

一方で後者は、その話し込んだ相手とは、よっぽどなことがない限り二度とは会わないですね。共通の知り合いもいない。多分、もう一度その人に会ったら相談したことなんて忘れてしまうくらい、その再会に喜ぶでしょう。



まあ話を戻すと、最近相談を乗ることが多い。たまに思うわけですよ、良い人と認識されて自分の大切な時間を奪われていないのかと。友達にも言われるわけですよ「そんだけ人の悩み聞いてて、自分もストレス溜まらないの」と。

実際、聞くだけは大丈夫。何ら問題ない。ストレスはたまらない。

問題は時間。この時間が無駄に終わるか終わらないかは、僕の時間帯投資のリターンがきちんと将来返ってくるかにかかってくる。例えば、いま話を聞いた時間か同等以上の時間を、将来僕が困った時に割いてくれるか。とか、他の形のリターンでもいい。

実際こんなことを考えながら話を聞いていないし、大切な友人から相談を持ちかけられたら、出来る限り話を聞きたいとも思っている。だけど、あまりにもこういうよく知らない人からの相談を受けることが多くなったら、どうだろう。

そこで話を聞いたから、将来仲良くなるきっかけにつながる - これも一種のリターンと考えることができるかもしれないですね。だけど、そんなのどうでしょうかね。とりあえず、ゴミ箱が必要だったから、ポイッと愚痴という名のゴミを投げ捨てられただけかもしれませんね。

そうなったら悲しい。でも、ただ良い人は、タダ良い人に十分なりえる。そう思われているかどうかは、その後もきちんと交流があるかどうかですね。。女の子だから、後々交流があると嬉しいとかではないので、ご理解を。男性でも友情が育めるのは嬉しいことです。

さてと、勉強に戻ります。