僕は比較的にコンペティティブな人間だと自覚している。成果を出すなら低い成果より高い成果を出したいし、常にどこかで負けたくないという思いを抱えながら物事に向かっている気がしてならない。こういう、コンペティティブな思考な人間を Type A というらしい。その逆が Type B 。
以下、教科書から抜粋してきたもの。日訳は面倒なので、そのままでいいですよね・・・
・Type A
competitive
high need for achievement
aggressive
works fast
impatient
restless
extremely alert
tense facial muscles
constant feeling of time pressure
・Type B
able to take time out to enjoy leisure
not preoccupied with achievement
easygoing
works at a steady pace
seldom impatient
not easily frustrated
relaxed
moves and speaks slowly
seldom lacks enough time
A は B に比べて、もちろんストレス関連の病気にかかりやすく、心臓病のなりやすさは3倍も違うらしい。僕の周りで Extreme Type A が数名いらっしゃるので、その人たちの健康を願います（違）。
こうやって書いてみると、自分が work fast かは議論の余地があるのだけれど、やっぱり 僕も Type A だ。自覚しておりますが確かにストレスはかかりやすい。だから、自分でも鬱にならないように気をつけるべきだと心に訴えかけるようにしている。
僕も含めて周りを見ていて、こんな大事な研究データが出ても自身の性格を変えるのなんて難しい。だけど、ちゃんと A から B に変われるんだね、これが！気づきと訓練でなんとかなるらしい。本当かいな。
Type A だと自覚するそこのあなた、以下のことを試しみましょう。
Keep reminding yourself that life is always full of unfinished business;
You only 'finish' when you die;
Learn how to delegate responsibility to others;
Limit your weekly working hours;
Schedule time for leisure and exercise;
Take a course in time management skills
これ面白いのが、B から A に変わることは全く書いていないこと。まあわざわざストレス抱える方に移行しなくてもいいか。
しかし、これを読んでいて昔友人に言われたある言葉を思い出した。その友人は、文句のつけようのない Type B 人間。ちなみに蛇足ですがA の人はわかると思うけれど、B の人が時たまストレスの原因になったりするんですよね。（Bの人ごめんなさい）
だけど、その友人は超越しすぎていてストレスすら感じない。なんならマイナスイオンが出ているのではないかというくらい癒しが得られる。その人みてると、自身の生き方を見つめ、幸せとは何かと自身に問うようになるわけです。こんな人は、まさしく B への移行の「気づき」を与えてくれる重要な存在なわけですね。
This post is English ver. of the last post. If you have read it, please spend your time in doing different things.
First of all, I would mention that I have hesitation to write what I am going to write below. I would appreciate if you understand and consider this state.
Within this one week, my friends, especially who have an experience to study abroad, shared a movie with strict comment on this. If you haven't watched the below movie, please take a look at it first.
This commercial message, or CM, is promoting a mobile device of interpretation, called ili. This device was invented by a Japanese company. In this movie, a white gay has invited Japanese ladies to kiss with him by using the device to translate his message into Japanese. When I had a look at this advertisement, I was so disappointed although I know that I recognise this is a just advertisement of the device.
If you are Japanese, you might remember a news about a white man had held lectures to tell participants that it is easy for white gays to hook up Japanese ladies, and tell them how. This advertisement of the interpretation device is the third movie that I have watched with regard to the fact that white gay hooks up Japanese girls.
The first one is the news I mentioned above. After that, many TV programs took the topic and commenters showed disgusting feeling on him. You might be frustrated to the fact that some foreigners have such an opinion on Japanese girls.
The second one is to be shared by my Taiwanese friend here in Manchester. It was the most terrible. Japanese girls kiss strangers from other country. In addition, they are taking a bath together. This was very much disgusting. According to her, the movie was taken in Taiwanese news. I was asked "Would it be easy for strangers to pick up Japanese? Her comment made me embarrassed as one of Japanese.
Finally, the CM taken above is the third one. I think there are ways to promote the device apart from kissing that makes us imagine kind of sexual things.
I really think (hope) that many Japanese ladies do reject such kind of thing. However, I would admit there are two types of people who cannot reject. Firstly, some feels scared to be required to kiss by strangers, especially foreigners and then permit them to kiss. Another type is get the wrong end of stick, I mean these strangers like us.
Touching upon the first type, we need to seriously share the solution because they could not show their feeling or express rejection caused by being scared. I would hope that you have some idea to fix the issue.
The problem is the second one. I would like this category people to recognise the foreigners who try kissing them looked down upon Japanese ladies. The strangers are thinking that they can be easily trapped. Plus the fact that, I would ask this type to understand your behaviour might make the first type people damaged further.
Some Japanese think that kiss is a common abroad. However, kiss is the way to show feeling love in certain meanings in my understanding. If this kind of advertisement has been made in different countries, the advertising agency and the company would be given a terrible and negative opinion because this shows just sexual harassment.
In the end, I would like to emphasise the fact that everything in this cyber network can spread out rapidly. World might judge negatively on Japanese ladies. Be careful. Without consideration, your behaviour would damage other people.
声を上げないことは日本人大好きですが、違うと思ったことを伝えましょう。本当に勘違いされてしまうので。国会事故調査委員会で調査統括をされた宇田左近さんの言葉（だと思う）で「Obligation to dissent - 異論する義務」という言葉があります。大好きな言葉です。これに似た動画を見たり別の機会でも、何かあなたが少しでも違うと思ったら、異論を上げましょう。それは義務。
去年から半年くらい、iPhotoのアップグレードができなくなっていて、問題は Apple ID のパスワードにあったようなので変更してみた。そうしたら、keychain lock もパスワードを打たないといけなくなるような仕組みになっていたらしく、何度正しいパスワード、過去のものを入力してもまるで上手くいかない。
学校の IT サービスに持って行くと今まで利用していた keychain の記録を全部消すしかないかなと言われたので削除した。これをするとパソコンに同期されていた様々なアカウント(Gmail とか facebook とか) をまたパスワード入力して、同期し直す羽目に。
In the last post, I wrote I got a wrong train on my way home from Birmingham. While I was waiting for a train to Manchester on a platform in the city, I was so exhausted. Since I had not been able to sleep well, I was running out of energy.
Just before I rode on the train, I asked a question "this is going to Manchester, right?" to a stranger. He answered yes with a beautiful British accent, and he asked "what happened " with smile. I did told him I got a wrong train. He was saying that in this country, such a thing sometime happens, but this train is going to Manchester.
Due to the fact that the train was a bit crowded and I might have to explain my situation to a train staff in a case with regard to a ticket issue, I sit down next to him. I don't know why I thought, but I thought that he would help me if I need a hand for the case.
Until arriving to Manchester Piccadilly, I talked to this guy. He looked a backpacker. My assumption was correct - he told me that he went to Nairobi to work on a job in terms of architect. In addition, he has been to various countries for his job. Yes, he is an architecture. This was the begging of our conversation.
We shared our experience and culture with each other. He got curiosity about the job hunting in Japan. In my country, a major doesn't determine a range of jobs or industries that we can apply for. Even in a case that someone studies english literature, s/he can apply for the financial industry. This is natural. The reason why companies are opening or welcoming all major's students is simple: they wanna 'educate' new graduates with a fascinating training before&after new graduates join firms.
On the other hand, in UK (or other countries), what students study in bachelor determines the range. For instance, if I study economics, I could apply for the financial industry. However, if I study fine arts, I couldn't. So, students are required to think their future plan in a certain meaning before they enter universities.
This Japanese system in terms of job hunting is only one thing that I like. It is because the major doesn't define our career. (I have to say that I would agree with only this aspect of Japanese job hunting).
After this topic, we moved on to another about how to find our passion. He mentioned that although he has a career in architecture, he doesn't know this is what he wants to do in his heart. So, I told him a discipline that Joi Ito, directer of MIT Media Lab, says - compass over map. In my understanding, this is saying that people are trying to look for their destination with a 'right' way. The way might be designed by society. I mean a society believes in that the way is 'right' to obtain social reputation - the destination. However, a compass shows a direction. This shows our passion. We don't know where to go and a way. But, the way is our original, and also the destination we don't know is what we want to do.
After he was listening to my explanation about the discipline, he nodded. I said reasons why you are going for trips around the globe might be following the direction showed by your compass. It might be my misunderstanding, but his eyes were a bit in red and tears came into his eyes. He said 'I like the analogy'. When he said that, our trip from Birmingham was almost over. Just before we got off the train, I told him that the analogy is not my original. It is said by Joi Ito. Although tears were coming, he suddenly smiled. Finally, a time to say goodbye was coming. I would hope that I could see him again somewhere in someday.
As I mentioned I visited Barcelona in the last post, yes, I escape dark, raining and windy city Manchester for Barcelona.
I had thought heading for the south of UK, for instance, Southampton and Bath. However, just one week before the deadline of the strategy essay, I purchased a flight ticket to Barcelona. It was because I was a bit depressed by this weather and missed the sun...
On 21st, I ran away to Manchester Airport and embarked on the flight. It was the first time to land on the city. While it's around 8 degree in Manchester, it was 15-20 degree in the city in Spain. I was able to spend a whole time with just wearing a jacket.
Since my arrival was in evening at 7pm, it was dark. But, it didn't rain. This tiny thing made me happy. Moreover, it hasn't rained all the time during my trip. I heard that during almost a year, it's sunny. It was a surprising fact that while it's just 2 hour and half from Manchester, the weather between these cities are totally opposite.
From the 2nd day, I moved around. First destination was, for sure, La Sagrada Familia designed by Gaudi! First of all, the church was decorated with uncountable arts, and I was already attracted. However, the beauty of the interior captured my mind. I lost words. The pillars of the church are like plants. Literally, I felt that I was suddenly into the different world. Also, the colourful stained glasses absorb the sun light and change it into tropical colour.
It seems like it is worth visiting to just see the world heritage. However, not only Sagrada Familia, but also others are awesome. After that, I went to Palau de la Musica Catalana which was designed by the master of Gaudi, Montaner. He shows also creativity to insert colourful and cheerful sunlight into inside of the hall. You can imagine why Gaudi was able to design buildings with the effect of sunlight.
I cannot forget mentioning not only how beautiful the artworks are, but also how convenient moving around is. Basically, metro and bus in Barcelona take us everywhere. It's not complicated to ride on these compared to Tokyo. Although I stayed at Pl Espanya, it takes just around 20 min to an area of Sagrada Familia, and 15 min to old gothic area that includes Picaso museum, markets, and the Cathedral.
Also, the safety of visiting the city is important to say. I heard that all of us need to pay attention to keep our own belongings from thieves. But, I haven't experienced any trouble. If you hold your bag in your front side, it would be fine. Compared to Manchester, it seemed that serious troubles like rape and burglar are much much less. A time when I left accommodation there was at 3am. However, I've never faced any insecure situation.
All in all, Barcelona is one of the best city among all the cities that I've ever been to. If you have a chance to bring you to Barcelona, I would say that you could make a great memory and recharge yourself.
