Bloom and Shine Like the Ajisai

(This picture was taken several days ago, on one rainy day when Seada was half asleep in her lab :-) - well, actually I was also so sleepy that day. I’m glad she’s not protesting when I asked her to pose in front of the Ajisai...)
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I heard and use the word Ajisai before I even knew what it actually is, and later I started to like it even before I ever saw it. Well, Ajisai is a name of a flower (紫陽花 - Hydrangea, don’t ask me more about it, since I don’t know much about flowers :-) ), quite beautiful flower indeed. Although it not as striking gorgeous as the sakura, it’s simply alluring. Like I told you before, I like the flower, and even Panasonic Scholarship Office (PSO) uses Ajisai as password for one of their sites (I can’t tell you which one for the site still on today).

What’s so special with Ajisai that makes PSO chose it as password (and makes me like it too)? Well, the main reason is that Ajisai is the Japanese flower for the month of June, and June is my birth-month (well, this is my reason, but (unfortunately) not the PSO’s :-) ). Why PSO chose the flower of June as their password was based on the story behind the flower.

Mr. Saito, the president of PSO at the time I came to Japan told us about the story. He said that the month of June is the rainy season (梅雨 - tsuyu) for most parts of Japan. Rain falls down almost everyday, and when it is not raining, the air is hot and damp, make it hard to spend the day comfortably. Because of the rain, most of the blossoms are destroyed, left the gardens of Japan with almost no flower to grace them. Among the small number of flowers left, there’s one that not only can stand the wearing weather, but also able to bloom elegantly, and (you’re right) it is Ajisai.

We can simply compare Ajisai to other flowers, and we will find that there are lots of flowers that possess the charm more than Ajisai. Well, it is not the look that makes Ajisai so special, it is its ability to successfully accomplish what other beautiful flowers cannot do that define its characters. The Ajisai illuminates the gardens when the season seems to make lots of people to be on the edge their temper, help them to calm down a bit and easing the severity of the days. It is not much that Ajisai can do, but it does what it supposed to do, and that little part that it does completes the wholeness of this universe.

In his speech, Mr. Saito asked us to become like the Ajisai, who could stand the hard times and keep on shining, to carry out something that it means to complete. Be like the Ajisai, who radiate it spirit around, helping other to stand the harshness of the day, even by doing so it has to stand tiring season that could vaporize the liveliness away.

So, when you feel that the path that you take becomes rough and makes you wanna give it up, just remember the Ajisai...

The Rabbit, The Cat, and The Affection

(There are lots of cats in my campus, and this is the picture of one of them (quite old picture, I took it with my cell phone) . Actually today I went around my campus to find a cat to be taken as the illustration of this writing, however, I can't find one - where the hell are they when we need them?)
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(“Rabbit” and “cat” in this writing refer to the pet that we had. Since there are lots of kinds of rabbit and cat and even each single rabbit and cat have their own characters, I don’t mean to tell that all rabbits and cats behave like ours)

When we were kids, my sister and I wanted to have dog as pet. However, our grandma didn’t like about the idea, and to make us forget about it, she bought us rabbits. Very cute, with those shiny eyes and bushy tail, those rabbits quickly charmed us, and we soon forgot about the idea of having dog.

However, our “hysteria" of having rabbits didn’t last long. After three weeks or so we’ve already got bored with them. Perhaps it was because they weren’t home pet, so we had to put them in their hutch at night and not bring them inside, leave alone to have them sleep in our bed - that’s why we didn’t fully feel that they were our pet. Moreover, even though we had already spent much time together with them, they still looked indifferent toward us. They weren’t coming when we called them (despite the fact that we also waved carrots in front of them :-) ), and even sometimes ran away when we get closer. It seems like the affection that we showed was fruitless.

About one year later, we had new pet in our house. Similarly shiny-eyed and bushy-tailed (longer, though…), this new cute little creature was cat (this time our grandma didn’t mind since she also likes cat). We didn’t bought her like we did with the rabbits, the cat just came one day in our house (at that time my father was eating fish in the veranda and I think the cat was "enchanted" by the smell :-) ). Anyway, in the next few minutes the cat already slept in my lap, and soon, the whole family also fell for her. We played with her almost everyday, and she even slept in our bed at night, where she lied on my or my sister’s knee’s bend (it was warm and felt good at the beginning, however, since my home town is a hot place and the heat from the cat quickly build up in our knee, we soon feel uncomfortable and move her some other place. Yet, when we’ve already slept again, usually the cat returned and rolled her body on our knee again, made us uncomfortable again, and the process repeated all night - no wonder we have a bad habit of sleeping... :-) )

Unlike the rabbits’ “hysteria”, this time we didn’t get bored with the cat. It’s not that we never got upset with her. My mother got mad at her because she used curtain to shone her claw (and ruined it as a result...), and I also once got really upset with her because she just jumped in my bed with mud all over her (I think she just fell into sanitary duct), lied on my knee and started to sleep, pretending nothing had happened. Anyway, there’s no relation without problems, and outside few troubles that she caused (well, it couldn’t be said few actually... :-) ), her presence really bring something new to our house, like she was just another member of the family.

And the more important thing, the cat can love us in return to our affection. Unlike rabbit that still looked uneasy after some times, the cat almost always come when we call (specially when we bring food in our hand :-) ), and often sleep in our lap when we watch tv up to late at night. The cat also seems to know when we were sad. Whenever we’re feeling blue, the cat often come to us, and we usually talked to her about our problem, pretending that she’s listening (may be she does listen...)

Well, by now most of you might have already guessed that I will told you to find a friend or lover that can love you back like the way our cat did.

Actually not.

You can still try that if you want to, but I think it would be hard to accomplish, since whether other people will pay back our affection or not is beyond our influence. What I actually wanna tell you is not to find a "cat", but to become a "cat". Pay back every single affection that you get, and it will make not only your days, but also others’ days more colorful. And not only wait for others to start, you can be the one who initiates by showing that you care. Even a smile can make a big difference - it can lift us up whenever we’re felling down and push away the sorrow that hanging in our heart.

Well, I think I ever told you that I often take my time strolling under the sakura rows in front of main building of my campus even when the blossoms already gone. May be it was not only the memory of the flowers that makes me feel good taking a walk there. There’re also some cats and "cats" (literally and figuratively) there, which fill the atmosphere with cozy felling, make it comfortable to linger there unwinding your cloudy mind...

You will Give Up on Beautiful Girl at Third Sight

This is the picture of Ivy, the girl that did homestay at Kurusu family last month. As usual, this picture actually doesn't have direct relation with the content, however, there's a reason why I chose this picture for the illustration. Click here or on the picture, then you'll get an idea about it...
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I’m taking Japanese composition class this semester, and on the first day of the class we had to write a short introduction essay. After filling the first and second paragraph with standard detail (name, where I belong, what kind of thing that I like to do on free time, and the like), I was running out of idea for what to write next. Prof. Yoshizawa who saw me puzzled tried to give me some idea: “You can write why you want to join this class or what you like and don’t like about Japan. You can even write the type of girl that you like...”

And, as you all might have guessed it correctly, I choose the last one.

The following week professor Yoshizawa handed us back our work with some correction. For my work, she commented that the last sentence of my essay was sounded a little bit unnatural in Japanese. I was trying to write ‘I prefer a cute girl to a beautiful girl because you won’t get bored on the cute one even after time has passed’, and because I never heard my Japanese friends saying something like that, I was writing a more or less literal translation of that sentence (きれいな女性より、可愛い女性の方が好きだ。まぜなら、可愛い女性は時間が経ってもつまらなくならないから). Professor Yoshizawa told me that a more Japanese-like expression of what I wanted to say was 。。。可愛い女性は時間が経ってもあきらめないから, which more or less means ‘...because you won't give up on cute girl even after time has passed’. She also told me that she didn’t have problem in understanding what I wanted to say, because there’s an old saying in Japan that says 美人は三度目にあきらめた, that means ‘You will give up on beautiful girl at third sight’ (I’m not so sure about the Japanese sentence. I’ll ask Professor Yoshizawa again next week to confirm it...).

Because of that sentence, the topic of the class that day shifted a little bit to the meaning of the old saying. Professor Yoshizawa told us (even though she wasn’t 100% sure), that the meaning of that saying is that people will soon get bored with physical appearance. It is true that everyone would easily be attracted by beauty, but as soon as the person get used to it, s/he will get bored if there’s no other attractive ‘feature’. It is different with the case of cute girl, because Japanese consider a particular girl is cute not only from the physical appearance, but also from their behavior (at least that what Professor Yoshizawa told us. I cannot guarantee that this is valid for every single Japanese here). Thus, even after people get used with the beauty of the girl, they won’t likely become bored, for they also like her from her character too.

The story above reminds me of what my sister told me when we were kids. She told me that in the ending of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, may be the Beast didn’t actually turn into handsome prince. It is only because the Beauty had already known him well that the Beast look more handsome in her eyes. What my sister tried to say here was that inner character will give a lasting impact comparing to physical character. (And after thinking about it again, I just realize that my sister was quite a wise kid back there... :-) )

Anyway, this just another story that tell you character is better than just beauty (well, of course it is much more better if you could have both :-) ). You might find it true or not, however, most of the time, it is easier for me to get along with a warm and affable person (well, of course it will be much much more easier if the person is warm, affable, and also beautiful :-) ).