(Sorry, no Japanese today)

Let’s talk about connections. Everyone has myriads of events and things in his life that are all tangled up like a beginner knitting project. But many strands of yarn are weaved together to create a picture, and when you look closely, you start seeing patterns and connections. You see the exact stitch with which things went all wrong. Or, quite the opposite.

I spent an enormous time studying English grammer, pronunciation and conversation before I even knew how to write “airplane” in chinese character. My mom bought me a radio and a textbook of an English program because, at that time, I was very ill and was in a hospital and at home in bed a few months at a time. It was a time when they didn’t teach English in elementary schools, so it gave me a huge advantage afterwards. Actually, I spent a lot of time studying and reading.

Being a billingual opened a lot of opportunities to me. When I first got a real job, the company just let me get on the plane and fly all over the world to meet prestegeous architects. And on that plane I met a person who still remains as a good friend. I spent this afternoon chatting with him for hours and it was very truly refreshing.

But I guess I thought about “connections” because I saw this on a platform this morning.

It looked oddly familiar to me, for it resembles something – yes, a landscape plan drawing.

Back in school, my dream was to become a landscape architect who specializes in ecological design and regional planning (meaning planning for a big region, such as a whole Tokyo Met region). Plan drawings are done with a very specific style of a handdrawn font: a slightly-slanted block type. The dotted lines and the letters on the platform brought me back to where I was, 10 years ago.

And this dream, which only led me to my first job, is still floating somewhere up in the open air. I believe I am still holding the other end of the rope, so that one day, if I want, I can pull back the string and will find the connection.

I guess, I am thankful today that I came this far and my life is still great.  I must have done something right to deserve this.