Another Year in Tokyo

And sometimes elsewhere.

"Junyi says..."

Away time: 2nd month in IMD, Lausanne

Time is definitely not linear; it can go slow and fast at the same time.

Two months in and I started to grab a feeling of the so-called “IMD life”. People are talking about a term referred as your “IMD moment”, meaning, when you suddenly realize it is too much, too overwhelming and nothing is under control, and you start to panic – that is the classic “IMD moment”.

Luckily (or possibly the contrary), I haven’t been through mine yet. I guess for my culture, pressure from pure school work is something I have been trained to get used to since childhood, and as a result I have a higher threshold. I imagine, if I panicked, most of my classmates from other cultures must have gone crazy already.

However, something quite new has started to bother me, and has a potential to let me get my “IMD moment” eventually.

I guess this is a part of the MBA journey – to learn about new challenges and turn them into something of myself, either an opportunity or a learning. I remember a quote saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. Such a cliche; I know! I am just being hopeful. 🙂

Crossing my figures and concentrating my energy; I will not be killed!

(sorry about a short post. Let’s talk again. )

Junyi

One year apart from Tokyo

Bangkok, Thailand. End of December, 2018
Outside of the chic restaurant The Never Ending Summer – Bangkok, Dec 2018

Time goes by fast and life always moves on. After 4 years in Tokyo, life brought me – or more precisely, I asked life to bring me – to a new destination. Not Bangkok, but the beautiful lake side city, Lausanne.

Life has its own way of staging. In the process of it, I guess it is hard to see through, but you would have a sense of the flow, and you would feel it when it is time.

In my case, after 2 years of struggling-slash-meditation, and another 2 years of different attempting-slash-experimenting, I decided to leave Tokyo temporarily and took a leap of faith in pursuing an MBA with IMD. It is not an easy decision; it never is. But after a while, you know you will only have two options: to give up, or to take a jump. I jumped, and so far, so good.

The first month in Lausanne flew by quickly. After a brief vacation in Thailand, I landed at Zurich in a pale morning on the new year’s day. 2 hours sleepy train ride later, I found myself in this lonely city with two huge luggages and unresolved tiredness from serious jet-lag and vacation excitement. To make things worse, almost no shops were open in the holiday season, and I was just lucky enough to have grabbed some survival stuff at the only opening stores near the train station, and hoped I can get by the first week with minimal supplies. Lessons learned #1: never expect Japan supermarket hours in Europe!!

Anyhow, I figured I could use this food shortage situation to lose some newly gained weight from the Thailand trip, which actually worked. lol. So picture this: I was basically alone in the first couple of days in the new year, survived on croissant and cheap hams, while figuring out the extremely old apartment building that I had to live in. It was purely adventurous.

Well, nothing is more adventurous than the ride with IMD I just started to take. It just started; but I have already confirmed I do not regret my decision at all. It felt so good to know at every moment that, the things I am doing now, is 100% for myself and will pay off both physically and spiritually, not to mention the surprises I just discovered about myself that came along with those. It has been a blast already.

Nonetheless, it is very hard to study so much new things within a year. I felt different level/kind of challenge all day everyday. For example, finance is very challenging to almost everyone, including myself, however I enjoyed the challenge so much that I felt so fulfilled when I crack the problems and understood some phenomena better in the financial perspective. While some subjects such as marketing and operations, are so very distant from my past experiences or my background, they are so challenging that I had to focus all my energy to imagine myself in the situations and try to think of something meaningful or insightful. In general, it is fun.

Last Thursday, we met our Start-up partners for the first time. Although I cannot tell the contents of the project, what I can tell is that I am so looking forward to the future 10 weeks working with them and I have already gone through many ideas in my head.

February just started. I know life is going to be hard for a while, but hard and enjoyable at the same time. I no longer feel the stress and concern I constantly had when I was in Tokyo. I am very calm right now, and I know I am discovering myself for sure.

Talk to you again soon.

Junyi

The Turning Point project

Take one.

For the past 3 years in Japan, something had been missing from my life until I realized it half a year ago. It was surely a kind of emptiness, and I surely felt it without doubt; but I couldn’t figure it out what it was or how to fulfill it. I travelled extensively, within Japan (as this blog had been used for recording initially), and grabbed every chance I had to go outside of Japan as well, all in the hope of finding the lost “thing”, but only ending in vain every time I was back to the starting point – my home here.

Then I realized it had nothing to do with travel. So I changed my way of thinking and started to learn new skills, to have my time occupied, and to try to make new friends on purpose, before knowing how little I cared. I learned much, made new friends, yet I wasn’t happy. Being nostalgic, I checked in with my old friends from Shanghai, and found out almost everybody – surely not all – had settled; they started family, had kids, and were satisfied with their status of being settled. While feeling no longer a member of them in that sense, I started to realize it is the feeling of “settledness” that has been driving me empty. I know – quite an opposite way to normal thinking.

Even this blog – it says “another year in Tokyo”, but it is only a figure of speech and “another” is potentially a repeating term without a necessary end.

Is Tokyo, Japan where I settle eventually? Is it the end of my adventure? The questions suddenly came to me, the questions that have been in the plain sight but kept eluding me. (I certainly am getting old for being bold, but you have to know that Japan has a kind of atmosphere that all is always settled, and all should always be. )

Then, half a year ago, I started to think about drifting away again. The planning stage has been ongoing for a while, and I have put much effort in it – I even sacrificed time in developing my favorite blog. And I am happy to report that a couple of days ago, I achieved the first milestone.

So here is the plan. 6 years out of school, I am planning to go back next year or the beginning of the year after the next, the latest. I prepared for GMAT test while working and the test result turned out usable – I scored a 730, a score I am comfortable with although not sky-high. I shall use it in my MBA application in Europe next year.

It is fascinating how life develops. When I decided to go to college in Beijing 12 years ago, the main reason I picked Beijing was that I have more relatives in Beijing than everywhere else so I could depend on them while I was there; and nevertheless I fled to the U.S. after graduation. When I went back to Shanghai for my first job out of graduate school, I thought it would only be temporary; it turned out to be the most dramatic years of my life and the best memories of a life time. And I had never imagined I would ever leave Shanghai and come to Japan, nor have a Japanese boyfriend. And now, I am thinking France.

And of course, with my intensive studying for GMAT ending in decent result, I am coming back to a peaceful life for now: writing blogs, taking pictures, cooking cozy food, and continuing my extensive travels; all in the hope of the next great life adventure to start soon enough. And before that, I shall enjoy a temporary settledness of my life.

Ah indeed another year in Tokyo to come!

 

2017 Wishlist: Travel part

The farther most of 2016 in Japan: Hanamaki, Iwate prefecture (花巻　岩手県) in July.

Let’s ignore the fact that it has been two weeks into 2017 already, that I just started to think about 2017. You see, after a lazy new year holiday break, followed by two crazy weeks of emails, urgencies, and work procrastinated from the last year, it is actually not easy for one with full time work to sit down quietly and meditate. However I had to, because it is my birthday month, therefore no matter what I would not want to delay the pleasure of thinking about travel plans this year as a “to-do” item into my new year.

For the past two years, I have been to most of the popular places around Tokyo, and getting quite familiar with some of those. This year I want to extend my coverage, from day trip focused travel style to two or three days compact travels, and go further into other prefectures than Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba. I have been to some, but I was too tourist alike and from this year I want to tour more like a local.

  • Hokuriku (北陸)

With the new Hokuriku Shinkansen (北陸新幹線) started it has become easier to travel there with a two or three days plan. I liked Nagano prefecture (長野県) when I went there last summer, and will definitely go again well planned this year. But Nagano is not the terminal of Hokuriku Shinkansen. This year, I will go to the Hokuriku prefectures for sure. Start with a three-day trip to Kanazawa in Ishikawa prefecture (金沢　石川県) for my birthday.

  • Kyushu (九州)

Nagasaki (長崎) seems to be a popular destination for tourists, but I was never a big fan of it. Similar places but not in Kyushu include Kobe, and Osaka. I would be interested in Kumamoto prefecture (熊本県), but with the earthquake last year, it may not be a wise idea now. It may be a good idea to go to Oita prefecture (大分県) for its famour Onsen in autumn or winter, and go to Miyazaki prefecture (宮崎県) for the only mango production in Japan, but where I have always been hoping to go is Kagoshima prefecture (鹿児島県), to see the volcanic island Sakura-jima (桜島) and adventure in Yakushima (屋久島) where it is said to be the origin of the famous movie Mononoke Hime (もののけ姫) of Miyazaki Hayao (宮崎駿).

  • Maybe…. Kyoto (京都)?

I really don’t know. Kyoto, is too popular with tourists these days – no season difference, full packs of tourists from Japan and overseas all year long. And no need to mention the high price of hotels and Ryokans as a result, and sometimes the deviations in the service. I would still, try to visit there during the Kouyou (紅葉) season, perhaps. It would be a big project as I may also go to the mountain areas nearby.

  • Xi’an, China

Home visit in February would be so much more fun with a visit to my birth place, Xi’an! I would probably not travel, as I am too familiar with this ancient city and all it could offer for a tourist, but will definitely share some advice on food hunting. Or anything else.

  • Cuba

This is definitely one of the biggest projects this year. It is kind of pity that I can only go to Cuba with Fidel Castro gone already, but I would hate it if I can not go while Cuba is still what it is now, before being changed by the outside world. Not sure if this is politically correct, though.

  • Peru

When my friend Nancy and I went to Spain for vacation last year, we originally wanted to go to Peru. But we couldn’t, because the ticket to Machu Picchu on our available days sold out by the time we decided our schedule. But this year we are going to make it! Hopefully.

So far, this is the plan. I will most likely change it along the year, adding more and removing some, but so far it looks good.

A (late) reflection of 2016

It was not very pleasant when I first considered to do a reflection of my past 2016, as I immediately thought of the tasks I decided to accomplish this year but in the end just made a little effort if at all. For example, I registered two certifications to acquire this year with Coursera, but never really finished those – I did pay my tuition in order to be emotionally/economically attached. I wasn’t determined to change my job from the beginning of the year, although fancied it from time to time, but still I went to interviews after being referred to by my recruiters – all failed, as I was never fully prepared and determined.

All those thoughts made me very upset, as I realized I might have spent a very wasteful 2016 with all my indetermination. I stayed away from the topic for a few days, and when I decided to pick it up, it was already 2017. So now I have to pretend I were still in 2016, trying to summarize my year before turning a new page into 2017. It is called procrastination.

It also sounds a little like time travel, since at this moment, when I am typing, my mind is actually in a status as if it were still two days ago; while my conscious self tells me not to, my spirit travels back to the past and represent the old self, in a pitiful tone, regretting what a low productive year I had been through. It is just like the movie I watched just now, or the first movie of a trilogy which I watched last, in which all the drama and conflicts shown in the later two movies were finally explained to me in the first movie, or rather given the hints of all the unavoidable to me from the beginning of the story at last. I kind of feel lucky for the order in which I watched the movies. When I watched the ending of the first movie, when the two parted without exchanging contacts info but only a date promised in a half year, each on their way to the end of their journey, not knowing they were going to miss the promise, but still to meet and fall in love again 10 years later, and eventually to be tied up and become a tired couple. Their journeys seem so innocent and so comforting to me, knowing that all begins with romance and beautiful coincidences although reality is hard.

Back to the reality of my 2016 reflection. Now that I look back, the year of 2016 may not be that bad: I tried new things, and were able to tell myself if I should continue some of them or not, and in the end gave myself a new target for the coming (came already) year with all the lessons learned considered. I might be able to achieve something in the coming (came already) 2017, or 2018 the worst case. And for those that I know I would be fine to let go, it was still worth it to try things out.

I suppose in the end, when I look back from a further future, it may just be like in the first movie that I watched at last, that all the unknowns and knowns at the time being were for a reason, and sometimes it may not even be a logical reason for the resulting future but a mere fact, that you would eventually realize that would contradict itself later on, but you still feel lucky that it was there, at that specific moment.

Now we could start talking about 2017. 🙂