日報

I have three oil bottles in my kitchen.

Olive oil, sesame oil, and rice oil.

Even though I use all of them evenly,
I often notice
that they're all about 10% full.

If I were using them randomly,
their levels should be different,
but somehow they're all "almost empty" at the same time.

Why is that?
There are two possible explanations.

The first is that it's just my imagination.
It's just a coincidence that I happen to notice them when they're all low.

The second is that I refill them all at once.

Refilling inevitably gets your hands dirty,
so if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it all at once.
Therefore, they run out at the same time.

...But then I realized, the second one isn't right.
Because I don't do that.

Often, when I go to refill them,
I don't have any in stock,
and it's rare for me to have all three types in stock.

So, I guess it really is just my imagination then.

After all, when I was cooking just now,
all three were "almost empty,"
and I thought, "Oh, not again."

Hmm. I still don't know.

It's Golden Week, but it's raining in Tokyo.

When it rains on a public holiday, for some reason, I start thinking about all the shops out there.

I imagine they prepared a lot, expecting many customers.
And it must be tough for them.

Suddenly, I wondered what "all the shops out there" means to me.

I don't have any specific places in mind, but it feels like it includes ramen shops, Disneyland, and parks—somehow, all of them.

Perhaps I collectively refer to places people wouldn't go to when it rains in that way.

However, there must be fully indoor facilities or even shops where business improves when it rains, so the weather is probably just one of many factors.

Still, for anyone in business, the weather is unavoidable.
I guess they just have to learn to deal with it, assuming they can't control it.

Even with kikkake's photo shoots, we're often at the mercy of the weather.

Despite the ups and downs, I intend to keep going, so I hope we can gradually learn to get along with it.

Some days are good, and some aren't.
That's just how it is.

I've heard stories about people suddenly getting ideas while taking a bath. But I don't really remember coming up with anything in the bath.

There are probably two reasons for this.

Firstly, I usually don't soak in the bathtub. And even if I do, I end up reading a magazine or bringing my phone in.

Do ideas only come when you can relax and think at your leisure?

When I thought about where that place might be for me, I realized that I sometimes suddenly get ideas while driving, especially on my way home.

So, for me, my car might be a place where I can relax and think at my leisure.

Indeed, I feel that way.

Looking back, even when I was a student, I would reflect on my day while cycling home.

Perhaps the journey home is a time that makes one think about things.

...I was thinking about all this while in the bath.

I had an errand at Tokyo Midtown for work.
When I arrived, the building was so huge that I got lost and couldn't find the office entrance.

To avoid looking lost, I walked around as if I were shopping.

I finally made it to the office entrance on the second floor.
When I entered the number I'd been given beforehand into the display, a piece of paper with a QR code came out.

When I held it over something like a train ticket gate, a door flapped open, leading to the elevator hall.

First, from the second floor to the 30th floor.
The 30th floor was like a second reception area, or a landing on a staircase.

A bit nervous, I decided to go to the restroom first.
I followed the signs, but it led to a dead end.

I thought the right wall would open, but to my surprise, the left wall opened.
This was my Midtown initiation.

Pulling myself together, I went even higher from the 30th floor.

When I reached my destination floor and looked out the window, there was a panoramic view of Tokyo.
Looking at the entrance of the stylishly designed company, I thought:

"This is Tokyo."

While thinking, "I've always wanted to work in a tall building like this," I also thought, "It would be a hassle to go back and get something if I forgot it."

On my way out, I stopped at the same restroom on the 30th floor. This time, I confidently and smoothly entered that restroom where the left wall opens when you think the right one will.

Japanese is a difficult language.

"Mae" (front) and "ushiro" (back)
Physically, "mae" refers to the front and "ushiro" to the back,
but on a time axis, "mae" refers to the past and "ushiro" to the future.
This can sometimes make it confusing to know which is which.

"Mae" and "ushiro"
Their direction changes depending on whose perspective you're looking from.
The meaning can be reversed depending on whether it's "front and back" from my perspective
or "front and back" from the other person's perspective.

Because of this, I sometimes hesitate or make mistakes.

During a YouTube shoot,
Konegi, the person in charge of filming, gives me various instructions.

"Let's do it again from a little before where we were."
"Move it a little further forward."
"Turn a little more towards the front."
"This might be a bit out of order, but..."

Since I'm cooking,
I'm often looking down.

So I have to rely solely on words to understand,
but this is quite difficult.

Thinking about it again, I realize that Japanese is a language that often conveys meaning through nuance.

Perhaps it's not entirely suitable for situations where precise movements need to be communicated, like during filming.

...That said,
it's not that Konegi's way of explaining is bad.

Something I haven't understood since I was a child is which is higher, "Matsu," "Take," or "Ume" (Pine, Bamboo, Plum).

Even as an adult, if I don't stop and think for a moment, I can't remember if pine or plum is superior.

Pine and plum both seem to be of similar standing, so I can't really picture a hierarchy.

I've tried to remember it by thinking "Matsu is higher, so I'll remember it as 'Matsu-san is superior'," but then the next time I need to recall it might be years later, and I get confused whether I remembered "Matsu-san is superior" or "Ume-san is superior."

And though it might seem unrelated to this topic, I'm also not convinced that bamboo is in the middle. Bamboo grows straight and tall, and if anything, I feel like it would lean more towards being at the top or the bottom.

If it were ordered by height, wouldn't bamboo be at the very front as a small shoot, or at the very back when fully grown?

Even though the Matsu-Take-Ume ranking has always perplexed me like this, when I looked it up, the origin was surprisingly simple.

Apparently, in the Edo period, restaurants started using the auspicious terms Matsu, Take, and Ume to make ordering easier, avoiding expressions like "special," "superior," and "regular."

I see. So the ambiguity was intentional.

Even "special, superior, regular" was an effort to avoid simply saying "superior, middle, inferior." It's more about variations than hierarchy.

It makes sense that business people would innovate to make customers feel comfortable choosing. I realize that this kind of sentiment doesn't change, no matter the era.

In the end, I still don't think I'll ever truly know which is higher, Matsu, Take, or Ume.