[Diary.29.Aug] It was painful. Even it’s healthy eating yogurt, don’t you eat it too much. I have been struggling with a stomach ache for a hour. It’s ridiculous. I watched back to “Suites” for the first time in a year. Season 7 is available on Amazon Prime in Japan. I love the series. But I was eating yogurt while I have watching the show, and when I realise, I ate 3 plates of yogurt. Donna became a COO of the firm then. haha My stomach was getting bigger, and I got sleepy. I can’t help it. My favourite business YouTuber introduced a book, written about concentration. It tells how your focus broken, and how you keep your concentration by facts and persuasive data. According to a report, Mediterranean foods make your focus. I think cooking Mediterranean foods take me a longer time than just pasta or carry which I love, so I don’t follow this. Second, do not have carbohydrate until afternoon. (This method is not for kids) You can more focus without eating carbohydrate foods. I usually have less at the breakfast and lunch, but I liked eating carbohydrate foods. But I don’t do that anymore, it’s a bit hard. I determined improving my eating habits, went to supermarket and bought some yogurts, went back home and have them during watching Suites. They are all very tasty I could not stop eating them, and the series was too enjoyable. I forgot how many yogurt I ate. I really regret it. I hate yogurt.

[Diary.27.Aug] My president had a zoom meeting with a system developer who works at another firm. After that, I got a chance to talk with him and asked him how it was going. He excitingly talked to me about the developer. She is 62 years old, works for a tech company as a consultant, and runs an IT company simultaneously. She went to a Nagoya university which is the best college in our society, and also she went to Stanford for getting an MBA with her kid. When I heard the story, I lost my word and just laughed because it’s too cool. I have no idea how hard getting MBA abroad with a kid… hahaha… I was overwhelmed by her, but it also gives me the courage and confidence to do something new. I decided to make a routine waking up at 4 AM every day. It is actually not so hard for me, I am a morning person, I usually wake up around 5 AM or so, It will become just 1 hour earlier. I will spend on working and studying, English, coding, and reading books maybe. Even if I would have to work till night. No excuse. (No explanation?) And my favourite business person, share his story on how important morning working or studying is. It is the best way to doing something effectively in the early morning. You would not be disturbed anyone, and your brain works well in the morning. According to research, successful people normally work very long hours, and the long hours of work is probably one of the keys to success. It is completely backward to achieving life-work-time balance. However, it sadly true. I tend to be asked by people why I work so long, and I answer them like “because I have a lot of jobs needed to be done as soon as possible” but truth is that those jobs are worth challenging for me. Every successful people say hard work works. I believe in it. I know I can’t be like Jack Ma, but somehow it will pay off. https://hbr.org/2018/02/if-youre-so-successful-why-are-you-still-working-70-hours-a-week

[Diary.26.Aug] Today I went to my office for the first time in 5 days. Business is going great. My president and the board members, (which I am not, unfortunately, but I want to be!) will take a zoom meeting with CEO of a tech company, which is listed to a stock exchange. That’s incredible! I want to see them. But I am too young and less experienced yet. There’s a wonderful online service called “MENTA”, which provides programming beginners to find teachers online. One of my friends who can code told me about that. “MENTA” is from the English word, “mentor”. Somehow we Japanese use the word to programming teacher. It’s like how “Guru” is used in English speaking countries. Foreign language words give a transcendent impression to people, I guess. That service was created by one person, who has been working as a software developer for over 10 years. He describes himself as an ordinary developer in his YouTube video. He had been wanting to create something himself. At the same time, he was struggling for finding someone helping him to code in a new language. Then, he thought if there’s a matching service for coders. But there was not. So he created it himself. Now it has over one million subscribers. And he earns a lot monthly. One day hopefully I want to be able to create a kind of the services :D

[Diary.25.Aug] It was kind of another day-off today, I just worked 2 hours at the office, then I went back to my place and worked online and studied. Majority of the time I spent is studying. I pretended I was busy, but I actually finished my job assigned after 3 hours from when I got home. haha What I studied today - Japanese tax system - - English I was considered which language course I should take, Java or . My friends who work in a big tech company, the U.S. forces, and as a freelance, told me Java is better for beginner because you can learn the basic of programming, and it’s very compatible. I took the advice, started to practice it. My company, however, we work on Google applications, and often use GAS (Google APPs Script); which is a programming language Google developed, and it’s based on . So it’s good to know how works. I can make up some effective codes for my colleagues. When I told them, two of them didn’t about GAS. They thanked me for teaching them it, and gave advice again; maybe I should study . It is also a basic language, and very easy for beginners. So today I switched to from Java. My language partner (who I call 老师, maybe she doesn’t like to be called, though) told me that she is okay with being my personal teacher when I asked her to teach English via online video. I appreciate that, but we have 8 hours time difference, so it’s very difficult to find a convenient time. Also, I want to study English, and she wants to study Mandarin. I speak Japanese, and English as my second language, and she speaks English and Mandarin as her second language, she doesn’t speak any Japanese, maybe only Konichiwa or Arigato! haha It will be very challenging for me. I have to explain what I want to say only using English, it would be a very effective way of learning, but it would be a very arduous time hahaha My TOEIC LR exam has a listening section, (LR = Listening & Reading) and in the listening section, there are a lot of accents. This is why I started to ask British people to talk with me. They always say like “well, in Britain, there are also many different accents, even in only London”, I knew it! Because I like reading Pygmalion. But American Accents are all almost the same. I mean, nothing is too different, (so far). Let’s see how she will annoy my Americanised Japanese accent. haha

[Diary.24.Aug] Today, I woke up at 6 AM. It was a little later than usual. But it’s ok. Today is another day-off. I spent my time meaningfully, studied hard. - Revised vocabulary - Took a Java course I appreciate my friends. When I asked them what they think about starting studying programming at aged 26, is it too late? They said it’s better to start before graduation but it’s still not late. Their honest words gave me a sense of confidence. Thank you. A few hours ago, I got my new glasses. Eyesight is distorted a bit but they’re good. They’re blue light blocking glasses. It’s better to work on my laptop. I didn’t tell anyone that I changed to glasses from contact lens. They will be surprised and laugh at me how I look bad with my glasses. haha Recently I have been thinking of changing my music app to Spotify from Apple music. I always wanted to change it, but it’s a family plan. I cannot change it myself. But my favourite influencer Nas from NasDaily dropped a new service, NasTalk which is only on Spotify. I was a bit excited hearing about his podcast. If Spotify is able to be controlled by Siri, I would rather use it. The majority of the time I spend listening to music is when I’m driving. I don’t touch the screen when I am driving, but I control the music by saying “Hey, Siri” It’s very useful, it sometimes replies to me with unexpected answers, though. It makes me laugh. I won’t use Spotify if Siri replies to me “Sorry I cannot control the app”. — After writing text above, I noticed premium plan is free for 3 months. That’s what I subscribed hours ago. I tried to control Spotify by saying “Hey, siri” And it worked correctly. I will use it.

[Diary.23.Aug] Just one year ago, I picked two hitch-hikers nearby the entrance of the highway. I was about to go back to my hometown Nagoya, the same direction as Osaka from Tokyo. I sometimes remember about that day. Those two young university students gave a sense of peace. They were planning to go to one of the biggest festivals in Japan, to “Awa Odori”, It’s been held every single year since 400 years ago, 1.2M people visit the city which is populated just 260,000 citizens on that day. But I have not visited there yet. And so they have not. The distance is over 700km between Tokyo and Awa city. And Awa Odori would be held the next day that I picked them. They even had an appointment to meet up with thier friends out there. They believed that they could get there until 24 hours after. I was kind of overwhelmed by how optimistic they are. Crazy maybe. But I love it. It was for 4 or 5 hours to get Nagoya which I left them. While I drove them, they gave me a memorable conversation. I will never forget that. Soon after they got in my car, I impressed how smart they are. They seemed like high-school students but thier talk was like middle-aged business persons. Their political perspective was incredible. No one talked like them at my college. I casually asked them which university they study. And they answered the highest university in Japan, Tokyo university and they study law. Which means, they were likely going to be government officials. There are so many ex-Prime Ministers of Japan from the university, and mostly from the low department. When they told me that, my prejudice was completely changed. As far as I knew, government officials would never go hick-hike, they are not optimistic like them, and don’t laugh loudly like them. Government officials tend to be criticized by citizens, was including me when the tax rate goes up, GDP decrease, and some of them are charged by corruption. But from the recent disclosure report, most of them work too hard. A few of them usually work until 3 AM. This is insane. I have a bad feeling when someone criticizes them. They are corrupt, they waste tax, the most known thing that they always get cabs by tax money, even they go home. You would not take a cab but take a train when you work till 3 AM? Even you have a lot of appointments, you get around by trains and walk? Don’t criticize people you don’t know well.

[Diary.22.Aug] Today I spent almost all of my time on settings up my new gadgets. I really regret that I didn’t check what types of Mac can run “sidecar”. Mine can not. There's a technique to execute sidecar on older Mac. But if my Mac breaks because of it, Apple won’t support it. A few days ago, my president asked me how much the new MacBook costs that I was thinking of buying myself. When I got into his company, I refused to use the company’s computer because they are all useless and I don’t like uncool computers. My colleagues were amazed. I love Apple. Definitely good. I don’t care about those people using incapable computers. (We have good relationships, trust each other, sometimes get into arguments using swear words haha) I said him I will never use those of computers, I would use my computer for work instead. So I have been working for his company on my computer that I purchased for myself. Since I decided to video-edit for work, the next computer is going to be pricey and he considered it. I remember it, and I came up with a brilliant idea. I immediately made a table on a Google sheet, with some functions, and calculated how his company and I save money from a greedy Japanese tax department if I purchased the new MacBook as a company’s expense. This means once the company buys it, and my salary will be reduced for it. They will forget to take off the expense after three months or so, though haha. And as I mentioned him, our total tax would decrease. I eagerly convinced him with a persuasive data and two merits; 1. The company tax we are going to pay next year will decrease / 2. I am going to work more effectively! And today he replied me and said YES!! It’s not a tax evasion. I will work on the computer, sometimes use if for myself. Our accountant will accept it. I ordered it hours ago. I can’t wait to receive it.

[Diary.21.Aug] It was a day off today. I did 3 things; - Went to haircut - Changed my iPhone XR to SE2 - Met a high-school-friend at dinner My car’s air conditioner didn’t work well, so I kept dripping sweat during driving. It was like a hell. Now I believe a hell existing. In the morning, I went to a mobile shop. I wanted to change my iPhone, the carrier, and buy a new Wi-Fi router. Previous Wi-Fi is incapable and iPhone XR has Face ID but I don’t use it, I always wear a mask outside. It makes me frustrated when I purchase something with Apple Pay. All I need is a fast purchase with fingerprint ID. My new iPhone is cheaper, lighter, and has more storage. The shop was holding a campaign, that they offer iPad 7th at a very low price. I knew it could be a second monitor of my MacBook. I make it as a reason to convince myself and I bought it. When I got home and tried to set them straight away. But unfortunately, my old MacBook doesn't support “sidecar” (that’s the function’s name) I need a new one. After going to a mobile shop, I went to a barber. It was the first time to visit there. The only barber there is a young man, he manages the barber himself. I explained to him how I struggled with my no-airconditioner car. Then he gives me a portable fan. He has more. There must be more victims of those broken cars recently. While he was cutting my hair, I talked about the mobile shop I visited before and Apple products. He wears an Apple watch. And I excitingly asked him about it too much. My attitude was a little strange. His mouth was into a wry smile. But I don’t care. haha Tonight, I met my high-school-friend and we had dinner together. He is about to start his own business and asked me for some advice. I was impressed by how much he learned, we are not high school students anymore. I gave him many advice and encouragement. I have to read more something in English. I think my input isn’t enough.