“TOKIMEKI COUNTDOWN”
When we become an adult, a year goes by so fast. Why do we feel like the time is flying when we grow older? Isn’t it strange? On NHK’s TV program “Chiko-chan ni Shikarareru,” a 5-year-old Chiko-chan told me the answer! It’s because adults have less tokimeki, a Japanese word that means excitement, compared to children. Which means, as we grow older, we have fewer chances to have exciting experience or encounter new things, so we feel like the time flies by so fast.
Tokyo Olympics 2020 Countdown has started. Actually, 2020 will be a special year for me. Setting 2020 as my goal, I started this blog because I wanted to have a lot of “tokimeki” every day from now and enter 2020 in a happy feeling. I’d like to fill this blog with my favorite things and make it my lifelong treasure. Sometimes I’ll look over the happy days or sad days in the past, but I want to experience a lot of “tokimeki.” No matter what comes in my future, I’m going to be happy. Having this goal in my mind, I’ll be making my blog. It would be great if I can tell you some helpful information on this blog.
Married at the age of 23 and had 2 children. After 12 years of being a housewife, I thought I wanted to work for something I like to do and started to study English very hard. A little before 40 years old, I started to work in a company to do easy interpretation and translation work. Sorts of things happened after that, and 7 years later, I started to live separately with my husband for a long period of time.
Went to Singapore with Rinse
In 2005, when I was living separately with my ex-husband, my son started to go to university and my daughter was in her second year living in a dorm. So, I went to Singapore with Rinse and started work in a Japanese company there. Singapore is a country located on the equator, so the utility expenses such as electricity for air conditioner is high. I didn’t have enough money to let Rinse stay at home whole day with the air conditioner on, and also there was always a risk of sudden blackout and stopping the air conditioner. My boss took this into consideration and I was able to take Rinse together to my office. A life with Rinse 24/7 together had started. At this moment, I felt like Rinse became a part of my body, just like a mother holding her baby.
Singapore was a Wonderful Country!
People in Singapore were very kind and many of them were like a generous and large-minded mother. Singapore was safe and beautiful country, and it was a really good place for living. We couldn’t live a luxury life, and we lived only with two of us, but we had a good and peaceful life. In Singapore 10 years ago, there weren’t many people who have a dog. So, when I went for a walk with Rinse, they looked at us like they were looking something mysterious. There were some pet shops, but there were no pet sheets, so it was pretty inconvenient to live with a pet.
Coming Back to Japan
When 3 years had passed living in Singapore, my son got really frustrated because he couldn’t meet Rinse and he finally noticed me, “If you won’t come back to Japan with Rinse right away, I’ll disown you.” Of course, I didn’t want to be disowned, so I came back to Japan in June of that year. It was really fortunate that the headquarter of the company that I worked in Singapore hired me in Japan. Ten years have passed very quickly since then and Rinse passed away last year. Even after a year and 5 months, I still can’t overcome my pet loss. I now understand that this strong grief is the proof of deep love, so I stopped trying to overcome and thought to deal with it patiently.
The Aim of This Blog
- Losing my beloved pet Rinse that was like a part of my body was my biggest difficulty in life. To open up my life in some way, I started this blog to become happy by 2020 no matter what happens. I’ll live my best every day without losing “tokimeki.”
- I’d like to share information with people who are in pet loss currently or before, and people who have pets now. It would be great if my posts are useful in some way.
- People often say that I have an unusual life, or I’m kind of a weird or interesting person. I’d like to share a lot of useful information to you from my interesting experience or extraordinary point of view and ideas.
- I also would like to join a community or make friends through this blog.
I hope you enjoy this blog.
Translated Japanese into English by picolisco
