Tag Archives: culture

What to do in Tunisia – country of revolution – within short time

In April and May, my parents and friends in Japan talked about beautiful spring ー cherry blossom, good weather and foods and new starts (in Japan, school and fiscal year starts in April). At the same time, far away in Africa, I was in a Tunisia, the country well-known for different kind of SpringーArab Spring.

In 2011, it changed some Arabic nations and showed the power of people’s will. For those who are not familiar with Arab Spring, it is a series of anti-government protests movements that began in Tunisia and spread across the Middle East since late 2010 (Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, etc.).

I happened to see this country’s name for the first time through New York Times when I was brushing up my English skill to enter the graduate school 9 years ago. And this time, I had a chance to visit there, just for 1 night 2 days. Despite such a short time, I could see some snapshots of this country, which i would like to share, as Tunis seems to be a nice country to visit (many people also visit there as a hub before traveling somewhere else) but not much information is available.

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Mauritania 4ーHow Russian World Cup Empowered Japanese in West Africa

E nglish, Español, Français, 日本語

It’s been 12th year since I left Japan, and the more or less I am used to living in other countries. Having said that, the first 3 months in Mauritania was quite tough (as you can see the detail in the previous blog entries:
Mauritania 1ーLife turning point
Mauritania 2ーRamadan and Life cycle
Mauritania 3ーIs it a private taxi or what

Mauritanie 1, Mauritanie 2, Mauritanie 3 ). Just to show one indicator, within 3 months, I already lost 4 kg and sometimes felt a bit down.

It was the best moment, when worldwide event happened. Ole- Ole- ! Yes, world cup Russia 2018.

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Mauritania 3ーIs it a private taxi or what

English, Español, Français, 日本語

It was tough. It was really tough.

As is same with everything, the first period is the most difficult time. Although I was aware, it was still tough.

Just to reiterate the background: I arrived Mauritania (the detail is here) →Right after that, Ramadan started when I had to go through a lot of administrative procedures (the detail is here) →There was no public transportation (bus, subway, official taxi, etc.)→ It is quite hot here (30-40℃) and difficult to walk →…

There was the only way, which was private taxi! I thought it would not be that difficult as I used to take private taxis frequently back in Mongolia….yes, I was wrong.

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Why Red, Yellow and Green ?

Do you like to see the tinted autumnal leaves?

I love it, and I don’t mind taking long night bus, walking a lot and/or climbing mountains to capture beautiful colors in my eyes.

Thinking about why I like those color changes, I think it’s because I like 3 color combinations Red Yellow and Green (hereafter referred as RYG), which I tend to use for designing my blog entry and work-related things. Those RYG colors can be seen not only in color change of leaves in the fall, but also in Rasta color and Trafic lights.

Then I started thinking if there was any secret behind this color combination, and I started learning about several different things: (1) Color system, (2) Meaning of Rasta color, (3) Origin of traffic lights as well as (4) Concept of colors in Japan.

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Grit and Learning for Achievement

The Japanese proverb says that 七転び八起き (Nana Korobi Ya oki), which literally means Fall seven times, stand up eight. This implies positive message to face with many difficulties in a life.

In the previous entry (Failure and Learning) in which I explained the importance of re-thinking the notion of failure , I put the following four points:

【Key points to achieve goal】
(1) Try
(2) Make mistakes
(3) Be willing to learn from mistakes
(4) Try again in other way, and go to (2) until you achieve your goal.

Obviously, the most important point is number (3).
No matter how many times you fall, you will eventually achieve your goal as long as you keep standing up, and this kind of passion and perseverance to achieve long term goal is called “Grit”.
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Mongolian Movie Theater

One thing I was not expecting to do in Mongolia was to go to a movie theater that frequently. For the last three months in my stay, I have been there 8 times so far, which means every 2 week! This must be the most frequent pace in my movie life. So today, let me share my experience on Mongolian movie theater.
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3 Reasons to travel by yourself

It feels good to be back.

Every time I get back from travelling, I have a sense that time had passed more than it did. It’s been more than 10 years since I started travelling by myself. When I went outside of Japan for the first time, I met a old woman in Northern Thailand who said something which really got me thinking:

If I am comfortable with my life, why do I want to travel (leave the place)?

Given that human beings have instincts to make a life easier and safer, what she said totally makes sense. But at least from my experience, there are 3 main reasons to get out of your comfort zone to travel alone over with someone else: learning life skills, having a flexibility and meeting new people.

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