1. Facebook seems to know that I was getting engaged before I did.

Until the engagement, I never added my relationship status. I’m not surprised that Facebook knew my actual relationship status from the photos and the messages, but it started advertising rings to me before I even started searching.

Even when I started searching, I made sure I used Google Chrome incognito tabs so that there was no history on my computer (I live with my girlfriend / now fiancée), but that seemed to have increased the number of advertising I was seeing.

Yes, Facebook knew my intent before I did.

2. We shared the information on Facebook and 1000+ people got the news.

We each posted a post on our walls which, at the time of writing, collected 303 and 555 reactions, and the engagement announcement life update (the change of relationship status) got 966 reactions as well as 100+ comments. I don’t know what the overlap is, but it’s safe to say that 1000+ people reacted to our posts, and probably even more saw it.

This took an hour, and could have taken less time if we bother carefully selecting and editing pictures or crafting the right message.

Thirty years ago, that many phone calls would have taken days (and really tired fingers / vocal cords). Fifteen years ago, that’s still a lot of e-mails.

I’m not here to say any of this is good or bad. It is very cool that we could broadcast our announcement so widely so easily. At the same time, it is a bit creepy that platforms can now predict your behavior before even you know.

Now what to do with all those wedding venue advertisements… (actually, coronavirus took care of all of then, they disappeared).

２０１１年 – ２０１２年 – ２０１３年 – ２０１４年 – ２０１５年 – ２０１６年 – ２０１７年 – ２０１８年 – ２０１９年

パリで始めたブログで年賀状、今年でとうとう１０回目になりました。ブログ更新回数は相変わらず回復しませんが、これだけはなんとか続けたいと思います。

２０１９年も相変わらずマイルを貯めまくるような年でした。国内でデザイン思考のワークショップは毎年かなりの数をこなしているのですが、昨年はなぜかアフリカで３回もする機会がありました（モロッコ１回、ルワンダ２回）。六月にはタイでアジア諸国のスタートアップにピッチコーチングをする機会もあり、仕事を通して色々な国の文化、考え方を肌で感じる事が刺激的です。個人的には２０１８年、２０１７年に続いてそれほど変化のない年でしたが、強いて言うなら、大学で特任から常勤に切り替わりました。そのおかげで仕事も増え、愚痴も増えてしまいましたがw。

年末年始は相変わらず避寒の為国外逃亡しています。今年は人生初のインドネシア。南国的に、時間感覚から国民性がゆったりしている国です。

そんなカーボンフットプリントがなかなか減らない小生、今年もよろしくお願いします。

（写真はインドネシア、ジョンブラン洞窟にて撮影）

In your country, who has the power? Consumers? Companies? Employees?

In Japan, there is this saying: “customers are gods,” and the culture really does revolve around this principle. Visitors to Japan sing praises about the service, the staff are almost always courteous (thought not always friendly), and any company misdoings are covered and shamed by the media. Watch the news enough and you’ll see corporate apology press conferences where important people put their heads down and apologize in front of the camera. Companies are terrified of their customers, and as a result, manuals and even products themselves are littered with small text and warning signs. Any phone call with a customer service rep will include at least few “we’re sorry”s even if there was no fault.

On the other hand, employees, while enjoying some legal protections absent in the U.S., are incredibly weak. Despite the unemployment rate being comparatively low, people believe that if they lose their jobs, there won’t be another one. The culture is reflected in some of the phrases that have entered the Japanese vernacular such as “service overtime” (being forced overtime without pay), “black companies” (companies known to abuse their employees), and the now internationally known and legally defined karōshi, death from work-related exhaustion. Legally there is paternity leave but the usage rate is miserable. Women are supposed to be given an equivalent job after returning from maternity leave but that doesn’t always happen. Some companies have been known to have “expulsion rooms” where employees who can’t be legally fired are sent to be harassed and forced to quit.

In the US, as a result of legal corporate lobbying and liberal labor practices, employees are weak. It is the only developed country in the world with no legal maternity leave and until Obamacare, healthcare was at the discretion of the company (and let’s see what happens now). People with in-demand skills can be showered with benefits and generous compensation, but low-skilled laborers can easily work full time and still live below the poverty line. In a country where the national dream is striking it big, people still seem to accept this.

Consumer protection does exist to a certain extent by law, but most customer service stems from economic incentives and nothing else. Pay a lot of money and you’ll get fantastic service, pay little and you’ll be treated like dirt. While this happens in many countries, I feel like US is the worst when it comes to taking advantage of the uneducated and those with poor financial acumen. Trump University was a classic example.

Germany and France, and probably other parts of Europe I assume, strike a better balance, but the employees are the king. Worker protection laws are very strong, at-will employment is non-existent, and as you can imagine, it becomes a burden on the companies. Because its legal structure, France has tons of 49-employee companies trying to skirt the law. Businesses can fire people in Germany for the right reasons, and the government has a strong training program for those whose skill sets became obsolete. Taxes are high, but they do get used for good purposes (IMHO).

And we haven’t even gotten to the vacation days for which Europe is famous. I had something close to 40 days of vacation days in France and 30 days in Germany (where overtime was meticulously measured and added to the vacation days). I didn’t come close to using them up. On top of that, sick days are infinite and of course healthcare is universal and affordable.

People sometimes ask me where I like living and I answer cheekily, “I want to live in Japan, with European social systems, and for an American company (I find Americans the most passionate and enjoyable to work with).”

One can dream right?

What comes to mind when you hear the word Africa? Starving people living in huts with no access to clean water? Corrupt politicians and warlords? Civil wars and conflicts funded by blood diamond? Scorching deserts that go on for miles and miles? Like with most stereotypes, a lot of this is probably true, but it’s not the entire picture.

Rwanda is a small Subsaharan African country with an unfortunately brutal past which you might have learned from the movie Hotel Rwanda. Since the genocide, however, the country has been very stable and has become a model case for post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction.

The capital, Kigali, where I spent my entire time, despite being just south of the equator, has very moderate temperatures all year because of it’s high altitude (~1500m). Look how consistent the weather is:

While I don’t know how bad the rainy season is, the weather in July was perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, and if it’s like this all year long, it’s close to paradise (unless you like seasons): far cry from the deserts you imagine in Africa.

Kigali is also incredibly clean. In many developing countries, urban centers are often littered with trash. That is not the case in Kigali. Rwanda is incredibly progressive and they have banned single-use plastic bags entirely from the country. If you get caught with plastic bags at the border, it will be confiscated. This has led to improvements in the environment. I also did not see any homeless people either during my trip, but my local contacts (Japanese ODA workers) think they have been whisked away by the government to less visible places.

Not all the roads are paved in Kigali, though construction is happening at a rapid pace. As a result, much of the asphalt is fresh and clean with very little damage or potholes. Traffic is orderly as well. Moto-taxi drivers wear helmets as do their passengers, there are never more than two people to a motorcycle, and honking is quite rare. This is very, very different what you see in Bangkok, Lima, or even Rome, places that are much more developed.

People and society are very orderly in Rwanda. It’s easy to imagine lots of shouting and aggression in developing countries, but that’s not the case for Rwanda. In fact, people are quite shy. I had a hard time getting people to raise their hands during the workshop, and when they speak, their voices are incredibly quiet. Many times during the workshop, I had to ask people to speak up. According to my local contacts, this is extremely unique for the region. Some of them worried that if Rwandans try to do business with neighboring countries, they would get eaten alive.

Now I fully admit that the cross section I saw of Rwanda is severely limited. In a country where most people survive on subsistent agriculture, I did not meet a single farmer. With a GDP per capital under 1000 USD (~2000 USD PPP), it is one of the poorest countries in the world, albeit a rapidly growing one. As one should not judge the US from New York City or China from Shanghai, I can’t say that what I saw was representative of the country. Nevertheless, what I saw, a clean city with orderly middle-class people going about their everyday lives is a far cry from what one would imagine from seeing movies and the news about Africa.

２０１１年 – ２０１２年 – ２０１３年 – ２０１４年 – ２０１５年 – ２０１６年 – ２０１７年 – ２０１８年

相変わらずブログ更新の頻度は右肩下がりですが、ブログで年賀状は続けます！

２０１８年は世界的には荒れた年でしたが、自分的にはなかなか安定した年でした。仕事も私生活も大きな問題もなく、相変わらず年平均速度十数キロで過ごすような生活を送っています。何か一つ振り返るとしたら、今年三年目のサマースクールが大盛況でこれからどんどん面白いことが起こりそうな雰囲気に包まれています。

年末年始はいつもとちょっと違う趣向でハワイとアメリカ西海岸を旅しています。９年ぶりに車を乗り回していますが、昔乗っていたポンコツとは比べ物にならないぐらい良いレンタカーに恵まれました。そしてハワイでは念願のヘリコプターも経験できました。

そんな自由気ままに旅する小生、今年もよろしくお願いがいします。

平成三十一年　元旦

（写真はヘリコプターから地球の曲率が分かる高度にて撮影）

What if the real loses out to the virtual?

We live in a world where we are always connected, glued to the smartphone, always checking our social networks, living more and more of our lives on the internet than off it.

The invention of media and the advent of our imagination has allowed us to enjoy lives in our creativity rather than just what is available in front of us. Stories, first in spoken words, then in written form has allowed us to take our mind to places beyond where we stood. Motion picture then took us further, creating a much more vivid and immersive experience.

Gaming added a level of interactiveness, the Internet has made the interaction more social, and computer graphics are making the virtual seem more and more real.

However, our immersion into the virtual has been limited by technology that hasn’t changed so much. We still rely on screens and moving pictures framed within a rectangular box, and while audio has increased in quality significantly, we don’t have any reliable way of communicating the sense of touch, smell, or taste. Virtual reality is trying to make our more vision more immersive, but there needs to be at least one giant leap of technology before we can be truly immersed in the virtual.

But what happens when we reach that point? When we can enjoy a virtual beach just like we do a real beach? With the sound of crashing waves, the smell of salt, and the breeze in our hair just as good as, if not better than the real thing?

And if we can create better human interactions than a real human is capable of having? Sometime in the future, we will create a machine that can pass the Turing test, and if AI develops at an exponential rate, we may be able to make ourselves happier through algorithms than through real human interaction.

If the virtual truly becomes better than the real, what would become of our lives? Will our labor pretty much be limited to keeping the virtual running, and our existence spent mostly in the virtual? Imagine a world where we can create and destroy without consequence, and without the restrictions of physics or the limitations of resources. Imagine a world designed purely to keep one happy where interactions with others may be real or programmed and controlled carefully. Will we be capable of this utopia?

The Matrix theorized that this was not possible, that it was innately human to reject utopia and live in a world of struggle intertwined with pleasure. Will we reject the virtual for some ingrained human instinct to prefer the real or social ostrcization of those who spend too much time in the virtual?

Some people thought that Second Life was the first step into this life in the virtual until it was quickly forgotten. One can argue that it only passed the first hump of the Gartner hype curve. I believe that the experience wasn’t immersive enough, having to rely on screens, keyboards, and mouses.

At the same time, I don’t think we’ll ever get there.

See, what I did here was to hypothesize a future by extrapolating the technological trends of today. In the long run, things never unfold this way. If it did, we would be living with flying cars and robots doing all our chores. Despite what Moore’s law and futurists may tell you, technologies do hit a saturation point, and when it does, we shift our focus towards a newer and more different technology. The industrial revolution brought forth energy and electricity, which then lead to electronics and computers. That lead to the Internet and communication technologies, but when that saturates, our focus will shift to something else.

While the notion of living in the virtual probably sounded like dystopian science fiction to many of you, I actually want to see that world, a world where constraints and restrictions melt away to unleash the unbound creativity of the human mind. I once spent a significant amount of time in Second Life, and while most of the worlds were based on reality, there were some amazing creators designing fascinating worlds even with rudimentary building tools. If we can truly immerse ourselves and create in the virtual, I think we can create amazing worlds.

I just don’t think we’ll get there. Maybe I’m a pessimist, but I hope someone proves me wrong.

This article may seem like a reflection on the recent movie “Ready Player One,” but most of it was written nearly a year ago. I personally did not like the movie for many reasons, but that’s for another time.

Sources: 
http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/CC
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/snaama/dnllist.asp

２０１１年 – ２０１２年 – ２０１３年 – ２０１４年 – ２０１５年 – ２０１６年 – ２０１７年

ブログ更新回数が年三回と、とうとう過去最低記録になってしまいましたが、ブログで年賀状は続けたいと思います。(去年も同じことを書いていますがw)

去年の年賀状を読み返すと、2017年も似たような年だったなーと思ってしまいますが、関わっているいろんな物がしっかりと発展しているように感じます。そのぶん、ちょっと一発花火を打ちたいなと思うこの頃ですが、冒険意識はキープしながらしっかり学生達の為に頑張りたいと思います。

年末年始はしっかり休めるので、今年も東南アジアに避寒しています。どうしても京都の冬は体に馴染みません。

そんな自分勝手な小生、今年もよろしくお願いがいします。

平成三十年　元旦

（写真はカンボジア、アンコール遺跡にて撮影）

The center field, not all fields are like this (there are 17 fields)

I am currently in Royan, France for the World Championship of Beach Ultimate (WCBU), a biennial event that brings the best Ultimate players in the world… or something like that.

“Wait, Sushi, you’re saying that you’re on the Japanese national team?”

Yes. I am playing on the Japanese Mixed Masters team. I am actually representing my country in SPORTS!

“What the heck is that?”

Ultimate is normally played in three divisions, Open (anyone can play which means almost all guys), Women, and Mixed where both genders play on one team at the same time (the only team sport to do this that I know of).

“And Masters?”

That’s the division where you have to be over 33 in order to play.

Parade around town before the opening ceremony

“… Is it actually competitive?”

Depends… The best players almost always play on the Open or Women’s team, not Mixed, and older people who can still keep up with the young ones play in the regular division, not Masters. Besides Grandmasters (where you have to be older than… I dunno, Bon Jovi?), Mixed Masters is the easiest division to play in, but it’s still very competitive with some very over-the-hill experienced players taking part.

“Did you even try out?”

Not at all. In fact, we barely had enough people to put together a team. Like many Mixed teams, we had a hard time finding enough girls, and I even contacted friends in different countries asking if there was a player that would be eligible. Definitely not how you would imagine a national team being put together. We also have eleven players, much less than the fourteen or fifteen that most teams are bringing.

“I’m guessing you have no chance of winning?”

The Europeans have an advantage since it’s much easier for them to get to France both in cost and time, and they have many, many more vacation days than us Japanese folks. In fact, it’s really hard for Japanese people to take so much time off and attend a tournament like this. This isn’t the best Mixed Masters team that Japan can field (I definitely won’t be on that team), and I don’t think we’ll be winning too many games, but we’ll definitely be having fun. How can you go wrong being on the beach in France after all?

“That’s true, it does sound like a good excuse to be on the beach.”

Well, we are going to be running around on the beach, not just hanging out… but yes, it’s a nice time off from the crazy 10 city, 16 flight, 27 day work trip that I just finished. It will also be cool to catch up with old friends from around Europe who are at the tournament. I already met some and I’m so happy they didn’t forget me!

“Will the results be online?”

Yes. You can check them out at http://wcbu2017.org/ and they even have personal stats at http://live.wcbu2017.org/player-stats/mmix/jpn (I’ve asked them to not use my real real name, but I can’t seem to get this changed). Furthermore, one of our games will be broadcasted online on day 4, this Wednesday!

The game is at 14:50 France time which is 05:50 in California and 21:50 in Japan (Okay, I don’t expect any of my American friends to be watching). The link for the livestream is: http://www.fanseat.com/event/3598

I think you have to sign up for a one month free trial to access this stream. If you just want to check out what beach ultimate looks like, the games on field 1 is available without any extra steps at: http://live.wcbu2017.org/

Some girl wanted to take a picture with us during the parade

“Okay, this look fun, how do I start playing?”

Are you in Kyoto or Osaka? Perfect! Come join us for one of our practices. Locations and details are on our website at http://www.kyoto-ultimate.com/ and please like our Facebook page while at it: https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=kyoto%20ultimate%20鴨川ビックルズ.

Not in Kyoto or Osaka? Just Google your hometown and Ultimate Frisbee and you should find something. In big cities in countries where Ultimate is popular, there should be regular pickup games where you can just show up and start playing. In smaller cities or places where Ultimate isn’t so common, you’ll probably find a team nearby that you could join, and most teams are very open to beginners (how else would you start?).

“Any last words?”

Yes. Ever heard of Currier Islands? No? Check out their Wikipedia page. It’s the most Ultimate thing in the history of Ultimate. I swear you won’t be disappointed.

Also, so many thanks to my teammates who made this possible, especially the captains. I never, ever imagined I would be playing on a NATIONAL team for Ultimate.