Japan as Only 1

 It all began when my 7-year-old daughter caught a praying mantis on our balcony. And just like that, we became mantis owners... 😢 In the past, we considered stink bugs a nuisance—whenever they appeared in the house, we simply caught them and threw them out. On busy days, we might have to get rid of three of them! But now, with a mantis to feed, these once annoying insects have become valuable "food," and catching them has turned into a fun activity. It has become a new family routine to eagerly hunt for stink bugs and feed them to our mantis. If we don’t, the mantis won’t survive, and if we run out of stink bugs, we have to go to the park to find grasshoppers or dragonflies. Though it might seem a bit harsh, I believe this experience helps my children understand the circle of life—living creatures rely on other life to survive. This transformation, where a pest like a stink bug suddenly becomes a treasure, taught us an important lesson: value depends greatly on perspective ...

 There used to be a pomegranate tree in the square next to EIS（EGAO Inter national school). Pomegranates are not something you often see even in supermarkets in Japan, so I believe it was a great experience for the children at EIS to taste them. However, it seems that the tree was cut down along with the old shed that was demolished. At that time, I felt that trust and this pomegranate tree were similar in nature. Because, like a tree, trust takes many years to grow. It might even take over a decade for a fruit tree to bear truly delicious fruit. But no matter how big and splendid the tree becomes, and no matter how abundant the fruit, once the tree is cut down, it's all gone. Even if you plant a new tree now, it will take decades to reach the same state. This shows how difficult it is to build something up and to keep it going. This is often the same in our lives. It takes time to build trust, but it can be lost in an instant. You have to keep making efforts to see results, but if...