9月第2週の振り返り：好調な成果と新たな気づき
Taiki Arai's Solo Talk Radio Hello everyone,welcome back to Taiki Arai's
Solo Talk Radio. I'm your host, Taiki Arai. Thanksfor being here. So today, I wanna do two things.
Look back on the second week of September, andthen talk about how I wanna approach week 3.
Let me start with the good, the wins from thisweek. And honestly, since I started publishing
these reviews, this might have been my best weekso far. A lot of good stuff happened.
First, same as always, I got three audio episodesup. Two on junior high level English grammar,
and one episode of Mimi Eigo. In last week'sreview, I said it'd be nice to publish five ormore,
but after thinking it over, I decided that threeis a solid baseline,
enough to keep things moving without burning out.So I hid that.
Second, I took part in events. One online, oneoffline. The online one was a webinar by someone
who teaches how to write on note. That's theJapanese blogging platform. The timing worked out,
so I joined. I'd already decided to start writingon note again, but my why was a little fuzzy.
I don't think it had really clicked for me yet.And listening to this person talk, it finally did.
And if I had to put it in one phrase, it's aboutbuilding a gentle little economy.
Let me unpack that. What this person cares aboutisn't just publishing articles, funneling people
into a paid membership, stacking up subscribers,and chasing some big monthly number. It's the
opposite. It's about building real relationships.The depth varies from person to person,
sure, and then designing something within thatrelationship. Maybe a small monthly membership.
Maybe just genuine back and forth communication.Designing that kind of a connection. Listening
to that really landed for me. It was a genuinelyvaluable 60 minutes, and it made me want to run
my own sessions in that same script. The offlineevent, I think I mentioned this last week,
is a six-month community here in Fukui. Thekickoff was this past Saturday, September 12th,
yesterday, and it was honestly such a good time.There were about 30 members there in the end,
and at this point, I can match maybe 10 to 15faces to names, which feels pretty on track forme.
Getting all 30 on day one would have beenunrealistic, so I'm fine with that. There's
something about being called by the name you wantto be called, and being remembered. Remembering
people's names is hard. I'm not naturally great atit, but the payoff of doing it is something I
feel more than anyone. So for me, it's a highpriority. And this connects to something later
in the episode, but on September 20th, I'm headingto Kyoto. I was going to make it a day trip,
but I booked one night at a hotel instead. OnMonday the 21st, sometime late morning into the
afternoon, I'm going to Fushimi Inari Taisha, andI want to walk up to foreign visitors and say
something like, I'll guide you for free. Mind if Itag along? So to get ready, I dug back into
Fushimi Inari, and I've been studying it, talkingit through with Gemini. That prep was one of the
good things too. One more, there's a hotel inFukui. I think it's a Marriott. Apologizes if
I've got the name slightly wrong, and it's withina five minute walk of Fukui Station.
I heard it had a lounge, got curious, and went. Itwas just so pleasant. First of all,
it smells amazing. The lounge is on the 16thfloor, and they seated me by the window,
and just gazing out, doing nothing, felt like thisdeeply happy stretch of time.
I was there about one hour and a half, and it flewby. I want to make it a regular thing.
A big part of it is that in a place like that, youdon't have to worry about people watching you.
改善点と自己評価
So that's good for a week too. Now, furthermore,the stuff I want to do better.
First, running. My weekly distance was 17kilometers. That's a little more than last week,
but there's a rough reason it wasn't more. Ifinally bought valuable shoes. I was browsing
Adidas on Amazon, found a pair half off, and sincethey were labeled beginner to intermediate,
I figured I don't need the top tire model. Igrabbed them and tried them out on Friday.
My running shoes weigh somewhere around 240 to 270grams. The valuable shoes are more like 350
to 400, so about 150 grams heavier. And that 150grams, tiny as it sounds,
made my feet feel so heavy while I played. Myserves weren't landing, my spikes weren'tdropping.
It's wild that just 100 to 150 grams can throw offyour feel that much.
My body wasn't used to it. I was tensing up inweird ways, and my glutes got incredibly tight.
So this is an excuse, I know. But that's part ofwhy the running distance stayed low.
That's more number one. Second, I barely got anyhistory input in this week.
I've been studying Japanese history, and it justdidn't happen.
Third, I didn't do any content output. What I meanby that is reaching to things I've consumed,
a book I read, an anime, a drama, a movie,whatever. If I don't do at least one of those a
week, I can feel that the muscles start to weaken.So that's the third thing on my more list for week
two. Okay, next, scoring the week. If I had toscore this week, I'd give it 80 out of 100.
That's high for me. And the two biggest factorswere the online event and the offline Fukui
community kickoff. The online one gave me thechance to really think about how I want to build
my own gentle little economy. And now that'ssomething I want to aim for.
And the kickoff of this segment where you sit in agroup and work through big, abstract,
open-ended questions and share your answers. Thekind of thing I usually do alone in my own head.
But here, I was untangling it through dialoguewith other people. It'd been a while
since I'd done that conversational format, and itwas so much fun. Afterward, my head was tired,
obviously, but I also felt this full-body sense ofhaving spent real energy. It was great.
That's why 80. And the atmosphere at that Marriottlounge was a factor too.
英語発音の最大の気づきと環境の影響
Next, the biggest realization. The thing thatmoved me most this week, the biggest insight,
is a bit of a tangent from all that. It's aboutthe shape of your mouth in English pronunciation.
The shape of your mouth. The foundation ofspeaking English is what you might call
throat-based pronunciation rather than mouth-based. How do I put this? Let me find an example.
Instead of katakana style, apple, like a-pu-ru,you want more of a real apple. And that kind ofsound
comes across better to native speakers. I'veworked on this with materials and on my own,
and I felt like I was more or less okay with it,at least to a certain level. But another Japanese
person who really knows English told me, your basepronunciation is fine. If you pay a little
more attention to the shape of your mouth, it'llget even better. And when I did, it did improve.
On top of that, something I've been reallystruggling with lately,
the stress and rhythm within an English sentence,where to put the strong and weak beats.
I hadn't been nailing that. And it hit me thatmaybe being conscious of my mouth shape isactually
the solution to that exact problem. Honestly, Imight have already had this somewhere in the
back of my mind, semi-consciously, but it feltlike rediscovering it. And that was the thing
that moved me most, or was my biggest takeaway,was the fact that I was able to do it.
Okay, compared to a week ago, what's changed forme isn't really my habits. It's the number ofpeople
I'm meeting and the quality of those encounters.Something genuinely shifted right around September
10th. I'm the type who gets influenced by myenvironment more than most people. So in a good
environment, I soak up good influence, and in anenvironment that doesn't fit me, I get affected
in a big way. So it really is worth beinginternational about it. The people you meet,
sure, but also the places you go and where youspend your time. I felt that especially this
past week, that's what changed. Okay, so like Isaid, I'm gonna Kyoto on September 20th,
京都・伏見稲荷でのガイド計画
and I've been picturing what I'll actually dothere when I've got a spare moment before bed,
that kind of thing. I get to Fushimi Inari, andright at the entrance, there's that huge
red torii gate. Or maybe a little further in, andI approach some foreign visitors and say,
I'm trying to become a guide, would you let me doit for free? And in exchange, I'd ask to record
the audio. I'd wear a mic myself, and if say, twopeople came together, I'd ask one of them to wear
a mic too, so I can record us actually talking.Then I'd use that to review. I should have said
it this way here, and improve. I might even say, Iwant to put it up on a podcast, and I just go
do it. That mental image, the resolution of it,got a lot sharper this past week. And when you
think about it, I haven't been to Fushimi Inarisince January, that's seven or eight months,
9月第3週の目標と伏見稲荷の詳細解説
so the timing feels just right. Okay, so weekthree, what kind of week do I want it to be?
Up to now, I've mostly shaped actions. I'll dothis, I'll do that, very due focus. This time,
it's less of a to-do list, and more of a mindset,which is, imagine 100 years from now.
I know, 100 years from now, you won't even bealive, right? But at the Fukui kickoff,
there was someone who gave a talk, and after histalk, I asked a question, and we went back and
forth a little, and at one point, in response tosomething, I asked, isn't that about imagining
100 years from now? And he said, yeah, exactly.That exchange stuck with me.
That said, imagining a century out is hard to justdo. So, can I read this in time?
There's a sci-fi novel called Project Hail Mary.It got a film adaptation this past March or April.
I feel like reading it might spark that kind oflong-horizon imagination. So, if I can,
I'll read it while I let my mind stretch toward100 years out, and even if I can't,
I'll just go by feel, even 10 or 15 minutes withmy eyes closed, imagining a century from now.
Beyond that, week three is mostly about stickingto my habits. That's about it.
Okay, for the rest of today, I want to sharesomething I've mentioned a few times before,
Fushimi Inari Taisha. Let me walk you through itin English. Fushimi Inari Taisha was founded in
the year 711. For context, the capital of Heijō-kyō was established in 710. So, this is a shrinefrom
the Nara period. There are around 30,000 Inarishrines across Japan, and this is the head shrine,
the Sōhōngū, of all of them. The great deityInari, Inari Ōkami, is enshrined across the three
peaks of Mount Inari. It was founded by the Hataclan, a clan of immigrant settlers who lived in
Yamashiro province, which is the southern part ofpresent-day Kyoto. Specifically, a man named
Hata no Irogu. The Hata clan had come over fromthe Korean peninsula, and they are said to have
brought a lot of advanced technology and skillswith them. As for the highlights, first, the
Senbon Torii. The southern tree gates, there areactually well over a thousand red trees packed
so densely that they form what feels like atunnel. Collectively, that's called the Senbontree.
Most of them are dedicated by companies andindividuals. What was the price again? I believe,
even the cheapest. The smallest model runssomewhere around 200,000 to 300,000 yen.
So as you walk through, you really feel it. Thesemany people have made a dedication here.
After the Senbon Torii, further in, there's theOmokaru-ishi, the heavy light stones.
There are two of them, and people line up infront. When it's your turn, you go to one of thetwo,
put in an offering, and make a wish. Then you liftthe stone that sits on top of the lantern with
both hands. If it feels lighter than you expected,your wish is more likely to come true. If it feels
heavier, it's said your wish will take a fortunetime. I tried this back in January, and it was
heavier than I expected, so I lifted its sinking.Oh no, seriously?
There are also many fox statues throughout FushimiInari. The fox is said to be the messenger of the
Inari deity. The god didn't become a fox. Rather,the fox serves as an intermediary between the
deity and people. If you look closely, the foxesare holding different things in their mouths.
A key, a jewel, a scroll, and so on. A key, forinstance, is the key to the rice
granary. A jewel represents something like spring.You can spot those little differences.
And one last thing. Within Fushimi Inari, there'sthe Mount Inari itself. And the mountain itself
is the object of worship, the thing people believein and pray to. If you go up past the main shrine,
you can climb the mountain. And if you make it allthe way to the top, you get a beautiful view
over the city of Kyoto. When I went in January, Ididn't make it that far. I walked through the
Senbon Torii, lifted the Omokaru-ishi, thought,wow, that's heavy, and decided to head back.
And on the way back is where the story I told inearlier episode happens. The one where an Italian
couple and another man weren't communicating well.And I stepped in to interpret. So that's the base.
今後の予定と振り返りの重要性
I'll build on this. Memorize it in English. And onSunday, after my plans for the day are done,
I'll do another scouting walk. Remind myself, oh,this was here, that was there. Take some photos.
Head back to the hotel in the evening to organizeit all. And then on Monday, the next day, go up
to people and ask, excuse me, could I ask a smallfavor? That's the plan. I really need to wrap up
the reps, because until I do, I can't tell you howit actually goes. So I hope you'll look forward
to it. The back half of my coming week isgenuinely packed. On Friday, I'm going to the
Dinosaur Museum with a friend for the first timein 15, maybe 20 years. Saturday, I've got a
volleyball match during the day. And Sunday andMonday, Kyoto. That's the shape of the week.
Doing this review, here's what I noticed. If Iskipped it even for one week, the things I said
I'd do. Some finished, some not. But if I don'ttake the time to confirm, okay, I actually
pulled this off, then I will absolutely stop beingable to do any of it. There's that kind of pull.
That's how much of a weak person I am. I thinkthat about myself all the time.
That's about it, I think. If you have anyquestions or thoughts, there's a Google Form linkin the
show notes, so please reach out there. And ifyou'd like to talk about your English study,
or actually try a lesson, there's a link in thenotes too. I'd love to do a free 60-minutesession.
All right, September is already heading into thisfinal stretch, so I want to treasure each day.
Thanks so much for listening all the way through.Your host has been Taiki Arai.
See you in the next episode. Goodbye!
