シアトルの訪問
Welcome to the final episode of Asami's World Tour, bracket TM, part 6.
Seattle. All right, so we're coming to the end of my rather epic trip and the place to wrap up was
Seattle, Washington. I, despite living in the States for almost 10 years, I didn't really have
much to do with West Coast. I only went to experiments, like beamline experiments in Stanford
maybe in total of three weeks out of my entire 10 years that I was in the U.S.
And yeah, maybe just like a long layover in LA. That's about it. I don't know why I know that
LA, San Francisco, Seattle are all kind of like many favorite destinations from
Japanese tourist point of view. Makes sense because it's closer than going to New York and
stuff. And it's just as nice, probably nicer in a different way. But yeah, I just didn't have much
to do in the West Coast. But this time I'm visiting my friend. It's another friend from
my school, my grad school. Actually, you can scroll back way, way, way, way, way back into
our past episode. And I have maybe like five part interview of my friend Yusuke and that's
who I'm visiting here in Seattle. And so he is now working as a postdoc in Seattle with his wife.
And now they have a new member of the family, a nine month old baby. And that was an interesting
stay. I have a few of my friends who are parents at this point, but they're not majority by any
means. And I think this is my first time I spend extended period of time with a nine month old
baby. And I didn't even know prior to this, I didn't even know what nine month old is capable
or like is supposed to be doing. So I was just like, oh, I can even help, you know, babysitting,
whatever. And they were like, yeah, nah. Basically, they're like, appreciate the offer, but no.
And they were right. He's adorable. He's very, very easy baby, as far as I can tell. But,
you know, I am not his mom. I'm not his dad. And there are definitely things that only parents
can handle. You know, it doesn't matter how good of a auntie Sami I am. Just, yeah. But I was able
to give the couple maybe a couple of hours after the baby slept to, you know, give them a quick
date tonight. So I feel like, you know, I did my duty as a guest to this family.
Um, not only that, though, they let me explore some easy hikes in Seattle with the baby. And so
that was his like, you know, the baby's hiking debut. And that was interesting also. So I think
we went to Franklin Falls. And also, what's the other place? Deception.
Deception something. State Park. Yeah. And both were lovely little walk, you know, pretty flat
子育てとの出会い
near the waters. And there was a nice little break from exploring city and Seattle.
And yeah, it was nice to also catch up with my friends. You know, they, I know, did that quite
well, but not the mom. And because she is right now in like, basically, so I basically got to hang
out with her a lot. And it was interesting, like to talk with someone who's like a tiny bit older
than you, you know, she's maybe five or six years older than me sort of like, I consider it like
one step ahead of my life stage wise. And she just had a baby. And she was very generous with her
sort of time and sharing of what it's like to be a mom and how that has changed her life.
And it got me thinking a lot of things. Yeah, you know, it's, it's a pretty,
it can be a pretty dicey and sensitive topic for many, but it's, it was in between the two of us,
basically, you know, I, I'm just kind of curious, not just of her story as a new mom, but
the older I grow, I realized that I'm more and more interested in other women's story, like
their choices and their decisions and their actions, what they have done, given the circumstances and
the resources that they had. It's just, I think women are faced with somewhat of a unique
challenges. I don't know if you can say unique when 50% of the human population is a woman, but
I do think it's a very sort of woman specific experience. And also, thankfully, I am surrounded
by very ambitious and very independent minded woman. And I consider myself more on the ambitious
and independent minded like they are. And so for me, it's interesting to see what sort of partner
they've chosen for themselves and what life decisions they've decided to make with them,
or maybe without the partner. And yeah, just like a pure sort of, you know, kind of data collection
sense. I'm interested in everyone's story. So I'm really grateful that she shared with me
her story, you know, and I didn't have to like interview her, right? Like she just kind of like
wanted to share more things about being a mother, motherhood, etc. And now that I think about it,
maybe she wanted to talk about it with somebody who isn't a guy, you know? I mean, she sounds
like she has lots of friends in Seattle already. She's a very extroverted and very friendly person.
But like, I think I am one of the few who understands what it's like being in a PhD,
especially towards the end of PhD, and what it's like to be with my friend, right? Like her husband.
And it was interesting to like, hear and like, just, yeah, really her speaking her mind
about her sort of joy and fear and anxiety and hope, all of it mixed in of being a mother.
シアトルの生活と家族
And so for me, Seattle is more about this family than Seattle itself during this trip,
because I just spent so much time with them. And I feel like I've heard so much about them.
Yeah, but Seattle, you know, other than insanely expensive living cost of Seattle,
I was surprised, like, apparently, you could be earning 90k US dollars, you know,
I don't even know what that is in today's currency, like close to 1500,000 yen as an issue.
You could be earning that much and still qualify for state subsidies for rent, for food and other
things like, that is nuts to me. Like, how has the living costs in Seattle skyrocketed so much?
And also, there's also definitely sort of a very visible inequality that unfortunately,
you see on the streets, you know, you have Google, Microsoft, like that type of tech,
people who you know, and you can tell that they're making a good living.
And also people who are struggling a lot, like right next block, basically. And that was,
you know, kind of something that I conveniently took it out of my mind ever since I moved back
to Japan, and then traveling through Vienna, Prague, Barcelona, like these are big cities.
And of course, there were people struggling on the streets, but like,
I didn't, like, they were not as visible as those in Seattle. And it's just crazy to think
about these things. And always kind of makes me check in on my privilege, for sure, when
these things happen. But for the most part, Seattle is beautiful, you know,
you're close to waters, you're so close to nature, I think that's something that's a
little bit different about other cities of West Coast, or East Coast for that matter.
Pacific Northwest is like, very nature-y. And I think if you lived in Seattle, you will
inevitably pick up hiking or skiing as your hobby, because it's so close. And it's right there.
And yeah, like, I kind of, while I don't think I have,
while I don't think I will spend my time in the US for the next few years, at least,
I do miss having access to these national parks and state parks
that are just like massive in scale. I feel like that's a very iconic and unique features of US.
And even though I got to go to Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, and stuff like that, there are
many other national parks that I would have loved to go, which we'll have to wait for a little bit,
you know. But that's it for Seattle, I think. I then came back to Tokyo just a few days ago, and
it is hot. I just don't remember Tokyo being this hot when I was growing up in, you know,
early 2000s in Japan, Tokyo. And it's, yeah, I need to re-get used to this level of humidity and
heat, or solve climate change. Either way, one of those would do. All right, thanks for tuning in.
アサミのシアトルでの体験
I briefly mentioned in a previous episode, but this entire trip was possible because, well, one,
I don't have work to do right now. I'm just like, yuku shoka right now, because I was unexpectedly
laid off from my postdoc job. Maybe I will talk more about it if there's enough interest, but
I doubt anyone would have that much interest. There's not much interesting story to it, other
than look at what a certain president's doing in a certain country, and my grant got slashed.
That's all there is to say. But I am grateful that I had the financial means, and I had
enough time and bandwidth to make this trip happen, and got to see and experience all these
places. And I went to this entire trip without my laptop, which is insane, isn't it?
So I'm sure this is going to be one of those trips where I think is going to be more meaningful
when I look back later on. Right now, of course, I'm very grateful that I got to do this and happy
that I did it. I would have not had it any other way. But at the same time, I'm sure there's
something that will become more clear, an insight that you can only see when you have enough temporal
distance from this event. So for now, I'll just keep looking back on my photo folders, maybe even
make a photo album or something of this trip. And it's just, yeah, like, try to get back to reality,
really. You know, after having this kind of like, traveling life for a brief period of time,
it's kind of hard to get back to reality and doing the normal thing, you know, like,
oh, I wake up in the same bed every day. Like, yeah. Anyway, thanks for listening this far
in my, you know, little blobbing of travel logs. And we hope to, you know, get back to the usual
routine of twice a week release. Should probably do some kind of reintroduction as well,
because I noticed that there were quite a few followers increase while we were away, which is
odd, you know, no episode, and then we still had some followings increase. So thank you very much
for those who joined. And yeah, like, we should probably do some reintroductions soon. But in
the meantime, enjoy my, I hope you enjoy my travel voice logs. And see you in the next episode.
Bye bye. That's it for the show today. Thanks for listening and find us on x at
Ego de Science. That is E-I-G-O-D-E-S-C-I-E-N-C. See you next time!
