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–Introduction–

“Wasabi Stories” is a quotation and summary of a column which touches ones heart or not found on the internet.

It is a Japanese famous person’s story extracted from the NIKKEI news paper.

The purpose in posting the column in JAPAN Style is to cheer you up and to make you feel “it’ was worth reading!”

Wasabi (Japanese horseradish or mustard) is spicy and stimulate your nose and make you teary.

The columns in “Wasabi Stories” hopefully spice your heart and sometimes make you teary!

The stories were originally sent as E-mail Newsletter in Japanese. Some are a little old but we’ll eventually catch up with new ones.

“Stick to Your Own Way”

Today’s story teller is a writer, Mine Kouda.

When she was a bank clerk, she had a chance to talk about own future with American co-workers.

“What will you be doing 5 years from now?” she was asked, but no answer came up her mind at once.

Being at a loss for words, she kept asking questions to the person.

While she dodged the question, the 20s and 30s co-workers started telling about their future plans.

“5 years from now, I’ll be 35, so I’ll retire and start a business.”

“I’ll go back to college and get MBA.”

“I’ll start a volunteer work.”

And so on…

Kouda was impressed by their attitudes.

On another day, she asked the same question to her Japanese co-workers.

“What I will be doing 5 years from now lies on the personnel section in the head office.”
Most of them answered so.

In 2009, the global economical depression cuts jobs in any kind of businesses.

So far from planning 5 years from now, many people barely plan how they live next month.

“Even in such days, it’s important to live with keeping what you will be in 5 years in your mind.”

Kouda told to her girl friend who is near her age, and she got powerful words from her friend.

“You’re right. If I waited for economic recovery, I may be bedridden. I don’t hold back anything I want. I go wherever I want to go and do whatever I want to do.”

The NIKKEI Jan/15/2009 by Mine Kouda (writer)

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