I tried 4 new things over the past 30 days and expanded the range of things in life I enjoy.
Introduction
I previously wrote about doing the opposite of what we’ve always been doing. Over the past 30 days, I tried out doing 4 things differently. These include having a new schedule for the weekly family hike, reading a new genre of books, listening to new music, and even going to a new eatery for breakfast.
New hiking schedule
Since the arrival of autumn this year, my wife and I initiated a family new family outing. We would bring our child out for walks during the weekends. We would leave early for breakfast at a nearby eatery, then walk up the tracks alongside reservoirs and mountainside.
Last week, we decided to alter the new routine due to some last-minute scheduling changes. This led to the first of 4 new things I tried. We started the hike in the late afternoon on a Saturday instead. This brought about a new encounter and a pleasant surprise.
The new encounter was with wild boars. The park we went to had a few warning signs about these creatures. Over the past month, however, we had not run into a single boar. During this weekend’s trip, however, we ran into six. The first we encountered at the entrance. This was a large boar that was napping next to the park’s entrance signage. It looked more than a metre from snout to tail. Even with its belly lying on the ground, the ridge of its back reached a height of about half-a-metre. Like other hikers, we took photos of it and were thankful it was napping and not scavenging for food.
Halfway through the hike, we were alerted by a sudden rustling in the vegetation. This time, we were greeted by four younger looking boars. Unlike the large boar at the entrance, they were fully awake and appear to be playing a boar equivalent of ‘catch’. After jostling amongst themselves with their snouts they raced away in the opposite direction of where we were heading.
The last boar encounter was at the end of the hike. A solitary young boar sauntered past the gate as we were leaving. Like the ones that went before, it paid absolutely no attention to the humans around it. This ended our close encounters with boars for the day.
The pleasant surprise came after dinner. We went to the wet market where my wife usually does her weekend grocery shopping. One of the greengrocers was preparing to close for the day and holding a closing-sales. My wife managed to buy vegetables and fruits at a fraction of the prices she usually pays in the morning, with no observable deterioration in quality.
New read: Japanese crime novels
The second of 4 new things I tried was in what I read. After a few straight months of reading English non-fiction, I decided to switch to reading non-English fiction for a change. Japanese crime novels emerged as the preferred genre.
Within this genre, Keigo Higashino is one of the most prolific and noteworthy authors. I had watched Japanese movies and TV series without realizing they were based on his books. These include Detective Galileo and Masquerade Hotel.
For this round of reading, however, I did further research and shortlisted four of his most recommended books:
- The Devotion of Suspect X: the third adventure of Detective Galileo, and a winner of multiple book awards. While reading, I started buying bento box for lunch from the Japanese supermarket at the basement of my office block. Reading the story while eating from the bento box in the nearby park gave a really vicarious experience.
- Journey Under the Midnight Sun, or Byakuyako: I find the story most unique in that the two protagonists never encountered each other in the narrative. Readers are left to make their own inferences and conclusions about the relationship between the two and their motives. It wasn’t until near the end of the story that I realized this was more a story about tragic love than a series of cold-blooded murders.
- Naoko, or Himitsu, or The Secret: this is a most interesting story. There was no crime involved and the plot has a supernatural theme not commonly seen in crime novels. It prompts provoking questions such as: what would you do if you had a second chance to live life all over again? What would you do if your partner had that second chance, but you don’t?
- Malice: this is a really grim story. It depicts the issues of school bullying in Japanese schools, which can extend into adult life. It also reminds readers that some times, the bullies’ motivation can be as simple as “I don’t like the his [the victim’s] face.”
I thoroughly enjoyed these. They gave me a glimpse into the Japanese psyche, especially its change over the period of the burst of the Japanese economic bubble.
New music
The crime novels reminded me of the mini-series True Detectives. This led to the next of 4 new things I tried: music. The song that came to mind was the opening theme of Season 2. I must admit that up to the point of looking up the song, I had not heard of Leonard Cohen.
The True Detectives Season 2 theme song was Nevermind, which turned out to be a poem Cohen wrote much earlier. The poem was rather bleak, but was pretty in line with the “might is right” reality we see in the world: “You own the world, so never mind.” I decided I liked this style of music and looked for similar songs.
Two other songs I find haunting was Hallelujah and You Want It Darker. Both had religious references to God. They also highlight Cohen’s own questions about life, which echo that of many listeners. It’s no wonder four years after his death, fans are still leaving comments paying tribute to Cohen’s songs.
New breakfast place
Since the end of the compulsory work-from-home schedule, I have been breakfasting at an eatery near the office every workday. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is traffic. Leaving home ten minutes later has the consequence of me arriving at the office 25 minutes later than otherwise. It just makes more sense to skip breakfast at home to beat the traffic. The second is management inspection. Despite all the talk about encouraging staff to work from home, the new top boss at the office makes it a point to take a round-the-block walk three times a day. To avoid having to face unnecessary music, people started being at their desks before his first walk of the day.
Back to breakfast. My usual eatery serves typical local fare. I rotate amongst their usual menu items. Then one fine morning, the queue went on for five metres. It turned out they had a process issue. With the clock ticking towards first-walk, I walked out decisively. On the way towards the lift, I noticed another eatery one level down. And this led to the last of the 4 new things I tried: new breakfast place.
I hurried down and bought the simplest item on the menu for takeaway. I made it back to the office in time. After the ceremonial parade, I tucked in to what turned out to be the most delicious double-bacon-egg burger I had eaten in years.
Since then, I had been rotating between the two eateries. The episode reminded me why I like living here in the first place: having a choice.
Conclusion
Trying 4 new things over the past 30 days did not take much effort. I do have to be mindful to be making conscious decisions, however, instead of following my default routine. The outcome has been very positive. I learnt that I can actually enjoy a broader range of things in life than I previously thought. There were occasional risks, such as the encounters with the wild boars. However, these seem worthwhile payment for the chance to flex my abilities to appreciate different things life has to offer.
