A moment in japan

I started to realize this was the tenth day I stayed in Japan alone when I looked to the sky. The sky is plain blue and clouds are like white soap bubbles, moving very slowly. “Oh, clouds are so beautiful here.” I was thinking while imitating the clouds along this almost empty street. One, two, three... and no more. There were only three people walking on the street with their speed slowed down, just like me. Their back looked very calm, silent, and peaceful. Just in a while my eyes went back to the sky again. The sky was so blue that almost everything on the street looked less attractive. I kept staring at the clouds, watching them moving, moving my body as if I was going to be one of them.

        I did not have a destination. It was the thoughts of not wanting to waste the trip making me walk down the street. I took out the camera without switching it on, moving around to see how little I was. The pedestrian now seemed much bigger inside the camera viewer. The very little shadow of a few people made the street even bigger. Signs installed along the street made the composition more alike to a picture talking about a void street. The buildings were short, leaving the upper part of the viewer a slice of blue sky, although the grey color of the buildings did not quite match with the sky blue. I looked to the sky again.

        Without being aware I climbed to a cross-over bridge, again. I liked the bridges here. This kind of bridges were really great in Japan, thanks to the shortness of buildings and cleanness of the air. When I stood in the middle of the bridge, rised my heads, felt the wind, listened to the beep sound produced by the cars below, everything was just so fine and the clouds were there sharing my joy. I forgot to take photos, and eventually closed my eyes. Now I can still feel the clouds moving even with my eyes closed. The sound of car moving became very clear. It came from far away, passed by, and then left. So did my mind.

        It was not until many minutes later when I opened my eyes. My eyes just got a little bit wet. I thought it was because I was sleepy and that was the tear when I yawned. Who cares? The sun was getting more excited and then gave a beautiful pale-orange color to the street. The grey building now become a good subject matter for paintings. The cars gave the roads shades, and I could see my shadow being projected on the bridge. It was long, but not dark. The same warm shadow appear next to every person on the street. It was not until many minutes later when I started thinking I wanted back home.

Reflective essay

        When talking about life goals, people always think of something different from their interest, such as making big money, earning good reputation, etc. I am exactly the reverse. My life goal is the projection of my interest: I want to be a philosopher, an artist and a game producer.

        I had first used the word “scholar” instead of “philosopher”. The reason why I then changed is I think scholar is too narrow. What I mean narrow is, it is a specific name for those who love wisdom and work in academic fields. This is not a suitable word for those who only love wisdom – even out of academic curriculum. I think Socrate would be the one who most fit the above description. He is famous for his enthusiasm towards any kind of knowledge. He is always humble and talk to people in order to acquire more knowledge even though he did not know that person before. I admire him very much and I always imitate him to talk to people, not only in academic curriculum, too.

        I first grabbed a pen to draw the robot toy that I love when I was around three. I was lying on the floor, holding the pen in a wrong way as if it is a hammer. I first knew the term “drawing” and a book talking about such skills when I was around nine. I asked my dad to buy some related books for me and my journey towards a fascinated world began. I got a D for Visual Art in HKCEE and a B in HKALE. The grades mean nothing, but I was able to learn a lot through the lessons taught by my great visual art teacher, such as art history, art related philosophical question, etc. Art and Philosophy are the two important things in human civilization, I believe.

        What made me want to be a game producer is my gaming experience. I started playing video games when I was just three. The first gaming experience was so enjoyable that I can still remember the exciting scenes in that game very clearly. Such excitement did not vanish as time flies. Instead, I am still playing video games, which had become even more complicated and artistic. Every time I now play a game, I was like reading a book, or watching a movie, or seeing a painting. Such good experience makes me want to deliver the same joy to others and bring video games to a higher level as an art, by creating my own games with the knowledge of art and philosophy.