Lack of empathy

Let me tell you about people’s disconnect from the realities of this world. Their bubble and the lack of resistance in life made them what they are… They lack empathy. I’ve met humans like that and I honestly wish I won’t come into contact with them ever again.

Follow this thread on Twitter, it’s interesting and it hurts.

No, this is not only about UPenn. This is everywhere. I remember having to hear such similar litany regularly before. And I wondered why this person even bothered talking to me or being with me at that moment. This person couldn’t believe that there are people who could not afford to pay the full amount for a bottle of shampoo so poor families resort to buying sachets of shampoo because that’s all they could afford for the day. Because they had to make 500 pesos or 350 pesos fit for everyone in their family for a day. Everyday. 365 days a year.

This type of person couldn’t understand the sachet economy that is the Philippines. That not everybody can afford to buy their daily needs from supermarkets and had to rely on sari-sari stores for their groceries–despite the fact that they pay 1.5 or even 2x the retail price–because the sari-sari stores can sell them goods on credit.

And this person just thinks the poor are just numbskulls that’s why they stay poor. This person does not understand that when you’re at the lower level of the pyramid, it’s hard to climb, even if poor people work 18 hours a day. There are just too many hurdles strewn around those at the poverty line compared to people like me who lead a relatively comfortable life. I’m not even rich. I drive a crappy car, I don’t own a house. I don’t have financial security.

And yet these people will be the ones running companies, making public policies, make big and small decisions that can add or lessen the obstacles for the poor. The lack of empathy among this kind of people is disturbing.


Because I’m not in a good mood today, I slept almost the entire day. And then fixed my container garden.

New location. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
New location. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I relocated my plants because placing them under the huge mango tree was a big mistake. They were shaded, fell victim to caterpillars, aphids, and other pests, neighborhood cats kept digging the soil, and the overall vibe was bad. So a lot of my plants died and these are the hardier ones. The roses lost many leaves and the flowering became dormant.

Now I’ve put white stones so the outdoor cats wouldn’t dig again. I bought flowering fertilizers to revive the roses. My sunflower was completely lost to caterpillars. The periwinkle died of root rot or some fungal infection. The mums and the daisies stopped flowering maybe because the location was not optimal.

I had to redo everything.

This is my goal:

She just completely transformed her condo balcony into a country-style garden.

More or less we have the same size to work with. She has more patience and time than I do though.

Train rides to somewhere…to nowhere

One of my sources in Vietnam has been inviting me to visit them and their sites in Hanoi and I said Vietnam will be my first stop next year if the company travel ban is already lifted. I just don’t know when that will be but normally my travel-heavy months are February (after Lunar NY) until June.

I suddenly remembered that I used to travel heavily before for work and for holidays.

I miss riding trains to nowhere. I don’t like planes. If I would go to Hokkaido, I will take the shinkansen to Hakodate from Tokyo using JR Pass. Because the travel to your destination is half the fun. Although that will eat up 4.5 hrs of my life but that was not that so different when I traveled from Osaka to Kinosaki (with a stop at Amanohashidate). I get to see the countryside.

My train card. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The Hikari from Osaka to Himeji. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I recommend buying JR passes outside Japan since it gives you unlimited rides on the express and ordinary JR lines. Nationwide. This enabled me to travel to four prefectures in 8 days. It was exhausting but oh so worth it.

I went to Osaka in May 2018 and used it as my base when I traveled in different parts of Kansai region. I went to Hyogo Prefecture to visit Himeji Castle, the fortress of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The ownership of it was transferred to an ally of Ieyasu Tokugawa after the Battle of Sekigahara.

Inside Himeji Castle. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Basically these castles are just fortresses and are just series of halls. The nightingale floorboards (they creak loudly when you step on them so that guards are alerted when ninjas are there to ambush the castle) are ever present. I first encountered these floorboards some years before in Nijo Castle in Kyoto–the base of Tokugawa’s reign until the restoration of the Meiji emperor. As far as Japanese castles go, Nijo is unimpressive since it’s not that high but its significance was huge during the Tokugawa shogunate.

The view from the top-most floor of Himeji Castle. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This is the reason why they build high. You can see from a great distance if you’re going to be attacked by your rivals. It was exhausting climbing all the way to the top because the halls and stairs are made to confuse intruders/ninjas. It took me an hour to snoop around inside the castle but I spent three hours in the adjacent gardens where I contemplated about my life. Just because.

Himeji gardens. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Chado. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I tried to have a crash course in chado (tea ceremony) in one of the cottages within the Himeji gardens for JPY 500.

Tea ceremony in progress. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And I enjoyed the gardens some more. I had lain on the floor of that shed in the bamboo “forest” of the garden and rested my weary soul. I decided that I can no longer take my situation back home and I should get out of that soul-destroying situation somehow.

Another section of the Himeji gardens. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Night travel. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I didn’t book accommodations anywhere in Himeji since it was just an hour or 1.5 hrs away by Hikari from Osaka so it was ok to take the train back even though it was already late. My food choices, however, were limited since my hotel was not in the center of Osaka like near Dotonburi and the nearest restaurant wasn’t that spectacular. But I loved my hotel in Osaka because it was just 70m away from the nearest train station, right across the street is a Life Supermarket where I can buy bento dinners or lunches. The hotel also has microwave ovens and common coin-operated washing machines and dryers so I never ran out of clothes. It also has an onsen at the basement which I loved.

Hotel Wing International Select, Higashi, Osaka. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I want to be somewhere right now. Ride the train to nowhere.