Story: Carrot , Egg and Ooloong tea

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and places each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots , in the second she eggs, and in the last she placed Ooloong tea. She let them sit and boil , without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes , she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and places them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the Ooloong out and placed them in a bowl. turning to her daughter , she asked , "Tell me what you see." " carrots , eggs and ooloong tea, she replied/

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the Ooloong tea. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter asked , " what does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each od these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. the egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior , but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside become hardened.

The ooloong tea was unique. After the boiling water, they had changed the water colour and taste. " which are you?" she asked her daughter. " when adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or Ooloong tea?

Think of this: Which am i . Am i the carrot that seems storng but with pain and adversity do i wilt and become soft and lose my strength?Am i teh egg that starts with a malleable heart , but changes with the heat? Did i have a fuild spirit, but after a death , a breakup , a financial hardship , have i become hardened and stiff?

Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am i bitter ad tough with a stiff spirit and the hardened heart?

Or am i like hte Ooloong tea? The tea actually changes the hot water, the very circumstances that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you like the tea, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation arounf you.

When the hour is at the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make your strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don necessarily have the best of everything: they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgetten past, you can't go forward in life until you let go your past failures.

I am too lazy to write for the whole summary of the 6 days trip . But this is my overall thought

On my way back home from my Japan trip, I bought the book ‘The Alchemist’. The book has particular deep meaning for me especially after my Japan trip. The gist of the book is about fulfilling one’s personal legends. It coincides my life long dream of visiting Japan. President Ikeda often asks the students,” What dreams do each of you have in your heart now?” Everyone has dreams at the current moment.

The story’s main character, Santiago, is a shepherd boy sets out to find his "Personal legend," or dream in life. Along the way, he faced all sorts of unexpected obstacles and runs into a variety of characters who have given up their dreams and settled for more a comfortable life. But his power of belief helped him continue to purse his dream throughout the journey and in the end he finally fulfilled the dream. Like Santiago, I too have a dream, my dream was to visit the brilliant kaikans in Japan and visit the magnificent Soka University with my girlfriend/comrade in faith.

In life, it is difficult for people to keep their own promise to their heart. ‘The Alchemist’ taught that there are many people who will give up their dreams, as people often believe in the world’s greatest lie, and that is, at certain point in our lives, we lose control of what is happening and our lives become controlled by fate. There are more and more obstacles until the dream becomes more and more far-fetched. The dream then often will be buried deep in our soul as the years go by.

I nearly believe in the lie too, as I was surrounded by worries, doubt, suspense and fear before I even went to Japan. My girlfriend and I were not sure how we are going to go there. We can easily go with a tour group, but this way it did not allow us to visit the Soka Centers and Soka University. We were also not ready to go on our own as we have no idea how to go from one place to the other. It was also my first trip abroad. Money was always a hindrance, as we really have to work our way to save up for the trip. Language was another barrier to us since neither of us is particular articulate in Japanese.

But ultimately there is faith, we have faith everything will go well, we also have the faith that we will able to fulfill the dream. The faith helped us to have the courage to confront the dream. The faith helped us to go ahead to explore and find our way to Japan. Thus my girlfriend and I are determined that we can definitely achieve our dreams. We decided to go on our own .

Like what is frequently mentioned in ‘The Alchemist’, when you want to something, all the universe will conspire in helping you achieve it.

Our trip was safe throughout; we never lost our way and fulfilled our dream of visiting all the kaikans that we want to visit. Everything went so smoothly for us that it became a real memorable trip. For the language barrier, we find that we can actually made ourselves understood by gestures, smiles, facial expression. One lesson learnt was if you are sincere, there is no language or culture barrier, everything will be clear and there will be no danger of being misinterpreted.

The journey to Japan also makes me realize as we often search through many places for our treasure and dreams, and where we least expect it, the real prize comes in the form of the journey itself. I realize the greatest part of the Japan trip was not only the all the wonderful kaikans that I visited but it comprises all the dearest members and friends that I have met. It also showed me one important lesson that Santiago learnt from in ‘The Alchemist’, the lesson of going confidently in the direction of our dreams.

Whether your dream is small or large doesn’t matter. But remember that you can never go any higher than your dream, so accept the challenge and have a dream. Michelangelo said that the greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, and that it is too low and we reach it.

Nihon Trip

Day 1 - 10/05/07

Places visited

-Kyoto

-Arashiyama

-Imperial Palace

-Gion

Summary

When we reached Kyoto, it was already drizzing, thus not a best start to our trip. I was still positive and in high spirits that everything will turn out to very well. ( It was indeed an awesome trip) We then have to carry our heavy luggage to find my accomodation place although it was raining.

The positive thing happened to us when a kind-hearted soul brought us to my hostel when at that moment we really lost my way in the bad weather. Thus the first thing that i learn in Japan is if you don know anything, please ask !, Like what Paulo Coelho mentioned in his book , 'Like a flowing river', although neither of both parties can speak the each other languages, we can made ourselves understood by gestures, smiles, facial expressions and the desire to share and ask. The simple desire to share something meant we can enter the world of language without words, where everything is always clear and there is no danger of being misinterpreted.

I realize that truth that the world is really interwined together, there is no culture or language barrier between people. A sincere heart can make you pierce through the other person heart without barriers.

Back to the topic that how i found the building. I was at first skeptical about the K House, my hostel. But it turns out to be really a cozy , comfortable stay for us. No wonder it was voted the best hostel in Japan in 2004.

Day : We followed our schedule and went to Arashiyama , it was recommeded by our friend, Tommy and she told us going to Arashiyama is a must. Thus although it was still raining , we made our way there. It was a beautiful and unqiue place whereby the " Romance train" is the highlight. The Romance train will bring u all around Arashiyama filled with nice scenery. We miss the walk to the Monkey park and bamboo grove though as it was not only raining but the weather is really frezzing us.

Night : We made our way somehow by bus to Gion after a trip to the Imperial place. We did see some geishas in Gion. My dear adviced me not to take pictures of them as they are also earning a living and not icons and have no obligations to entertain the tourists. It was really freezing that the night , all i can recall vividly is the 1000 yen for the dinner that we paid for three dishes in Gion. It was pretty cheap and most importantly , OISHi !.