When spring is pink and new in Tokyo, we gather to celebrate our lives.

In the busyness of our days, it’s easy to take our health and happiness for granted.

But let’s not forget how fortunate we are — to be here, now, living this moment.

Here’s how my week 1,525 unfolded.

1. What I read.

Revisited Hirohiko Araki’s Art of Manga（荒木飛呂彦の漫画術）by Hirohiko Araki

Still packed with great insights — always something new to take away.

The quote that stuck with me:

“Story begins with a character and a difficult situation — these two elements are all you need to create a narrative.”（キャラクターと困難な状況のアイディア、このふたつがあれば、ストーリーを作っていくことができます。）

2. Who I saw.

A teammate from the US office, visiting Singapore.

The little details I observed:

I often see their name pop up in my daily communications, but we have never had the chance to meet in person due to the time zone difference. So when I spotted a Zoom invite from them, I was genuinely excited — I’d been looking forward to this opportunity.

I learned that they’re deeply passionate about their work, and their journey began with a mistake they made in their very first month at the company. They’re a great example of how failure can be the mother of success.

3. What I created.

Out this week: a piece on the foundations of reliable, fast, and secure platform architecture.

The story behind it:

Working in support duty helps give a higher-level understanding of the platform. It’s grown my interest in designing it.

Next Week’s Peek — What I’m looking forward to and why

I’ll be practicing public speaking.

Next week, I have two key moments:

• The all-day offsite for the Japan office, where I’ll be giving a presentation and hoping to connect with everyone to explore how we can move forward as one team.
• A couple of meetings where I’ll be representing my team at the office.

Hope you had a great week.

Catch you next week!