年賀状、New Year Card 2019

今朝、やっと年賀状をネットで注文完了！
去年の年賀状リスト（エクセル）を更新して、宛名書きはラベルだしで～
などと思っていたら、旦那に
「ラベルは感じ悪いでしょ」
といわれて、そうかなーと思った次第。
たしかにね、ラベル印刷の宛名で届くとちょっと悲しくなるものね。

今日はもう12月も22日。
いつの間にこんなにカレンダーが進んだのか。。。

今の仕事は、ひさびさのお勤めな上に、20代、30代ばかりの血気盛んな
ザ・ベンチャーという感じの就労環境で、基本なんとなくワサワサしている。
ここ何年もフリーで自分一人で仕事する以外のお勤めは、

自分と同じ年齢あたりの人ばかり　or
若くても外国人　or
大企業での派遣、

という環境に慣れていたので、
結構気持ち的にも消耗していることに気づいた。

年齢的なものか、気づくと相手の話をうんうんと聞く側に回っていることがよくある
のだが、職場それもバイト立場の私に
「いやあ、〇〇さんだから言うんですけど」
というような感情吐露もあったりして、表面上は隠しながらも内心大変驚く。
「実をいうと」という個人的なプチ悩みって案外近しい友達にはわざわざ相談できない
というのが３０代なのだろうか。。。
若いって疲れるんだな、と自分が年を重ねたという事実に客観的に初めて気づいた。

それにしても、日本は結婚を基軸に人生を捉えすぎているとヒシヒシと３０代の男女
両方の話を聞いて強く感じる。

男は結婚の負荷を恐れ、女はその評価基準に縛られるという。
この悪しき社会認識って変わらないんですかね。

４０代・既婚・子持ちは気楽だな、とありがたく思いながら、自分のやりたいこと以外に
気分や人生観をそがれなければいけない年下の彼らを解放してあげられればなーと
思いながら、
私には何もできないなとも思う。

今週末は香港からの帰省組も集まり、旦那の実家でクリスマスパーティー。

めりくり

Finally, I got the new year cards done!! Online!
Every year I wait till the last minute to do this, and when I am done, I always think,
this is not a big deal, I should have done this long time ago....

Now we are ready for Christmas:)
Santa was sent an order through Amazon this Tuesday after realizing there would be
no Santa this year... for Hiroto. Now he is in our closet (Shhh).
Koki found out who Sant is last year, so.

Next Monday (Christmas eve), we are going over to Toru's parents house for Christmas
dinner. His sister and her families coming back from Hong Kong, plus his brother's family
will join from Yokohama. Altogether 6 grandchildren for Toru's parents.

Unfortunately, a petit Christmas party to be held two weekends ago at our house with
my sister + niece and my mom had to be cancelled due to Hiroto being ill but
my mom and my sister showed up for a light lunch on the day since Hiroto's fever
subsided (after this, he came down with stomach flu...).

I have 2 more working days left within 2018.
This year has been another busy year, but good year closing with my career flowing
smoothly with the new startup.
I am starting to fall in the eldest layer of working world in japan especially at startups.
My current boss is 30 and many of co-workers in late 20s to late 30s.

Being in mid 40s, married with children, I seem to be the "Extraterritorial" person in the
work environment making many troubled 30 something co-workers confiding
the personal of personal issues to me over lunch or a coffee,
which at the beginning surprised me but now I understand.

Japan society is still very much conservative with old fashioned concept of a woman
should get married before she hit 30 line.... this is so in the air but in reality
women do not live that way any more.

From hearing the "real" from 30 somethings, I feel both women and men deviate from
each other by being caught up in the concept, not seeing who they really are.

Japan really, really needs to change, we need to find a way to free ourselves more
from this "conceptual" conservative norm and break free from being caught up in
the old "concept".

I see arising group living the way they think right or feel good, but that needs to come
down to grass root level.

I  am starting to think how I can contribute to that, being just a normail, non-influencial
individual.