OhtaNotes

Brillia ist Sendagaya. Built 2019. Designed by IAO Takeda Design. Contemporary modernism with alternately tilted balconies.

Countless standard manuals for pro-looking photos, dishes, and living rooms are scattered across the internet. We follow them, terrified of falling outside the standard. Soon it will all look pro, and all taste the same. Falling outside was the secret ingredient all along.

Most books worth reading ignore the reader. They ignore the market. Their authors write the books they want to read. The rest are commodities.

Some cultures see time not as a line but as a circle. There, nothing is ever lost. Everything is on its way back. Which one we grew up with shapes our goodbyes.

Not knowing is fine. We chase what everyone knows only because we’re afraid of being left out. Afraid of being left alone. And most of it doesn’t matter.

I take one small risk every day. Over a lifetime, it’s the safest way to live. Today, I’m about to order a dish I can’t pronounce.

I’ll never know if the colors I see are the colors you see. Somehow we both find the same sunset beautiful. Maybe that’s enough.

Our ancestors crossed oceans without knowing if land existed on the other side. They didn’t check the reviews first. We’re here thanks to them.

I used to write what I knew. Now I figure it out as I write.

My best decisions were the ones everyone called wrong. My worst were the ones everyone was making.