I list up the most impressive events I experienced each year as the “words of the year” every year-end, like this:
The words of the year for 2001: getting a flat within the Tokyo metropolitan area, a position change at the office, and Soarer.
The words of the year for 2002: America.
The words of the year for 2003: the airplane and the musical.
The words of the year for 2004: the blog, Asian countries (Singapore and Hong Kong), and the GSM mobile phone.
The words of the year for 2005: darts, the GSM and WCDMA mobile phone, and visiting Hong Kong again.
The words of the year for 2006: the US stock and the mutual fund.
The words of the year for 2007: changing my car and visiting Hawaii.
The words of the year for 2008: England and Fukagawa.
The words of the year for 2009: office position change, MacBook Pro and JR Seishun 18 Ticket.
The words of the year for 2010: Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia; iPhone; and the credit card.
The words of the year for 2011: the car, the British culture and China.
The words of the year for 2012: Oji, the mahjong, the flight attendant and Facebook.
The words of the year for 2013: Ayurveda, Korea, high school alumni and Tsuyoshi Takashiro.
Now I have the words of the year 2014: England and Android.
Though England is the word chosen in 2008 and 2011 (as “the British culture” at that time), I’ve chosen it again because I really visited this country this year. I did it twice! Visiting the real England was one of my dreams for years, and at last, this dream came true. I was in London, Haworth, Folkestone, Hastings, Tunbridge Wells, and more. I’d got the chance to walk on the moors, drink beer in the pub, stay in the B&B and the hotel, and even drive the roads of Great Britain!
Through these trips, I got to know many aspects of England. Some were the same as what I expected, and others weren’t. On the whole, the UK looked similar to Japan. It made me find reassuring in a sense, and at the same time, it gave me less excitement than the countries like the United States and Hong Kong, where there was plenty of what I’d never seen before. England is certainly an “old” country, which Japan will be like at no distant date.
The second word, Android is what I began to use this year as an operating system of my mobile phone. I owned iPhone5 before, but I replaced it with an Android smartphone because I found out Android OS and phones were getting more and more dominant in the world (in particular the countries other than Japan and the US) than iOS and iPhones even if iPhone6 and iPhone6 Plus were released this autumn. You may not be aware of it if you are in Japan, where you’ll see many people still use iPhones, but I feel the time is slowly changed. I think that the era of the iPhone will be over in a few years.
Buying and using many different types of Android smartphones from entry models to high-end ones, I found that Sony Xperia Z3 Compact would fit for me the most, with balanced capabilities and costs. Though I don’t know which type of mobile phones will be dominant next year, I’ll use it in the short run.
Looking forward to new wonderful things I’ll come across next year. Have a nice New Year, everyone!