Happy 30th birthday!

Years ago, I made a bucket list of a hundred things I want to do before I die. Celebrating my 30th birthday in Japan is one of them.

Yesterday was my 30th birthday! I traveled 1620 km from Adelaide to Brisbane, then 7140km from Brisbane to Tokyo. You could imagine how tired I was when the flight landed, so I just got myself a gyukatsu for dinner, soaked in the hot spring for a while, and went straight to sleep.

Though it was not exactly how I had wanted to celebrate my birthday, I felt content and happy. I could have booked a different flight to arrive at Tokyo earlier, but that would mean passing up the chance to meet ONE OK ROCK in person. I got to know the band when "The Beginning" was chosen as the official soundtrack of Rurouni Kenshin (2012). Then "Mighty Long Fall" was used in the sequel Kyoto Inferno (2014) and "Heartache" was used in The Legend Ends (2014).

However, it was not until 2017 that I became one of their fans. That year OOR received so much critique when they released the album "Ambitions". People hated it. I remember reading an opinion piece saying the album "to be nothing ambitious except for perhaps a sales target." For me, I like the old days when their music is full of rawness (as in "完全感覚 Dreamer" or "Deeper Deeper" ), but I admire the band even more when they want to experiment something new.

We’ve been doing this for over a decade, so I feel like our first chapter has come to a close and we’re ready to take on the next chapter. In terms of our music concepts, I believe that we’re going to try something different. We don’t have a clear picture of that yet, but we’re really looking forward to it.

Taka @ "Eye of the Storm" Australia Tour

Tomoya, Ryota and Toru @ "Eye of the Storm" Australia Tour

Similar to OOR, I’m now seeking for some changes in life. The past three decades is all about shaping who I am, then the next decades and beyond will be about what I want to do. Turning 30, what I am afraid the most is not the decline in physical health or a growing number of wrinkles on the face, it is the possibility of losing my spontaneous personality. I want to remain young at heart, to grow rebellious, to play with risks, and to embrace uncertainty.

However, before anything great could happen, I think my pace of living has to be adjusted. In the past several months, my friends told me I was visibly tired (using the word "tired" is such an understatement of my mental and physical exhaustion though). That was the consequence of me pursuing so many things at once in a very compulsive manner. For that reason, I’m now giving myself a 6-month break, hoping to organise and put my life into a healthy order again.

I’m coming home!