I usually think chatting over a phone in Japanese is a waste of time, so I don't do this, even though I've been chatting on Teams with some of my friends in English almost every day. I prefer seeing each other to chat in Japanese.

This afternoon, a friend called me, and we started talking. While catting, we both couldn't stop, so when I looked at the time, we'd talked over for two hours! We talked about mainly the porcelain painting world. Since winning the competition in Kyoto, I've been feeling some pressure from my teacher and some of my painting bodies. I think this relates to Jealousy, and there is a saying 出る杭は打たれる in Japanese, which means "Tall trees catch much wind" in English. I'm glad that I have actually two close painting friends with whom I can share my situation, and who totally understand.

After listening to me, she laughed and said, "A nail that sticks out a little gets hammered down, but one sticking way too out doesn't (get hammered)". I totally agree! I'd like to become like that! I really don't like spending my precious time to spend worrying about things that I can't solve myself. I always think it's wasting time.

Porcelain painters should be beautiful on the inside because they've been creating pretty things, however, unfortunately, this world is full of jealousy. I believe that if we want to create pretty things, our hearts should be clean, so I'd love to stay true to myself and keep creating my art pieces.

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