＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
１．Red Seal Book Boom
Recently, there has been an overheated boom in “red seal book” sales following the change of the Japanese era name from “Heisei” to “Reiwa. It seems that there were more people who wanted to buy red seal impression books because they were trendy or for resale than people who wanted to buy them out of religious belief.
In addition, when we look at the “UNIQLO collaboration T-shirt racket” in China, “people who wanted to resell” rushed to the sales floor and fought over them, and the existence of “people who chase fads” is transparent in the background.
２．Tapioca was all the rage among young women in Osaka
A few years ago, while walking around Nishi-Umeda, I came across a line of young women waiting in line. I followed the line and found a brown sugar tapioca specialty store called TOKUCHA. Opened in April 2019, it spread by word of mouth and was very popular among young women.
The “TEA18 Eki Marche Osaka Store” located at the Sakurabashi exit of JR Osaka Station, which specializes in Taiwanese tea and tapioca, and “Shunsuidou” at Grand Front Osaka were so popular that people had to wait in line, and the “tapioca” whirlwind that originated in Taiwan was tremendous. Later, another tapioca store opened in Takatsuki City, and on the opening day, high school girls lined up in line to buy tapioca.
This has nothing to do with “religious beliefs” or “resale purposes,” and can be considered a pure “kind of fashionable gourmet boom.
By the way, this is not the first “tapioca boom. The first boom was around 1992, when the bubble economy burst. The second boom was around 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed. This was the third boom, during the U.S.-China trade war and worsening relations between Japan and South Korea.
Thus, the “tapioca boom” seems to coincide with a period of economic recession. Some have explained the reason for the boom as “economic downturn → lower rents → room for low-priced stores to open new stores → business opportunity for tapioca stores.
３．The Psychology of Chasing Trends
By the way, what is the psychology of chasing fads?
(1) Desire for approval
I believe that at the core is the desire to be in the limelight by taking advantage of the buzz of a fad. They want to show off that they are on the cutting edge of fashion.
（２）Anxiety Psychology
Although the original “fashion” is to value one’s own personality without being influenced by trends, many people who are unaware of their own “personality” try to gain a sense of security by following trends because they are anxious that they will become a minority and be left behind if they do not follow the trends.
It is safe and easy to be with everyone else, so it can be said that people are easily influenced by trends.
As a side note, let me introduce a little about the etymology of the word “fashionable”.
The word “お洒落“Osyare(fashionable)” comes from the word “洒落“sharaku”. It means “a state of being unrestrained and unaffected by things. It also means “stylish. A similar word is “洒洒落落“shasha-rakuraku”. The word “洒洒” means “refreshing in nature, behavior, dress, etc.” and “落落” means “frankness and frankness of feeling.
Thus, “洒洒落落“ means “to have a refreshing disposition, speech and behavior, and not to be obsessive about things.
（３）Self-satisfaction
It is the psychological need to be stimulated by being exposed to new things. Since something new is something that the brain has never processed before, the brain is stimulated and shows strong curiosity as well as pleasure.
４．How to live without being influenced by fads
Trends range from fashion, hairstyle, food, books (bestsellers), music (popular songs), and cars to ways of life and values.
I do not like to be a sucker for fads, and I do not like to be at the mercy of the industry that created the fad.
I mentioned above that the psychology of those who follow trends includes “pursuit of economic profit (for the purpose of resale),” but the psychology (or rather, the purpose) of those who create trends is clearly “pursuit of economic profit. Therefore, the cycle of fads, especially in fashion, is becoming shorter and shorter.
My lifestyle and values have been developed over the years, and I want to cherish them.
And I want to keep my distance from the trends of the world and look at them from a step back. Even if some might call me “out of date.” …
５．The Disastrous Effects of Tapioca Eating Manners and Large Consumption on the Body
Thus, tapioca was all the rage a few years ago, but it also caused a serious “garbage problem.
Takatsuki City was also experiencing a rush of tapioca specialty stores, but perhaps because there were no such things as trash cans for vending machines, there were many cases of people leaving uneaten (leftover) cup trash and littering, as well as forcing them into the trash cans for vending machines.
I would like to request that tapioca specialty stores set up “dedicated trash cans” and instruct their customers on how to behave so that they do not throw their trash out on the street, etc.
Tapioca is a starchy substance, so carelessly throwing it away can cause “clogged drains. Eating (drinking?) tapioca I hope that young people will also be very careful about their “eating manners.
Some doctors say that tapioca is a starchy food that is difficult to digest, and that large amounts can cause gastrointestinal problems. We hope that you will be very careful.
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