Important Points for Human Beings

By Reika

I had a wonderful time in Seattle. I learned many important points as we live as human beings. Every minute was learning and studying new things such as passion, hospitality spirit and connection.

The first day started from very exciting spot, Safeco field. Safeco field is a home baseball field of the Seattle Mariners. Ichiro Suzuki is the most famous Japanese baseball player on the team. On my visiting day, I could see the room where Ichiro had an interview when he first came; moreover, I could actually stand on the ground and sit down on his bench. Those experiences were terrific! Many people love Ichiro. Not only is he good at baseball but is he also a hard worker. Most of the people can’t keep making efforts into one thing. When I stood on the ground and when I sat on his bench, I imagined what Ichiro thought and felt from those exciting views. He might feel nervous there, but what I felt was his great passion and his true feeling; he loves baseball!

The second day was an easy and relaxing day; however, I saw some hospitality spirit there. I went shopping at Westlake Center. Wherever I went in, sales clerks always said, “Hi! How are you doing?” That was a quite interesting point. In Japan, when I enter a shop, sales clerks always start to talk about the clothes for their business like “This T-shirt is a new arrival and it catches the new trend,” and so on. I dislike this kind of conversation in the shops. I could see her purpose and the sales clerks seem to not care about what customers want to get. They only care about what they want to sell. Through this point of view, I thought American hospitality spirit was an important role for sales clerks.

On the third day, I was standing on the busy street in Pike Place Market where I could feel strong connection between sales’ clerks and customers. Pike Place Market has been run by local people such as farmers. We can buy fresh food there. As I walked in the market, I saw one interesting fish store. The store clerks performed and earned customers’ attention by throwing fish. That view was quite interesting and surprised me. At the market, I felt local people’s strong power and connections. The atmosphere was so much different from what I felt in a supermarket. This is because people at Pike Place Market are nice, and they are proud of their products. They’ve made strong relationships with their customers as they sell their own food.

It was a great opportunity to find the important points for human beings such as Ichiro’s passion, sales clerks’ hospitality spirit and people’s connection. I will open my eyes more widely during the rest of my stay in the US.