Photos by Kristina Aas This is the full, unedited, original article of my monthly column on the Kesklinna Sõnumid newspaper.
Tallinn is blessed with an abundance of greeneries. You can easily find hedgehogs and hares, but they do not come and ask for food from human beings. It is impressive to see them still living with animal dignity right in the city centre.
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This is the full, unedited, original article of my monthly column on the Kesklinna Sõnumid newspaper. Since 8th April 2021 when my idea for an eco-friendly platform of restaurant meal subscriptions, Meal Plan, was announced to be one of the top 50 in the Prototron business contest, I have been immersed in Prototron’s daily entrepreneurship workshops, while on my own learning how to code for variable subscription payments and API integrations for the first time in my life in order to find all necessary technical solutions for the platform. To submit the prototype as part of the assignments, I also learned how to make a mobile app UI design for the first time in my life. But after the sleepless 6 days of intensive graphic designing, movie editing and webpage building, my dear 11 inch MacBook Air from late 2010 suddenly ended its life with the black screen of death just 17 minutes before the submission deadline... How can this possibly happen in such a perfect timing?! But then I realised that I would not even have experienced all these technical learnings and struggles on my startup journey right now if I had still stayed in Tokyo.
UPDATE 18th May 2021: My business idea for the eco-friendly platform of restaurant meal subscriptions, "Meal Plan", is now on Fundwise crowdfunding campaign as part of the Prototron competition programme. You can support Team Yurina from <<here>> !
On my first appearance on TV3 Duubel, I simply said that I don’t know from where in Estonia I can buy fresh fish. There were no planned dialogues or list of questions, so that was all I could say in that moment within the range of Estonian words I knew in my 12th month of learning this language.
But since then, I decided in my mind that whenever someone stereotypically assumes that I make and eat sushi everyday simply because I am Japanese, I would bounce back the same level of stereotypical statement in a joking way, like: “Tubli, sa oled eestlane! No-nii, sa teed ja sööd sülti iga päev. Lihtsalt, jaa?” (Cool, you are Estonian! Then, you make and eat sült [pulled pork in jelly] everyday. Easily, yeah?) The total cost of all the listed items was €199.9 including the taxi fares and truck arrangement for transportation.
Read on for a full photographed list of items I got from where, at what price, how I transported, and how I make use of them! Exactly on this day 5 years ago, I visited Estonia for the first time, thanks to the invitation by Lingvist, where I used to serve as a consultant. My hiring manager then best friend, Hanna-Leana greeted me at the airport with a flower bouquet for a beautiful welcome touch. And it was perfectly on St. Valentine’s Day. I guess we looked to be a romantic lesbian couple to most of the passengers there, while in fact I just came for a short business trip!
Since then, I always have remembered St. Valentine’s Day as my personal memorial day to celebrate my connection with Estonia. I finally moved to Tallinn in last winter, Covid-19 soon hit my new exciting life here, so I spent my first full year of living abroad mostly alone in my flat and learned Estonian language while I could not go out or work, and recently started 2 local businesses in pursuit of the residence permit in Estonia, which are totally different and unrelated from my academic and professional backgrounds. And I love doing what I always wanted to do if I hadn’t pursued a degree in law, finally! Having gained a substantial understanding of the local language, I now started to feel that I found my own place to call home here. As if it was timed to commemorate the 5th anniversary of my connection with Estonia, my interview article on ERR (Estonian national broadcasting) is out now! Starting from this month, I am going to write for the monthly Kesklinna Sõnumid (that free monthly newspaper from Tallinn City Council that you get in your postbox) as Lady Wait-Rose from Japan.
Tere, Yuri räägib siin. Ja, ma olen see naine Jaapanist, kes oli TV3 Duublis 29. januaaris 2021 (klippid selle al).
Mul on olnud palju FB friend requests and messages eelimisel reedest, aga ma ei saa suhelda/kirjutada kõigile, sest ma olen üksinda ja seal on liiga palju inimesed, kes küsivad palju erinevaid asju. Kui te olete huvitatud, miks see jaapani naine valis elada Eestis, kuidas uue elu Tallinnas on olnud talle, mida ta teeb nüüd, jne, kõik leiakse siin! Selle al on, mida ma kirjutasin Taavi ja Jürgenile enne intervüüst. Meil oli minu jaapani toitu ka, ja mul ei oli see paberi, mida ma kirjutasin, nii ma ei saanud õelda kõik. Palun vaata, mida ma tõesti tahaksin suhelda telekas! |
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Üüdisele või ajalehele jne: palun kirjutage vormis siin (inglise keeles küsisin, aga võite kirjutada eesti keeles).
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