Ichigo Ichie

This is my submission for the “BlogBlog Party – August 2026”. This month’s theme is “Ichigo Ichie”, hosted by ikuka. If you run your own blog, you’re welcome to join in!

The first time I learned the phrase “Ichigo Ichie” (once-in-a-lifetime encounter) was from a Japanese drama I watched in college called The Japanese That the Japanese Don’t Know. Even today, it remains one of my favorite Japanese expressions.

Back then, I tried all sorts of things to learn Japanese—like writing diary entries on Lang-8¹ for native speakers to correct, or looking for language exchange partners on JCInfo.net².

If you’re purely looking at learning efficiency, I wouldn’t really recommend this route. You can probably imagine how it goes: guys are mostly just looking for young, pretty Japanese girls—obviously not with language exchange in mind—and it’s just as hard for women on these platforms to find someone genuinely interested in serious exchange. Still, I was fortunate enough to meet two wonderful partners.

1

The first was a woman in Osaka who was studying Chinese. After a few email exchanges, we switched to LINE to stay in touch, occasionally checking in on each other. In 2016, when my girlfriend at the time and I traveled to Osaka for the first time, I plucked up the courage to ask if she wanted to meet up for a meal. To my surprise, she readily agreed.

She loved Taiwan and spoke Chinese remarkably well. I’ve chatted with quite a few Japanese people who love Taiwan, but few could speak Chinese this fluently. That made our language exchange much more balanced—there wasn’t that awkward gap where I wanted to practice advanced grammar while their Chinese was limited to “hello” and “thank you.”

That day, we had fugu (pufferfish) hot pot. The table next to us happened to be celebrating a birthday and started singing “Happy Birthday,” so we clapped along. To our surprise, when they cut the cake, they even offered each of us a slice.

I think that moment was the very embodiment of ichigo ichie. When the bill arrived, she insisted on treating us and wouldn’t let us pay no matter how hard we tried.

2

The other person was a guy I met on JCInfo.net, who worked as an actor. After exchanging LINE contacts, I’d share snippets of my college life with him. He was exceptionally kind and warm—whenever I brought up a topic, he would always reply thoughtfully.

Naturally, life took over and our priorities shifted, so we eventually drifted apart. Five years later, in 2019, right after I finished my job interviews and was getting ready to move to Japan, a message from him popped up:

At the time, I was still living in a rundown apartment near Xingtian Temple, so I took him to one of my favorite spots, Liang Su Toast. Their charcoal-grilled chicken thigh toast is incredible—tender chicken thigh, an oozing soft-boiled egg, and peanut butter, making it impossible to stop eating. Afterwards, he sent me a message saying how much fun he had that day.

Over the years, we’ve fallen out of touch again, but looking back, those memories still bring a smile to my face. Sometimes I feel that working, earning a living, and studying are ultimately just about putting yourself in a better position to encounter such memorable moments and meaningful connections. Or looking at it from the other side, about making yourself capable of leaving someone else with a fond memory.

Being able to come together like that without any agenda, purely to enjoy a good time—perhaps in this day and age, that will only become more and more precious.