A Japanese way of not carrying everything

Some weeks, I’m not tired because of work. I’m tired because of the world. The constant information, the expectation to react, the feeling that being a good person means being endlessly engaged. It’s a kind of exhaustion that doesn’t lift with rest because it isn’t only physical. It’s the weight of feeling responsible for too much, all the time.

When I lived and worked in Japan, I didn’t escape that feeling entirely. In a work context, space often didn’t exist. Long hours were normal. Endurance was expected. Silence didn’t always mean rest; sometimes it meant holding things in. So this isn’t a romantic story about work-life balance.

And now, as a business owner, I feel a different version of that pressure. Responsibility doesn’t stop at the edges of the day. Even when I try to step back, there’s a low-level awareness that things ultimately come back to me. Setting responsibility down, even temporarily, is harder when you know you’re the final stop.

But outside of work in Japan, I noticed something that stayed with me.

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