rarity of kindness

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, a 19 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: rarity of kindness 🫂

i always find myself surprised by others’ kindness. in the individualistic society we live in, i never expect it.

from my experience, selfless kindness is quite rare. i just landed in japan, and i was moved by the kindness of the staff at both the cafés i visited today in tokyo.

my first stop was fruits parlour goto, and the entire menu was in japanese (a good sign for the food quality). the waitress noticed i was taking photos and translating the menu, and she began scrolling through labelled photos of the menu from her phone. once i received my speciality strawberry parfait, she even handed me a hand-written note of where all the different types of strawberries were sourced from in english. she pointed between the parfait and note, explaining in detail despite our language barrier. i was touched by the effort and was immediately compelled to write a flowering review of the little café. btw, the parfait was delicious. i didn’t know strawberries could taste that good. 🍓

my next stop was hatoya asakusa, a café specializing in matcha. in a similar fashion, i began scanning the menu in my translator app. one of the staff saw this and handed me an english menu. i ordered with ease and then the same barista began to make my matcha latte in front of me (the proper, authentic way). 🍵 he made conversation with me in english and explained the process of making it in depth, going on to point out the differences between blended and roasted matcha among other things. yes, the matcha was absolutely amazing, but the experience was even better with the taste of kindness brewed within each sip.

perhaps it’s part of japanese culture, or i was just lucky, but whatever it was left a lovely first impression of tokyo on me.

it doesn’t take much to brighten someone’s day — kindness is free. holding the door open, offering to take a photo of a group of friends or simply greeting the cashier with a smile and asking “how are you?” back. :)

kindness shouldn’t be a rarity, let’s live in its abundance.

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