2602 Mt. Kongo [No. 004] App Creation Diary That Isn't Progressing At All - It's a Holiday, So Maybe I'll Go Mountain Climbing...

It is said that there are about 500,000 words in the Japanese language.
The number of words included in the largest Japanese dictionaries is considered the benchmark for this.

However, the words we use in our daily lives are only a small fraction of that.
Commonly used language like greetings, work exchanges, and conversations with family.

The vocabulary remaining after subtracting those—
Isn't it that "difference" that shapes who I am?

I was thinking about things like that while climbing the mountain.

Yesterday, I watched the movie 'Mt. Tsurugidake: The Point of Record'.

It is the story of surveyors who challenged Mt. Tsurugidake in 1906 to fill in the last blank space on the map of Japan.

Mountains do not need words.
When you climb them, they are beautiful just as you feel them,
and the journey itself is clearly tough.

And yet, as soon as we descend, we try to put it into words.
We draw it on maps, leave it in records, and turn it into stories.

That activity somehow overlapped with my own app concept.

Mt. Kongo at 4:00 AM

Unable to sit still, I left the house at 4:00 AM,
and headed for the trailhead.

I have climbed many different mountains, but
Mt. Kongo is, after all, a slightly special mountain.
A large number of climbers come and go on the well-maintained mountain trails almost every day.

There are middle-aged men and women with the cheerful disposition unique to Osaka, and
if you even think about stopping at the first station,

"What are you doing? There's still a long way to go!"

they might call out to you.
While replying, "Haha, you're right," and

thinking to myself (Who even are you, lady!), I find myself liking Mt. Kongo again because it is a mountain that contains human warmth, not just silence.

The reason I climb it many times

I have climbed Mt. Kongo many times in the past year.
Even though the mountain doesn't change, the me who climbs it is changing little by little.

Vocabulary is the same.

Out of the 500,000 words, the words I choose to use after subtracting daily conversation.
Isn't it the accumulation of those choices that reveals one's personality and character?

Even though words are not needed

When you go to the mountains, you don't need words.

I greet Fudo Myoo, toss a coin into the shrine's offering box, and eat a rice ball at the summit shop, pouring hot water into the cup noodles I brought with me.

I ate breakfast... and that should be enough, yet I am searching for words again. I am trying to write about the mountain in my diary.

Physical discomfort and the reason I climb anyway

My calf isn't feeling quite right. The numbness in my left arm has also remained as a lingering discomfort for some time now.

Why do I climb even so?

Perhaps I want to observe the 'state of myself' climbing the mountain more than the mountain itself.
Perhaps I want to observe the 'state of myself' climbing the mountain more than the mountain itself.

Today's climb was a mountain trip in search of hints for app development.

A person's vocabulary reveals who they are.

If so, what if we could visualize the 'remaining words' after subtracting everyday language?

The outline of a person's unique, unused vocabulary.
The bias in the words they choose.
The concepts they end up using repeatedly.

That might be a modern version of 'surveying.' Just as there were people who surveyed mountains, I might be trying to survey words.

In a country with high abstract understanding, I am trying to survey words

It is said that Japanese people have a high capacity for abstract understanding.

Looking at the results of the OECD's PIAAC and PISA, which are international academic achievement surveys, Japan consistently ranks high in reading comprehension and problem-solving ability.

Reading complex sentences, organizing premises, and grasping implicit structures. That may indeed be an area where Japanese people excel.

If we are good at abstraction, why can't we put it into words?

However, I also feel a sense of discomfort.

There are many things I "sort of understand."
I can also read the room. Or so I think (lol).

But if someone were to ask me, "Can you define that in your own words?", the answer is no.

Having a high level of abstract understanding and
being able to verbalize those abstractions might not be the same thing.

The possibility of unused vocabulary

It is said that there are about 500,000 words in the Japanese language.
Of those, it is said that the vocabulary we use in daily life is only about several tens of thousands.

So, where is the rest of the vocabulary?

I think.
Perhaps it's words we haven't encountered yet.

Words that haven't connected with our inner selves yet...

I wonder if that is what "unused vocabulary" is.

Unused vocabulary doesn't mean words that are in the dictionary but not used,

but rather feelings that you are actually experiencing,
but haven't given a name to yet.

Can abstraction and unused vocabulary coexist?

A question arose here.

While I value abstract sensations,
is it possible to also try to verbalize them?

When I am in the mountains, I don't need words.
But when I return from the mountains, I turn them into writing.

Is this a contradiction?

I don't think so.

Abstraction is a state where the outline is still vague.
Verbalization is the act of tracing that outline.

It's not about fixing it completely,
but perhaps more like drawing a line tentatively.

If you think of it that way, coexistence is not only possible,
but perhaps it is actually a back-and-forth movement.

The Japanese capacity for abstraction and my app concept

If the Japanese are good at understanding abstraction,
there should be a tool to handle that consciously.
Thinking in that way

• Words I use often

• Words I haven't used yet

• Sensations I feel but cannot express

An app to visualize those things.

It is not a tool for increasing vocabulary,
but a device for surveying the contours of oneself.

Just as there were people who once surveyed mountains,
perhaps I am trying to survey words.

Do words shape personality?

I think so.

Isn't it possible that a person's personality is gradually formed
by the tendencies of the vocabulary they use?

A person with a vocabulary full of anger.
A person with a vocabulary full of resignation.
A person with a vocabulary full of hope.

Vocabulary is the path of thought.

If so, encountering unused vocabulary
is also walking down paths of thought not yet traveled.
(It seems similar to mountain climbing...)

Conclusion: Coexistence is established as a 'tense relationship'

Valuing abstraction
and putting it into words do not completely melt into one another.

Rather, they coexist while harboring a slight tension.

When I am on the mountain, I am silent.
When I descend the mountain, I search for words.

That back-and-forth movement
is my creation,
my contemplation,
and I believe it is what forms my personality.