My wife, who hails from Tokyo, was teaching me about how I need to learn to let go of the things that have happened to me in my past and do as the Toyota commercial in the US states, "Moving Forward". As usual, she is correct, and reemphasizes the importance of "Listen to what people tell you."
In Japan, there is a phrase which refers to "a woman who brings good fortune for her boyfriend"(ageman). This is purely a Japanese word which has nothing to do with "age" or "man". It is pronounced correctly by using the Japanese consonant-vowel combination "A-ge-ma-n".
The opposite of ageman is sageman which is a person who has the undesirable characteristic of absorbing others' good luck. So, ageman comes from the Japanese verb "ageru" meaning to raise and sageman comes from the Japanese verb" sageru" meaning to lower. Therefore, it all comes down to the question, "Do you bring out the best in someone or do you bring the people around you down?"
There is a Japanese movie from the 1990s and if you are fortunate, you can find it with English subtitles. The name of the movie is Tales of a Golden Geisha produced by my favorite Japanese director, Itami Juzo. I have not seen this movie by Juzo but imagine that by watching this movie, you can get a better idea of Japanese culture in terms of ageman.
In closing, I'm truly blessed to have ageman courtesy of my wife.
The Divine Wind Vault
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