The time has come to summarize what I’ve seen, done, and experienced over the past year in a few words. Unfortunately, I haven’t had many new experiences this year. As I’ve grown older, the opportunities to try new things have diminished.

The words of the year 2024 are Murasaki Shikibu and ChatGPT. As you know, Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese woman who authored The Tale of Genji, a novel written in the early eleventh century that later became world-famous. This novel is considered the oldest known work of fiction written by a woman. This year, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK produced a year-long drama (taiga drama), Dear Radiance (Hikaru Kimi e), with this remarkable woman as its protagonist. The drama centers on the life of the woman who would later become Murasaki Shikibu and primarily explores her romance with Fujiwara no Michinaga, the nation’s most powerful figure during the era when she wrote the novel.

Although there is no historical evidence that Murasaki Shikibu and Fujiwara no Michinaga had a romantic relationship, she is portrayed in the drama as encouraging him, her lover, to seize ultimate power and govern wisely for the sake of the Japanese people. In return, he uses his authority and wealth to provide her with the financial and material support needed to write The Tale of Genji. While she was of too low a social rank to become his legitimate wife, their bond is depicted as being far tighter than his relationship with his lawful spouses.

The drama features captivating performances by Yuriko Yoshitaka as Murasaki Shikibu and Tasuku Emoto as Fujiwara no Michinaga, drawing in many viewers, myself included.

When it comes to CharGPT, no year has involved me more deeply with it than this one. While many other generative AI tools like Claude and Perplexity became available this year, since the advent of GPT-4o, I have most frequently turned to ChatGPT — for inquiries, seeking opinions on social issues, and even drafting the English translations for this entry.

Someday, I might even have ChatGPT create the entirely of this entry from scratch. Of course, that would require considerable skill in prompt engineering.

This year began with a series of national crises, including major earthquakes and tsunamis, aviation accidents, and fires, casting great uncertainty over the future. Yet, it seems I’ve managed to make it to the year’s final day. I hope to continue adapting to the changing tides of the times and strive to live my best in the coming year as well.