Days getting longer Looking out of the window down a busy street in the twilight, something occurred to me. The days are apparently getting longer. When I came home I checked out the sunset time in Tokyo. It was 4:38 on the New Year's day.…

I like noodles, every kind of noodles whether it be soba, udon, spaghetti, harusame, ramen or shirataki. Yesterday, I ate fried noodle for lunch and dinner actually. Most of them are made of flour, that is carbohydrate. Bread is also made …

I've been interested in Imperial family these days since I visited Imperial Palace (not exactly a palace but the area where it stands). The guide who showed us around told me that there are about 1000 officials working with Imperial Househ…

Another war? This morning I got an email from my Australian friend prompting sign-up for a petition against possible war against Iran. It said to the effect that Bush administration knew already in 2003 that Iran threw away its nuclear wea…

The Edo Tokyo Museum We seem to have a tendency that we seldom have interest in where we live all the more because we live there. Let's say we traveled to Egypt and came back without seeing Pyramids, we'd feel it a shame. But living in Tok…

Yesterday morning, there was a thick ice plate in the water bowl for my pet dog. I felt like I saw ice or frost column in my garden for the first time in tens of years. Weather report said the cold weather these days is a record in terms o…

Grand Sumo Tournament I went to see Sumo yesterday for the first time in maybe 30 years. I like sumo and basically follow 15-day battle every Basho or season but only on TV. It is enjoyable enough especially when watched in a big, high-def…

Since I wrote about trash in this diary, I have been paying attention to the garbage sorting problems. It has turned out more complicated than I first thought. One of the stories that exemplifies this is, according to a newspaper, paper is…

Snow When I got out of bed and pulled open the curtains, wow it was snowing. It's been long since I saw snow last here in Tokyo. When I was a child we had more snow but still it was special. It was exhilarating and elating. Every child got…

Keeping this diary for ten odd days, I suddenly become anxious about how long I can do this. I mean how long it is before running out of topics. I'm just curious. Daily update amounts to 365 articles a year. That's an enormous number. A bo…

Monday Monday is a special day. Everything suddenly starts moving as if to catch up on something long forgotten. I like watching people and things busily working. But watching is one thing. Getting involved is quite another. I would like t…

A few days ago something in a newspaper caught my eye. It was about trash separation. It said trash separated as recyclable just ended up its life in an incinerator(焼却炉). How can this happen when we are taking all the trouble and time(?…

When I am writing this blog I find myself thinking in English. Without my knowing it I no longer take the process of "think in Japanese and translate into English". Why is it? Here is my theory. "People tend to pick out a way that is more …

Exactly one week has passed since I made up my mind to keep a diary. Having waltzed through the "three-day-monk" crisis, next target is to continue this at least for one month. As it turned out, this blog is not visited by as many people a…

Yesterday I set up a viewer counter. As the name indicates, it supposedly counts the number of viewers of this page (see the bottom of the side bar). It shows 245 people (as of 8:00 a.m.) have visited here within just one day. It's an amaz…

Very few good news these days. The stock market is tumbling, a son brutally killed his mother, and, above all, it's cold everyday... But if you think about it a little deep, good news is no news. Somehow people tend to prefer to read bad n…

Gonna be another cold day. It will be like this until next week. Half a month has already gone since Oshogatsu. Time really flies. I feel as if it were passing faster and faster every year. Getting old? Sure I am. Am I living a meaningful …

The picture is our family pet cat. Recently she seems to have changed her owner (guardian). She seldom comes back but when she does, she takes a nap and leaves within an hour or two. It is even colder than yesterday. May be due to the lack…

Very cold here in Tokyo today. Maybe the coldest this winter. Come to think of it, the winter was much colder when I was a small kid. Every morning I crunched my way through a frost-column covered path to school. My finger tips got frostbi…

The Internet has changed the world a great deal, so much that we can't even remember what the world was like before this IT age. I'm writing a diary here now sitting, staring at the computer display running my fingers all over the keyboard…

日本語と全く同じように英語が使えたらと誰もが一度は思ったことがあるのではないでしょうか。英語は使わなければうまくなりません。この日記は実は皆さんと英語でお話をする広場であり、自分自身が皆さんと英語で会話しながらともにNative English Speaker…