This is what I heard from a friend of mine yesterday at an 居酒屋 over non-alcohol dinner. He teaches physics and information technology at a college near Atsugi. His college authority has long suspected that there was a serious decline in…

At 3:00, the meeting started. Global strategic meeting, they call it. This is about the time everyone in the world barely awake. 8:00 in zurich, Switaerland, 10:00 pm in San Jose, USA. Everyone is seriously looking at the screen devided in…

At dinner table, we talk about what new things we have done that day. It is fun to listen to various stories about their findings or to know a little courage they took to do their new things. My mother, 84, not only enjoys listening but, h…

When we have a chat with people, we dread silence, unless they are close friends or family members. We are all familiar with the uncomfortable feeling that overcomes us when a conversation palls. But when I talk with English speakers I fee…

The film is about a history professor, Remy, who is diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 55, around my age. He has led an epicurean life throughout his life, loving women neglecting his family. He espouses communism and despises hi…

The trees are hundreds of years old, big and tall. Walking into the shrine through the trees, there is a big basin made of shiny black granite full of pure water. Here you have to cleanse your mouth and hands. There is a sign that tells yo…

About a month or so later, when I decided to quit the company, I went to the park to say good-bye to him. He was gone. There was a small, blue plastic dish on the ground near the concreet base of the public lavatory. It was the dish on whi…

The homeless man feeding pigeons must have bought カール only for pigeons sake because it is not something you can always find as garbage. I have no idea how he earns his living. But it was obviously not easy for him to buy food for someon…

Yesterday, when I was walking past a park near Ooimachi station, I saw a man standing in the park surrounded by a huge number of pigeons. As I walked toward him, he looked like a homeless around my age. He had a plastic bag with orange-col…

Sit back. Close your eyes. And listen. You can hear the clock ticking. The rain drumming. The wind whistling. Tree leaves rustling... Your heart beating. This is the world. You are living.

Hikaru Utada is no doubt by far the most gifted singer/song-writer in Japan in my view. Her latest hit "Prisoner of Love" is my favorite. The melody, the way she sings the song, the lyric, all are just great. Putting all these aside, the t…

My frozen shoulder is getting worse. Now even while I am typiing in this entry, my shoulder and back began to ache. I heard that 2 % of the general population are affected by this disorder. Is it so few? Many people I know including my par…

My client took me to an automobile museum as I told you yesterday. When we entered the museum there was a reception counter. A young, pretty receptionist girl greeted us with an extreme politeness and cheer. She explained to us the qualifi…

I began to feel pain in my left shoulder a couple of months ago. Since then the pain has steadily grown and at last I can't raise my left hand at all. It is pretty inconvenient because I have to pull off my undershirt using one hand, which…

You sat back relaxed in your living room when someone was knocking the door. You opened it. A man stood there with a serious look. He was sturdy built. He said "Excuse me but you must get out of here." You couldn't believe what he said. "W…

Things have been too hectic. Many things happened and had to be dealt with. But gradually they get in order inside and outside myself, getting back to their original own positions. Things've got quiet. Did they really happen? It may have l…

One of my business related companies has its office in Akasaka Biz-tower. I have never been there nor even heard of the name. I told the same over the phone to the person who I was going to have a meeting with. "Ah." he said. "No problem, …

The street was yet to brew its morning mess of traffic. It was cool, bright and breezy early morning but I felt a change was in the air, perhaps warmer May weather, at last on its way to pick up momentum toward a cruel heat. I jogged along…

Everywhere around us there is birth and death, in between the struggle for money, position, power, complaints, jealousy, the unending process of what we call life; don't you sometimes wonder what it is all about? You see, most of us want a…