Iceland \890 => \310 Norway \805 => \480 England \469 => \300 USA \400 => \320 Australia \345 => \240 Japan \280 => \280 These are Big Mac Indexes after the subprime loan crash. I calculated them assuming the prices of BigMac remain the sa…

When I was 13, my family went to live for some time in Australia. My father was heading the branch office of a trading company in Sydney. My parents decided to leave me here in Japan to let me live with my grandparents since they were afra…

Fifty years or so ago, a college professor teaching English literature in Japan, went to US where he had a conversation with a young female student. "Mr. Tanaka, you talked about lace problems in America, but we have not lace problems here…

Every time I get in an elevator to go up to my client office on the 8th floor, I wonder why. There is a sign that says "Maximum load 1000 kg"(最大積載量). Why do they always put the signs inside where it is too late to do anything about it…

Toshihide Masukawa is now got more famous for his remark, "I'll decline the Nobel Award, if they ask me to give my acceptance speech in English." It has become one of the most favored phrases among student who are not willing to study Engl…

Yesterday a client of mine called, telling me that he was thinking about the application of the technology we are developing now to a new device which will be one of the key components of the next-generation automobile. He just said. "I wo…

One thing I raise my brows about these days while watching MLB(大リーグ) is something that are incessantly spat out from players mouths. Every time TV closes up a player, manager, coach, whoever, all of them without an exception are munchi…

The other day in the middle of the night when I was unwittingly zapping TV channels, I chanced upon "Open University of Japan(放送大学)" giving a lecture for people studying toward a degree in marketing. The lecture compared the selling of…

Here is a piece of land. If you know its price will double in a year, of course you would like to buy it. If you want, everyone wants, too. One year has passed and you find the price actually doubled in a year. Why? It's just a result that…

There is a sequel to yesterday's story. When the thermometer broke, I wondered why, because if I pushed it too hard to the sheet it had to be its head(bulb) that was broken. But I found only the end of the scale, the opposit to the bulb wa…

Sore throat. Headache. Slight fever. Sneeze. Running nose. Typical symptom of cold since yesterday. But how many years has it been since I caught cold last time? Apart from the frozen shouldr, I got stronger as I grow older it seems. When …

When I went to the post office to pick up my stock dividend last Friday, an old clerk welcomed me and asked what I came here for. He had not been there when I came last time. When he knew my purpose he passed me a numbered ticket that show…

Thank you all for your participation in the test for an investigation on auditory ability of different age groups^^. I am happy to have more number of responses than i had expected. A study shows that highest audible frequency for teenager…

Woke up at 4:00. Mosquito buzz... Flying around over my head. It came and went near and far for some time and then went away. Just as I was falling back to sleep, it came back again. Mosquitoes in autumn are quite aggressive and bold. They…

"I must submit this report until next month." This is a common mistake only among the Japanese. Of course "until" has to be "by". I was once asked by a native English teacher why almost all the Japanese English learners make this particula…

A crazy scientist once calculated how much it would cost if you bought all the constituents that makes up your body in the form of chemicals at a pharmacy. The answer is \ 100,000,000. While it may make you feel a little better, if you bou…

"If you have a love for knowledge then studying becomes easy. But I am worried that with students these days, cramming for exams has sucked away their desire for knowledge." Said Toshihide Masukawa, one of the three scientist to be awarded…

When I started to run in Komazawa park yesterday, I found more people than last week were running and that most of them were apparently older than me. They were running wearing a number on their back and chest. Then I saw a sign board ever…

(quote) Although the great lady had arrived at the cemetery in a black Packard hearse, ("One of those outrageous contraptions --- over my dead body" but as it turned out under it), her only criticism of William's orchestracion of her depar…

A couple of years back I read a book about American life. A study on the walking habits of American people showed that the average American walks about 300 m a day. Only 300 meters a day! I rack up that mileage just looking for the TV remo…

When I began writing this blog, I never dreamed I could last this long. I vaguely thought I had not much to say here. But somehow topics have never run short. For no reason, I do not have so much difficulty coming up with what to write. I …

It is already October, about time I began to write my report which I have been procrastinating for such a long time^^. Since the end of my last report, I have continued, if barely, scientific research by doing simulations and developed a p…

Iceland \890 Norway \805 England \469 USA \400 Australia \345 Japan \280 I wonder if you can guess what prices those are. They are the prices of Big Mac. Tokyo had long been considered as one of the most expensive cities in the world and m…