Another year has swiftly gone by and it is once again time to wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. The time feels like picking up momentum as it passes. I wish to thank you all for your witty, serious, funny, heart-warmin…

When I first heard of the "black hole", I was very much worried about it. It was when I was 13. If it is so heavy that it absorbs everything, even light, right into its center, sooner or later it will gulp our planet. You know, it gains it…

There are some words in English that I somehow like; "Bleak", "sanguine", "oblivion", "upset", "crazy", "chronological", "serendipitous", "clink", "jingle", "catastrophe" "apocalyptic"... to name some. When I read a book and stumble upon o…

Quite a bit busy these days. I simply do not have time to write. I may not be able to update as often as before till the end of next January. But I'd appreciate it if you visit here once in a while to check out an update. It's raining. Loo…

He came to my desk and said. "Toshi-san, that is a copy of the contract document for your consultation to us next year." An envelope was on my desk. I opened it and found inside 5 pages of document. "The conditions are exactly the same as …

The other day I wrote about Japanese custom of washing hands on coming home which a British guy referred to as "hygiene maniac." There may be no point in trying to hide from your virus or bacteria, for they are on and around you, in number…

Ice-glazed trees are standing like white statues of the dead, sometimes blown in a blizzard, sometimes in a background of a perfect blue sky and a dazzling sun. Music by 石川泰 is instrumental, simply flowing as the camera pans through the…

Very cold this morning. But come to think about it, it is December now. We may have to say this winter has been weirdly warm. 6 degree Celsius this morning is not cold enough, still not my definition of winter. We are so much used to warm …

You wash your hands when you come back home. Some of you even gurgle. I asked a few foreigners, from time to time, if they wash their hands when coming back home. For most of them, the answer was "no". Then are they more susceptible to dis…

The US is struggling to make out a way to deal with the 3 major automakers. For them, to be or not to be, that is the question. 4 million people are directly or indirectly working for GM, Ford and Chrysler. Certainly many people will be th…

Before the end of the medical checkup I saw the doctor. First I got a flu shot. Then he looked through the X-ray picture of my chest, cardiograph chart and listened to my chest with a stethoscope. "No problem at all. Is there anything you …

Last week I went through an annual medical checkup. All the examined items resulted in "normal". Good news is that low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol came down to below a warning level. For almost ten years it had persistently kept …