Today's newspaper says that English is going to be a compulsory subject in elementary schools. This stupid idea is said to have come from deep reflection on our weakness in speaking and writing skill in English. Although it is true that re…

It was last week that it happened, when I drove to my wife's hometown with my family. On our way, there seemed a car accident somewhere ahead of us. The express way got jammed. Then, as usual, I began to feel uneasy feeling a slight urge t…

I was once asked by an American "why do the Japanese not apologize when they should?" He had just started his stay in Japan a couple of months before. It was rather a shocking remark for me because I had long thought the other way around. …

Drug abuse of celebrities are making sensational headlines. When I wondered why it was so hard for people to stop using drugs, I remembered a book I read many years ago. The book was titled "Food of the Gods", written by Terence Mckenna, a…

Very beginning of this year, on the morning of this new year's day, I told my daughter it was about time she got independent and lived alone. She said she had been thinking of the same. She left home and started her new life in a small apa…

When I got out of my house and started running last night, in front of me high up in the sky was a moon. Beautiful blue gibbous, now in a waxing phase. I like gibbous of the moon perhaps because it reminds me that the moon is really solid …