He picked up the chopsticks placed in front of him, slipped them out from the paper packet, and cradled them between his fingers like a surgeon wielding a knife before an impending surgery. We sat in the companionable awkwardness. I watche…

If you rebuild your house you must demolish your current house first thing. It costs you something. And this "something" is really something. It is very close to \3 million just to destroy things. It's partly because of the regulation that…

Attended a symposium held in Conference Center Shinagawa yesterday and met some old acquaintances of mine. I had a good time catching up on recent news of each other. One of them was a CEO-turned-professor who is now teaching at ETH (Swiss…

Toll-free highways are making headlines of controversy everyday. There are so many stake-holders concerning this new proposal from the Democratic Party. Truck drivers are worried about heavy traffic caused by more family drivers on highway…

She was 97 when she died three days ago. She was once a nurse who took care of my uncle when he was hospitalized for a serious bone marrow inflammation and was on the verge of leg-loss. Watching her dedication, my grand mother liked her. A…

I accidentally watched an NHK program (cannel 2) last week in which someone was talking about how our positive thinking works good for our lives. His look was ecstatic, convincing enough for us to believe that there is no lie about what he…

Imagine you went to a store and there were no price-tags on the products, how hard it would be to stick to your budget. That's more or less how we buy electricity. Tokyo Electricity sends me a bill every month. As you see in the picture be…