The train was already waiting at the platform when I went down the stairs to change lines. The bell went off. It would leave in a few seconds. I dashed toward the train. Ahead of me was a middle-aged woman with horizontally well-developed …

I've written a research paper. It is only a 2-page proceeding of an international symposium but perhaps will be the last one in my life. For the first time in probably a couple of years, I called my friend to Swiss office who had discussed…

The falcon died leaving behind gleaming streaks of her trail in the jet-black darkness of the sky. Barely ahead of her broken-up body was a tiny shimmering orange object, the only son for whom she endured the troubled space odyssey. He too…

Nirvana Without my knowing the season has changed. A summer has already sneaked in and I find myself using an electric fan. Bliss, nirvana, Shangrila, beatitude or whatever, I fall into a half-doze and awake.

DIET Having something to investigate, I went to the Diet Library. In English it sounds to the Japanese like a library for people wishing to cut down on their calories. But in Japanese it is 国会図書館, which instead you would think is for …

The day after I wrote here that the government should take responsibility, Hatoyama-san quit. I really believe he is a nice person, but a nice person is not necessarily a good leader, which he proved. All the fraud deserves the dissolution…

Fraud: 1) A deception practiced deliberately in order to secure unfair gain. 2) One that defrauds. If you replace the word "gain" with "vote", this government is a fraud by definition 2). Here is what they said to the effect before the las…