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…

Sporting a dappled-purple flower ring on head she stands. Perhaps I will be in love tomorrow. ---Author unknown (late 7th century)--- My favorite 和歌(Japanese short poetry) from 万葉集(Ten-thousand leaves)紫のまだらの 蘰 ( かづら ) 花やか…

"Have you read Shakespeare?" If asked to a scientist, this question would be equivalent to a question "What is the second law of Thermodynamics?" being asked to a humanities major. Snow said. When he asked back the people, who were thought…

The two cultures - 0) This is the game. 1) You can't win. 2) You can't get even. 3) You can't get out of the game. This is the ingenious way of describing the four laws of thermodynamics by C.P. Snow. The zeroth law was actually the fourth…

Along the approach to the shrine we stumbled upon a gate to a garden. Since my mother in law came all the way to visit us it's not bad to go with her to somewhere we have not been. I paid 1500 yen for admission for us three at the gate. We…

Went to Meiji-shrine with my mother in law who came from Ibaragi to see how we get by in our temporary house. Over the towering shrine gate is foliage in soft and young green. The wine and sake barrels are displayed along the approach to M…

The relocation of the U.S. Marine Base Futenma in beautiful Okinawa is now in deadlock. It seems no one in Japan wants any US Base in their neighborhood. If we add up all these individual opinions, the only conclusion will be that Japan do…

After an enjoyable dinner of a delectable うな重(a bowl of teriyaki eel on rice) that came with modestly sweetened sauce on it at 寿平, a cozy, old eel restaurant, we were strolling back to our home in that perfect temperature of the sprin…

The base of our new house completed at last. All the surfaces are now thickly covered with blue boards of heat insulator that should protect us from the purgatorial heat in summer and titanic coldness in winter. The base is separated by th…

Pouring... Raindrops join together into hundreds of streams running and wiggling on the huge black roof of the next door kindergarten. They all rush into a gutter, flooding it, overflowing, thumping onto the ground in an array of jumbling …

Blasphemy Too much obsession with nature is as unnatural as loving a plastic imitation flower because you love flowers. That's blasphemy to her. We are natural by nature whatever artificial we do. Never forget it.

Things go from "less probable" to "more probable". If you put a spoonful of salt and sugar in a box and shake it, they will get mixed into salty sweet powder and never return to their original pure states, no matter how many times more you…

The US announced a plan to send a manned-spaceship to Mars by mid 2030s. If I am blessed to live that long, I really want to see pictures of astronauts walking and jumping on the red soil of Mars if it may be too much to expect of them dan…

Snowed? Crazy... It's record-breaking late when it should be spring. Weather recently has undergone violent changes from summery heat to wintry chill. Does it all come down to our industrial activities?

Spring seems put on hold. The sky is low and leaden. Cold drizzle, icy wind... What's all this? A middle aged man walks past me from behind stooping slightly in a black coat with its collar turned up, one hand in the pocket and the other p…

YAMATO ROAD 大和路 In the course of my work, I suddenly needed to visit Kyoto-University, Uji campus. On hearing that, my wife suddenly wanted to go with me to enjoy the prime of the spring in the old, historic city while I was tied up in …

LIFE Coyingly sweet smell of lilies floats in the air. The white flowers are one week old reminiscence of our late father's commemoration ceremony. Today, in the cold room, they stand alone in a quartz vase, each facet of its cut reflectin…

Hψ = Eψ The equation that describes how probably things exist at a certain place takes exactly the same form as that of the vibration of, say a string of a violin. That is as if to say everything is a vibration. We are vibrations. Our thou…

Friend Listening to his innocent and modest boasts, I cannot but feel how distant I stand now from him. He has not changed much, can enjoy the same line of hobbies in his youth, He still is a hard worker...He keeps talking almost about him…

10 YEARS Seen from the 25th floor, the whole range of mountains is panoramic, silhouetted dark purple against a musky orange band, in an afterglow of the sunset. In the foreground are the downtown lights beginning to sparkle like thousands…

A SMILE In dark-green workman's suits he is pouring thick cement fluid onto the ground. The grim-gray milk from the metalic bellows reluctantly spreads in tiers and then flattens itself as it stretches thinner. Spread, spread, spread, swal…

I got a letter telling me to come to get my new health insurance card to the Meguro ward office so I went. A young female clerk, 70% of her face covered with a mask which would not only prevent any pollens but anyone from reading her feeli…

SANDGLASS Yesterday is a memory, tomorrow is a guess. I am here in this morning, blessed with the abounding love of the spring air.

Koontz Reading Koontz on the sofa. I look up. A low-angle sunshine is flooding the room. This world is spring.

Dazzling White The bluer the sky, the whiter do they turn? Like a thousand candent flares, the towering white magnolia is in full bloom.

SORROW The dog is deep asleep embraced in a warm sunshine. She lies on her side on a soft blanket, her whole body relaxed and loose, one leg twitching from time to time. Her ears are dead. Her ribs stand out. Still, with each swell of her …

FRAGRANCE Is twenty more years left in my life? Last fragrance of plum blossoms lingers in the air.

FRIENDS Two old men stand at the corner of the park talking and smiling, the voice unheard. Their hand grips a mallet. On the ground lies a bordeaux red ball. Sporadic, loud laughters drift in the air as if to stay for a moment... and then…

NIGHT Icy drops of rain blown by a gust hit my cheek. I am walking with my dog listening to the grainy water particles spattering on my down jacket, pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, like long forgotten sound of a GM counter detecting radiation. Puddl…