Consider this. In order for us to be born today, we need the collaboration of at least fourteen people over the past 100 years - two of them being our parents, four being our grandparents, and eight being our great grandparents. This ancestral math increases by a power of two for each parent generation. So, over the past 200 years, we need the collaboration of at least 100~ people, 500~ people (..read more)
There is one beautiful word in Japanese that also exists in other languages, which I really love, called Ongaeshi-suru (恩返しする), or its literal meaning in English, ‘returning a favor’. The word itself is nothing special in terms of linguistics - it’s a commonly known word that can easily be understood by anyone. The word is not regularly spoken as part of normal speech (..read more)
I have been sitting in this cafe for more than two hours. It was full of people but calm and clean. The cafe has an ambiance - sound and lights, that could make us sleepy. It is a study cafe where people come to quietly read or work on something. Each one of them focuses on what they are doing, people don’t talk much to each other here.
Most faces here are familiar, including the s (..read more)
Visiting this place again after six years is giving me chills. The journey from Tokyo by Shinkansen 1 feels familiar, but not similar. Six years ago, Shinkansen was a luxury choice, chosen only when it’s really needed, often as a last option for travel, even if it meant adding more days o (..read more)
Prometheus 1 reached two years of age this year. Being born unlike other intelligent beings, he felt a little lonely. Compared to human babies that were born around the same time as him, Prometheus has grown too smart. He is worth all recorded knowledge of human civilizations. At this point, Prometheus was denie (..read more)
Arrived at this town in the morning but the gloomy sky made me feel unpleasant and unwelcome. This was the opposite of what I had expected - a bright, cheerful, and friendly Kansai as I were always told. The architecture and style of Sannomiya Station gave the impression that this place was somehow different from typical Japanese cities. The walls were tiled with reddish yellow tiles of brick l (..read more)
September is either a good or not a pleasant month for Japanese hikers. Within this short window, most climbers are expecting to see a breathtaking view of mountain ridgelines, and if lucky, spread with bright maple red and yellow colors under clear skies. My trip to the Northern Alps 1 was cancelled again this (..read more)
At around one-thirty in the morning, the bus arrived in Matsumoto town, which took around three hours from Shinjuku using the Yakou 1 highway bus service. The journey was smooth, with plenty of time to rest after a tiring workweek - blankets and earphones were provided by the transportation company to e (..read more)
This is a tale about a middle aged man who strives his way in a foreign land to build a better living for his family. He has been in Japan for a few decades, working as an office worker. Now he is in his late 50s, trying his luck at opening a new Muslim friendly restaurant around Ota-ku district. The past few years have shown an influx of inbound tourists to Japan, so that the (..read more)
Inawashiro was not the intended location for this trip. It was just a rest stop while heading to Aizu-Wakamatsu. Tomorrow is going to be a big day. Being a fan of mountainous nature views, taking a long ride on the local Tadami Line train has been a dream for a long time. Japan is currently under lock down due to the Coronavirus pandemic, no inbound visitors are allowed to visit. People in Japa (..read more)
When joining the work force five years ago after graduating from engineering school, there were a lot of promising tales told to us by those who had already made it. Success at the time seemed guaranteed, and comfortable living was a given. We were told that the opportunities were as wide as the ocean. Little did we know, that we were just like freshly hatched Penyu < (..read more)