the qualia journal

The novelist Hyakken Uchida ("Idiot Train", see the 29th December 2006 entry of this blog) was wont to say "being hungry is o...

I met with the photographer Gregory Colbert at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo. It was a wonderful opportunity to discuss his unique approach...

In a recent magazine article (in "Kangaeru Hito" ("The Thinker"), a quarterly published from Shinchosha, Tokyo), Yasujir...

Earlier, I wrote about the recurring dream in which Godzilla would appear as a menacing presence. As a child, I was not aware of the atomic ...

Violence brings only sorrow into this world, but wrath and indignation, when managed and directed properly, can sometimes generate good and ...

Mr. Kimura was one of the guests of the "The Professionals" program broadcast on NHK, which I host. He harvests apples in Aomori, ...

When I was very small, up to the age of three or four, I was very fond of the color red. I would ask my parents to buy red things for me. I ...

The American way of communication has been said to be unique to that particular nation. When I go to the States, people say hello to me on t...

"Mono no aware" (the pathos of things) is an important concept in understanding Japanese literature and way of seeing the world in...

The present paradigm of neuroeconomics is too narrow in its conceptual setup in order to encompass all that is truly relevant and important ...

Two years after the end of the war, my mother passed away. Mother's death affected me very deeply. Compared to this sorrow, the great wa...

When small things tend to let you down in life, it is useful to think of the really wonderful things. In my case, I remember how wonderful t...

A few years ago, I was giving a joint talk with Masahiko Shimada, the famous Japanese novelist of my own generation, at the Asahi Culture Ce...

Strolling around Grantchester Meadow, I do think that this is a very nice, relaxed environment. I am sitting now in the Red Lion pub in the ...

One thing that is lacking from the intellectual endeavors in today's world is that of synthetic creativity. With the advent of an attitu...

Once I visited Pisa for a conference. I had a free afternoon, and decided to venture off to Florence. I took the train from the station, fil...

The Dog and the violet The Origin of Consciousness blog 10th January 2007 http://origin-of-consciousness.blogspot.com/ 　

One day I was watching a film, sitting on a sofa in my room. The film was quite exciting, and I was deeply absorbed in it. Occasionally, alm...

I have been to the Amazon once. It was an exciting time. As I flew from Sao Paulo towards Manaus, I was watching the scenery below. The gree...

When I was an undergraduate student studying Physics in Tokyo, I took a particular joy in the calculation of complex mathematical formula. I...