the qualia journal

I flew to Paris from Narita. Right now I am in Charles de Gaulle airport, waiting for my plane to Berlin. On the airplane soon after takeoff...

The old teacher gets drunk again I really love Yasujiro Ozu films. When things get too busy and business becomes nasty as usual, I turn to ...

As a child, I collected and studied the butterflies quite seriously. As a result, I learned to recognize and identify most of the species to...

I once visited the House of Light by James Turrell in Niigata. It was autumn, and the house was surrounded by susuki (Japanese pampas grass)...

Used to be that when I was a kid, I ate a lot of oranges ( mikan ). The Japanese oranges are small in size, and the skins are soft and easil...

For mammals like us, mothers play an essential role in life. Before the arrival of civilization, infants could not survive without the milk ...

It is sometimes said that Japanese culture is focused on the concept of emptiness. For example, some statues of worship in the Buddhist trad...

In my all time favorite British sitcom Father Ted, there is a scene where Father Dougal MacGuire (the gullible one) asks a priest beside him...

I sometimes do book signings. My record was when I signed about 300 books in Kochi. That was strenuous. When I sign my book, I always add a ...

When I was a kid, I used to love reading "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. This short story depi...

I saw a bunch of people shouting slogans on the street. It is a free country, and people can say anything they like, but when people exhibit...

On a cold day recently, I was walking past the streets of Yamagata, looking for a place to console my soul and fill my stomach. I had finish...

Today, the qualia journal celebrates 150 days of continuous entries, the streak starting on the 6th of June 2009. Hooray! I do not know why ...

Recently, I received a very nice mail from a gentleman in Thailand. In it, he said some kind words about one of my books which has been tran...

I was having a conversation with my best friend Masahiko Shimada at a public lecture in Tokyo. Masahiko is a famous writer. Masahiko opened ...

On the airplane, I was thinking again about Glenn Gould. In an earlier post ( "Private language of music", 14th October 2009 ), I ...

I was walking to NHK, and going through the Yoyogi park. Near the entrance, there is a shop where they sell beer, drinks, and miscellaneous ...

It was late, as I finally made my way towards home. I was alone in the street, with the hush of night surrounding my existence. As often hap...

In life what you see in the periphery is often more important than what you observe in the central vision. If your attention is stuck, then ...

One of the things I am quite sure is that when I have spare time I know how to spend it. Without money, left alone from the world at large, ...