the qualia journal

On Satuday, I went to the Suntory hall in Akasaka, Tokyo to attend President Barack Obama's speech. Mr. Obama was on his two day visit t...

President Barack Obama is now visiting Japan. According to a news report, he expressed his wish to taste "Kobe beef" during his st...

When I started to learn English, I was fascinated by the word "dandelions". The Japanese language has a lovely word for this parti...

My mother grew up in Kokura, the north capital of the southern island of Kyushu. After she moved to Tokyo to marry my father, she learned th...

There are certain things in life that come and go as fads, and yet stand out in one's memory as vivid and significant for years to come....

On the way to Paris, I was chatting with a flight attendant gentleman. When he learned that I was going on to Berlin, he remarked "why,...

I went to a wonderful performance of Lohengrin in the Staatsoper here in Berlin. The inszenierung was by Stefan Herheim. It was a performan...

When I was a kid, I gradually learned that there were all kinds of people in society. Some are bad, but they are so with some reason, and of...

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...