the qualia journal

Language policy is really serious here in this country, and has grave implications for my own life, too. I love Japanese as my native tongue...

I have been to Singapore on a few days trip, attending a conference and giving a talk. The energy in Singapore is incredible. Even politicia...

Even small children are fond of moving their hands and leaving tiny traces of colored lines on the paper. A whole career can be built, start...

People might think that Mozart was a naïve guy who left for others to write the librettos of operas. If you look carefully you notice otherw...

In the last few months, I seem to have learned that to bring about revolution to the society is a very difficult task. Yes, I am stupid enou...

(Continued from the previous entry) I walked on along the twilight street, but my inner turmoil did not seem to calm down. It was obvious no...

When I was young, I wanted to try new things. One day, I found a posh building in central Tokyo. I went in. There was a rather nice French r...

For some time, I have been making a point of abrupt concentration. I may be idling on the sofa, and all of a sudden, I would start concentra...

Summer in Tokyo this year was unusually long. The record-breaking heat spell went on and on, until we residents started to think that we wer...

So the newt was alive, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Once in a direct contact with the reality, a sense of practical wisdom took hold of ...

The clock in my heart started to tick slowly. The passage of the every day became painful. I felt the urge to take a look at the newt tank, ...

(Continued from yesterday) I had completely forgotten about my pet newt. Oblivion be damned! It was a horror realization. Apart from the sme...

(Continued from yesterday) Days passed, and I kept playing with the arrangements for the newt paradise. Within the small dimensions of the t...

When I was about 10 years old, I went to a pet shop and encountered my newt. It was the Cynops pyrrhogaster (Japanese fire belly newt) speci...

Yesterday, as I was moving through the maze that is Tokyo, I finished reading Botchan, written by Soseki Natsume, and translated by Yasotaro...

I have not written into this English Journal for a little longer than a week now. The writing streak is now officially broken. I don't r...

I don't know how, but I do feel that the summer has gone. Ever since childhood, at some time in August or September, I would suddenly co...

In many cultures a truth is simply bestowed upon the youth as given. You are not supposed to question the authorities, let alone to have new...

On Thursday, I had a wonderful time interviewing Michael Sandel in Tokyo for a magazine. Sandel's "Justice" ( http://www.justi...

For a long time, Japan has prided itself as the first nation to modernize in the region of Asia. Despite the terrible and self-brought defea...