July 2021– date –

【How to define non-essential things】 I went to the seaside to fish last week, passing by many electric signboards on the road saying "Let's avoid non-essential outings!" I know fishing is definitely thought to be a non-essential activi...

【We are still dependent on wood】 The "wood shock" has still cast a big shadow over our industry. As many of you know, it's one of the social problems caused by the COVID. As more people tend to work remotely at home, the demand of hous...

Did you know Haagen-Dazs was originated in the US? I thought it came from somewhere in North Europe, which, I assume, would be exactly what the brand founder intended. Let me tell you another example. In Japan, canned coffee is one of th...

Alcantara is almost a synonym for luxury artificial leather. Some people may be likely to avoid it just by hearing the word "artificial," but Alcantara looks and feels real suede leather. Most of them have already been produced from renewable biomaterials. Compared with genuine leather of which production (especially in the tanning process) puts a heavy burden on the environment, Alcantara can be said to be much more eco-friendly.

【Impossible to copy our products cheaply】 As you can imagine, the structure of a chair is just simple, difficult to be unique, and easy to copy. It consists of a backrest, seat, arm rests, and legs. That's all. As it's so simple, every...

The main purpose of building castles is the same in Japan and European countries: Defense against enemies, but there are many differences in material, structure, etc. between them. They arise from the difference in the characters of the wars between Japan and European countries.

Samurai governed Japan for about 700 years, from 1185 to 1867. The age of samurai is divided into some periods. According to a popular theory, samurais in the first period (the Kamakura period, from 1185 to 1333) are believed to be strongest and bravest. It is said that "You look like a Kamakura samurai" was the best praising words for samurais even in the last days of the samurai age.

【The COVID, the one-way time machine】 The COVID is sometimes called "a time machine." Remote work is a good example. I think most of the companies at least in Japan just pretended to take a positive attitude but actually were not so se...

When working in Tokyo, I always left the office after dark and rushed back home. After getting back to Hokkaido, I've noticed the busy city made me forget to pay attention to the beauty around my life. Hokkaido has been covered with snow...

Have you ever seen the image of the Penfield homunculus by the way? It is a standard model to show how our brains recognize the world. When first seeing the grotesque model, I was surprised because I believed we saw the world mainly with the eyes. The importance of information through a sense of hand touch is bigger than many people would think.