MONTH

2021年11月

November 30, 2021
September 29, 2022

How to Spend Money Wisely: Better to Buy Something Good That Will Last

I’m sure the king of shoes is John Lobb The king of beasts is a lion. The king of fruits is a durian. What do you think the king of shoes is? I believe it would be John Lobb. It may have not yet become common sense like the rankings of animals and fruits, but I expect I’m not the only one who thinks that way. They are the symbol of strength, stylishness, and smartness, though it may be influenced a lot by James Bond. These days, I’m into YouTube videos of shoe repair, where I saw John Lobb shoes were repaired to be so beautiful as if they were new. I feel like I understand why they are called the king of shoes. We are forced to seek out the best price buy As I wrote sometimes ago, I’m not so interested in things and owning things. It would […]

Hokkaido sightseeing

November 26, 2021
October 13, 2022

Japan Travel in the Know: Powder Snow in Hokkaido, the Best Place to Ski

Real estate bubble in Niseko Ginza is the area in Tokyo well known as a luxury area. The above image (the thumbnail image) is Ginza 4th block’s intersection. The area holds the highest land price record in Japan: about 500,000 USD/sqm. On the other hand, the average land price is less than 200 USD/sqm around here in Asahikawa, Hokkaido. However, if it’s about the appreciation rate of land price, the No.1 area is in Hokkaido. It’s Niseko. The land price increased at about 50% last year, staying on top in the appreciation rate of land price for these six years. Even during the COVID crisis, foreign companies have continued to buy land, and the boom of construction of luxury resort hotels has never stopped. Niseko, developed by one Australian guy, Ross Findlay More than 20 years ago, Niseko was just a small town, where local poor college students like me […]

Knowledge bragging

November 23, 2021
September 24, 2022

Cosmic Latte: The Color of the Universe

The world is still full of mysteries About 20 years ago, when my sister was still about 10 years old, she asked me “Why do clothes look dark when wet? Water is colorless though.” I’m sure she asked idly without thinking so much, but the question flustered me a lot. Now I know it was exactly the arrogance and ignorance of youth (or my personal mental problem in my younger days). Anyway, I was arrogantly surprised at that time to find that there are still things that I don’t know even among daily little events. By the way, are you interested in the answer to the question my younger sister made? It’s because water is low in optical reflectance. It’s about half as much as that of glass. That may contrast with the impression you get from the sparkling surface of the seas and rivers, though. The color of the […]

Product development

November 19, 2021
December 6, 2022

The Background of Production: How to Perform the Strength Test of Chairs

All the Japanese classrooms look exactly the same If you have watched Japanese anime, you may notice. All the Japanese classrooms look similar at any time and place. My major in college is education. I had visited many schools and found classrooms looked surprisingly uniform. As some of you may say “Likewise in my country,” but I think the uniformity of Japanese classrooms is by far more than yours. The main cause would be the classroom desks and chairs, I guess. You can see the same sets in no matter which school you visit in Japan. There’s almost no difference other than scribbles on them. Classroom desks and chairs are exposed to tough conditions Funnily enough, what students do with the chairs is also the same: tilting their chairs back. I bet you’ve done this before. Tilting your chair back and sometimes falling when getting beyond the point of no […]

Business hacks

November 16, 2021
January 1, 2023

What Are the Basic Human Values? We’re Useless If Productivity Is Most Important

The days of Kaizen activities are like the highlight of Apollo 13 The spaceship was about to penetrate the atmosphere in the shortage of electric power. The crews and the ground staff of NASA knew enough about it. While running out of time, they made many trials and errors. They tenaciously kept trying every possibility no matter how trivial it is, like changing a sequence of activation processes, skipping some of them, etc. Finally, they succeeded in securing the minimum required supply of electric power for atmospheric re-entry. This is the highlight of the movie “Apollo 13.” As it’s far smaller in scale, craft people in our factory are engaged in improvement (Kaizen) activities. Most of them are really small and trivial, but I remember the famous scene of the movie every time seeing those Kaizen activities. Our labor productivity looks low just because of deflation Japan is often said […]

Uncategorized

November 12, 2021
October 14, 2022

What Is the Dispo? People Enjoy Even the Inconvenience of Waiting

We get used to waiting in a line in Japan What surprises many foreigners who first come to Japan would be huge lineups of people waiting to enter shops, restaurants, etc. In the early phase of the COVID, there were many lineups in front of drug stores even in the early morning, I remember. Those huge lineups are thought to be a symbol to show the patience and politeness of Japanese people. Have you ever looked at them closely? A line of people moving little by little, only looking at their phones with no expression. To be honest, they just look scary and uncanny even to me. Do you know the photo-sharing app Dispo? With a few exceptions like some Japanese people, humans basically dislike being kept waiting, but even such primitive human nature may be changing among the new generation people somehow. Do you know a photo-sharing app called […]

Knowledge bragging

November 9, 2021
September 25, 2022

Communication Skills for Business: Written Communication Is Obsolete?

Did you read or watch Harry Potter? About 15% of Junior high school students can read sentences but not understand their meaning. The news created a sensation in Japan some years ago. That may or may not be true, but I think that would be a natural course of events. Due to the progress of science, we come to have many communication tools other than writing. For example, one of the top selling books in the end of the 20th century, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” has sold about five million copies in Japan, while the audience of the movie is said to be three times more, though their prices are almost the same. Indeed, the movie is much better in time efficiency. Written communication just has a short history It is said to be about 66000 years ago that human beings acquired verbal communication skills, but writing was […]

Japanese culture

November 4, 2021
November 25, 2022

Japan Travel in the Know: How to Take a Hot Spring Bath (Onsen) in Japan

How to spoil yourself in Japanese hot-spring inns (onsen ryokan) Which country do you think has the most hot springs in the world? You thought I would answer it was Japan? I’m sorry. It’s the US, and Japan comes second. In fact, there are so many hot springs in Yellowstone National Park (YNP) in the US. As I’ll describe later how lazily we stay in hot-spring inns, it’s true that hot springs spoil people. However, the problem of hot springs in YNP is they will literally spoil human bodies because most of them are strong acid. If it’s limited to hot springs we can enjoy without dying, Japan is No.1. Today, let me explain how to spoil yourself correctly in Japanese hot-spring inns for your future reference after the COVID restrictions are lifted. The first rule of Hot-spring club: Bathe three times at least Averagely, we bathe three times for […]

Japanese society

November 2, 2021
December 6, 2022

Japan Travel in the Know: Why Is Kyoto a Popular Destination in Japan?

Almost all the Japanese students go to Kyoto on a school trip The biggest school event for Japanese students is a school trip, I’m 100% sure. We go on a trip with all the classmates three times in our lifetime. They are the sixth grade of elementary school, the third grade of junior high school, and the second grade of high school. It’s a kind of Japanese spring tradition. You can see many students in school uniform in popular sightseeing spots like Kyoto. It’s a tragedy if you stay in the same hotel as a school-trip group, though people (who used to be students having enjoyed school trips in Japan) don’t have any right to complain, thinking back their own youth days. Having said that, I really feel sorry for the school kids because most of the school trips have been canceled during the COVID. Many old buildings in Kyoto, […]