2021– date –
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Fun Facts About Hokkaido’s Trick-or-Treating and Chocolates
【Trick-or-treating in Hokkaido】 Did you know that the history of trick-or-treating at Halloween in North America was not so long? It started about in 1930, while Halloween itself has a long history of more than 2000 years. As you may k... -
What the Japanese Governement Did Wrong in the COVID
【What are things other than basics of life?】 One of the biggest reasons why I was back to my hometown is a summer music festival held in Hokkaido. Nevertheless, this summer is ending without the fest due to the COVID, the same as last ... -
Do You Know the Truth of Average?
【What is average?】 AI can create virtual humans that look realistic. It's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between real and virtual actors in movies, for example. As this is a well-known trick, to make the faces of virtual hu... -
What Makes Sapporo the Toughest Market in Japan?
Sapporo, the capital city of Hokkaido, is famous as a place for test marketing. Many businesses test pre-release products because its age structure of population is almost the same as that of the whole country. In addition, the city has no strong characteristics or specific tendency in culture; the people are considered to like new things. Maybe it's because Hokkaido doesn't have a long history, different from other areas in the main land of Japan. -
Why We Always Look for a Reason
【A local amusement park is seeing its last days】 I often go to a hot spring place in a nearby town. On the way, there's a collapsing amusement park "Canadian World." I have a dim memory of seeing its TV commercials when I was a kid, bu... -
When Fast is Better: The Benefits of a Slapdash Approach
【New Coke, the greatest failure of the century in marketing】 Coke VS Pepsi, this was a very important issue when I was a kid with a limited budget. In the early 1980's PepsiCo launched a big marketing offensive, like aggressive compara... -
The Thing We Learned from Alexander the Great
【Alexander the Great, my hero】 Japanese people really seem to like to pick up the top three of various categories, such as the world's three major night views. They are Hong Kong, Monaco, and Nagasaki, by the way. If it's about archite... -
Human Subtlety Will Never Devise an Invention More Beautiful, More Simple, or More Direct
【A genius can learn from any small matters】 When you can't catch fish, think it gave you time to think about life. This quote is believed in Japan to be made by Ernest Hemingway. As far as I searched, however, the author of the phrase ... -
Why Kendo Doesn’t Become an Olympic Sport
Did you know that Kendo was not a sport but a way of life? In the Tokyo Olympics 2020, Shohei Ohno, winning a gold medal in the 73 kg competition of Judo, has reminded me of the fact that Judo was not a sport before. He never raised his fist or even smiled after winning matches in order to show his respect and consideration to opponents. -
Greenwashing: Is It Really Eco-friendly?
【Why I like clever lies better than obvious lies】 Have you ever watched "The Sting" one of the classic movies from Hollywood? I believe it's a masterpiece of a con-game movie. If I were the gang boss tricked by Paul Newman and Robert R...