2022– date –

【Tragic inflation will attack Japanese school kids】 Are bananas categorized as snacks for a trip? I ensure this phrase never fails to make Japanese people laugh. Give it a try if you have any Japanese friends. Japanese elementary schoo...

【We Hokkaido people reach enlightenment by clearing snow】 Nothing can stay the same. This is very famous Buddhist terminology, meaning "Life is fleeting and empty." Even on weekend, I always wake up very early and leave home before six...

I begin by sharing my "romantic secret"—that snow-lit Hokkaido nights glowed orange—a secret quickly debunked by my wife's superior knowledge. This orange glow, caused by sodium lamps, is now disappearing due to energy-saving LEDs. I lament this because the lights attracted stag beetles, which were easily collected near acorn trees (Oak)—the same wood we use for our furniture. This Hokkaido Oak shares another legacy: it provides the essential cask material for some of the world's finest Japanese Whisky. The light may be gone, but the resilience of the acorn tree quietly connects the past, fine whisky, and our furniture.

Asahikawa: Hokkaido’s second city and a former strategic military front line. Discover its unique history, its 150 rivers, and why we are turning our furniture factory into a world-class destination. Experience industrial tourism in a city where even businessmen fish like James Bond.

It is said that about 30% of agricultural output is thrown away as a non-standard product in Japan. Now the sugar level of some fruits is measured by an optical sensor. The technological advancement has resulted in increasing the amount of food waste, unfortunately.

The Kaiju Metaphor: Godzilla is a non-negotiable force of nature that technology cannot defeat. As an ex-military person, I’m frustrated, but we Japanese simply surrender to the inevitable. Embracing a crack in the wood is a small, daily act of submitting to nature, just as the Japanese submit to Godzilla.

【Do you think you say thank you enough?】 What about your thank you? My mother very often told me this when I was a kid. Even if it's minor stuff like asking to pass something on the table and forgetting to say thank you, she was naggin...

【Snowy mountains are really harsh】 Last week a logging company invited us to a mountain tour to see how trees are logged. While we were going up the mountain plowing through snow, a staff member talked a lot about the troubles they hav...

【We come to need hotels for another reason】 The COVID destroyed the bright future of the Japanese tourism industry. The number of foreign tourists to Japan was increasing year by year and exceeded 30 million in 2018, when the nationwid...

Snow has already been used as a renewable energy source here. Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan, is the largest producer of potato, onion, and rice in Japan, and snow is used to refrigerate those crops during storage.