Invisible Evidence

I have a Zippo lighter made in U.S.A. Although the outside cover is as it is, the inner unit had been replaced by the imitation which I got at a discount shop while I had been convinced that even a cheap imitation of 100 (1.2USD) could work almost as well as real one. Japanese "100 yen" discount shops sell the well-imitated no brand oil lighters, which is elaborate enough to cheat customers.
However, it shows that it is a cheap imitation when I try to ignite although its appearance looks like the inner unit of a real one. The imitation is incredibly hard to ignite. It gives off sparks. Nevertheless it won't ignite easily.
As soon as I gave it up and replaced the inner unit by a real one, it ignited easily by a single action.
The real one has a reason why it is called a real one although even if it is invisible.

from Tokyo

Doll Festival

Today is the "Doll Festival" in Japan.
There has been a custom of displaying "Hina" dolls (or imperial-couple-like dolls set) for the festival in Japanese houses if they have girls. It is said this custom began during the Heian period or more than 1,000 years ago. People believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits.
However lately almost 70 percent of Japanese families seem to have given up displaying it for a lot of reasons. Some complains "no room for it". The other says simply "it's nothing but tiresome".
I wish the ornamental dolls in the closet which are believed to have a spiritual power would wash the mind of such people as disregard Japanese traditional custom of Japan.

from Tokyo

Spare 5 Minutes to Survive 40s

A standard guy will experience the hardest time when he is 40s. Days and nights are much tougher than ever, while vigor is declining mentally as well as physically. Nevertheless he has to climb up the slope which is becoming steeper as time goes by.
The one and only weapon he has got might be intelligence. Fortunately he has acquired a lot of knowledge through experiences, which might generate new wisdom.
Hence he'd better spare a time to think deeply for at least five minutes a day. Wisdom will help him when he finds himself in times of trouble as the Beetles sang a long time ago. The old way was "Let it be". The latest way must be "Think for 5 minutes".

from Tokyo

What have you bought through social media?

There come so many invitations for the seminars on social media marketing. I find such messages on my Twitter's timeline almost every day, every hour.
A seminar organizer emphasizes that social media easily promotes the sales of products and services. Sometimes such an organizer earns fee of the seminar itself, or they are watching eagerly for a chance to promote their consulting and tools even if the seminar is free.
However, looking back on myself, I have bought nothing through social media so far. How about are such people who are eager to join such kind of seminars? Have they bought anything through Twitter or Facebook?
If they haven't they had better review the advantages of social media, which budding missionaries have been advertising.
Be calm and think again.
Have social media marketers ever fascinated you?
What have you bought through social media?
Do you know anybody who bought something through Twitter?
Unfortunately I've never seen such a consumer so far.
That's why I don't trust the seminar organizers who emphasize the advantage of social media marketing.

from Tokyo

Don't say "this country"

Lately Japanese people often say "this country" when they mention their own country. Not "Japan", not "our country", but "this country". It is easy to find "this country" not only in ordinary conversation but also in blogs, Twitter and Facebook.
The one who often uses "this country" is just like an employee who is not satisfied with its company and tends to say "this company" not "our company". If such employees increase, the company will fail soon as a lot of historical examples have shown.
Malaise lingering along Japan might be nothing but such irresponsibility symbolized by "this country". It's such an unfavorable feeling which is spread all over "this country" that allowed a mob party to win more seats than a majority in the last election.

from Tokyo

Not by Compression, but by Combination

Most young music creators seem to take it for granted that rich sound is created by compression of many notes. They tend to put too many notes on too many trucks and compress them by a finalizing processor like multiband compressor and limiter.
Such a high density policy may often cause a misunderstanding that young creators succeeded to make up professional quality music. His truck might be heavy, rich and mellow indeed. However he should know that it's no more than a rough and disgusting mixture of excessive notes.
From my personal experience the real richness must be made up not by the compression but by the combination of notes. Listen to the songs created by top players again. You may get to know that they use as less notes as they can since they know this well.
Not so many notes are required in a moment because each note has its lingering even after next note is played. Only who understands this suggestion can be a respective creator.

from Tokyo

Far East Galapagos Island

Do you know Galapagos Island? An island located in the south pacific which is known as to breed a lot of creatures isolated from worldwide evolution. You may know that Japanese mobile phone culture is often used analogy to this curious island.
Fortunately Japan seems to have succeeded in leading the world in mobile network services of previous generation. As a matter of fact, by the first year of the new century, Japanese mobile phone users had been already given an infrastructure which provides them various services and contents through a matchbox size window, which had been realized by low load websites for a slower wireless network than today.
From the beginning of this century Japan has developed various progressive services like mobile FeliCa, which allows users charging electronic money or train fare to mobile phones via mobile network. However Japanese people enjoyed so much this unique environment that they got left behind the evolution of outside of this island located in the Far East while the design cost for Far East Galapagos spec mobile phones have risen up to almost more than double of global standard.
Soon comes the next serious problem.
Most creatures in Far East Galapagos Island seem to wish to enjoy traditional environment no matter how old-fashioned their mobile phone is although most of them want to catch up to the latest trend. This tendency might make Japanese mobile phone users avoid latest smartphones. Some of my friends, indeed, appear to be hesitant to buy smartphones because they want to enjoy traditional matchbox-size services.
That's why I'm planning to own both a smartphone and a traditional one in the meantime.

from Tokyo