A Journey to the Levant
While waking up at my hotel in Singapore, received notifications about missile Launch from North Korea.
Areas that may be affected did not include Tokyo.
Took 7 minutes from the initial warning, which I understand was 3 minutes delayed, till I got the second notification that the missile has passed Japan.
Did it really take 3 minutes from Launch till I got the alert?
Is it because it was Yahoo based and not local Cellphone towers alert?
3 minutes is a long time, 7 minutes is even longer.
Received an interesting email from Suntory, offering a limited edition of 18 years Yamazaki, Mizunara.
Thought to apply, but then saw the price of about USD$1000.
In Japanese, it is １００万円の女たち 。
Watched it almost back to back and finished within a week. Loved the story and characters, except the main male character who is obviously not a good actor.
Without spoilers it is difficult to explain further, but I definitely liked the first several episodes over the last.
5 women pay a writer a Million yen every month, no explanations and no questions are allowed. We learn a bit about each character as the story develops and experience also the writing process, the publishing world and the success that ensues.
The women are committed to assist the writer with his writing and make him successful.
Especially liked the character of 白川美波 (Shirakawa Minami) played by the model actress Fukushima Rila. (福島 リラ)
Have a tiny pomegranate tree in a plant pot in my garden.
A very small tree with small leaf, small flowers and fruit. As we don’t really handle it correctly, it is just a tiny tree, not a Bonsai. Now I wish I knew how to do it right.
His new book AX is in the best selling list, so I thought I might as well try reading Japanese suspense books.
Started with Grasshopper (グラスホッパー） which tells the story of Suzuki, Semi (蝉, Cicada) and Kujira (鯨, Whale).
Kujira kills people by “convincing” them to commit suicide, Semi kills people with a knife and Suzuki entered this world to avenge the murder of his wife.
As expected, story and literary value is not satisfying, but I keep on reading. Partially to learn words and situations I am still not familiar with (crime and police), partially because I keep waiting for something to happen
A new hype which was shown on TV and now accompanies with ads in the train is a Study book for children.
How to motivate kids to study the Chinese Characters, Kanji? Obviously うんこ, feces, bowel movement, or whatever you want to call it.
https://unkokanji.com/ is the website which promotes the books and has several examples of sentences to remember the Kanji.
Does not work for me, but definitely caught the attention of the media
I know it is natural for older people to complain about the younger generation. “In my days, it was different”.
As I did not grow up in Japan, I do not know how it was 20 years ago.
But three incidents this morning make me feel like there is a problem.
Is it the season ? is it that I am less patient today? Is it the generation?
A girl in the train was carrying a tote bag with the quote:
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. – Dorothy Parker
At first I was thinking if Dorothy Parker would have approved this quote to be used commercially on Tote bag, but then I found out that the quote is attributed to Dorothy Parker, but not confirmed. See also in the Quote investigator .
I obviously doubt Wikipedia and the Internet, but I also doubt Tote Bags
Which I wake up very early, go to the train, but is just does not move.
Stopping before and in each station, waiting for a long time. A ride which usually takes 20 minutes (or 30 minutes when busy), took me more than an hour.
I actually decided to get off the train, work in a nearby Caffe and return to the train later. It was a good decision.
One of the topics that Japanese like to talk about are the Japanese four seasons.
6 years ago it may have tired me, but now I have accepted (immersed in) it.
Traveling to Singapore/Thailand/Taiwan and seeing only small differences between Summer and Winter I now appreciate the Japanese seasons.
The photo below is Gingko （イチョウ or 銀杏) in it’s splendour.
