Examines various current events along with historical facts
Examines various current events along with historical facts
Sumo is a sport in which two rikishi (力士, sumo wrestlers) wearing mawashi-belt (loincloth) compete in a circular ring called dohyo (土俵), and the winner is decided by pushing the opponent out of the dohyo or by forcing any part of…
Walls are physical obstacles. They serve as boundaries that divide space, and whether inside a house, a building, or outdoors, walls provide security, protect privacy, and can even function as symbols of defense or, conversely, as symbols of division and…
Miles Davis (1926-1991) was a jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger who continuously pioneered innovative approaches to musical expression in each era, including cool jazz, hard bop, modal jazz, electric jazz, crossover, and hip-hop jazz. Miles transcended the boundaries of jazz,…
When the term “dictatorship” is used as a concept describing a power situation or a form of rule, it is often replaced by the institutional concept of a “dictatorial regime,” and discussed as a form of political system. In a…
The word “lottery” is said to have originated from the Dutch word for “fate” or “chance.” Indeed, lotteries, despite the near certainty of losing, offer the tantalizing prospect of winning a life-changing sum of money. Although the asymmetry in the…
In the era before location detection technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning System) using artificial satellites, latitude and longitude were determined using the positions of stars and the sun, along with highly accurate clocks. While the basic method for ships…
Phrases like “a gorgeous rose carefully cultivated in a greenhouse” versus “a dandelion that blooms strong and quietly by the roadside even without protection” are sometimes used as metaphors when talking about life, vitality, or the way of life. The…
Chopin’s (1810-1849) No. 15 in D-flat major, commonly known as “Raindrops,” is one of 24 Preludes, Op. 28, completed and published in 1839, known as a piece evoking the image of mist-like raindrops gently floating through the air, transforming into…
In the era before the internet and smartphones, people who were considered knowledgeable, whether due to their extensive knowledge or exceptional memory, were highly valued in companies, schools, and local communities. In a time when methods for finding information were…
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a suspenseful epic science fiction film depicting the events that occur during a manned mission to Jupiter in the year 2001 accompanied by HAL 9000, an AI (artificial intelligence) that controls the spaceship, in…
Zatoichi is a kyōkaku (侠客, a wanderer with a chivalrous spirit) from the Edo period, and tells the story of a blind masseur (座頭, zato) named Ichi (市, the blind man’s common name) who travels around the country, meeting and…
As September arrives, the angle and color temperature of the sunlight in the mornings and evenings suddenly begin to take on an autumnal appearance. This is probably because the sun’s altitude decreases and sunlight travels a longer distance through the atmosphere…
Ever since changing my monitor’s screensaver from a single color to an image of Earth, scenes like Earthrise have been filling the screen. Earthrise is the name given to a photograph taken by William Anders with a Hasselblad camera loaded…
When faced with alternative information, perceptions, or knowledge that contradicts existing beliefs, habits, or learning, people can have a strong negative or rejecting reaction. This may be a bit of a leap, but there is an ancient Greek anecdote about…
Before the advent of typewriters and email, letters were a form of handwritten communication using pen and paper from sender to recipient, in which the sender’s purpose, intentions, and feelings were written down in writing according to certain etiquette and…
The Time Tunnel is a science fiction television film about time travel that aired on the ABC network from 1966 to 1967. The story is set in a huge underground facility in Arizona, where Project Tic-Toc is secretly developing a…
Nights in cities used to be much darker than they are now; the level of darkness can be best described as pitch black, where it was impossible to see even an inch ahead without moonlight or starlight. Street lights are…
Since ancient times, rice cultivation has been considered a special blessing bestowed by the gods, and it is an essential element in Japanese culture, not only as a source of food, but also for nurturing and maintaining health, life, and…
Ninjas (忍者) were known as shadow warriors with special skills, equivalent to modern-day spies, agents or special forces, and were said to have carried out covert missions such as espionage, sabotage, and assassinations. Ninja groups are said to have existed…
Tenshin Okakura (岡倉天心, 1863-1913) a Meiji era thinker, introduced in “The Book of Tea (茶の本, 1906)” that the tea ceremony embodies the deep spiritual culture of Japan, and is not simply the act of drinking tea or a ceremonial procedure.…
Wine is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting grape juice, and the elements that determine a wine brand include geographical classification such as producing country, region, and vineyard, the winery, the type of grape variety used (there are said to…
The word diet originates from the ancient Greek word “δίαιτα” meaning lifestyle or way of life. Later, it was transferred to the medieval Latin word dieta, meaning daily work or amount of food, and the French word diete meaning food…
A sense of belonging is a fundamental emotion that people have when they seek social connections. It is a structure of consciousness that is the result of a psychological process in which people internalize the goals, value system, and role…
Television is a system for transmitting and reproducing images and sounds to distant locations, and its origins date back to 1873, when development of a device began in England to convert light and dark into electric strength and transmit it…
The Meyasubako (目安箱, suggestion box) was installed in front of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s Council of Ministers (評定所) in 1721. The Meyasubako, which was set up by the eighth shogun, Yoshimune (吉宗, 1716-1745), as one of the Kyoho Reforms (享保の改革), allowed anyone, except…