Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

On paper, 2019 was a turning point for Japanese women in terms of their place in Japanese society. After years of relative neglect, the economic policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized the importance of female labor participation for the future growth of the Japanese economy. The so-called "womanomics" policies of the Japanese government aimed to draw more housewives to work by providing comparatively generous grants for sending kids to and creating more open spots in kindergartens, and mandated companies to support women through formalized maternity leave policies.

Recently, the world has the reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto popularly elected leader of Myanmar, hit another low at the Hague the past week with her highly anticipated hearing on the country's treatment of its Muslim refugee issue. Aung San Suu Kyi likely lost the last of her supporters in the West by refusing to apologize for the state's role in systematically driving the Rohingya out of the country through rape and murder, instead only recognizing the excess of some soldiers and that the overall situation is "complex." She made no mention of the Rohingya by name and refuse to recognize them as legal citizens of the country.

A term that is frequently used when Japan talks about foreign countries and individuals is 親日, roughly translatable to "friendly to the Japanese/Japan" or more directly, "pro-Japanese." Often, the usage of the term crops up in discussions concerning international exchange at a grassroots level. A "pro-Japanese" country, the narrative goes, is much more likely to be friendly and helpful to Japanese individuals traveling or living in the country. Local citizens, additionally, would be much more receptive toward learning about Japanese culture and adopting at least some aspects of it in their daily lives.

At first, the show seems to be just another Japanese TV show that features a bunch of well-known comedians and other celebrities sampling good food around the country. For this episode of the typical "variety show," the group headed to Yokohama Chinatown to find the best-tasting and best-valued Chinese buffets in the area. The hour-long show featured the group going to four different restaurants to try out shrimp, shark fin, spicy stir-frys, and gourmet fried rice. There were plenty of mouth-watering close-up shots of the food and plenty of celebrities talking about how good the food is. So far so good.

In recent years, major train stations in Tokyo have been increasingly home to a new type of poster. Amidst ubiquitous ads for commercial products and services are government-issued notices encouraging citizens to look out for terrorist activities. Frequently highlighting scared citizens at the front and center, these posters call upon citizens to report to the local police on any sort of suspicious persons and activities, under various slogans that state that "preventing terrorism is the responsibility of all citizens." Highly trafficked train stations, as the posters imply, ought to be the focus of vigilant citizens.

As an avid reader of the Economist magazine, I often admire the publication's willingness to take a more pragmatic approach to advance a progressive agenda that it cherishes. The "progressive pragmatism" the magazine shows is on full display when it comes to the issue of international migration. On one hand, the Economist is unabashedly pro-migration, arguing that a freer movement of workers would greatly boost productivity and wealth in destination countries. But on the other hand, the magazine concedes that hostility toward migrants is a reality in the same destination countries, and new practical thinking is needed to appease the anti-migration crowd.

The elite in every country, first and foremost, is defined by money. Your normal middle-class person cannot fathom the amount of money a member of the elite has. It is not just about the ability to buy whatever material goods or services without having to worry about budgeting to not run out of money. Instead, there is so much money in their bank accounts that they can buy up entire companies, start brand-new ones, and pay to make governments and laws work for them so that they can continue to retain and increase the amount of their wealth across multiple generations.

While the world and its major media outlets are fixated on the ongoing protests in Hong Kong and across South America, the never-ending problems faced by fragile governments in the Middle East, as always, gets pushed to the back of the collective mind. As the civil war and subsequent refugee problem in Syria amply demonstrate, the world has become too callous toward the chaos that originates in the Middle East and is becoming all too complacent and willing to assume that the region will be surrounded by unending violence and suffering that outsiders have little power to stop or control.

The atmosphere is absolutely relaxing. An extra-long wooden sofa with plump fluffy cushion in a leafy courtyard. Playing in the background are acoustic covers of some of Japan's most famous pop songs from the 1990s. Next to the sofa is a stand serving up carbonated blueberry juice and coffee from Myanmar. Customers lounging around on the sofa are quietly sipping their drinks while reading copies of artistic magazines describing the most innovative architecture and delicious specialty food stores around Tokyo under a windy but sunny cloudless sky.

Older Japanese men are not the most politically correct when it comes to expressing their opinions. After decades of managing younger people as top-level salarymen and getting what they want both during and after work , many become highly intolerant of situations in which things do not go the way they are supposed to based on social conventions and commonly understood protocols. Even as powerless retirees, they somehow continue to believe in their responsibility and necessity to help defend "the way things are," just as they have as career salarymen maintaining a stable corporate culture in major Japanese firms.

It almost seems deliberate just how Joker is timed to match the real-world protests happening around the world. The recently premiered film that traces the origin of the most famous villain of Batman features a growing tension of the rich and the poor in a Gotham that has seen public services fall apart as conservative politicians cut back government funding to supposedly help the poor stand on their own feet. The movie begins with one mentally problematic man's journey to navigate a city that seems to be turning its back on people like him by the day but ends with thousands of anarchists taking to the streets to destroy the physical symbols of the powerful and the rich monopolizing the power to dedicate the city's future.

Today, it was announced that Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister of Ethiopia, won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, beating out other favorites, notably Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist who has grabbed the world's attention through her often fiery speeches. The praise Abiy received, despite being a young 43-year-old coming to power just last year, is a recognition of the great political advances Ethiopia, under his leadership, has achieved in just a year. While the Nobel committee primarily gave Abiy the award for his effort to end the on-and-off military conflict with neighboring Eritrea, his efforts at pushing through greater freedom of expression and economic development at home are no doubt also highly evaluated.

The implementation of the anti-mask law by the Hong Kong government ought to be a new tool for authorities to finally put more pressure on protestors to calm themselves down. With security cameras and facial recognition technology, there would certainly be more anxiety among people on the streets that their untoward acts toward the police, government authorities, and supposed pro-China business establishments will be punished later when their personal identities are revealed. No doubt, the policy escalation is a move that would gain approval from those who see protestors as violent rioters bending to destroy the city.

In front of the Harajuku train station in Tokyo is a busy shopping arcade called Takeshita Street. During the 90s, this was the epicenter of a major fashion counterculture in Japan. Young women with tanned skin, boldly colored hair and gaudy clothing strutted down the street, presenting themselves as the antithesis of a mainstream culture that believed in the beauty of fair (read: white) skin, jet-straight shiny black hair, and cute blouses with toned-down designs. The eponymous "Harajuku style" became known worldwide as a streak of individualism in a Japanese society perceived as fundamentally conformist .

"Variety shows" are one of the mainstays of Japanese television. Entertainers put on skits and funny talks about exaggerated versions of everyday events, getting laughs from the viewers by making fun of just how absurd even the most mundane situations can be if pushed to the logical conclusion. With thousands of funnymen trying to make living doing their own skits, only the most memorable few make it to the big stages of national television, become household names, and earn a decent living by regularly performing and hosting their shows.

One of the oddest things about traveling in smaller towns in Japan is the lack of family guesthouses. While national hotel chains are present throughout the country's many towns and cities, they are able to keep prices relatively high because consumers, outside major tourist attractions, have few choices other than staying in those national chains. And considering that big chains will only invest in massive multistory facilities that are consistent with their brand images, little towns with little out-of-town traffic simply will not be considered for future investments.

The founding and first president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, died today, two years after being toppled in a coup. Mugabe, who ruled over the country for a whole three decades from 1987, leaves behind a country plagued by economic mismanagement and squandered potential. Years of hyperinflation and shortage of basic services like power generation have turned what was once one of the wealthiest countries in Africa into one of the most problematic, with emigrants leaving in droves for South Africa just to make ends meet. Mugabe, without a doubt, should be blamed for the downward spiral that sank Zimbabwe into poverty.

On this second day after turning 31, I want to belatedly celebrate the beginning of the tenth year of keeping up with this blog. In hard numbers, what started a place to jot down my random thoughts straight out of college has gained 200,000 pageviews from 95,000 visitors. It really is not that much and much more can be done, I would admit, to attract more visitors and readers. Pictures to go along with the text would certainly be nice, and a consistent theme that keeps people coming back for more information would certainly be a great source for additional pageviews.

"I see you have done many different things in your 20s, but there is nothing further after Ph.D., so this particular job search will really be key for you," the recruiter was absolutely spot on when hearing about my desire to look for a long-term job at age 30. Just as much as going back to school for further studies hurt the prospects of landing a high-paying job afterward , years of jumping around different parts of the world doing what many think are odd jobs also make getting the next job only that much tougher. When the initial curiosity over an international resume ends, recruiters only have a bunch of questions left about motivation.

Nostalgia is a big marketing ploy in contemporary Japan. The nation's media spend lengths glorifying the heady days of the Showa era (lasting until 1989, marked by high economic growth, increasing materialism, and then the wealth of the stock market bubble), as a time of national optimism not seen today. Shops, restaurants, and even amusement parks play up the nostalgia factor with old-fashioned indoor decorations and menu items, attracting both the old seeking to revisit a slice of their youths and the youths seeking out an idealized version of the past.

With a dominance of recruitment agencies when it comes to people switching jobs mid-career, Japan"s labor market is already quite unique in the supposedly egalitarian, information-transparent Internet era. But, paradoxically, the dominance of professional recruiters also create a semblance of uniformity in the job market, by standardizing the image of what is considered a desirable employee. Without explicit intention to do so, decades of norms within the recruiter industry has led to more or less standardized codes on who is considered more desirable as employees in the minds of recruiters, often irrespective of employers' actual needs.

Collecting taxes can be a very expensive exercise for any country. For income and sales taxes, legions of investigators are needed to make sure that the sales and incomes that are being taxed are not being understated to depress the overall tax revenue. For some countries, further efforts are expended to make sure not too many people are being paid under the table and not too many things are sold without proper receipts. Inherence, investment, and real estate taxes can be even more tedious, as specialists are needed to value illiquid assets, whether they be real estate, antiques, or paintings, to get the fair amount of tax revenues.

The convenience store, a 24-hour retail operation that many Japanese (and foreign residents) depend on for the need for a late-night quick meal or emergency provisions of consumables like shampoo and toothpaste, is often a microcosm of the entire Japanese retail environment. Due to their limited space and relatively high prices for goods sold (compared to supermarkets that do not operate 24 hours a day), convenience stores must constantly adjust products on the shelf to reflect what the local consumers really need that they would pay a premium for those items at the oddest hours of the day.

There is plenty of oddities about getting a job in Japan. For new graduates, the most notable is the mass hiring of new graduates that are not tied to specific positions. A month or two of group training that gets the newbies excited about the company is followed by assignments to different departments that are made without consideration for what the new employees want to do themselves. In the olden days, the first assignment will be followed by new assignments that also align more with the interests of the company's needs at the moment, rather than the employee's desire for a certain career.

In the many online event listings for what to do in Tokyo, the current few weeks are being almost fully occupied by various "beer gardens" being held in notable venues across the metropolis. Invariably consisting of some combination of alcohol, outdoors, and sometimes BBQ to go along with the drinks, these summer outings promise attendees a good time while cooling down with friends in an oh-so-hip environment specially designed for those Instagram-worthy selfies. With beer, meat, and photogenic atmosphere, these events seem to promise a good time for everyone from college kids to middle-aged salarymen.

One of what many social scientists consider to be a growing problem of modern economies is the spread of precarious work through the "gig economy." An increasing number of people are working as full-time freelancers, such as drivers for Uber and project-based consultants, through contracts that do not guarantee them fixed monthly salaries and employee benefits like insurance available to full-time staff. With incomes seasonally volatile and subject to changes at any time, such freelancers are rightly protesting their fates as expendable laborers with little leverage over their employers.

When a restaurant receives one or more stars from the Michelin guide (or even just an honorary mention), it is justifiably proud. The restaurant has just earned worldwide recognition from one of the most famous guides for gourmets, giving it the ability to attract a large number of customers from around the world. The status of being listed in the Michelin is not only a sign that the food made in the restaurant is delicious at a world-beating level, but that the uniquely culturally bound service and atmosphere the restaurant provides can be considered universally positive.

The venue of the wedding ceremony probably typifies what constitutes a successful case of urban gentrification. The concrete, greyish former factory building hosted a modern ceremony hall, full of flower-filled waiting rooms and dining halls awaiting the entrance of tuxedoed guests and the happy newlyweds. At first sight, it would be difficult to believe that the vegetation-inundated venue is located smack in the middle of Shibuya, one of metropolitan Tokyo's most heavily trafficked, densely built urban jungles. The contrast between the inside and the outside is just too surreal.

The Nanjing Funeral Homes feels more like a bustling event space than a solemn location to say the last goodbyes to one's loved ones. Located in the confines of a tree-filled park in the southern fringes of the city, the city's government-run institution for funerals combine last rites, cremation, and burial services under one roof in several grandiose monumental buildings. But despite the massive size of the institution, demand far outstrips demand. At 7am on a Thursday, grieving family members and friends are lining up just to get their few minutes of seeing the washed bodies of the deceased for one last time.

As protestors on the streets of Hong Kong continued their street battles with the police to demand the withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill, there have been some extraordinarily cynical comments about the ongoing events and their limited impact on the forcefulness of the Chinese government. The gist of the cynics' argument is that the protests are only likely to halt the inevitable passing of the bill by a few years, as the Chinese government and its puppet-like representatives in Hong Kong back off temporarily, only to move forward again more discreetly and in another form, under new leadership.

Hong Kong is burning, once again. After hundreds of thousands of yellow umbrellas accompanied protesters seeking greater rights inundated the city in 2014, the city is once again on lockdown, as some say more than one million people came out to protest the proposed bills allowing criminals to be extradited to the Chinese mainland. As businesses close down in support of the protests and 1 in 7 of the city's residents taking to the streets to demand the resignation of the Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the city seems to be at its political crossroads.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings that marked the beginning of the end for the Axis powers in World War II. As one of the Allied powers, China undoubtedly celebrates this occasion in its own muted ways. The sacrifice of more than 150,000 soldiers who landed on the murderous beaches of northern France was the first step in ending the more than a decade of warfare China was fighting, largely by itself, against Japan on the other side of the world. D-Day, for China, is the necessary precursor to the end of the war celebrations, of which is certainly goes all out for every year.

"Make America Great" and the "China Dream" are both toxic concepts. As the US and China slug it out in a trade war that is shaking up the way the entire world does business, the defining slogans of Trump and Xi are putting on a nationalistic, patriotic spin on blatantly prioritizing the interests of their own countries, citizens, and businesses. The success of the slogans has made the trade war not just about economic logic; it is now a battle of emotions, glory, and perceptions of national greatness, summed up in neat little shorthands that hide how international exchanges are being sacrificed.

On one of the major downtown boulevards of Tashkent is the Central Asian headquarters of Huawei, the now highly controversial Chinese telecommunication equipment manufacturer. The blue glass-tower, split into an A and a B wing, both emblazoned with giant red flower logo of the firm, are truly conspicuous on the streets of the Uzbek capital dominated by faceless concrete apartment blocks. It is around noon, and Uzbek employees, company IDs hanging from their necks, stream out of the towers front doors for lunch.

The Uzbek word for "hello" and "thank you" are respectively "salam alaykhum" and "rakhmat," but in part of Tashkent, one will only hear "zdrastvuyte" and "spasiba," their Russian equivalents. Bring a foreigner makes hearing Russian more likely, as it is the "high" language used for communication with foreigners (just like French in Arabic-speaking Morocco), but unlike Morocco, many people in Uzbekistan, even if they are not ethnically Russian, choose to speak among themselves in the high language.

One thing that was great about the Soviet Union is just how much effort the state put in to popularize some of the canons of Western classical arts. From ballet to opera to orchestra, classical arts, within the limited, non-political forms, thrived even in the remotest parts of the USSR, helping to spread their reach and training a cadre of excellent performers, who found ready audiences among the urban elites, who had little alternatives for entertainment.

Walk around the backstreets of the main tourist cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva in Uzbekistan, and one would never be too far away from a "hotel" or "hostel" sign hanging from a building. On some streets, it almost seem as if every single building has been converted into family guesthouses seeking to get in on the roaring foreign tourist trade. Along with restaurants and to a lesser extent, tour companies and independent guides, tourist revenue is trickling down the most entrepreneurial members of the local society.

One of Uzbekistan's most evocative sights is Registan, a trio of 14th century madrasas that are famed for their beautiful blue tile work and geometric decorations. As Uzbekistan open up to foreign tourists, it is becoming the major draw to the city of Samarkand, a major Silk Road city frequently mentioned in Western classics on the topic of Central Asia. And sure enough, on a Saturday, the complex is full of tourists from across Asia, Europe, and America getting a firsthand look at the famed destination.

The "tech bro" way of dressing for work is becoming a global phenomenon. The idea of T-shirts and jeans have gone from the image of the broke college student to the newly minted millionaires of the IT sector, making what used to be considered sloppy dressing a symbol of technological sophistication, hard work, innovativeness, and wealth that does not come from old money handed down the generations. "Dressing down," along with corporate welfare in the form of perks like free food, massage chairs, and "play-working" facilities have become hallmarks of successful IT firms.

Often, communication among people of different countries, unfortunately, boils down to "it is like this in Country A, but it is like that in Country B." People quickly just to country-to-country comparisons, utilizing overgeneralized stereotypes that assume everyone in a particular country follows a certain set of norms universal yet unique to the country. Such assumptions quickly bring down in countries where different cultures coexist, especially in migrants-dominated societies like the US and African countries, where borders are arbitrarily drawn by colonists ignorant of local cultures.

Talk to people well-versed in pop culture of the 1990s and early 2000s and one would find few people that have not heard of Pokemon. The Japanese anime became a global phenomenon, sparking countless translated reruns of the original (and still ongoing) TV series, video games, and movies. But even the most celebrated piece of pop culture reaches popular fatigue after some time. For Pokemon, despite the continued introduction of new characters, the tired storyline of adventuring Pokemon trainers seeking new friends and victories can no longer excite some of the original fans.

To ask people about their favorite foods can often be a very personal experience. One would find many people from around the world to be very particular about what they find to be delicious (perhaps with the exception of rural Africans ), based a set of ingredients and cooking methods that are peculiar to certain cultures. But more than the sum of ingredients and cooking methods, people define a delicacy based their personal encounters with the foods in question, often laced in memories that are not easily replicable. Stories of mom's cooking and hidden restaurants in unknown destinations do not converge among different people.

To say Okinawa represents a subset of Japanese culture is to ignore how the local culture is influenced by its historical relationships with its other neighbors. Even today, such influences are felt in daily lives. Foods with distinctive Chinese names like s anpin (香片, jasmine tea) and  chinsuko (金楚糕, lard cookies) are not found in the local cultures of other Japanese regions, while the tendency to eat meat as they are in big pieces (pig feet and pork belly especially) reminds visitors more of Southeast Asia than the meticulously processed cuisines of mainland Japan.

From first sight, Yomitan, on the northeastern coast of Okinawa's main island, is a rather odd village.  Among the small plots of sugarcane fields are five or six-stories-tall apartment blocks that would not be out of place in any major city in the world.  Instead of rustic local eateries, its coastal areas and main streets are lined with luxury resorts and high-end restaurants that cater to holidaymakers from across Japan and the world beyond.  With so many guesthouses and shops in the village, it is difficult to imagine anyone actually making a living doing anything related to farming.

Cherry blossom season is upon us in Japan.  As is the case every year around the same time, people go out with friends onto the tree-lined streets and parks, appreciating, over food, drinks, and photos, the flower-filled trees, for a couple of weeks, adding a mesmerizing pink hue to the often grey cityscapes.  The concept of hanami , or flower-viewing, has in recent years become not only a Japanese phenomenon.  Many countries across the world have also seen large crowds gathering over their own avenues of pink flowers, as people come to enjoy a yearly event still associated with Japanese culture.

In some Asian societies, the idea of the foreign maid has become a social norm.  Even among the not so wealthy Hong Kongers, Singaporeans, and the Taiwanese, hiring domestic help from the Philippines, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian countries have become commonplace given the busy work schedules that prevent the young and the elderly to be taken care of within the family.  Certain Southeast Asian government have only been too happy to see their maids working hard outside the country because the governments benefit enormously from lowered unemployment and higher remittance income.

This week saw a renewed fear of illegal immigration in Japan when more than 700 registered students from the Tokyo University of Social Welfare simply disappeared.  Presumably, the students, from poor countries throughout Asia, thought that becoming illegal workers to earn more money would be a better way to use their time in Japan than wasting time and money listening to lectures in school.  Opinion pieces in Japanese media justifiably sound the alarm.  Many attacked the halfhearted attempt by the Abe administration to bring in more "foreign technical staff," arguing that such measures would only lead to Japan becoming a land of illegal immigrants.

It certainly has not been a good week for Boeing.  After one of its planes was blamed for the fatal crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, renewed allegations that the model, Boeing 737 MAX, is technically flawed resurfaced, leading to a worldwide grounding of the model.  While airlines and national governments quickly halted the use of the model, Boeing itself and American authorities were slow to react to the Ethiopian disaster, only grounding the planes after more than 60 countries made the move.  The slow reaction has led to a global backlash against the company.

Recently, "Pocketalk," a translation device with the ability to accurately interpret dozens of languages in real-time, has been all the rage.  The Japan-developed device is certainly revolutionary in its accuracy.  Just by talking into it, the user can get a sentence interpreted in seconds into the target language.  With its customized SIM card, it can be used anywhere in the world without the need to adjust the setting every time one enters a new country.  Such a device really helps people to imagine a future where the language barrier is no longer a barrier, and technology will allow people speaking different languages to communicate naturally in real time.

The second summit between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump in Hanoi has concluded in a rather ominous way.  Gone is the optimism that emerged from the previous summit in Singapore, when both men spoke of concrete progress toward peace, with denuclearization, ending of sanctions, and official diplomatic relations all on the future agenda.  The Hanoi summit was, in contrast, more notable for what it did not manage to achieve: the promises of further progress on denuclearization and dropping of sanctions were dashed by disagreements on defining what they are.

One of the greatest merits of East Asian languages is that much information can be packed into short standalone phrases that are easily remembered by even the laymen without the need for detailed explanations.  The ability for information to be communicated so concisely and densely means that it is possible for the phrases to be used as new concepts themselves, without the need to create alternative shorter codes that have equivalent meanings.  The idea of densely packed phrases acting as linguistic codes is so common that people in this part of the world do not even think about it.

Valentine's Day, in contemporary popular culture, is supposed to be romantic.  Couples, young and old, reserve seats for two in nice restaurants and profess their love once again in moody atmospheres appropriate for the words and occasions.  Or perhaps the singletons will gather and denounce the holiday for being pretentious and talk about the difficulties of getting hitched in foreign lands .  Either way, the keyword is "romance," a concept that is hard to escape on Valentine's Day, whether one is full of it or completely devoid of it.

The microbrewery in the center of Takayama city felt a bit out of the place.  Despite being surrounded by wooden buildings from more than century ago, the clientele of the little bar and restaurant is distinctly un-Japanese.  When I visited the location for dinner at 8pm on a Saturday, none of the people inside were Japanese.  Perhaps attracted by the reputation of their brews, white couples in the fifties and sixties occupied most of the tables and the counter, trying more than half a dozen unique beers the microbrewery had on tap.

It is a brilliant message on the part of business English-teaching schools in Japan everywhere.  In a bid to target regular people who are nervous about the prospect of using English in their jobs, despite having zero experiences with the language in their daily lives, the schools strive to lower the hurdle for English learning.  They do so with the uniform message about how English is simply a tool for business communication, and learning to speak better English does not necessarily mean one has to give up some part of Japanese identity and acquire foreign values .

A professor at the prestigious Duke University in the US found herself in hot water last week after social media broke the story of her telling Chinese students in her department to not speak Chinese while in the department building.  While the professor merely emailed the students of the department after receiving complaints from other professors, the subsequent outrage to the email focused solely on her wording in the emails, eventually with the professor issuing an apology and the school getting involved in the investigations.

It is often quite amusing to see online (and real-life) comments about foreigners living in Japan.  For the wide-eyed newbies a couple of years into their residence in Japan, the full-hearted embrace of Japanese society is still quite palpable.  They speak of how clean the streets are, how good the services are , and how convenient the public transit can be.  But when one checks in forums full of old-time Japan residents a decade or more into the country, a whole new different picture emerges.  In comments laced with open cynicism, the old-timers criticize the lack of change of a country that treats them as exotic animals to be gawked at endlessly.

About five years after she became a sensation in her native Japan, professional house organizer Mair Kondo found fame in the West through her new show on Netflix.  By helping both common people and celebrities clean out their cluttered homes in a show watched by millions, KonMari, as she is otherwise known, almost single-handed created a platform that redefines what it means to be happy.  In a rather simple and straightforward manner, she argued that to achieve true happiness, people must limit themselves in terms of physical possessions.  But throwing away unwanted items, the resulting cleanliness brings joy.

Once in a while, one gets to meet one of those people who take upon themselves to learn as many languages as possible.  After conquering one language, they practice the language through conversations with native speakers and equally minded language learners, all the while moving to study another new language.  They call such behavior "a hobby" based on a fascination with cultures.  Others, already having a hard time learning one foreign language , not to mention one after another, simply describe those with the language learning hobby as "naturally talented at learning languages."

An e-commerce firm can become successful in a few different ways.   Having a great selection of high-quality products at bargain prices certainly help.   So is having convenient payment methods and great customer service when things go awry.   But no part of e-commerce operations leaves a greater impression on potential customers than being able to deliver purchased products quickly, safely, and at exact times designated by the customers.   A previous article on Tech in Asia already made clear the importance of product delivery in overall customer satisfaction.   Similarly, several academic studies have shown the importance of logistics management and capacity to customer satisfaction and firm performance. Furthermore, a survey in the American and European markets showed that 38% of online shoppers will never shop with the e-commerce provider again after suffering a negative delivery experience.

Reading through some of the Master's theses produced by University of Tokyo students, I am struck by just how abstract some of them sound to the layman.  Referring to one obscure study after another, their authors simply assume that whoever that is reading their outputs would simply know by heart all the supposedly groundbreaking studies by famous scholars.  Such careless assumption goes back my previous argument that academics and non-academics simply do not communicate on the same page, leading to academic works not being taken seriously outside the tiny professional academic research community.