Why We Plant Trees in Hokkaido (the Corner of the World)

If you predict from the above title that this article would be about the introduction of New Balance, you must be a big fan of sneakers. Indeed, it is said that Ralph Lauren praised the New Balance M1300 as “It’s like walking on the clouds.” Speaking of New Balance, it’s one of the three major sneaker brands in Japan, with Nike and Adidas. According to a research, Nike a...

Do you have a debate class as part of school subjects? In Japan, no, never, at least when I was a student, though it’s about 30 years ago. To top it all off, even after entering the real world, we are likely to avoid to put it in black and white. I don’t mean it’s always wrong. It must have been an ancestor wisdom not to make enemies in the insular communities of Japan, ...

Have you ever heard your recorded voice? How do you like it? Don’t worry. You’re not the only one. I know most of us really don’t like our own recorded voice. As evidence of that, if you put the words “own voice” in the Google search box in Japanese, the top co-occurrence word is “ugly.” Me? Of course, I hate my recorded voice and always wish my voice sounded like Don La...