Taro is a native of Tokyo, Japan. He has lived in the United States for 12.5 years (June 1986-November 1992, June 1994-June 2000), the United Kingdom for 3 months (September-November 1991), Taiwan for 3.5 years (September 2000-March 2004), and Australia for 10 years (April 2015-April 2025). He has been settled in Tokyo since May 2025.
When I discovered the Beatles, in my early teens, the legendary British band had already disbanded. Initially, I thought they were a comic act. Think about it. The name of the band was the Beetles (カブト虫). Their members consisted of John Lemon (レモン), Ringo (りんご) Starr, Paul McIntosh (マッキントッシュりんご), and George Harisen (張り扇). Their record label was “Apple Corp” (アップルレコード), and they sang “Strawberry Fields Forever” (「いちご畑よ、永遠に」). Or maybe I got confused with the Rutles. The existence of a Japanese comic band called Zutorubi (ずうとるび) at the time also confused me.
And there were Volkswagen Beetle (the bugs) and magic buses. Full of “Love and Peace”. Luckily, Apple Computer at the time was unknown (Apple II was not popular) in Japan. That changed when they released Macintosh in 1984, but that’s another story.
Fast forward to 2025, my son only knew Apple sells iPhones and MacBook Air. He probably doesn’t know what the Mac stands for. I will teach him that it was McCartney, not McDonald’s.
Fun Fact: “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” was on the “Rubber Soul” album by the Beatles, released in 1965. “Norwegian Wood,” the novel by Haruki Murakami (村上春樹), was published in 1987.
Hiroyuki Takahashi (高嶋 弘之), who was the Project Manager at Toshiba EMI for the Beatles at the time, officially admitted that he purposely mistranslated “Norwegian Wood” to “ノルウェイの森” because it sounded better. 「Norwegian Wood」は、直訳するとノルウェー木材や、その家具とかそういう意味らしいんですが、「ノルウェーの森」というタイトルをつけました。意味は違っているのですが、ただこちらの方が曲の雰囲気に合っていると言われることもあります。
Kudos to him! I agree that “ノルウェイ産の木材” wouldn’t cut it. He was aware that the original meaning was “a piece of wood,” perhaps “from Norwegian furniture”. Aha, that was probably an odd piece of wood that came out of the Ikea flat-pack furniture.
The protagonist of the song was an English working-class young white male in the early 1960s, and probably did not care whether it was Swedish or Norwegian. Interestingly, Ikea opened its first stores outside of Sweden in Norway in 1963.
In the same article, I also liked the comment on the song by Tim Hitchens, who was the British Ambassador to Japan (2012-2016). “Norwegian Wood” managed, when I was a teenager, to summon up the infinite possibilities of adult life; confident women, overnighting with others. And I liked the bad pun at the end “I lit a fire, isn’t it good, Norwegian wood”. I have always enjoyed (and still use) bad puns.
So, I listened to the song carefully for the first time. Wow, I saw the world that I overlooked (or overheard) while listening to the song a million times in the past. The lady, an “awoken” white professional who was into Yoga and Indian philosophy. She got rid of all of her furniture, made her room empty, and sat on the floor. It could be possible in the late 1960s, but in the early 1960s, it was highly unlikely.
OK, she was moving out from her old place. All the furniture was gone and leaving her room empty. That night was the final day of her rental agreement. Perhaps her friends already helped her disassemble and pack Ikea furniture pieces back into their “flat-pack” boxes. The protagonist happened to find a piece of Norwegian wood on the floor.
The next morning, the protagonist found that she was not coming back. He did not know her new address, nor did not have her phone number. She abandoned him. “I lit a fire” meant a fresh start. This bird (she) has flown to an unknown place, and the protagonist had to move on.
Alternatively, she was of an ethnic background, such as Indian descent or Pakistani, if the use of the Sitar, a musical instrument from the Indian subcontinent, suggested. If so, “Norwegian Wood” referred to a room with cheap pine wood paneling, popular in London in the 1960s, as Sir Paul McCartney commented.
Sitting on the floor with no furniture blew John Lennon’s mind at the time. He could not adjust to the different culture at the time, so he left her. If so, this bird was the protagonist himself. He made a fresh start of his own will. But the experience left him with a deep impact and realization that there were women in diverse cultures. No wonder he divorced his caucasian wife and married Yoko Ono in the late 1960s
One of my favorite YouTubers, Rick Beato, made an insightful video regarding AI. He is a music guy, but also has an engineer’s mind. He pointed out my blind spot. “What you eat is what you are,” literally.
In summary, the outcome from AI is limited by the dataset that the LLM of AI was trained on.
ChatGPT is 48% Wikipedia. 0% YouTube. That means, except for the second-hand information that was posted in other data sources that ChatGPT is aware of, the knowledge on YouTube will not be considered at all.
On the contrary, Google Gemini has 19% YouTube. I will switch my go-to AI from ChatGPT to Gemini.
Betel Nut Beauty (檳榔西施) is a term used to describe young women who sell betel nut leaves on the roadside in Taiwan. The betel nut leaves are addictive and keep you awake. Typical customers are male taxi drivers and truck drivers. After their consumption, they spit the red fluid on the road. It’s disgusting. Betel Nut Leaves (or Kratom Leaves) contain Codeine, a chemical commonly used as cough medicine in East Asia. Today, Codeine is used as a recreational drug in the United States thanks to globalization.
According to this YouTube video, the Americans drink less alcohol and misuse more prescription drugs, such as Opioids and Benzodiazepines. It also mentioned that the UK and Australia follow the US trend.
One unique characteristic of Japanese society is that it is often left behind in global trends, or lapped in a circuit. The Japanese laws still prohibit people from using cannabis (marijuana). Recently, Suntory’s chairman, Takeshi Niinami, was forced to resign due to allegations of cannabis usage.
While prohibiting cannabis and online casinos, the Japanese people still drink hard and openly smoke cigarettes in public places compared with Americans, the Pomies, and Aussies. We Japanese people often jokingly describe Japan as “a Galapagos Island, culturally.”
I forgot to tell my son about the days of the week in Japanese. It relates to the planets in the Solar System: Sunday = 日曜日, Monday = 月曜日, Tuesday = 火曜日, Wednesday = 水曜日, Thursday = 木曜日, Friday = 金曜日, and Saturday = 土曜日. In the English translation, Sunday = “Sun Day”, Monday = “Moon Day”, Tuesday = “Mars Day”, Wednesday = “Mercury Day”, Thursday = “Jupiter Day”, Friday = “Venus Day”, and Saturday = “Saturn Day”. (Sorry, Uranus and Neptune. You were reserve players.) Please read this article Names of the days of the week in Wikipedia, for further explanation.
Wait, there is something weird going on. OK, it’s no brainer that Sun = 日 (Sun), and Moon = 月 (Moon). However, why Mars =火星 (Fire Planet), Mercury = 水星 (Water Planet), Jupiter = 木星 (Wood Planet), Venus = 金星 (Metal Planet), and Saturn = 土星 (Earth Planet) in Japanese? The hint lies in the Wuxing (五行) philosophy of the ancient Chinese. The Buddhist monks (佛教僧侶) brought the knowledge of Wuxing (五行) from China to Japan like other things, such as Buddhism (佛教), Zen (禪), Vegetarianism (素食主義), Buddhist scriptures (佛經), Kanji (漢字), Paper (紙), Inksticks (墨), Incense sticks (香), Buddhist robes (佛袍), Tea (茶), Tofu (豆腐), Noodles (麵條), and the Architectural techniques of Buddhist temples (佛教寺廟的建築技術), etc.
Interestingly in the Chinese language, Sunday is 星期日 (Day Sun), Monday is 星期一 (Day 1), Tuesday is 星期二 (Day 2), Wednesday is 星期三 (Day 3), Thursday is 星期四 (Day 4), Friday is 星期五 (Day 5), and Saturday is 星期六 (Day 6).
Are 月曜日, …, and 土曜日 invented by the Japanese? Or did the ancient Chinese invent 星期月, …, 星期土 first, but they abandoned it? Some people discussed it in the Reddit forum. I do not know the answer yet.
Japanese media often lack understanding of retained earnings (内部留保) and mislead their readers with a distorted perception.
企業の内部留保、６００兆円 １２年連続で過去最高―投資や人件費、活用に課題・２３年度末 (Retained earnings reach 600 trillion yen, the highest level in 12 consecutive years – Issues remain regarding investment, labor costs, and utilization – end of fiscal year 2023)
They portrayed it as the cash in the assets in the balance sheet. Wrong. In the article above, the writer suggested that there were issues with investment, labor costs, and utilization. The writer was simply ignorant. It simply indicates that a corporation has consistently made a profit in the past years. Mr Sugawara (脱・税理士スガワラくん) warns us with his YouTube video.
I was watching the interview with 堀江 貴文 (Takamumi Horie) on YouTube. Mr Horie, also known as ホリエモン (Horiemon), and たかぽん (Takapon), is a smart individual and a successful entrepreneur. He started On the Edge (later, Livedoor) and has been my hero. 【前編】堀江貴文/福岡の田舎町に誕生した神童/超短期間での東大逆転合格/プロ野球参戦潰してきた巨人ナベツネ/楽天・三木谷と直接対決で敗北の理由は老害の機嫌
1995 was remembered as the year the Internet was born for us. (ARPANET was already conceived in the 1960s in the United States, but access had been strictly limited to the US armed forces.) In November 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95 with the Internet Explorer (IE) browser. In 1996, the IE popularized Internet access. The pre-Internet era ended in 1995. The Post-Internet era began in 1996. Thus, I consider that the Year 1996 was the Internet Year 0001. That makes 2025 the Internet Year 0030.
In the pre-Internet era, we had to connect to the computer network proactively. We had to subscribe to a service provider, prepare a modem, connect the modem to the landline phone line, and then had to pay per usage. As I look back, the beauty of the era was that we were NOT connected to the Internet all the time.
Today, we are continuously connected to the Internet24/7/365. That’s overwhelming sometimes. I insist that the disconnection from the Internet is a necessity; perhaps, 2 weeks per year without an internet connection is a must. I remember the 2-week cruise vacation in December 2022 with my son was so memorable because we chose not to connect to the Internet.
When my son and I were dining at Sushiro, I proclaimed that “we are coming back here again, not only because of the quality of sushi, but also because of their clever ordering system that makes the dining experience fun.”
He did not buy my hypothesis, but that’s ok. It’s usual. My point was that the table seats only have 1 tablet computer. My son owns it. What about me? Do I have to wait until he finishes ordering his favorite set? No worries. The tablet has a 2-dimensional code that turns my smartphone into another ordering device. Now, I also own the means to order my favorite set of sushi. Both of us could order simultaneously, and that made us happy.
Sushiro has been known for throwing more money into ingredients for better quality at the same price. But that wasn’t the only reason that the chain has been so flourishing. They’ve also been investing in updating their “digital menu”, or ordering system on their tablet computers. Their Next-generation Conveyor-belt sushi-ordering system—Digital Sushiro Vision received the Good Design Award in 2024.
【考察】美味しいのになぜ売れない？料理人が知らない”メニューの本質” ([Consideration] Why doesn’t it sell even though it’s delicious? The essence of the menu that chefs don’t know) by 永田ラッパ (Rappa Nagata) impressed me. Rappa explained perfectly the importance of menu planning in the restaurant business. I always appreciate reading the menu as if I were reading a poem or short story rather than the dining options that to be selected before the meal. After ordering my selections, I’d often tell the waiter, “May I keep the menu for a while? I would love to read more while waiting for the meal.” I imagine what the dining experience would be if I choose option B, option C, and so forth. Besides killing time until the food is served, that exercise will also help me decide what to order the next time, if there is a next time.
The rise and fall of Pizza Hut: A $5.7 billion collapse by Michael Girdley impressed me. In summary, Michael concluded that the inexpensive cheese and the hunger for a dining out experience grew the Pizza Hut chain. The rise of heavy-weight chickens and Domino’s Pizza killed them. A brilliant analysis.
田中星児 (Seiji Tanaka) sang 「すてきなサンデー」 (Beautiful Sunday) in 1976, and the song became a smash hit in Japan, 4 years after the hit of its original version, ‘sang’ by Daniel Boone in 1972. It was also the number one 洋楽 (Western music) hit in Japan, selling 1.92 million copies. According to Wikipedia, the song was preceded by 「およげ！たいやきくん」 (“Go swimming! My Fish-shaped Cake”) in 1975, a hit song from a TV show. What amazes me today, watching the video, is that Seiji sang the song live beautifully with the live band, including a big horn section.
On the other hand, I seriously doubt the musicianship of Daniel Boone, supposedly the singer of the original song. I am not convinced that he could even sing or play guitar. I could only find live lip-synching videos (in 1994 and 2013) by him, and they all looked corny, including the original promotional video. I suspect the producer of “Beautiful Sunday” played the guitar, sang, then let Daniel lip-sync. If so, he was preceding Milli Vanilli.
On the contrary, the live performance of “Perfect Day” by my favorite Lou Reed in 2000 was so perfect. A true musician usually does not have to lip-sync except in a few exceptions. (e.g., Whitley’s case that I will mention later.)
I came across a rumor that Fergie (former frontwoman of Black Eyed Peas) sang a terrible national anthem. So, I listened to the video carefully. She was only shaky first few notes, but she nailed it the rest. I truly feel sorry for her. The performance was brilliant, but they judged her by only a few notes she slightly missed in the beginning. Fergie sings the national anthem (Live) at the NBA All-Star Game 2018
What is the difference between hyper and tde in Tableau? These two are used when you want to create a snapshot of your data (an extract), especially if the data is large or you need faster performance. The .tde was the older version, and the .hyper is the newer, more efficient one. These files don’t contain any workbook or structure information—just the data.
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