The other day, an encounter at my neighbourhood's public swimming pool triggered a recollection of an experience I had as a 14-year old high school student. At the time I was studying in a Mandarin-medium school. As there were plans for me to move to another
I have always been curious whether the ability to pick up and read any book is a skill that can be developed over time. More often than not, I rarely buy or borrow books outside my comfort zone, largely for fear of ending up with a book that I don&
Birthday Girl (2022) is a short story written by Japanese author Haruki Murakami (Japanese: 村上春樹). Murakami is a celebrated author whose legion of fans are referred to as "Harukists". I had previously read two of his English-translated books - Norwegian Wood (1987) and Kafka on the Shore (2002)
A common fixture in sentō change rooms is a bodyweight scale. I am not entirely sure when this became the case, but I guess back in the day weighing scales, like baths, were not common in households. A bodyweight scale doesn't look terribly out of place in a
A sentō (Japanese: 銭湯, English: public bathhouse) is probably the least ideal place to people-watch, as everyone is naked. I think it is OK to people-watch. Just be sure not to stare and mind your own business. One cold, wintery Wednesday night, I went to seek refuge at
Japan celebrates the new year, called oshogatsu (Japanese:お正月), on the first of January. Many salarymen and salarywomen go back to their hometowns for a few days to celebrate oshogatsu. As a result, most businesses are either closed in the first week of January or have limited operating hours. Families
In Japan, official notices or announcements usually have titles containing these four Japanese characters: お知らせ (oshirase). These notices, often written in formal, honorific Japanese called 敬語 (keigo), are a little difficult for me to comprehend. That said, I can generally guess what a notice is about if I recognise and
The Japanese language is made up of three writing systems: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Most Japanese sentences comprise characters from all three systems. So to be proficient, you have to learn all three systems. You could of course decide to only learn to speak Japanese by watching and listening to
The English word "odyssey" means "a long wandering or voyage marked by many changes of fortune", according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The source of the word is The Odyssey, a 24-volume collection of poems written by a Greek poet called Homer. This book of
A public bathhouse or sentou (Japanese: 銭湯) is a neighbourhood facility that has showering and bathing facilities. Sentou's were particularly widespread in the olden days when many Japanese homes lacked modern bathing facilities. Locals would therefore head to their neighbourhood sentou to have a shower and a good
The other day, I learned something very interesting about Japan's bank notes in the reading class I participate in. To recap, every two weeks we discuss a short story from author Shinichi Hoshi's (Japanese: 新一星) book called "Bokko-chan" (Japanese: ボッコちゃん). The book is
About one year ago, I went for a basic medical checkup and got a big wakeup call from the less-than-stellar results. My low-density lipoprotein ("LDL") levels exceeded the recommended range and my blood pressure was also on the high side. LDL - commonly referred to as