Variegated Camellia and White Camellia (Camellia Japonica) 斑入り椿と白椿

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The first photo is of a white and pink variegated Japanese camellia (Camellia japonica). Pink or red Japanese camellias are often seen and the white ones sometimes but the variegated ones rarely. The stark contrast between the white and pink petals, the long yellow stamens and the deep green leaves is striking. The second and subsequent photos are of white camellias. 

2025/1/30

"Ikigai" and "Useful Life"? 「生きがい」と「耐用年数」？

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Have you ever heard of the term "ikigai"? Ikigai or a reason for being is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living (Source: Wikipedia). This Japanese term is now often used as it is, i.e., "ikigai," and has been taken up by several authors. It's similar to Victor Frankl's concept "the Meaning of Life," which I admire. 

So, it was kind of a nice surprise to see a van with "Ikigai" emblazoned on the side of the van a week ago. Cases of beer and sake were loaded into the van by a man from a liquor store nearby. I found it funny that a liquor store used a vehicle with such a term on the side of the vehicle but soon forgot about it.  

A few days later, however, I saw the van again but that day, I found on the other side of the van another term "Useful life" emblazoned. Hmm? What does "Useful life" mean? The term "useful life" immediately reminded me, who's been working in the financial industry for many years, of the number of years used for calculating depreciation of assets. Obviously, however, it should be emblazoned on the company car for another purpose. 

I stopped on the opposite side of the street to think about it. I even searched for the usage of "useful life" on my mobile phone, expecting to find many sentences containing "useful life" in non-accounting contexts, like psychology or philosophy, but in vain. I was able to find many websites using the term for accounting purposes but only few for other purposes (and many of them are like "useful life lessons" or "useful life skills"). I kept thinking about it. Are these terms "ikigai" and "useful life" the slogans of the store? Why are they emblazoned on the company vehicle? The only conclusion I was able to reach was that both terms were the store's slogans and someone working for the liquor store must have translated the term ikigai into "useful life."

I wanted to ask the guy carrying the heavy beer cases if my conclusion was correct but didn't. He seemed super busy. I wanted to take photos of the slogans on the van but didn't. Obviously it was very difficult to explain why I wanted to take such photos. I wanted to discuss my conclusion with someone, but I couldn't. I have nobody who speaks both English and Japanese and understands the terms "ikigai" and "useful life" both in English and Japanese. So, I've written this post.

So, here is my question. What would English speakers without having heard of the term "ikigai" think of when looking at the term "useful life"? The meaning/purpose of life? (and am I just an accounting geek?) Or would they think of depreciation as I did?

Colorful Winter Leaves ポップな葉っぱ

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Ninety nine percent of people wouldn't notice them but their color gradients from green to orange, red and purple caught my eye. I believe they're chrysanthemum leaves but don't know for sure. The natural color gradients created by plants always fascinates me. 

Liquidambar Styraciflua (American Sweetgum) 紅葉葉楓（モミジバフウ）

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This is the fruit of an American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). It’s a dull brown, but its unique shape caught my eye. In contrast, the autumn leaves are incredibly colorful (see the second photo onwards)! The star-shaped leaves turn beautiful shades of green, yellow, orange, red, and deep purple.

The leaf shape of sweetgum resembles that of maple, but the sweetgum isn't in the Acer (i.e., maple) genus but in the Liquidambar genus.

2025/1/24

2021/11/5

2021/11/11

2021/11/5

Japanese Camellia Meant Beheading😱 for Samurai 落椿（落ちツバキ）

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What do you see in the first picture? Just a camellia on the ground? That's not wrong, but samurai or members of the Japanese warrior caste were reminded of a beheaded head, and that's why Japanese camellias were unpopular among, and considered ominous by, them.

I took the third and subsequent photos a few years ago at Yushima Seidō or Yushima Sacred Hall, a Confucian temple in Tokyo established in 1690 by Tsunayoshi Tokugawa, the fifth shōgun during the Edo period (1603 to 1868). Later on, Shōhei-zaka Gakumonjo, one of the then most important educational institutions, was also founded there.

2025/1/24

2025/1/24

"Save Sushi for Last" Rule

Do you know how grown men should eat sushi?

What Your Earwax Tells You 耳垢の話

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Which type of earwax do you have, wet or dry? I became interested in earwax types a few days ago when I went to an ENT clinic because of a slight pain in my right ear.

I took a couple of tests at the clinic and the results showed that everything was normal, but that puzzled me. If nothing was wrong, what caused the pain? Then, it occurred to me that I hadn't cleaned my ears for years, and that might be the reason for the pain. I asked the doctor about it, and he told me something surprising. "Your ears are clean and your earwax is dry, so you don't have to clean your ears." What??? As always, I googled it and found a Japanese ENT clinic website showing the percentage of people with wet earwax below.

African	European	Micro-nesian	Taiwanese	Japanese	Mongolian	Korean	Chinese	Tungus
100％	100％	60％	40％	16％	12％	8％	4％	Very few

I also found the following information:

• The allele for wet earwax is dominant, so you only need one copy to have the trait (though two copies work as well). A recessive allele is only expressed if an individual inherits two copies without the dominant allele. (Source: BBC)
• According to Dr. Norio Niikawa, wet earwax was originally the universal human trait, but a genetic mutation arose tens of thousands of years ago in northern China and Mongolia, leading to the spread of dry earwax in those regions.

I’ve now realized how dominant and recessive alleles work, which is why I have dry earwax and my brother has wet earwax. My maternal grandma had dry earwax, too, and she was always glad to hear that I had it as well. She may have felt a special connection with me just because we shared the same type of earwax!

The pain was gone a few days later, but the term 'dry earwax' started bothering me instead. Something dry can't really be wax, can it? But then it occurred to me that English speakers mostly have wet earwax, so they don't feel anything is wrong with the term. Earwax is called 'mimi aka' in Japanese, meaning 'ear dirt.' This makes more sense to me.

(If you wish to post your comment but don't have a Google account, select "anonymous" from the drop down menu titled "comment as"!)

お食事中の方は食べ終わってからお読みください😁

数日前、右耳に痛みを感じ耳鼻科に行きました。検査したら何でもなかったのですが、じゃあ痛みの原因は何なんだと考えてふと思ったんです。もうずいぶん長いこと耳掃除をしていないからではないか｡｡｡ で聞いてみたら「カサカサの耳垢だから耳掃除はしなくていいです」とのこと！えっ？掃除しなくていいの？調べてみたら以下のようなことが分かりました。

湿性（ベタベタ）耳垢の割合

黒人	ヨーロッパ人	ミクロネシア人	台湾人	日本人	モンゴル人	韓国人	中国人	ツングース人
100％	100％	60％	40％	16％	12％	8％	4％	ほとんどいない

他にも｡｡｡

• ベタ耳の遺伝子が優性なので、ベタ耳遺伝子とカサ耳遺伝子の両方を持っててもベタ耳になる。
• 北海道医療大学の新川詔夫学長によると、もともと人間の耳垢はすべて湿型だったが、数万年前の中国北部やモンゴルの周辺での遺伝子の突然変異で、乾型の耳垢が生まれ、周辺地域に広がった。

両親も弟もベタ耳なのに、私だけカサ耳ということは、両親はベタ耳遺伝子（優性）とカサ耳遺伝子（劣性）の両方を持っているせいだということが分かりました。かつ、カサ耳の祖母が私がカサ耳なのを知るとえらく喜んでいたことも思い出しました。（カサ耳親近感ね。）

数日後、痛みは消えたのですが、以来、別のことが気になっています。英語で耳垢って「earwax」というのですが、カサカサの耳あかを earwax っておかしくありませんか？Waxって蝋（ロウ）でしょ。カサカサじゃないでしょ｡｡｡ そっか。英語圏はほぼベタ耳なのね。

(Google アカウントを持ってない方は、コメント記入後に「Google アカウント」をクリックし、「匿名」か「名前/URL」を選択してからご記入ください！)

Red Japanese Camellias (Camellia Japonica) 赤いツバキ（椿）

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A Japanese camellia tree in my neighborhood has produced one flower to another, creating the beautiful contrast between the red blooms surrounded by the deep green leaves against the blue sky (2nd photo). I also found something. Small bugs were on the stamens on several blooms, basking in the sun. 

2025/1/14

2025/1/14

Jurojin - God of Longevity 寿老人！

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Both the stoneware and the dish on display at the Tokyo National Museum feature Jurojin. In Japanese folklore, Jurojin is the god of longevity and wisdom, modeled after an ancient historical figure. He is traditionally depicted as a tall old man with an elongated head and a long white beard—just like in these pieces.

Red Chokeberry (Aronia Arbutifolia) セイヨウカマツカ/アロニア（西洋鎌柄）

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I'm not certain but believe they're red chokeberries. The berries have been there since autumn last year and at that time I disregarded them because of the presence of flowering dogwood's more gorgeous autumn leaves nearby. Now, however, the red leaves are gone and red chokeberries' bright red has finally attracted my attention. They're edible (but not tasty) according to the internet. 

Double Flowered Pink Japanese Camellia (Camelia Japonica) ピンクの八重つばき（八重椿）

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I thought this was a camellia sasanqua until yesterday but I may be wrong. The more I looked at this, the more it looked like a Japanese camellia because (i) the petals are thicker than those of a camellia sasanqua; (ii) the leaves are bigger than those of sasanquas; and (iii) the leaves are less toothed than sasanquas'. The thing is I couldn't tell for sure because there was no flower on the ground yet, which is the easiest way to tell which is which. I need to wait for a while to see how the flower dies. 

The Japanese camellia was unpopular in the Edo (samurai) period among samurai because the flower falling off in its entirety (unlike a sasanqua flower, which dies with petals falling off one by one) reminded samurai of beheaded human heads. 

2025/1/9

2025/1/9

Japanese Camellia (Camellia Japonica) ツバキ（椿）

英語の後に日本語が続きます。

I've been enjoying beautiful camellia sasanquas since last year and when seeing them, I've always thought of another camellia, i.e., Japanese camellia. Can you tell which is which? 

Camellia sasanquas bloom from November to March while Japanese camellias flower from January to April. There's also another difference (as I've written many times), i.e., how a flower dies. A sasanqua flower dies with petals falling off one by one whereas a Japanese camellia flower falls off in its entirety. Now, I can tell which is which but until a few years ago I couldn't. Learning enables you to appreciate things around you more deeply. 

2025/1/6

2025/1/6

Camellia Sasanqua and Omikuji

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This is not a post about a white double-flowered camellia sasanqua, but rather the pieces of paper tied to the tree. They are called omikuji, which are Japanese fortune-telling paper slips. You can buy one (shown in the 2nd photo) at almost any shrine or temple to find out what kind of luck you will have for the year. The luck rankings generally look like this:

The Paperbush is Depreciable in Japan! ミツマタは減価償却します！

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An Oriental paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) tree has started to bud. The tree is called "mitsumata" because its stem is said to always split into three (mitsu) prongs (mata). Oops! I forgot to confirm that was true. 

The Oriental paperbush, kozo (Broussonetia), and gampi (Diplomorpha sikokiana) are known as the material for making washi or Japanese paper and the Oriental paperbush as the raw material for bank notes. The Oriental paperbush and kozo are depreciated over a useful life of five and nine years in Japan respectively while gampi isn't and I couldn't find out why only gampi is not.　

2025/1/3

2025/1/3

Uninvited but Welcome Guest まだ帰りませんってば！

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The guest has been staying at a friend's house since a week ago. The friend's been checking up on the guest every day for the week, but the guest seems to have no intention to leave, just clinging on to a leaf of a ponytail palm tree (Beaucarnea recurvata). We're worried about the guest because it should die soon. The guest is a grasshopper. 

I wondered why some grasshoppers are green while others brown and learned today they change the color from green to brown and vice versa in response to environmental conditions (e.g., overcrowding). I just wish this uninvited but welcome guest to live as comfortably as possible.