What  is “Wabi-Sabi” and why does it inspire? Wabi-sabi is not only a style, but a Japanese philosophy based in Zen and built on three principles: nothing lasts, nothing ends, and... Read more >>

A pet animal boom has lasted with the expansion of related business to the market scale exceeding 1 trillion now. The dynamic statistics of population as of April 2010 by the Ministry of Internal... Read more >>

A combination of natural disasters and geopolitical unrest has stirred equity markets over the last month, with the crisis unfolding in Japan triggering the latest round of investor worry. The severe... Read more >>

Japan. Four years. Got the lingo down, OK. I can successfully barter with the natives. They tolerate me like some semi-mute oddity, instead of a freckle-smothered sideshow, slash, snack-operated... Read more >>

I used to wake with my heart tap-dancing on my ribcage, whenever a minor earthquake would strike. Recently however, I just sleep right through, even for the bigger ones. Read more >>

I had my first vision of myself in Japan while lying on an operating table, having a surgery that was going horribly wrong. It was June in Northern California. I was twenty-three years old and a... Read more >>

Turning Japanese? I really think so. Most of what I disliked about Japan, doesn’t faze me anymore. I no longer mention how anorexic I feel due to my typically Japanese diet. And these days,... Read more >>

Too much about the trains already. Japanese society has tons of other weird and wonderful features worth looking at. My all-time favorite, are the car park attendants who direct traffic with glowing... Read more >>

I recently did a Google search for my name, Larry Knipfing, found a few hits for myself, and then also lots and lots of other hits for other Knipfings. Apparently, there are Knipfings all over the... Read more >>

The house that I live in is like an old tree. Every year, something turns brown and falls off. It is within a five-minute walk from the university where I used to work and the rent is very cheap, but... Read more >>