“In Australia they use real popcorn instead of polystyrene packing” I heard from a grapevine.

What a simple and brilliant idea! I thought. Why, we can include a pack of salt, as an extra gift to fill the stomach!
I asked around, looked it up, bottom line wasn’t so bad.
Compared to polystyrene bubbles, real popcorn costs more, […]

Between spare minutes in the office, I sent a book to a publishing company.

The 28-page picture book is called Santa Ponta’s Journey, written by me in Japanese and English and illustrated by Yoko (my brother’s girlfriend, most imaginative, charming friend). It’s taken us years to come this far, a gradual metamorphosis to put together a […]

“My neck hurts, I think my bones are misaligned. Or could it be my muscles?”
“What if we had transparent skin so we could actually see inside?”
“That’ll be scary.”
“Like,
‘Hello, you must be a smoker?’
‘Oh no, I live in the city, that’s why my lungs are black.’
‘How was that pasta you had for lunch?’
‘Oh, that was from yesterday.’
…………….
“The face […]

Wouldn’t it be nice if there were consultants in every hospital (that answered calls 24/7?) In taking care of any physical issue, a severe head ache for example, a person would simply consult a doctor (free of charge) to be directed to the right department.
This, along with beautifully painted ceilings, would make hospitals so much […]

One of the reasons wars happen is because it’s profitable. More production + destruction = more jobs = more money. People say some countries need to engage in wars to keep the economy afloat. If that was the case, then:
Why don’t we have World Wars with paint bullets? Every participating country will have a […]

Yup. A hair dryer. The heat melts the glue on the back of the label, hence the label peels off smoothly. Kanta taught me that.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if bed ridden people in hospitals and old people’s homes had something more to look at than a white ceiling? My grandfather said he started hallucinating after a month in a hospital bed because he was staring into blankness most of the time.
It wouldn’t be difficult to gather a group of […]