In July of 1945 the United States prepared to test the first atomic bomb in a dusty corner of New Mexico. Continue reading
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On Smoking Cigarettes in Japan
Rene Magritte’s “Treachery of Images” shows us a picture of a pipe, then denies that a picture of a pipe is a pipe at all. Of course, we get it now: It’s a picture of a pipe. In Japan, I find myself thinking in smokey bars: This is not une cigarette. It’s a cultural study, with nicotine. Continue reading
On Dealing With A Million Tiny Uncertainties In Japan
Run too many programs on a laptop and it runs slower. There’s only so much a single chip can process. In the old days you could push your processor past a limit – “overclocking the processor,” a phrase that has seeped into my general understanding of anxiety. Continue reading
On Not Apologizing in Japan
A few weeks ago, one of the 48 women who make up the pop group AKB48 was caught sleeping at her boyfriend’s house. Soon after that, she shaved off all of her hair- a traditional Japanese expression of regret- and made a tear-filled apology video to her fans.
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