So we are finally about to see the 2010 Winter Olympic Games go into action at venues around Vancouver and Whistler. For Canada, it’s the second winter games she’s hosted since Calgary ’88, while Japan has already hosted two winter games, Sapporo ’72 and Nagano ’98. In the usual scenario when the Olympics are held in Japan, the officials, spectators, local citizenry and the media come together in a spirit of “let’s show Japan’s best face to the folks from around the world,” the competition between athletes turns out to …

Things that can be quantitatively measured, from one’s income to physical strength to one’s metabolic rate inevitably decline linearly. Such is life. Having accepted that, why not continue to reach for seemingly attainable possibilities? That would be my “reminder” for the new year 2010.

Why don’t young Japanese these days want to venture out? Some say it’s because of the economic downturn but then, the Japanese were generally poorer in the old days. The columnist concludes that people would rather go to a hot-spring resort inside Japan where they can relax feeling “mattari.” Having apparently entered general usage about five years ago, the word “mattari” is nowadays even used by elementary school kids.

The choice between becoming Canadian (or American) and going back to being Japanese has to have been the critical decision faced by some elements of the Japanese immigrant communities in North America from the time they started coming over around the turn of the 20th century.

Although our visit to Kerala’s coastal cities of Trivandrum, Kollam and Kochi (Cochin) was the only totally new experience, it was quite stimulating to encounter so many different peoples and their cultures one after another in a short time.

The first time I became fully aware of the existence of the present emperor was when I was still in primary school and there was a festivity of some kind. So I checked and came upon his coming-of-age and ceremony of investiture as crown prince (rittaishi) in 1952.

We can hardly compare ourselves to a mountain village in rural Thailand. But it would seem a certain amount of “reserve of looseness” might be handy in getting along with in the multiracial society of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, which probably has as many different racial minorities and cultures as anywhere.

It is quite selfish of me, but I would rather not say a “formal goodbye” to those who live on forever in my memory. They were —and are—all wonderful praiseworthy people each in his/her own way. By not bidding them farewell, I’m sort of asking these people to live on, to “stay alive,” if that makes any sense.

‘Carnivorous’ or not, the women realize that such a classification is practically meaningless in North America where it has been normal, especially since the sexual liberation of the 60s, for members of both sexes to seek partners pro-actively.

It was when Ichiro became the first base runner that I sensed something strange in the Korean supporters’ reaction. Every time the pitcher tried to pick Ichiro off and he would dive head first back to the base, they would roar in appreciation. Over something that is not directly related to the outcome, they were getting excited as if to say: “Make that so-and-so Ichiro grovel again!”