Sorry-ology

Just Another Interesting Anecdote, Isn't It? A couple of weeks ago, O. visited Tokyo, or technically the East, for the first time. I was very relieved when he told me that the journey was immensely enjoyable. O. is a very optimistic, adventurous, and out-going person by nature, so perhaps the horror of being surrounded by a graphic language like Japanese could be overcome easily. On the night before he flew back to Europe, we had dinner together. He told us an interesting anecdote that happened to him during his stay. On his first day in Japan, he was stopped by two policemen in Ueno station, who asked him for his passport. According to the immigration law in Japan, visitors to this country are obliged to take their passports or any other identification certificate that is legally equivalent. He said he had left it in the hostel. Then the policemen made some questions concerning about his visit and where he was going at the time. Then they realized O. was a traveler and his nationa...

Green Curtain Since the early summer, the city council started growing trailing plant outside its main building. First, they set up a net hanging down from the top of the building to the ground floor; a week or so after, vines started climbing upwards along the net; then it didn't take too long before the foliage covered up the entire wall. It was quite amazing to see such a massive green curtain in the city especially when its purpose was still unknown to me. The buckets in the bottom, one day when I got a chance to have a peek, explained that it's an effort to fight against global warming. The natural shade that the vines provided to the concrete building would efficiently shut out burning sunlight and thereby reduce room temperature significantly. In this way, the use of air-conditioners would be economized. Afterwards, I noticed that the ideas had been put into practice in many households throughout the neighborhood. In addition to the environmentally friendly economy that...