2018-03-11 10:25 Seven Years Ago
Y
Today seven years ago, a massive earthquake struck Fukushima, Japan. When it occurred, I was at home in Kanagawa near Tokyo, it was about 300 km away from Fukushima. Even it was about 300 km away, the power of the earthquake was unbelievably strong.
I still have a video that was recorded in the living room of my house when it happened. We had a web camera in the living room and the camera recorded I was holding an aquarium that was splashing water and my cats were in a flurry and running around the room. If that disaster hadn't happened, I think I would still live in Japan.
Now, there are still lots of people who cannot return to their home. I hope people who evacuated and lost their own home are able to find a place where they can live at ease.
2018-03-04 07:21 Sue Grafton
Y
I heard the news that an American author of detective novels, Sue Grafton, died in late December 2017. I have read some of her novels long ago. I saw one of my colleagues was reading her book and I felt like reading it. That was the opportunity to read her books.
I like mysteries and detective novels. Firstly, I thought it should have been difficult to read for me, but it wasn't so difficult as I thought. There were many words that I didn't know but I just wanted to know who was a criminal and that enthusiasm that I want to know the truth of the case led me to read to the end.
I remember when I went to one of the biggest bookshops in Tokyo to buy Sue Grafton's book. It was easy to find her books even from far because the titles of her books were like the alphabet; "A" Is for Alibi, "B" Is for Burglar and so on.
I don't remember which books I have read but I would like to read them again. I would like to say thank you to Sue Grafton.
Her books gave me an opportunity to read English novels.
2017-11-17 21:58 Santa Claus is coming and Amazon is coming to town too
Y (Kuma's owner)
The same as other shopping centres in the world, here in Australia, there are lots of giant shopping areas. It's fun to visit there but I noticed almost every shopping centre has the same shops; McDonalds, Hungry Jack's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sumo Salad, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi and so on. Some of them, like McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken are world-wide companies and we can see them everywhere in the world. It makes us feel comfortable that we can taste food that we got used to. On the other hand, there is no special feature because every shopping center has the same retail shops. I heard that the retail rent price is increasing year by year and it's difficult to afford money for small retail shops. Franchise shops can afford the rent and even if one of them cannot make enough money, other shops will cover for it. Therefore, all shopping centres look the same. There is no variety.
However, there is an exception in Australia, it's Starbucks.
When I came to Australia, there were Starbucks in every big city and now they have gone. I heard that there is a cafe culture in Australia. Every city and town has a local cafe and people love them. That led Starbucks to withdraw from Australia. According to The New York Times article, the American giant bookshop "Borders" was rejected from the locals and withdrew, and people are paying attention what will happen to the next, Amazon.
Australians seems to purely like local businesses. In addition, approximately 60% of books selling at bookshops are domestic writers. Is Amazon going to sell Australian writer's books a lot like other local bookshops do?
Honestly, I like Amazon and I have been using Amazon often because their service is very good. I bought lots of books, miscellaneous goods, I also use Kindle. One of the reasons I use Amazon a lot is the arrangement is quick and I can get what I want very soon. Wait, there is one very important thing that Amazon cannot do, it's a delivery.
Australia is a huge country, as huge as the U.S.A. and less people. As I wrote before, the distribution system network has its problems. I cannot tell if Amazon will do well or not.
I will see what happens.