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BOOK LAUNCH ANNOUNCEMENT!
If you open an early American historical ledger, you will witness a quiet, bureaucratic violence. On the yellowed pages of parish registers, military rolls, and census tracts, the names of ordinary people undergo a strange, unsettling metamorphosis. A proud Scottish surname is flattened by an English soldier’s hurried quill. A French-Canadian patronym is chopped and […]
I was not sleeping on my summer vacation…
Check this blog space later tonight (or morning, depending on where you are) for an important, dare I say, historical announcement! Doki doki. Waku waku. (I was definitely not sleeping much over the past three weeks, and my calloused fingers and discolored laptop keyboard are the proof…)
Hibernating through space: An old idea, finally possible?
The key would be whether this is possible in humans. And, of course, whether revival can be timed and automated – or perhaps with robotic (AI) assistance… Of course, science fiction has posited “sleeper ships” for decades now. The Songs of Distant Earth (Arthur C. Clarke, one of the “Big Three”) is probably the most […]
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© Matthew Apple and Taking Leave, 2009-2020. Duplication of this material without express and written permission is strictly prohibited. If you would like to post or copy brief excerpts from the blog, please provide a link to the original URL along with an author’s credit.
Category Archives: Japan
The end is the beginning
Our daughter is now leaving nursery school. From her birth to my wife’s maternity leave to my paternity leave, from building a new house to finishing a doctorate to switching jobs, from one daughter to another (who’s a completely different … Continue reading
Posted in coming of age, education, Japan, Japanese, parenting, school
Tagged ceremonies, child-raising, farewells, friendship, Japan, Japanese, spring
1 Comment
“Dutch backpacks” in Japan
It’s the end of February, and our oldest daughter is nearing the end of her nursery school experience. What a ride it’s been. Now she and her classmates are learning the “goodbye, our nursery school,” song which they will sing … Continue reading
Posted in education, Japan, Japanese culture, Japanese society, parenting, school
Tagged child education, child-raising, Japan, Japanese, Japanese customs
2 Comments
Come out, damned spot!
One aspect of bathrooms in Japan that surprised me at first was the water everywhere around the sink. I mean, everywhere. Not having a habit of waiting for people to wash their hands in public lavatories, I found it a … Continue reading
Posted in Japan, Japanese, Japanese culture, parenting, sickness, Uncategorized
Tagged child care, child-raising, health care, Japan, Japanese, sickness
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