Culture shock: Lost belongings

A tree along a path that I walk every day has become a makeshift lost-and-found.

These are belongings that people have dropped, picked up by others, and placed hanging in the tree for easy visibility.

Similarly, when I go to parks I often see toys that children have left, but they remain until the owner comes back to retrieve them.

This fluffy capybara plushie has been sitting on this concrete pilar for the past few days, waiting to be reunited with its owner.

Once, my phone slipped out of my pocket while sitting on the train. A man picked it up, exited the train, and tracked me down through a swarm of people to hand it back to me.

It’s a stark contrast to the “finders keepers” attitude of the western world.

I munched on some chestnuts while thinking about this. 🌰

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The end of Japan Jukebox

I've neglected this blog for a while, but have been wanting to revive it. I guess the first thing I should address is the ending of our radio show Japan Jukebox, though it is long-overdue. We ran Japan Jukebox from about (over?) 10 years with a new episode every week. It was a labor of love for us, because Japanese music has never been just a "hobby". It has been part of our lives for as long as we can remember. I enjoyed sharing my favorite music and finding a lot of new bands to share on the radio, but the weekly process was pretty overwhelming. It was rare that we would have episodes queued up for broadcast. It was almost always week by week, with the episodes finished and uploaded in the 11th hour. And of course life happens. I have gotten married, had children, become busy with work, etc. With less time to focus on Japan Jukebox, I couldn't guarantee the quality of the show. So, a while back, I limited my role. Without Zach and my brother Cody, the show would ha...

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Japan Jukebox

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