Happy Lights It was winter in Tokyo. It’s Tokyo, not Sapporo, but still, winter is winter. I was on my way back from the Imperial Palace to my hotel—looking forward to a warm room. But the cheering people on the sidewalk lit a fire in me. They gasped, “Waa… sugoi!” again and again as the streetlights changed colors. I leaned on the railing near a stoplight, waited for the cars to roll, and rolled my camera at a slow shutter speed. Just as the busy people of Tokyo had slowed down long enough to admire a few changing lights, my…

Artificial Cleaning Service You might not believe this is Indonesia, but it is. With the help of Photoshop, I cleared the river and even “raked” the grass. Zooming in to 200%, circling one piece of trash after another, made me feel disgusted—as though I were picking up every piece with my bare hands. Three or four years ago, I didn’t care much about environmental conservation. “Most people don’t care anyway. Whatever I do won’t make the slightest difference.” So went my excuse. But then, I remembered my love for landscape photography. How selfish am I to expect clean rivers, blue…

Soar and Roar One day, I watched a documentary about a pet dog in America. Every morning, the dog acted as if he had completely lost his mind. He barked and barked—louder than a rooster waking the whole house. He jumped onto the sofa, barked at the door, crawled under the table, barked again, then leaped around the room, clearly in great distress. But as the sun climbed higher, he would calm down and become the gentlest dog on the planet. Then the next morning, he would start his “extravagant morning calls” all over again. His family couldn’t figure out…

How Does Time Fly in a Butterfly? A few days ago, I watched a YouTube video about Jo Nagai (10), who discovered that butterflies can pass down memories to their offspring. But Jo didn’t arrive at this conclusion all of a sudden. It all began when he noticed that the butterflies emerging from the caterpillars he had raised in his home laboratory remembered him. In an interview, Jo expressed his delight at realizing that the butterflies remembered him. One of his butterfly partners looked exactly like this butterfly from a lavender farm in Furano, Japan. I wonder if this butterfly…