Recent Entries

• Menhuin Competition 2018, Metallic tang and Rosewood

  December 6, 2025

  I’ve come home to find all sorts of clutter scattered across my table. I push the cleaning aside for now and decide to write one more diary entry. I want to record the emotion I felt when I happened to watch a seven-year-old video of Chloe Chua— before it fades. I never really liked Vivaldi’s&hel...

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• Sunday, Red Mazda, and Serviettes

  December 6, 2025

  Tonight is the last day of this week’s labor. Tomorrow and the day after will be productive in a different, new way. I rest on Sundays and Mondays. The advantages of having Monday off: putting on a comfortable sweater around 6 or 7 in the evening, heading out to buy groceries, and seeing people o...

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• A Plate of Salad, Fallen leaves, and Peru

  December 4, 2025

  After a short four-day trip, I returned home again. A very cold day. How could autumn have ended while I was away? The coffee I drank four days ago was still sitting in the server, cold and heavy, and the perfume I was sure I had packed in my suitcase had been hiding deep inside…

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• Clorets, Magic Theatre and Bitches Brew

  November 30, 2025

  These days, I chew gum a lot. Clorets—grapefruit flavor. I used to prefer the thin, paper-like gum you cram into your mouth all at once, rather than these small, chewy Clorets. Maybe even gum preferences change over time—along with everything else. The good thing about chewing gum is, first of al...

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• T’s Violet Leaf

  November 28, 2025

  Lunch breaks on workdays were always rather dry. Gray. I would buy a rice ball from the convenience store, sit at my office desk, and zone out while eating. Or I’d walk to the Chinese restaurant conveniently close by and order their lunch special. Or I’d get a sandwich at the fast-food place wher...

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• Grey wool hat, Myrtle, and Hermine

  November 25, 2025

  I spent the whole night burning with a high fever, and when I finally woke up, the sun was already up. I’d skipped work. Not part of the plan, but some mornings just slip beyond my control. Today’s the day my first paycheck comes in. Since returning to Japan, I’ve spent almost everything—on the l...

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• Chinese Herb, White Boots, and Willie Bobo

  November 22, 2025

  Last night, I had this strange feeling that I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning— and, well, I was right. Waking up felt almost impossible. Maybe I caught a cold. Why is the mascara under the pillow? I gulp down some Chinese herbal medicine with a cold glass of water,…

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• Karoline von Günderrode, Orchestra, and Soft Peach Trees

  November 21, 2025

  Today I read about Karoline von Günderrode, a German Romantic poet of extraordinary talent who died at twenty-six— a woman who drove a dagger into her own chest by the riverbank. Wasn't she afraid? What on earth could have outweighed her fear? Betrayal of a beloved one? Or simply impatient, pushe...

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• Mahogany-leather, Les Jeux Grenier, and Poetry

  November 20, 2025

  I’d been struggling to write for what felt like ages, and in the end all it took to unjam whatever was stuck in me was a couple of hysterical tempests and a few episodes of Sex and the City. Entirely predictable, I suppose. This morning on the subway, a man sat with a beautiful mahogany-leather&h...

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