6 weeks after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, NHK online news announced that 27,931 people are dead or missing, and over 136,000 people are still living in evacuation in extreme hardship at Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima prefectures. As the rest of Japan slowly but steadily recover from the earthquake, recovery is still far away for… Continue reading Social Media Balance Out Traditional Media, And Japanese Responsibility Starts at The Bottom
Tag: Ethnography
Love of leather, paper
Designers with capability to create and has in reality created things that are truly wonderful to those designers who can talk about design are like real plants to fake plants. Mike Abelson is one of those real designer. He often talks about about his love of working with leather, and recently, he was telling me… Continue reading Love of leather, paper
Eating Plum Blossom Off The Tree Branch
"Eat it, eat it!" my husband said. So I think for the first time in my life, I ate (or at least acted like I did) a plum blossom off a tree branch. We were having a long walk today along Hayase River. We passed by small factories, vegetable gardens, houses big and small, elementary… Continue reading Eating Plum Blossom Off The Tree Branch
Longing for beautiful, long life, things that fulfills human needs
People who live long lives begin to yearn for things at some point in their lives, things that fulfill the human needs. For us, the aging population in Japan, who had good active lives, the desire for such things grow. We no longer want to clutter our lives with objects that titillate our senses, perhaps… Continue reading Longing for beautiful, long life, things that fulfills human needs
Contemplating Robots: Embedded parts that evoke emotion in humans
It was a happy accident that I found this video. I was looking up Shopsins that made my latest favorite stuff, 5 Year Diary, but ended up at Shopsins that is about food!  I was not expecting for robotics information useful to my research, but here it was! Robots are looking more like embedded… Continue reading Contemplating Robots: Embedded parts that evoke emotion in humans
New Year in Japan
New Year's day is a big holiday in Japan, and traditionally, there are decorations that are associated with the New Year like pine branch, cut bamboos, woven dried rice stalks. I vaguely thought of the decrease in these decorations at homes and cities for the last few years, but this year, I became aware of… Continue reading New Year in Japan
The Residence Inn, Starbucks, McDonald’s
http://www.flickr.com/photos/projectkobo/5262526291/in/photostream/ This was the longest stay for me and my family at a hotel. For 15 nights, 16 days, we stayed at the Residence Inn in Campbell, California. In the past, for this length of stay away from home, I would seek out short term rental of a furnished apartment, but taking past lessons about… Continue reading The Residence Inn, Starbucks, McDonald’s
Sandwich generation
Gretchen Addi and I both have older children and aging parents to take care. She said we are of sandwich generation. Our parents did not have to think much of how to die. Living long was good thing. Living long, and enjoying the fruits of life. Like most of things in our lives, things do… Continue reading Sandwich generation
Researching the aging market in Japan
Japan has had more elderly people aged over 65 than younger people aged 15 and younger since 1997. Above graph shows other countries are following the same trend as in Japan. What does this mean to me? As a 50-year old, it is about ME. And as a researcher, I am tremendously interested in what… Continue reading Researching the aging market in Japan
Things reveal themselves if we become interested
For about 7 years, I had firsthand experience in taking part in crunching numbers at a business unit. Before doing that, all the education I had was taking a course in accounting in college and all the actual experience I had in accounting and finance was managing my own young, small family finance. It was… Continue reading Things reveal themselves if we become interested
Reading on paper vs. online
It's been 5 days since I returned from the US, but I still have a jet lag. I woke up and got out of bed at 3:50 am. Before starting to work, I read online for nearly an hour about psychokinesis, para-psychology, Dean Radin, Amazon customer reviews on Dean Radin's books, University of Pennsylvania. At… Continue reading Reading on paper vs. online
Good way to see the Japanese culture, design and values
One good way to see the Japanese culture, design and values would be to visit TOTO showroom in Tokyo. It's a totally Japanese language, Japanese place, but that makes it even more interesting to observe. TOTO is a kitchen, bathroom ceramic goods manufacturer, and they are doing quite well. In this tough economic time, the… Continue reading Good way to see the Japanese culture, design and values
Luxury found in Tokyo
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, luxury means a condition of abundance or great ease and comfort : sumptuous environment. It also means something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary, or an indulgence in something that provides pleasure, satisfaction, or ease. With such definition, living in Tokyo is full of luxury with TOTO toilet… Continue reading Luxury found in Tokyo
User segmentation, profiling is dangerous
I've learned about Feargal Quinn's Crowning the Customer through reading Tom Peters blog a few years back.  It's a classic. I read it over and over, and each time, I am inspired on different pages. What I was inspired this time was what Mr. Quinn wrote about "seeing customer as people". He encouraged his workers… Continue reading User segmentation, profiling is dangerous
Starting up design essay project
14 years ago, I attended Yoshiko Sakurai’s seminar for small business audience. She said, when you read a book, have a pen or pencil in your hand, and underline the parts that means something to you. If you do that for 10 years, you will be standing here instead of me, giving seminar about the… Continue reading Starting up design essay project
FUJIKO SUDA 