Columns
Surfers and Farmers By Mitsu Kume
HIGH TIDE Mitsu Kume Surfers and Farmers “Only surfers enjoy a typhoon.” When a bunch of surfers get together, they like to talk things such as their ability to sense the coming a typhoon before everyone else, or about when the s...
A rising tide always follows an ebbing one… By Mitsuharu Kume
Sage shio no tsugi wa, age shio ja… A rising tide always follows an ebbing one… During the always-too-short summer holidays, my parents would take us swimming and sunning on the seemingly endless sand beaches of Kujikuri in Chiba. Th...
A Sea of Clouds By Mitsuharu Kume
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial} “You’re a fool if you don’t climb Mt. Fuji once, but an even greater fool if you climb it more than once.” To rephrase this famous quote, anyone...
The Inevitable Chance of Being By Mitsuharu Kume
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial} The silence is broken by the sound of the shutter, reminding me why I love taking photos, especially in natural light. Sun rays splash across the waves and ...
The Bathhouse Rules By Mitsuharu Kume
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial} Slip into the hot water. Rest your head on the edge of the tub and stare at the ceiling. “Ahhh…” all that tension is released. Japanese peopl...
Treasure Island (Takara-jima) By
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial} A pleasantly cool breeze, the sound of transparent water flowing by, outside the strong rays of a hot sun beat down. Moving further and further back into a lime...
Small Things in Big Places By Mitsuharu Kume
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Arial} Umi wa hiroi na, ookina, tsuki wa noboroshi, hi wa shizumu—“The ocean is wide and big; the moon rises, the sun falls.” Every Japanese kno...
Kuroshio By Mitsuharu Kume
HIGH TIDE There is a 100-kilometer-wide road. Did you know about this road? It would be impossible on land, so, we’re talking about a road in the ocean. It’s known as the Kuroshio, or Black Current, and it flows from the South China ...
Protecting Mother By Mitsuharu Kume
Protecting Mother What will I buy for Mother's Day? I was thinking about this a while ago as I was walking down the street. Then I saw a poster announcing the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa's birth. I'm not a passionate Christia...
Space from the Sea By Mitsuharu Kume
Space is represented below the water’s surface in many ways. When you strap on your air tank and dive in, there’s a feeling in the endless blue of “zero gravity” similar to space. The dark depths of the sea are light years clos...
Empty Nets By Mitsuharu Kume
“Oi, let out the rope more!” “Reel in the nets!” The star-filled navy blue sky begins to whiten with daylight, and before long the clouds start to turn a shade of peach. As daybreak’s performance unfolds, a flurry of...
Tsukiji Market By Mitsuharu Kume
Tsukiji Market I live on an island in southern Japan with a population of about 30,000. The longer I stay, the greater the shock when I visit Tokyo – particularly the sheer amount of people everywhere. Enveloped in this sea of humanity, and c...
Promises By Mitsuharu Kume
Recently I repeatedly heard the word “congratulations.” Although I was not receiving those heartfelt greetings directly, I was touched all the same. People often say, “Praising people makes them grow.” I suggest, “Hear...
Lasting Impressions By Mitsuharu Kume
The day I decided to go, I exited the station and walked down the road alongside the tracks. Just past a yakitori-ya was a tonkatsu restaurant and a across the street from there was the sign for my destination. I walked in the building and entered a...
