Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Nuclear Power….and Earth!

    For thousands of years, humanity has been using different resources for food, energy, and all that it needs from Earth. The brain of humans has been developing over long periods of time, trying to find better resources for their increasing, unstoppable needs as their populations kept increasing. In the last two centuries, the consumption of…

  • An Unspoken Language

    I am trilinguist and I can understand few other languages from India. My initial thought before going to Japan was that people would be speaking a little bit English and I would be able to survive there on my own. However, I found myself helpless at many times as most people I met could not…

  • Fukushima

    When I say the word “Fukushima”, it’s probably safe to assume that most people, myself included, would think of the nuclear meltdown.  That raises a lot of questions about nuclear power.  Some people might ask, why would a country that was devastated by nuclear bombs in World War II attempt to harness nuclear power, especially…

  • Sustainable Home

      On January 9th, we visited Mr. Takayuki Mori at his house in Kyoto.  Mr Mori is a extraordinary ecologist. He had a vision for sustainable living in the modern society, and he demonstrated this vision through his self-designed home. At the first glance, his house appeared to be simple, but every parts of the house…

  • Of Personal Bubbles and Pruned Bushes

    A few days before I left, my brother warned me to leave behind my personal bubble, because I wouldn’t need it in Japan.  Little did I know how right he was. Japan is cramped.  Between people being compacted into trains during rush hour to the capsule hotels to the narrow streets, it is very tight,…

  • Fukushima’s Future

    On the first day of our trip, we were very fortunate to meet with an official of Fukushima Prefecture and learn about the current situation and the future of the Prefectural. It has almost been 2 years since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The disaster had caused great damage to many sectors of the Prefecture. Even…

  • I Feel Like a Kindergartener Again…

    I guess this comes across as cocky now that I’ve said it, but I was pretty confident in my Japanese abilities before I left on the trip.  I mean, I was a beginner – there was no way to deny that.  But I had my phrases memorized, and I had constantly quizzed myself on hiragana,…

  • Temples, Temples, Everywhere

    One of the things that I noticed almost immediately when we got to Japan was that even amongst the sprawling cityscape, there were little traces of efforts to preserve Japan’s traditional culture.  Sasha and I were amazed to discover a little temple outside of our hotel room!   When we were en route to Kyoto,…

  • The Fine Art of Slurping

                 I was aware before coming to Japan that noodles were a staple food source here, but my previous conception of what noodles are has been completely dispensed of.  Noodles are not served as pasta, nor are they some plain and boring affair simply served beneath the main dish or…

  • Homey Feeling in a Foreign Country

    As an immigrant in the United States from India, I have had many experiences of culture shock and continue to have them. I was a ‘double foreigner’ in this new country called Japan; I was fortunate enough to have this opportunity due to a grant given from the Japan Foundation and a collaborative effort of…

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