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The very title is beguiling: “Tsurezuregusa” — literally, “Grasses of Idleness.” A celebration of idleness! There are “grasses” in all of us whose soil is idleness. In it they grow. Deprived of it they wither. Yet it’s a busy world — true now, true 700 years ago when a monkish aristocrat, or aristocratic monk, named Yoshida no Kenko (c. 1283-1350) “left the world” and penned his classic volume. It was written between 1330 and 1332. This was not, says Donald Keene in the introduction to his translation, “a propitious time for a work of reflection and comment.” Very far from it, as we’ll see shortly. There were many ways and degrees of “leaving the world.” Men and women oppressed by commotion and turmoil around them and within them — oppression heightened by a sense of the sheer futility of it all, the perceived unreality of this transient dreamlike soap-bubble world in which we are born to no purpose and die for no reason — took Buddhist vows, shaved their heads, donned drab monkish or nunnish robes and withdrew to monasteries, nunneries or hermitages, there to “lose themselves in prayer,” either enduring, more or less serenely, their live burial, as it must have seemed to their more worldly contemporaries, or awakening to real life, whose meaning and essence are not to be found in this life of birth and death from which only prayer can free us. Source link

Many video game voice actors from the Western part of the world often cite Japanese animation such as “Naruto” and “Dragon Ball” for inspiring them from a young age. For Alpha Takahashi, her inspiration went the opposite way. Born and raised in Tokyo but now residing in Los Angeles, she recalls being completely enamored with classic Disney films as a child. From the age of 5, she found stories like “The Little Mermaid” and “Pocahontas” to be magical tales that inspired children to get through life and overcome hardship. “I’ve stuck with my dream since then and have never swayed,” Takahashi says. Source link

Me Mang, Cambodia – Cambodian scientist Yeang Chheang has spent six decades fighting malaria — even in the Khmer Rouge labor camp where his wife and baby died — and stands tantalizingly close to fulfilling his life’s work. The kingdom is stepping up a “last mile” push to wipe out the mosquito-borne disease, focusing on hard-to-reach communities in remote, forested or mountainous areas. From 170,000 cases and 865 deaths from malaria in 1997, only 355 cases were recorded last year — and not a single fatality has been reported since 2018. Source link

Nippon Steel still wants to make United States Steel a wholly owned subsidiary despite repeated indications from U.S. and Japanese leaders that the takeover will not be happening, according to a report by TV Tokyo. Citing unnamed sources, the station said late Thursday that the Japanese steelmaker is planning to inform the administration of U.S President Donald Trump of its intention to press on with the purchase as planned. According to other media reports, Nippon Steel Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori is visiting the United States to lay the groundwork for talks with the Trump administration, and Nippon Steel Chairman and CEO Eiji Hashimoto may have a meeting with Trump next week. Source link

Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to chair a symposium to boost private sector sentiment next week that will be attended by the country’s business leaders including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, three people with knowledge of the meeting said. Xi rarely chairs symposiums about the private sector, and the event underscores the numerous challenges currently facing China Inc., from the escalation in tensions with the United States under President Donald Trump to sputtering growth for the domestic economy. Many of the entrepreneurs will be from the tech sector and Xi is expected to encourage them to expand their businesses domestically and internationally amidst an intensifying Sino-U.S. technology war, two sources said. Source link

Melbourne – Two-time world champion Tyler Wright will compete in the Abu Dhabi surfing event after seeking assurances from organizers that she will be in a “safe environment” as an LGBT athlete. Homosexuality is illegal in the United Arab Emirates and sexual activity between people of the same sex is punishable by imprisonment. “I’ve been working with the appropriate teams in the UAE as well as the WSL (World Surf League) and am assured that I will be competing in a welcoming and safe environment,” Australian Wright said on Instagram. The WSL confirmed last year it would add Abu Dhabi to the pro surfing calendar for the first time, prompting criticism from Wright’s wife and brother. The men’s event started in Abu Dhabi’s huge artificial wave pool on Friday. The women’s competition starts on Saturday. Wright won the season-opening Pipe Pro in Hawaii. Source link

BEIJING – Dozens of nongovernment groups monitoring dissent, human and labor rights in China have laid off staff after being forced to suspend work following a freeze on foreign aid by U.S. President Donald Trump, the monitors say. The groups are key to documenting a yearslong crackdown by President Xi Jinping on minorities, rights defenders and lawyers. Last year, the EU expressed concern about the “very serious” human rights situation in China, particularly its regions of Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. “A lot of these NGOs were blindsided — they thought, because of U.S.-China competition, even if there are funding cuts, the China programs will stay,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. Source link

U.S. President Donald Trump floated the idea of a three-way meeting with the leaders of Russia and China in which the countries would agree to cut defense spending in half. Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Thursday, suggested repeatedly that he’d seek such a deal with Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, saying the money could be spent better elsewhere. “One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia,” Trump said. “And I want to say, ‘Let’s cut our military budget in half.’ And we can do that. And I think we’ll be able to do it.” Source link

Since late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe created the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy in 2016, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has been pivotal to connecting the fast-growing Indian Ocean and Pacific regions. Japan has stepped up engagement with ASEAN for over a decade. Upon taking office for his second term in 2012, Abe made his first official visit to three of the bloc’s countries — Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia — declaring that “Japan will walk alongside ASEAN as an equal partner.” And this position has been kept alive by Abe’s successors. In 2023, Kishida referred to Southeast Asian nations as Japan’s “closest and most crucial partners” in the Global South. The reason behind Tokyo’s approach is simple — maintaining the principle of ASEAN centrality, which states that the region should not be dictated by great powers and is critical to a free and open international order. The erosion of this principle could lead to the rivalry between the United States and China becoming the dominant force shaping the Indo-Pacific. Source link

Kyiv – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that a Russian drone had struck a cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, adding that “radiation levels have not increased.” The Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched more than 100 drones across the country overnight — including attack drones — targeting northern regions of the country where the Chernobyl power plant lies. “Last night, a Russian attack drone with a high-explosive warhead struck the cover protecting the world from radiation at the destroyed 4th power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post. The International Atomic Energy Agency also reported an “explosion” at the site, and said “radiation levels inside and outside remain normal and stable.” The agency, which has had a team deployed on the site since the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, published images apparently showing the drone on fire after crashing into the covering. In 1986, a reactor at Chernobyl exploded during a botched safety test, resulting in the world’s worst nuclear accident that sent clouds of radiation across much of Europe and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. Soviet authorities initially tried to cover up and then play down the disaster. Eventually a massive concrete and steel cover called a sarcophagus was built over the reactor, to contain the radiation. “The only country in the world that attacks such sites, occupies nuclear power plants, and wages war without any regard for the consequences is today’s Russia,” Zelenskyy added in his statement. There was no immediate response from Russia. Source link