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Book Corner
[90 yen a book corner]
Recently at my neighborhood, a secondhand book store is opened, and I bought 10 books with a cost of 900 yen.
All books are written in Japanese, and these are my impressions of books.(title of book is my translation)

[data of books]
1)Japanese saying no(new relationship between Japan and U.S.);Shintaro ISHIHARA, Akio MORITA, Koubun-sha,1989.1.31, 820 yen

2)Software of Intelligence(Input & Output of Information); Takashi TACHIBANA, Koudan-sha, 1984.3.20, 480 yen

3)Information book for IC and LSI; Hideo KUNO, Nippon-Jitsugyou-sha, 1984.1.15, 1100 yen

4)The Bridges of Madison County; Robert James Waller, 1993.3.25, 1400 yen

5)Comic talks on dinner table; Ken KAIKO, Shincho-sha,1982.12.1, 800 yen

6)Smiles of earth; Mari SHIMAMURA, Diamond-sha, 1300 yen

7)A spy who loved Japan; Bleobrangesky, Jiji-Tsushin-sha,1994.6.15, 1700 yen

8)Subtext of Professor "Ordinary", School of Literature;Yasutaka TSUTSUI, Bungei-shunju-sha, 1990.7.15, 850 yen

9) Coded messages from Hitomaro; Yuka FUJIMURA, Shincho-sha, 1989.1.30, 950 yen

10)Recommendation for careful consideration, Kenji SUZUKI, Kondan-sha, 1982.9.10, 980 yen

[comments]
1)Japanese saying no(new relationship between Japan and U.S.);Shintaro ISHIHARA, Akio MORITA, Koubun-sha,1989.1.31, 820 yen
Mr.Ishihara(presently, governor of Tokyo) said that;
The heavy industries are shrinking, and intelligent intensive industries are going up. Is it good for us? Human being don't do handicraft works, not sweating, and State will become too big headed organization. In the history of world no such country flourished forever.
As for the background when this book was written in year 1989, economy of Japanese was at the zenith of prosperity. We now call that period as "age of bubble".
After the collapse of bubble economy (may be in year 1991), our economy situation is being not yet recovered and inversely US economy is going up with IT (Information Technology) revolution in last decade.
Traditionally, Japanese society does not give information much value. one reason for this is that in homogeneous society like Japan (isolated by sea) information is regarded as a public property, with free value. In US like rainbow country, information will be precious to survive in the society. The main theme of Okinawa G8 summit was IT revolution in the world.

2)Software of Intelligence(Input & Output of Information); Takashi TACHIBANA, Koudan-sha, 1984.3.20, 480 yen
Mr. Tachibaya* said; Human being have the cerebrum, which is the information processing machine, and the performance of that machine is different depend on persons. Hardware(cerebrum itself) and software(how to use brain) is also different from person to person. As one manual of machine handling could not be useful for other machine, there is no general manual for human brain. One should develop own methodology for oneself.
* He is the most famous writer in Japan for not only scientific areas but also for social and civic fields.

3)Information book for IC and LSI; Hideo KUNO, Nippon-Jitsugyou-sha, 1984.1.15, 1100 yen
Mr. Kuno, who was a scientific writer of Mainichi shinbun. This book was written for the "Scientific World's Fair at Tsukuba (1985.3.17-9.16), focusing on the IC technology. At the time HEMT(high electron mobility transistor), Josephson Computer was regarded to be made available soon.

4)The Bridges of Madison County; Robert James Waller, 1993.3.25, 1400 yen
This book is too famous to read, and hit movie(year 1995) was made with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood(also director of movie). Naturally I knew the main story which is so famous, but to read original book(translated into Japanese) was first time. This is a true fairly tale between man and woman, and plot is well composed to fit in movie. By the way, still I never see this movie.

5)Comic talks on dinner table; Ken KAIKO, Shincho-sha, 1982.12.1, 800 yen
This book is a collection of short stories, which were on advertising column of Suntry(Brewery and Whiskey maker) once per month in Mainich Shinbun. Many anecdotes are on the book around the world. Mr.Kaiko was a traveler and an vivid angler.

6)Smiles of earth; Mari SHIMAMURA, Diamond-sha, 1300 yen
Ms. Shimamura written a book of travels with a light step as follows; -Usually package tours are some kind of coercive tour of tax-free shop.
-A Caucasian with shorts and T-shirt in cold weather is American.
-The safest tour place in the world will be North Korea. Tour of five days with four night of 250,000-260,000 yen in NK will be a bargain.

7)A spy who loved Japan;Bleobrangesky, Jiji-Tsushin-sha,1994.6.15, 1700 yen
He stayed in Tokyo in year 1980-1985, as a TASS correspondent but actually was a officer of KGB, revealing many tactics of KGB agents. The operation of KGB shown in the book is not sophisticated, and not so effective in Japan.

8)Subtext of Professor "Ordinary", School of Literature; Yasutaka TSUTSUI, Bungei-shunju-sha, 1990.7.15, 850 yen
Mr. Tsutsui, professional writer, became the man in the news sometimes. He wanted to break many taboos which exist in mass-media. Taboo words are usually discriminating word.
Professor Ordinary answered the question of "Please mention five things, which you want to wipe out from the world";
- footbridges (pedestrian overpass)
- pollens of Japanese ceder (cryptomeria)
- bar rooms with Karaoke
- a corn on my right foot
- men with height of more than 157.5 cm

9) Coded messages from Hitomaro; Yuka FUJIMURA, Shincho-sha, 1989.1.30, 950 yen
Ms. Fujimura was studying old poets of Hitomaro KAKINOMOTO (active around year 700), who was said a saint of Mannyo poem.
She coded poems of Hitomaro, by Chinese and Korean pronunciation. She thought his poems contained many protests to the establishment of that period.

10)Recommendation for careful consideration, Kenji SUZUKI, Kondan-sha, 1982.9.10, 980 yen
Mr. Suzuki was a popular announcer (anchor man) of national TV station NHK. He made many good advises for people to spend the life effectively as follows;
People's concise talk within 45 seconds is most effective, and at the most 90 seconds is permissible. If it surpasses 130 seconds (2 minutes 10 seconds), not only listeners but also speakers themselves couldn't understand the content of talk. The number of Japanese characters spoken in one minutes is about 280. Therefore 45 seconds talk corresponds to 210 characters of Chinese and Japanese. Points of sales message should be written in 210 characters.