Kyoto is Japan’s ancient capital, carrying centuries of history and cultural refinement in its temples, gardens, and streets. Once the heart of Japan’s imperial court (circa 794 AD), the city’s legacy lives on in its timeless aesthetic and profound connection to tradition. I had high expectations for Kyoto’s famed architecture, temples and Karesansui. However, with my parents’ energy and enthusiasm for a ten-temple marathon understandably limited, we opted for a more relaxed itinerary: a cozy day trip to the mountains to visit the region’s most iconic site, Kiyomizu-dera Temple. ...

I am on to a week’s trip to Japan. Here’s for a brief exhale from life. Along the way, I’ll share impressions of the five cities on our planned route—assuming we make it to them all. Kobe belongs to the metropolitan zone of Osaka. My family and I hit Kobe as the first stop. It’s a coastal city just across from Osaka. As I write this, I’m lying in bed at the remm plus hotel in Kobe Sannomiya. ...

Americans also have classical new year’s concerts, and there are good ones too. Boston Symphony Orchestra (yes, the one Seiji Ozawa tenured for 29 years as music director and built its international reputation) branches an offshoot “The Boston Pops”. The pop orchestra features partial players from the BSO and specializes in light classical and popular music. The Boston Pops performs in BSO’s symphony hall, but the the seating on the floor of the symphony hall is reconfigured from auditorium seating to banquet and cafe seating. Also, the night’s program is pop-infused—for example, 2013 features a lot of Swing and Jazz, and dance and alchohol are allowed (see details here); 2024 features Bernadette Peter with broadway selections. ...

The Berliner Philharmoniker has its New Year’s Eve Concert celebrating the transition of the years on 31 December. The problem with new year’s concerts is that usually they are roamed with cliché repertoire and often, dizzy post-alchoholic audience. Like, it’s good be festive, but stuffing the entire program with encore pieces is self-degrading in some way. The Berliner Philharmoniker stands sliiighly more serious—the orchestra presents a carefully selected program every year, featuring a beautiful blend of their leading composers, distinguished guests and of course, the remarkable musicians. ...

The Wiener Philharmonic’s New Year Concert is undoubtedly popular. Though most concerts’ selling mechanism is first-come-first-served, Weiner Philharmonic runs a lottery to distribute the tickets: Due to extremely high demand, tickets for the three traditional end of year concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic are drawn by lot exclusively on the Vienna Philharmonic website. In this way, music lovers from all over the world have an equal chance to purchase these highly desired tickets. Between February 1 and 28, 2025, applications will be accepted to take part in the drawing for tickets to the end of year concerts 2025/26. ...

The Wiener Philharmonic’s new year concert IS one of the world’s most famous classical concerts—correct me if I’m wrong, the only rival that stands is the Berlin Wall Concert, in 1989 when Leonard Bernstein conducting German National Opera, played Beethoven Symphony No.9 (Ode to Freedom, or Joy?). It’s special because The program every year largely remains the same, consisting a lot of waltz and polkas composed by the Stauß family. The concert was first performed in 1939 conducted by Clemens Krauss, who is also the discoverer of Stauß’s mastery. Since 1987, the musicians made the decision to select a different conductor every year: Herbert von Karajan (1987), Seiji Ozawa (2002), Andris Nelsons (2020) etc.—almost like a Nobel Prize for classical music composers. The television broadcast is augmented by ballet performances in selected pieces. Interestingly, tickets are allocated to overflow demand via lottery: ...

January is the busiest month full of deadlines—application (review), conference and grant submission, etc. Meanwhile, all the top classical groups release their New Year Concert recordings during this time. For some relax and motivation during workouts, let me share a series of 2025 New Year Concerts in the following days.

The Chinese (almost-)monopoly search engine Baidu is famed for its innovative approach to low-quality search results and extensive ads. While Google limits itself to a mere four ads per query, Baidu sometimes offers up to seven for hot keywords like “cosmetic surgery. Moreover, Baidu ensures its “sponsored” tags are so understated they’re easily neglected, while relegating organic results to a cramped corner of mediocrity. But here’s the pièce de résistance: you can enjoy ad-free, high-quality search results on Baidu simply by invoking the safeword “李彦宏”—the name of Baidu’s CEO. It has been loudly whispered that, Baidu has an unwritten rule to shield their leader’s eminent visage from association with anything negative. For example, search “Intense Pulse Light” (a cosmetic surgery) on Baidu with and without the safeword, and behold two parallel universes: ...

Or two dancers?

Notes of listens to the two-part series by Freakonomics: Can Academic Fraud Be Stopped? (Update) Episode website. Why Is There So Much Fraud in Academia? (Update) Episode website. The podcast focused on discussing academic misconduct particularly in the field of social psychology. It looked at the prevalence of fraudulent behavior, the whistle blower “Data Colada” by three professors and anonymous helpers, the fragile academic system that builds on trust and self-discipline that is vulnerable to incentives and cheating behavior. ...