Mike Millard interviewing the late Akio Morita, founder of Sony Corporation.
"Soon, I found myself in a two-room tatami-mat apartment beside a temple and graveyard in the seaside Tokyo suburb of Odawara, involved in a kaleidoscopic cycle of waking up and rushing to catch crowded trains, interviewing people, writing stories, editing stories, designing pages, proofreading, eating sushi, drinking in yakitori bars and izakaya, catching more crowded trains, and collapsing in my futon on the floor until the alarm clock went off again."
-- Leaving Japan
Taiko Yoshino in his temple in Odawara
"Yoshi retired to the mountains of central Japan in mid-winter, where with other priests he challenged a ritual that pushed him beyond any hardship he had known. For one-hundred days they awakened in the freezing darkness and trudged though the snow, stripping down to fundoshi, a simple traditional loincloth, and wooden geta sandals to take the first shower of icy water from wooden buckets that shocked them into awareness before dawn."
-- Leaving Japan
Miwa and her just desserts
"She had ivory skin and cheeks flushed like those of a country girl, which she was, from Aomori Prefecture in far northern Japan. It took me six months to learn her name was Miwa and that she was a college student at night studying Japanese literature and language."
-- Leaving Japan
Emerson exploring Pulau Ubin in Singapore
"Later, we put him in an after-hours class to learn to read and write Japanese, and he also began to study martial arts and move steadily up the rankings in his taekwondo group. In less than a year, Emerson went from being shy and uncommunicative to rather outgoing, even brash and humorous. He flourished like a transplanted sapling in rich soil."
-- Jihad in Paradise
An orchid grows on the patio.
"There is a variety of palms that hold out luminescent fronds to catch the sun, strange tropical fruits, and blooming from low bushes and vines are the flowers, bougainvillea, jasmine, orchids of all sizes and colors, fragrant gardenias, water lilies, and sacred lotus. It is an island of luxuriant greenery and flowers."
-- Jihad in Paradise
Singapore novelist Catherine Lim with poet and creativity guru Kirpal Singh
"There must be a new type of Singaporean, more creative and entrepreneurial, less conservative and not afraid to take a calculated risk when the reward was deemed worthy. It was not as if Singapore were completely bereft of talented, creative people."
-- Jihad in Paradise
