The world of Japanese spams

After years of effort by Japanese spammers to make us read their "unsolicited" e-mails, some of them seem to have reached the height of a real entertainment.

Here is one of them, translated and summarized (emphasis by me): "It has been a year since my husband was killed by a giant anteater. I regret I did not know what my husband was doing. He often travelled to Singapore, but it was not just for sightseeing. Now I am alone and looking for somebody to comfort me. My husband left me a fortune, so I can pay you as much as you want."

Here is another: "I am a daughter of the real emperor of Japan. (The present emperor is an impostor.) My father is now ill, but he has no son. Please help us have an heir to the throne."

Shinran

Shinran, a 12-13th century Japanese Buddhist, stated: even good people go to the heaven; why would bad people not? He also believed that people are already saved and accepted to the heaven, so we can pray just to express the pleasure. Be it true or not, such a thought itself may be a surprise to many religious people of today. (Disclaimer: I am not an expert on any religion or history.)

Hello, world!

I am an associate professor in a Japanese university, doing computer science (programming language theory, in particular). But this blog is not going to be about my research (and, as usual, everything here is personal and unrelated to the university). Rather, it will be about my random thoughts on general things. Although my English is poor, I somehow "feel" more comfortable writing such things in English than in Japanese, perhaps because my English is poor. (I like writing computer programs than natural languages, and I feel like writing a computer program when writing English.) Also, like this entry, most (if not all) of my entries will be short and may sound stupid. But I will not waste time (both mine and yours) just to "sound" smart. You have been warned.:-)