Fukujuro retired as a cab driver at the age of 75. He had driven around Tokyo in the middle of the night for 37 years as a private cab driver, a sole-proprietorship license granted to those who had worked for a cab company for 10 years without any accidents or violations. Coming home every morning, he would tell my mother about the times he picked up famous actors and actresses, or about terrible treatments he received from customers several times a week. Listening to all this, I worried about my own future, that such hardship may await me as well. When I saw Scorsese and De Niro's "Taxi Driver," there was an episode about pimps in the streets of New York that depicted a horrible scene, but I also heard a few stories about Japanese pimps in Shinjuku and Ikebukuro from my father, and I surmised that the dogma of the real night world was pretty much the same all over the world. In any case, it must have been a tough job, but my father always portrayed it in an funny, intriguing way. After he retired, he would spend all day in a small room at home cutting cardboard, painting it with lacquer paint, and attaching magnets to the back of these objects, which he then stuck to metal doors. The motifs of his creations were sharks, coelacanths, butterflies, owls, and B52 bombers, among others. These works kept accumulating, so much so that my mother started to get weirded out, but I found them so amusing. And so we decided to showcase them in an exhibition. (This will go on for a few more posts. please bear with me.) photo: @ssps2011 translation: @tabi_the_fat

——— A little discussion on race? I’ve always thought a lot about the terrifying topic of “race”. We do not like to comment on it, we prefer seeing no “race”, we shy away from the difficult intricacies. All these thoughts came back to me after watching #shangchi . Surprisingly, as a non-ABC, I do feel inspired by the movie. There’s so much to explore in our Asian culture, so much to be grateful for. Then I came across many passages with the hashtag #Asianpride, and I began to wonder is it only appropriate because “Asians” is often broadly categorised as “middle situated” in the hierarchy of “race superiority” in mainstream media? Because we have a history of being suppressed? It’s intriguing to think that a post hashtagging #Whitepride instead would attract a lot of hate. So - can pride only be justified by sufferings, and not everyone is entitled to (publicly declaring) being proud of their racial identity? I’ve been subjected to racial discrimination before, eg being thrown eggs on the streets/ asked to “be with your own kind” at a club. While I could call myself a “victim”, should I hate on the fact that we’re “distinguished” by races? Somehow ironically, I am proud of my own race, does that make me a “racist”? Should all of us just be ONE race? These are all very sensitive topics that everyone avoids, because we all like to be politically correct. We slowly sulk and form our own close minded thoughts. Although I did wish, so hard, since young that there’s a magic recipe uprooting discrimination, and that we can be proud of our identities while making peace with the world… Sadly there’s none. Things like this need to be discussed, reviewed, and disseminated to deepen human’s understandings towards an often “scary” topic. It’s 2021, yet we are still very, very far away from achieving racial harmony. 變幻中必須忍耐，may different kinds of changes salvage us. PS some photos of the city I dearly love. There’s been so many changes, but you’ll always be my root, my home 🏠. #just_somewords

#中秋節快樂！多謝 #哈妃 HAFIE 送上香港製造酥皮月餅，包括檸汁薑月餅、焦糖果仁月餅、酥皮紅豆栗子月餅及酥皮奶黃月餅，咁多特別味道，等我揀支清酒去夾下先！我揀早前 #一田清酒祭 推介之一 「 水鳥記純米大吟釀（蔵の華）」， 帶熟果香、蜜瓜及米香，配上檸汁薑月餅，帶出更多米香及圓潤感。#Cheers!🥳🥮🍶 #happymidautumnfestival! Thanks #HafieHK for the intriguing mooncakes, including lemon & ginger, caramel nuts, red bean & chestnut and egg custard flavours! The flavours r so special and I match it with a special sake. Thanks #Yata for sending me Mizutoriki Tokubetsu Junmai Sake from their Sake Fair, with fruity flavours including ripe fruit, melon & rice notes, it brings out more rice & rounded flavours when paired with lemon & ginger mooncakes. #Cheers! 🥳🥮🍶