I think Kappa is common ancestor of turtle and frog. Kappa is Japanese imaginary creature. Their body is green (sometimes red) and have beak and shell on their back like turtles. They have dish on their head. If the dish dry, they will die. They live in liver and like doing sumo wrestling with children. They say kappa is not exist. But I found kappa has some common feature with turtle and frog. This is my hypothesis↓ Kappa was exist before and has evolved into turtle and frog. People was living with kappa until about 200 years ago. But the number of kappa declined for some reason. So, people cannot find kappa anymore. Kappa became an imaginary creature. This notebook is not scientific :)

Is there biological sex difference in human? It is said that men have good spatial recognition ability or are good at math and women have good empathy ability. There are many papers about sex differences. Some papers say there are sex differences and some papers say not. I think there are sex differences between men and women. But it includes cultural effect. Are there "biological" sex difference in human? No one knows the right answer because we cannot remove cultural effect. But we have some ways to approach this topic. First, to use animals. We can raise animals in environment completely separated from culture. Mice has sex differences in some behavior such as coordination, anxiety-like behavior and spatial and non-spatial task performance. Second, to compare difference culture. Interestingly, difference in spatial recognition ability is more appear in countries that have big gender gap. Both methods have problems. Animal is different from human and the definition of gender gap is complicating.

Matcha Spring is matcha season. I can find many matcha sweets at convenience stores, supermarkets, and cake shops. When we drink matcha as tea, it is not sweet at all. (I'm not sure whether I can call it tea because it is suspended matcha powder...) So, we usually eat sweets with matcha. But when we use matcha for sweets such as matcha cake or matcha ice cream, they are sweet in itself. That is not the problem. I like matcha sweets. The problem is that matcha sweets sometimes have sweet bean paste in or with them. Sweet bean paste is also sweet. I cannot understand why people combine sweet one with sweet one. Too sweet!! So I always check if there is sweet bean paste in the matcha sweets. Combination of non-sweet matcha and sweet bean paste is good though :-P

Recent hot topic in neuroscience field. I will try to explain recent hot topic in neuroscience field. But I need to explain the background first. Neuron play a crucial role in various brain functions. Neuronal stem cells differentiate to neurons and other type of cells in brain. Neurons can not self-reproduce but neuronal stem cell can. Embryos and infants have many neuronal stem cells in their brain and neurogenesis actively occurs. Until recently, it is said that neurogenesis does not occur in adult brain. But in 1998, first neurogenesis in adult brain was observed. After that some experiments indicate neurogenesis in adult brain. So, neurogenesis in adult brain became common sense among neuroscientists. Last month, Mexican scientist released the paper about neurogenesis in adult brain.They analyzed more number of human brain than previous report and concluded they could not observe neurogenesis in adult brain. This report gave a big impact to neuroscientists. But in this month (so quick！), a report that contradicts to the report was released. They insist that neurogenesis persists throughout human life. This topic is very interesting. I will keep watching :)

Spring has come. It's getting warm these days. I don't need too wear a winter coat anymore. We got the heaviest snowfall in 10 years this year. But all snow was disappeared. It will be the best season to enjoy cherry blossom within 2 weeks here. In hokuriku area, the best season for cherry blossom is middle of April. Since Japan is long in the north and south, the best season for cherry blossom is difference among areas. It's February in Okinawa and May in Hokkaido. So, if you visit Okinawa in February and gradually go towards the north, you can enjoy cherry blossom for 3 months:-P

I wish I was born in English spoken country... I wrote a paper all day today. Now, I am very tired and bored of writing English (but I am writing this notebook). I have to check grammar for all sentences (even this notebook too). But still there are many mistakes. So we have to ask native proofreader to check our English before submission to journal. It costs about 1000 USD. In addition, it is difficult for us to write sophisticate sentences. When I read or write a paper, I feel I wanted to be born in English spoken country.

Interfering with dream Do you know Paprika? It's a Japanese movie. Original novel was written Yasutaka Tsutsui who is a Japanese famous SF novelist. In that movie, not only visualizing dreams but also the protagonist goes into another person's dream and do mental therapy. I think analyzing dream is effective for mental therapy because dreams reflect their mental condition and may can identify the cause of their mental disorder. Now I am wondering if interfering with dream is possible. I think at least 4 technologies are needed to realize it. 1: visualize dream 2: construct the world that he/she dreaming in the computer. 3: observer goes into the world and make an avatar. 4: Input the information to dreaming person's brain. There are many research about each step. 2 and 3 seem possible because there are already many games using virtual reality and its quality pretty high. For 1 and 4, there are many interesting studies. Researchers are trying to visualize what he/she is looking at using electrical activity or fMRI data obtained from brain. Development of this kind of studies is rapid. The resolution is still not good, but enough to identify alphabets. 4 maybe the most difficult part. Researches are trying to input information directory or via bionic eye into brain but got limited success. Direct input using catheter or electrodes are invasive and limited information can be transmitted. Bionic eye seems far away from practical level. Input is much more difficult than output. If we could clear these steps, what would happen in the brain? Will original dream and input dream conflict? By the way Paprika is a nice movie. Boundary of reality and dream will become ambiguous. Your brain will be stirred with vivid colors and madness of dream.

Cat patterns Tabby cats are cute. They are most common but most loved. Black and white cats are noble. They sometimes wear suits and socks. They are different from other naked cats. Calico cats are lovely. They match Japanese traditional scenery perfectly. They bring you happiness and may money too. Tortoiseshell cats are pretty. Their patterns are complex and unorganized. But that's cats. White cats are superb. Their immaculate coat and colorful eyes look like jewelry. Black cats are mysterious. Their body melt in the darkness at night. Short hair cats are sweet. We can enjoy their limber movement. Long hair cats are gorgeous. They are unbelievably fluffy. I can cuddle with them all day.

Cat temple There is a temple called cat temple in fukui prefecture in japan. Its formal name is Gotanjo-ji. I visited there last week. I like there and it was forth time visit. There are over 20 cats at the temple. Priests take care of them as one of ascetic practices. For the beginning, one cat was left at the temple and chief priest decided to keep it as pet. To be sad, many people left cats at the temple. They thought the temple can take care of them. The number of cats has reached at maximum 50. The temple regularly holds transfer event. Many cats have found new family and the number of cats has decreased. If I can not meet many cats at the temple, it is not sad thing. The cats at the temple eat well and their body is round. People who like cats visit the temple and take pictures and pat them. Cats also like human. They like sleeping on human knee especially in winter.