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What痴 in a Life?


You are holding in your hands the 250th issue of this magazine. But don稚 worry, you will only find fresh content ・no dull retrospectives; and we won稚 even be tooting our own horn. Nevertheless the occasion makes me reminisce about the various lives and half-lives of things.

Take a look at nature and history first. There was a time, when you could virtually walk from Africa to Indonesia ・this was the route taken by African Eve and her eco-tourist descendants, unless you happen to believe the Bible. Today you would need a plane or a boat. The Roman Empire, neither built nor disintegrated in one day, is nevertheless no more. In short, in the big picture of things the only constant is change. And not even the elements are exempt. Take uranium for example, which sports a half-life of 4.4 x 109 years. Even the periodic table is subject to change. As my university buddies tell me, some mad scientists artificially created two new chemical elements by bombarding americium with calcium inside a gigantic particle accelerator. On the downside, despite around-the-clock bombardment they managed this only once in a week, and the first element radioactively decayed in less then a second, resulting in a second element that gave up life after only 1.2 seconds. On the upside, we can all rest assured that as long as we provide large-enough toys to our brightest minds, we can expect more amazing discoveries like that. Let痴 just hope they don稚 blow us all up in the process.

Fast-forward to business and contemporary society, where the pace of things occurs on a more leisurely scale. Companies come and go; so do magazines. Some come and go in a flash; others stay for a while. Some stay around for several generations; but none as long as uranium, and none as short as artificially created split-second elements. Generally speaking, we know we are onto something when a new place in Tokyo stays open for more than a year ・and we have what they call a fixture in the community when a bar celebrates it痴 10th anniversary. Which brings me to Bernd and his eponymous named German bar. At Bernds Bar ・yes, no spelling mistake, as we Germans don稚 like to use the apostrophe too often ・Tokyoites can sample German beer fresh from the tap, even enjoy real German cooking, but most of all, everyone, regardless of nationality, can really feel at home. It is in the nature of a German Kneipe that visitors can get acquainted with each other. You don稚 have to be German or an ex-ex-pat who has lived in Germany to enjoy Bernd痴 place. But once you致e been there, you are more than likely to visit again. And again, and again. So in a way, visiting Bernds Bar is sort of addictive. Bernds Bar痴 reputation has also traveled abroad. Talk to any German ex-pat from New York to Kuala Lumpur, mention Tokyo, and you値l hear Bernds Bar. People who get transferred out of Tokyo carry with them the fond memories of Bernd, those that have yet to come to Japan already know where to find him. If you are into celebrity watching, be prepared to pop into past, present and future German chancellors or J-League trainers ・because any German worth his salt will eventually turn up at Bernd痴. In my own case, I practically became part of the inventory from my first visit.

With all that warmth and hospitality it is not surprising that even scientists are welcome at Bernd痴. A large sign outside reads Bier-Akademie and beckons all those who prefer to approach the art of beer drinking in a more academic fashion ・after a hard day at the lab chasing after those elusive particles.

Stephan Hauser