About Kuro

My motto is “Life is all about being an otaku.” I dive deep into anything and everything, so I never seem to have enough time. I give my all to both work and play, aiming for a life with no regrets even if I were to die tomorrow.

My relationship with computers (microcomputers) began with NEC’s TK-80 single-board micro. I moved through the MZ-80, X1, and MSX, then on to the Amiga, Macintosh, and Macintosh SE/30. I even started building my own OS, but it ended up overlapping with the design philosophy of the NeXT Computer’s OS, so I gave it up. After that I fell head over heels for NeXT, ending up with two machines (the original and the pizza-box model) plus NeXTSTEP for AT-compatible PCs, which I used to the fullest.

I’ve used Windows since the days it ran on top of MS-DOS, building everything from business software to games. In the early days I worked almost entirely in assembler. Later I was moved by the elegance of C, installed Unix (BSD-based) and minix on my PCs, and kept taking on new challenges as I encountered more refined ways of thinking. Smalltalk got me thinking about what programming should be, and after that I passed through Lisp and used Java and C++ professionally while researching next-generation languages.

Along the way I also wrote programs on mainframes (so-called general-purpose machines) like the Unisys VAX-11 using paper tape and coding sheets, and did business development on IBM-compatible machines and the S/390. I was once given a complete old manual set that must have run to several hundred volumes, but I never managed to read it all (impossible! the floor of my house nearly gave way). Personally, I think the time-sharing concept of many people sharing a single computer had a huge influence on the PC operating systems that followed.

I’ve been on the internet since the days of UUCP connections at the lab, so in a sense I feel like I’ve walked alongside the history of computing. These days my main languages are TypeScript and Rust, with the occasional bit of Lua. I built my own AI long ago, but today’s AI is truly amazing—using ChatGPT, Claude Code, and Gemini has made development much easier.

Oh, just the computer talk got this long, lol. Beyond that, I used to be a street racer; I watch more than half of every anime season’s lineup; I’ve probably read over 1,000 light novels; once my manga collection passed 2,000 volumes it no longer fit in the house, so I digitized it into a library; I have a massive pile of PlayStation games and a Steam library already over 1,000 titles—I’m quite the entertainment otaku too. I used to watch movies on VHS and LaserDisc, but theaters these days are beautiful and comfortable, and the sound is great, so I watch films at the cinema whenever I can. (I also have a 5.1ch speaker home theater setup, which is nice in its own way, lol)

I’m a real foodie and love soba, so 20 years ago I toured the top-rated soba restaurant in each of Japan’s 48 prefectures based on word of mouth (actually averaging more than two shops per prefecture—I’m currently on my second round). My nightlife has run the gamut from snack bars, clubs, and discos to magic bars and even gay bars. I’ve been into karaoke ever since I was born in Japan; I do winter sports like skiing and snowboarding; and I hold a first-class boat license, so I enjoy marine sports too. As for cars, during my street-racing days I drove rotaries almost exclusively (going through an FC and an FD), and since retiring from racing I travel in a convertible. Recently, hearing a friend talk about riding motorcycles has gotten me interested in bikes as well.

This blog was started by Kuro—a silly, chaotic, multi-hobbyist who’s getting on in years—with the goal of sharing whatever catches my interest, from recent technology and hobbies to news, all from an “around-sixty” perspective. I’d be delighted if it brings a little entertainment or inspiration to your free time.

If you are a copyright holder and believe that an image or other material used as a quotation in an article exceeds the bounds of fair quotation, please contact us at the address below. We will remove the image from display immediately.