It's probably a sign of impending old age but these days, I find myself recalling the words of my late grandmother and applying them to current life situations.

Just the other day, I freaked someone out by quoting an ancient Chinese proverb in connection to a work-related topic -- forget the fact that I was wearing a shirt from Number Nine (OK, it's from several seasons back, but still!) and jeans from Miss Sixty, I was immediately branded "roushi (old master)" and offered a walking stick. But that very night I witnessed an impressively made-up, decked-out oneechan (babe) in 5-inch heels outside the am/pm conbini (convenience store) in Roppongi and she was lecturing -- yes, lecturing -- her girlfriend because the latter had thrown away a packet of half-eaten sandwiches. "Nanishiteruno, mottainai! Me ga tsubureruyo! (What are you doing? It's so wasteful. You'll be struck blind!)" she said and at that moment I had to stifle an urge to run over and give her a hug. Surely, surely that was no oneechan but my grandma, come back to life in dyed golden hair and a leopard-print dress.

Actually, a lot of Japanese seem to be channeling the wisdom of their grandmothers and/or equivalents lately as the word mottainai (that suggests something shouldn't be thrown away or wasted) is uttered up and down the nation like some newly coined, exotic phrase, instead of one of the most oft-repeated words in the Japanese vocabulary. Generations of Japanese had been screaming mottainai for many centuries, threatening blindness, sudden death of a parent, plague and other heavenly punishments for wasting anything, ANYTHING at all.