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Coffee, Tea and Nagging at Japan’s Anti-procrastination Cafe

Takuya Kawai, the owner of the Manuscript Writing Cafe which is designed for writers who are working on a deadline, shows a slip of paper on which customers write down goals and the amount of time they plan to finish it in along with a stamp that clears the goal of a customer at the cafe in Tokyo, Japan, April 21, 2022. Picture taken on April 21, 2022. (Reuters)
Takuya Kawai, the owner of the Manuscript Writing Cafe which is designed for writers who are working on a deadline, shows a slip of paper on which customers write down goals and the amount of time they plan to finish it in along with a stamp that clears the goal of a customer at the cafe in Tokyo, Japan, April 21, 2022. Picture taken on April 21, 2022. (Reuters)
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Coffee, Tea and Nagging at Japan’s Anti-procrastination Cafe

Takuya Kawai, the owner of the Manuscript Writing Cafe which is designed for writers who are working on a deadline, shows a slip of paper on which customers write down goals and the amount of time they plan to finish it in along with a stamp that clears the goal of a customer at the cafe in Tokyo, Japan, April 21, 2022. Picture taken on April 21, 2022. (Reuters)
Takuya Kawai, the owner of the Manuscript Writing Cafe which is designed for writers who are working on a deadline, shows a slip of paper on which customers write down goals and the amount of time they plan to finish it in along with a stamp that clears the goal of a customer at the cafe in Tokyo, Japan, April 21, 2022. Picture taken on April 21, 2022. (Reuters)

Writers facing deadlines go to Tokyo's "Manuscript Writing Cafe" with an understanding - they can't leave until their work is done.

Oh, and there's prodding thrown in to make sure they buckle down and finish.

The clean, well-lit place in western Tokyo has 10 seats reserved for writers, editors, manga artists and anybody else grappling with the written word and deadlines. Coffee and tea are unlimited and self-serve, and high-speed Wi-Fi and docking ports are installed at every seat.

Customers enter, write down their names, writing goals and the time they plan to finish. They can also ask for progress checks as they work, with "mild" just asking them if they have finished as they pay and "normal" being a check-in every hour. Those choosing "hard" will feel silent pressure from staff standing frequently behind them.

Owner Takuya Kawai, 52 and a writer himself, said he hoped the strict rules would help people focus.

"The cafe went viral on social media and people are saying the rules are scary or that it feels like being watched from behind," the genial Kawai said, displaying a board with the names of customers who completed their tasks and left.

"But actually instead of monitoring, I'm here to support them ... As a result what they thought would take a day actually was completed in three hours, or tasks that usually take three hours were done in one."

The cafe charges 130 yen ($1.01) for the first 30 minutes and then 300 yen ($2.34) every successive hour. Though a few people have stayed past the official closing time, they have all eventually gotten their work done.

Emiko Sasaki, 37 and a blog writer, said she relished the chance to be free of pesky social media and phone calls.

"It's good to be able to concentrate on writing," she said, completing her goal of three blog articles in three hours.

The cafe, originally a livestreaming space, was hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic, but Kawai is now hopeful as word of mouth spreads about its new format.

"I don't know what kind of work might be born, but I'm proud to be able to offer my support so that things written here can be published to the whole world," he said.

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Winter at Tantora Festival Kicks Off in AlUla

The 2025–2026 season features a diverse array of immersive experiences - SPA
The 2025–2026 season features a diverse array of immersive experiences - SPA
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Winter at Tantora Festival Kicks Off in AlUla

The 2025–2026 season features a diverse array of immersive experiences - SPA
The 2025–2026 season features a diverse array of immersive experiences - SPA

The Winter at Tantora Festival launched yesterday in AlUla Governorate and will run until January 10, 2026, marking the beginning of the winter season with a rich program that celebrates the region’s deep-rooted agricultural and historical heritage.

The festival derives its name from the Tantora, a traditional mudbrick sundial located in the heart of AlUla’s Old Town. For centuries, local farmers and residents relied on this stone marker to tell time, manage water distribution rights, and signal the start of the winter planting season, SPA reported.

The 2025–2026 season features a diverse array of immersive experiences. "Old Town Nights" offers an atmospheric evening of heritage storytelling and fine dining at the historic AlUla Fort, while the "AlManshiyah Carnival" creates a festive space for families with traditional games and parades.

Music remains a central pillar of the festival, with performances set against AlUla’s most iconic backdrops. The "Shorfat Tantora" (Tantora Balconies) series brings live music to the rooftops of the AlJadidah Arts District, while major concerts are scheduled at the Maraya mirrored hall and the Thanaya open-air amphitheater.

These events are part of the broader AlUla Moments calendar, supporting the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 to highlight the Kingdom's heritage and establish AlUla as a premier global destination.

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Warm Weather and Low Snowpack Bedevil Western Ski Resorts

Only a small percentage of lifts were open and snow depths were well below average at Lake Tahoe resorts, just one example of warm weather causing well-below-average snowpack in almost all of the West. -File Photo/The AP news
Only a small percentage of lifts were open and snow depths were well below average at Lake Tahoe resorts, just one example of warm weather causing well-below-average snowpack in almost all of the West. -File Photo/The AP news
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Warm Weather and Low Snowpack Bedevil Western Ski Resorts

Only a small percentage of lifts were open and snow depths were well below average at Lake Tahoe resorts, just one example of warm weather causing well-below-average snowpack in almost all of the West. -File Photo/The AP news
Only a small percentage of lifts were open and snow depths were well below average at Lake Tahoe resorts, just one example of warm weather causing well-below-average snowpack in almost all of the West. -File Photo/The AP news

Ski resorts are struggling to open runs, walk-through ice palaces can’t be built, and the owner of a horse stable hopes that her customers will be satisfied with riding wagons instead of sleighs under majestic Rocky Mountain peaks. It’s just been too warm in the West with not enough snow.

Meanwhile, the Midwest and Northeast have been blanketed by record snow this December, a payday for skiers who usually covet conditions out West, The AP news reported.

In the Western mountains where snow is crucial for ski tourism — not to mention water for millions of acres (hectares) of crops and the daily needs of tens of millions of people — much less snow than usual has piled up.

“Mother Nature has been dealing a really hard deck,” said Kevin Cooper, president of the Kirkwood Ski Education Foundation, a ski racing organization at Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada line.

Only a small percentage of lifts were open and snow depths were well below average at Lake Tahoe resorts, just one example of warm weather causing well-below-average snowpack in almost all of the West.

In Utah, warmth has indefinitely postponed this winter’s Midway Ice Castles, an attraction 45 minutes east of Salt Lake City that requires cold temperatures to freeze water into building-size, palatial features. Temperatures in the area that will host part of the 2034 Winter Olympics have averaged 7-10 degrees (3-5 degrees Celsius) above normal in recent weeks, according to the National Weather Service.

Near Vail, Colorado, Bearcat Stables owner Nicole Godley hopes wagons will be a good-enough substitute for sleighs for rides through mountain scenery.

“It’s the same experience, the same ride, the same horses,” Godley said. “It’s more about, you know, just these giant horses and the Western rustic feel.”

In the Northwest, torrential rain has washed out roads and bridges and flooded homes. Heavy mountain snow finally arrived late this week in Washington state but flood-damaged roads that might not be fixed for months now block access to some ski resorts.

In Oregon, the Upper Deschutes Basin has had the slowest start to snow accumulation in records dating to 1981. Oregon, Idaho and western Colorado had their warmest Novembers on record, with temperatures ranging from 6-8.5 degrees (2-4 degrees Celsius) warmer than average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Continued warmth could bring yet another year of drought and wildfires to the West. Most of the region except large parts of Colorado and Oregon has seen decent precipitation but as rain instead of snow, pointed out NOAA drought information coordinator Jason Gerlich.

That not only doesn’t help skiers but farmers, ranchers and people from Denver to Los Angeles who rely on snowpack water for their daily existence. Rain runs off all at once at times when it's not necessarily needed.

“That snowpack is one of our largest reservoirs for water supply across the West,” Gerlich said.

Climate scientists agree that limiting global warming is critical to staving off the snow-to-rain trend.

In the northeastern U.S., meanwhile, below-normal temperatures have meant snow instead of rain. Parts of Vermont have almost triple and Ohio double the snowfall they had this time last year.

Vermont’s Killington Resort and Pico Mountain, had about 100 trails open for “by far the best conditions I have ever seen for this time of year,” said Josh Reed, resort spokesman who has lived in Killington for a decade.

New Hampshire ski areas opening early include Cannon Mountain, with over 50 inches (127 centimeters) to date. In northern Vermont, Elena Veatch, 31, already has cross-country skied more this fall than she has over the past two years.

“I don’t take a good New England winter for granted with our warming climate,” Veatch said.

Out West, it's still far too early to rule out hope for snow. A single big storm can “turn things around rather quickly,” pointed out Gerlich, the NOAA coordinator.

Lake Tahoe's snow forecast over Thanksgiving week didn't pan out but Cooper with the ski racing group is eyeing possibly several feet (1-2 meters) in the long-term forecast.

“That would be so cool!” Cooper said.

Varieties

Trump Urges 2028 Astronaut Moon Landing in Sweeping Space Policy Order

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump poses on the red carpet for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., US, December 7, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump poses on the red carpet for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., US, December 7, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo
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Trump Urges 2028 Astronaut Moon Landing in Sweeping Space Policy Order

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump poses on the red carpet for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., US, December 7, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump poses on the red carpet for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., US, December 7, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo

President Donald Trump enshrined the US goal to put humans back on the moon by 2028 and defend space from weapon threats in a sweeping executive order issued on Thursday, the first major space policy move of his administration's second term.

The order, issued hours after billionaire private astronaut and former SpaceX customer Jared Isaacman was sworn in as NASA's 15th administrator, also reorganized national space policy coordination under Trump's chief science adviser, Michael Kratsios, Reuters reported.

Titled "ENSURING AMERICAN SPACE SUPERIORITY," the order calls on the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies to create a space security strategy, urges efficiency among private contractors and seeks demonstrations of missile-defense technologies under Trump's Golden Dome program.

It appeared to ‌cancel the White ‌House's top space policy-coordinating body, the National Space Council, a ‌panel ⁠of cabinet members that ‌the president revived during his first term and has considered axing this year.

But an adminitration official said it would not be cancelled and suggested it would live on under the White House's Office of Technology Policy with a different structure in which the president, rather than the vice president, would be chairman.

The goal to land humans on the moon by the end of Trump's second term in 2028 bears resemblance to the president's 2019 directive in his first term to make a lunar return by 2024, putting the ⁠moon at the center of US space exploration policy with a timeline many in the industry regarded as unrealistic. Development and testing ‌delays with NASA’s Space Launch System and SpaceX’s Starship gradually pushed ‍that landing target date back.

NASA's goal had been ‍2028 under former president Barack Obama.

A 2028 astronaut moon landing would be ‍the first of many planned under NASA's Artemis effort to build a long-term presence on the lunar surface. The US is in competition with China, which is targeting 2030 for its first crewed moon landing. The order on Thursday called for "establishment of initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030," reinforcing NASA's existing goal to develop long-term bases with nuclear power sources.

At the start of his second term, Trump had repeatedly talked about sending missions to Mars as Elon Musk, a major donor ⁠who has made sending humans to the Red Planet a priority for his company SpaceX, served a stint as a close adviser and powerful government efficiency czar. But lawmakers in Congress this year have slowly put the moon back in focus, pressuring then-NASA nominee Isaacman to stick with the agency's moon program on which billions of dollars have been spent.

The White House, in a government efficiency push led by Musk, slashed NASA's workforce by 20% and has sought to cut the agency's 2026 budget by roughly 25% from its usual $25 billion, imperiling dozens of space-science programs that scientists and some officials regard as priorities.

Isaacman, who plans to give his first agency-wide address to NASA employees on Friday, has said he believes the space agency should try to target both the moon and Mars simultaneously while prioritizing a lunar return in ‌order to beat China.

The 2028 moon-landing target depends heavily on the development progress of SpaceX's giant Starship lander, which has been criticized by NASA's former acting administrator for moving too slowly.