As I tiptoed past the sleeping dog, my heart was pounding but I remained silent.

When any project dominates your life for a sizeable length of time, let alone the best part of six years, you have to accept the agathokakological nature of the beast.

Across Japan, technology companies and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up as part of a rapid build-up that one developer likened to an explosion.

It is so easy for over-anxious singers to squeak, to mispitch a note, or to forget the words, that the teacher must display absolute faith in his or her pupils' ability to produce something of value.