I am fond of that big coin, for a bevy or reasons. It's a relationship I dub "The king and I."

So there my wife sits before the tube — almost every night — with her electronic dictionary on and the Japanese subtitles off, soaking in the colorful language of law and lawbreaking.

Halloween is almost here," he tells me — "he" being a friend with a passion for holidays — "and I need a costume! Something that shouts 'Japan!' Any ideas

"Here," he says and plops down a manuscript. He has eyes so earnest they gleam like headlights on bright. "I have written a screenplay." And now, I think, is the time to run. To tell him I've got a train to catch, a job to do, ...

My Japanese language skills mostly stink. And always have. Yet it's an odor to which I've grown accustomed. My excuse is that I came here to work, had little time for study and when I found I could get by, that's just what I did. I ...

The surface of the coffee in my Starbucks cup begins its gentle dance, the signal to lift my head. No, this is not "Jurassic Park" and the vibration is not due to an approaching T-Rex. It's Takadanobaba and the train station quivers with the force ...

"How was your trip to Las Vegas?" grins this friend who knows I never gamble. "Did you win a million bucks?" Not exactly. The truth is I nearly lost everything — twice. So he asks to hear the story about a trip I took in early ...

Ask what's good about life in Japan and answers always vary. One foreign resident's passion is often another's poison and you can count on similar divergence with what makes Japan difficult. Language, commuter trains, high costs, big bugs — everyone has their own particular bur ...

Summer is not summer in Japan without two things: 1. Heat (OK, so maybe it's not the heat, it's the humidity); and 2 . . . High school baseball. Which means the national high school baseball tournament at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture — due ...