In riding the iron ponies hither and thither across the urban plains of Japan, I'm one railroad cowboy who would just love to experience the singular pain of a real-life horsemen. That being . . . saddle sores. "I almost never get a seat," I gripe. ...
I have been "restored." Sounds good, huh? Perhaps you envision a trimmer tummy, steam-pressed wrinkles and a re-cultivated forest of hair, not the thinning wasteland I have now. Or perhaps you prefer a more spiritual interpretation and believe I hereby possess -- in no particular order ...
Perhaps the first disappointment most kids experience while growing up is discovering the truth regarding Santa Claus. For me, it was the same. Why . . . the generous blubberball was a fraud! A dirty adult con game that I had bought with a Charlie ...
To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The very rich are different from you and me." For starters, they have a helluva lot more money. Or at least a lot more than me. I can't speak for F. Scott. But what's this? Here are two quotes from friends ...
Some people collect rocks. Others stamps. Still others beer cans. My own collection, however, is a bit more sophisticated. You see, I collect bloopers -- more specifically, language bloopers. Not those of flick chicks flubbing their lines, nor those of the print media gumming up spellings. Nor ...
Earthquakes are not laughable affairs. The breadth of the destruction and depth of the human tragedy demand only a solemn response. Yet, the science (or shall we call it an art?) of earthquake prediction is a different matter. Here -- while full chuckles are perhaps ...
Autumn in Japan means much more than cooler temperatures and colorful leaves. It means . . . sports! At least, that is, for one day. "I used to hate Sports Day," says my wife, speaking not so much about the Oct. 10 holiday, but of the ...
In a revelation no less stunning than if Mount Everest was suddenly surpassed as the world's tallest mountain or the Nile outstretched as the world's longest river, a July news report announced that Tokyo is no longer the world's most expensive city. What is more, ...
If you are a viewer of Japanese television, you have no doubt seen a pair of celebrities known as the Kano sisters. Single-handedly -- or perhaps double-handedly is more appropriate -- these two have lent new meaning to the term "boob tube." For older sister ...
Once you finally know them, most people are . . . nice. A rosy sentiment paraphrased from Atticus Finch in the fiction classic "To Kill a Mockingbird." Words I now twist to match my own barbed view of life in Japan. "Once you finally know ...
