When I was younger, I used to be a party animal. To be more precise: a sort of gerbil with a taste for hops. Though I had entered college in a serious search for higher education, at the same time I also joined a fraternity, in ...
When I look in the mirror each morning, I pretty much see what I expect . . . Which isn't much. Yet -- assisted by effort, self-delusion and failing eyesight -- I have, as the song says, grown accustomed to my face. As I age it ...
Of all the things I have given my children (bicycles, braces and bald chromosomes) and of all the things I would like to give them (resilience, compassion and an early introduction to Rogaine) nothing seems farther beyond my meager means than the one gift ...
Equality of the sexes I generally accept as a fundamental truth -- as certain as sunrise in the east, the rhythm of the tides and bubbles in the o-furo. Yet -- curse me if you will -- there is one arena in which I feel ...
When in love, one learns to put up with your partner's flaws, no matter how distasteful. In my case, however, this has not been easy. For there is one chink in my love affair with Japan that forever snags my sensitivities. One nagging headache that ...
Back in the halcyon days of my young adulthood, when I used to sigh feverishly into my fiancee's walnut eyes, you can rest assured I spied romance, hope and her contact lenses, but never -- never! -- a pair of yen stickers. I also surmise ...
I never truly asked for my wife's hand in marriage, primarily because I was interested more in the whole than individual parts. However, the day did come when I cowered before my future mother-in-law (my bride-to-be's father was ill) and bumbled into the time-honored "May ...
Smoke, as they say, gets in your eyes. Not to mention your clothes, hair, nose, lungs, taste buds, teeth, gums and (if you are a smoker) your pocketbook. Yet, this well-hammered health hazard remains Japan's vice of choice -- a pastime to die for. Literally. Witness ...
In most head counts my international family totals five: my wife and two sons, plus my mother-in-law and then yours truly. This reckoning, however, fails to include my father-in-law, who at times will visit for days on end. The reason for his omission is simple: ...
Summer glows with sunshine, and so do my memories. It is late July and time to chalk up another year on the marriage board, bumping our total to 21 and running. My mind harks back: Our wedding . . . Our reception . . . Our ...
