There's this guy I drink morning coffee with. Like me, he came to Japan as a young man and now wonders where the decades have flown. We sit at the window and watch the people rush past, so much like the years of our ...
You've heard it . . . Japanese can take an idea and improve upon it, but they can't come up with the idea themselves. A tiresome notion that needs to be washed away by all the abundant evidence to the contrary. For the Japanese do indeed ...
The warmth of the holiday season often cooks up a nice story — a helping of good will to be served with turkey and plum pudding, osechi and omochi or whatever other delicacies might grace your international table. And that's what I've got this time ...
Here it comes, the eternal question . . . Why did the gaijin cross the road? Today's answer: To get to the yakitori bar. On the other side. And if you're wondering about that other eternal question — which came first, the chicken or the beer? — ...
First, let's clarify the term, "pet peeve." It's not like they're actual "pets." No one wants to hold one in their laps. Or tease one with a squeaky toy. They're not kittens, they're not poodles, they're not bunny rabbits. They're peeves. And as peeves, they are essentially ...
Japan is fond of buzzwords and perhaps one of the buzziest of the last two years has been the term "danshari." It leapt into Japan's ever-fickle public limelight in 2010 and continues to cast shadows even now. Each "danshari" syllable can be tracked to a distinct ...
"The reason I love zombies . . ." The speaker has skin the hue of a soft-shell taco. At his jaw line, the taco has been ripped away to expose bleeding gums and skeletal teeth. His right cheek has been chewed into hamburger, the bloody ...
Sound cannot travel in a vacuum and perhaps that explains the growing silence in the Japanese spirit. For we are entering a vacuum. A hero vacuum. Yes, Japan is running short on heroes. This has happened before. And when it does there is always one place ...
Two years ago I had a bet going with my younger son about who could lose 10 kg the fastest. So I bought a Wii Fit unit. Now I admit I am nothing but a grunt in the army of the techno-challenged. When it comes ...
Japan is a fortunetelling nation and so, to start, here is Truman Capote's famous line about fortunetellers . . . They lie. Which is not quite true. Actually, Capote said . . . They fib. And it wasn't really him. It was a character in one of his ...
