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Pope Francis’ fascination with the devil took on remarkable new twists Tuesday, with a well-known exorcist insisting Francis helped “liberate” a Mexican man possessed by four different demons despite the Vatican’s insistence that no such papal exorcism took place. The case concerns a 43-year-old ...
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Guitarist Dustin Wong hesitates for a split second. It’s a pause that would go unnoticed during most other sets, but Wong has spent the last 40 minutes seemingly in a trance while playing guitar and looping the notes via an array of pedals in ...
Tim Duncan saves the day as the Spurs hold off the Grizzlies in overtime
For Thomas Dillon's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
“Ever thought to change your nationality?” This asked by my dentist, as he bent over my mouth and polished my molars with what sounded like a buzz saw. For full effect, repeat his words while running a power tool next to your ear. And ...
Whenever you find someone tossing bits of bread into a pond, you have to assume this: Something’s fishy. “Fish?” the guys snorts. “These aren’t fish. They’re carp. Meaning they’re a lot closer to cows. Fat, stupid cows.” The water below him froths with the ...
If you haven’t noticed, the most popular sports in sports-zany Japan are imports. Homegrown offerings — sumo, judo, karate and so on — rank more like your mom’s oatmeal cookies.
I sit at a table, drinking with an old friend with whom I share a lot, and not just bar tabs. We have both gulped away most of our adult lives in Japan. Long enough to remember not only the bursting of the economic ...
If the Grinch — that well-known wet blanket of holiday mirth — were both a betting man and Japanese, it wouldn’t be Christmas he was after. Nor New Year’s, nor the Emperor’s birthday, nor Golden Week, nor National Toilet Day (Nov. 10. Mark it ...
I’d lost my keys. Which is unsettling enough. For you do not begin to truly ransack your brain — where in the rising sun could they be? — until you’ve ransacked your house. And I mean ransack. Drawers emptied, floorboards pried, every pocket of ...
Next to my house lies a carpet of land not flat enough to resist puddles and not sandy enough to attract cats. It just sits there. Empty. “Symbolic,” says a friend, “of the hole in your life.” He means the car I do not ...
I lay in bed with a woman with a mask on her face. So I roll her way and coo in her unmasked ear . . . “You can hide your face but not your passion.” To which she sighs and coos back . ...
At the end of lunch with an old friend, I point out yet another hole in my Swiss cheese knowledge of Japan. “I’ve never really understood this whole ‘Kansai/Kanto’ thing. I mean, sure, I’ve traveled to Kyoto, Osaka and so on. But I’ve never ...
My buddy grinds his teeth and says, “You know what irks about this country?” And so I summon all the usual suspects . . . The insular mindset? The high cost of living? The crowded trains? The summer heat? “No,” he hisses. “It’s in ...
The term “man cave” has been added to the dictionary. At last. I’m referring to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, but surely those other country clubs of words and wisdom will follow suit. For once you’ve been welcomed by the language Vanderbilts, everyone else soon yearns ...
“Ha ha! I can’t believe it’s you!” The man extends his hand as if pointing a pistol. I spin around, just to check, but there is no mistaking. The target is me. He wrenches my wrist. “How long has it been, I wonder? Years ...