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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
Nuts! Where’s Almond? Julie was with friends on a bus passing through Roppongi and saw from the window that the famed Almond coffee shop on the crossing was no more. “How is this possible?” she asks. “My friends say it has been there forever.” ...
Mareen, an 18-year-old German citizen, spent three weeks in Japan, loved it, and now wants to come back. “I thought about working as an au pair. But I can’t find an agency that cooperates with Japanese families. I’d like to visit in July or ...
Reader S.B. seeks advice on how to deal with arrangements following the death of a foreign relative in Japan. This process can be very complicated for family and friends, especially if they are non-Japanese. You will need two documents: The first is the death ...
‘Contemplating neko-cide’ writes, “There is a cat next door that in meowing all night causes me to lose sleep, which then hurts my performance at work.” The cat is not in CN’s building, but the one next-door, with a balcony alongside his bedroom window. ...
With 2009 so far looking bleak, here are some queries from around the world that take us into the past with the hope of finding positive solutions for the present. T o start, two letters concerning war memorabilia. The first is from R.B. in ...
A couple of replies to the query about why people stand on escalators on the right in Osaka and on the left in Tokyo: Wayne says we should tell the reader who asked that it wasn’t so long ago that a person would have ...
Alan wants to know where he can get a Panama hat cleaned and blocked. “Now that they are back in fashion — albeit with a different age group than formerly — perhaps someone out there knows?” This is not as easy as it might ...
‘How can we be prepared?’ BJ writes in the wake of the recent spate of earthquakes. “Our family is increasingly concerned about what we can do if an earthquake or some other calamity strikes. We live in an apartment. Will we be OK? What ...
A vegan friend is coming over to visit B, and he’s at a loss as to what to feed him. “How can I ensure my friend does not starve? And do you know of any vegan restaurants in Tokyo?” According to Hiroko Kato, who ...
Mac has a Japanese girlfriend and sometimes feels completely lost as to what is going on. “I know I am dealing with cultural issues, but where can I get advice and help? Actually, I have had several Japanese girlfriends and none of the relationships ...
An interior designer in California is wondering how she can get some fabric — “preferably the Kyoto brocade known as Nishijin-ori” — woven to order in Japan. “I’m working on a house owned by a couple of Japanophiles, and they have very specific ideas ...
Undaunted by the current state of the dollar, John and Kate are planning to visit Japan this summer. “We were thinking to go and see the big ‘matsuri’ festival of giant floats in northern Japan. But now we’re told there are two. If this ...