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Thomas Dillon
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 17, 2004
As good -- and as bad -- as it gets
For foreign residents, life in Japan can be a roller coaster of ups and downs -- quite often at the exact same time.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 3, 2004
Never been there, never done that
"Twenty-five" seems a fine number for the necessary hours in a day or an easy-to-find shoe size in centimeters, yet for me that digit has now garnered a special significance. It marks the number of years I have lived in Japan, soon to inch one step forward to 26 -- more than a quarter of a century.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 19, 2004
Doom and despair -- worry, worry, everywhere
"If there's one thing I've learned from my life in Japan," I tell my wife over a pot of black coffee, "it's how to worry."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 5, 2004
Taking the long road to nowhere
Out on the straight freeways of higher enlightenment, many an astute Japan watcher has tied the cautious, noncommittal qualities of Japanese personality to various cultural and linguistic features, such as tightknit group society and ambiguous language structure.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 22, 2004
A sudden pause on the bridge of dreams
I don't expect much from life, but I do assume that when I shake myself up from my dreams in the morning, I will at least be returning to those dreams at night.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 8, 2004
Learning hard lessons in inferiority
The man towers over my life like Atlas holding up an entire Earth's worth of responsibility.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 24, 2004
When L's and R's go mad
Having spent much of my life perplexed by Japan, I admit to a little "payback" delight whenever I catch Japan perplexed by the West. It seems it doesn't happen so often.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 10, 2004
Bigfoot's smaller but cuter Japanese friend
Every decent country needs some weird mystery in order to ooh and awe the young and attract feeble-minded tourists.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 27, 2004
On splitting the cultural fairway
Out on the hometown golf links with an old high school chum, I soon ended up in trouble -- for our initial drives found me in ankle deep rough and him sitting pretty on a small rise in the center of the fairway. Before plunging into the weeds, I complimented my friend on his position, and he returned...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 13, 2004
The color of funny? Gotta be red
Here's the story . . .
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 28, 2004
Hitting the nail on the head
"The nail that sticks up gets hammered down!"
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 14, 2004
Hi-yo, 'silver'! Home helpers to the rescue!
Most men have but one woman in their lives, yet I am an exception. For I have oodles of women. Right here at my house.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 31, 2004
An ode on Japanese 'mikan'
John Keats once taught that beauty is truth and truth is beauty. Thus inspired, let me now present my own beautiful truth gleaned from life in Japan . . .
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 17, 2004
Me and cell phones? A really bad connection
The whole world is going to hell in a hand basket, and Japan is leading the way.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 3, 2004
A primer for Japanese holidays
If you're like me, the one thing you need at the end of a long run of holidays is . . . yet another holiday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 20, 2003
The early bird gets the proverb
A good beginning makes a good ending; that's my philosophy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 6, 2003
The high cost of children -- don't kid yourself
At lunch with an old pal, I cannot help but notice the puffy bags hanging beneath his eyes.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 22, 2003
When nice girls go bad
My wife has gone through "the change."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 15, 2003
Did Godzilla roar? Or simply growl?
Let's see . . . our world is writhing through some of its worst turmoil ever, the Japanese economy continues to stumble about like a man on uneven stilts, crime is up, jobs are down and the ozone layer has begun to resemble Swiss cheese without the cheese.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 1, 2003
Following the bouncing ball, pachinko-style
After almost a quarter of a century in this land, I generally find the cliche "inscrutable Japanese" to be undeserved. For I can "scrute" them OK.

Longform

Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free