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May 19, 2024
 

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Thomas Dillon
For Thomas Dillon's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 15, 2001
Eyeballing a personal language coach
Upon first meeting my wife-to-be, my entire future flashed before me. Already I could foresee this girl as my life partner, the mother of my children and the person I would wrestle with for legroom in the kotatsu.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 21, 2001
Confessions of an outsize fashion cretin
If it is true that clothes make the man, then I confess to being poorly constructed.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 7, 2001
It ain't easy being green: Irish or just full of blarney?
Each time I grin into the mirror to find a hunk of seaweed wrapped around my teeth, I am reminded of my family background.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 21, 2001
The other little woman
"Tom-san," she called.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 7, 2001
She can't find her way, but she found me
My wife looks normal, both at a distance and up close -- though, like with most people, if you draw too close, all you can see is a blur.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 17, 2001
Prospective grooms: get your head X-rayed
I know several people who claim they should have had their head X-rayed before ever stumbling into an international marriage. It's a statement I can never make.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 3, 2001
Kicking up a stink about smelling as natural as a skunk
While beauty traditionally belongs to the beholder's eye, correct hygiene might be better ascribed to his or her nose.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 20, 2000
Jingle bills and other ghosts of Christmas past and present
There is a hereditary disease that stalks each member of my family. Even now I can feel it ticking maliciously through my bones, fully aware there is nothing I can do to stop it. Sooner or later it is going to strike.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 6, 2000
Expats all losers, choosers or abusers?
Wetting my whistle on a humid afternoon inside a Tokyo establishment for the soberly impaired, I listened to the following affirmation by a foreign longtime friend.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 29, 2000
Caring more and judging less: fighting AIDS with compassion
"What you need is a hooker!"
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 15, 2000
Developing a finer sense of pace: the evolution of a party animal
When I was younger, I used to be a party animal.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 1, 2000
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has changed most of all?
When I look in the mirror each morning, I pretty much see what I expect . . .
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 18, 2000
Rootless, wandering nomads on the shifting sands of time
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 I care to bestow the most:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 4, 2000
We must interrupt our bowling for a thrilling Olympic moment
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.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 20, 2000
Waiting and hoping in vain for the end of a Giant headache
When in love, one learns to put up with your partner's flaws, no matter how distasteful.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 6, 2000
Love's more than just the money, honey
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.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 30, 2000
Proposal primer: winning over the in-laws
I never truly asked for my wife's hand in marriage, primarily because I was interested more in the whole than individual parts.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 16, 2000
Taking a seat in the no-joking section
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.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 2, 2000
'Grampa' walks among us
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.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 19, 2000
Honeymoon journey a sore memory
Summer glows with sunshine, and so do my memories.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
America wasn’t made for walking, and it’s killing them
A 2010 study found that U.S. adults averaged 5,117 steps daily and that this was lower than the averages found in similar studies in Switzerland, western Australia and Japan.
U.S. envoy to Japan makes landmark visit to front-line island near Taiwan
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel meets with members of the Self-Defense Forces stationed on Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday.
Japan passes bill to introduce 'blue ticket' fines for cyclists
A new system under which bicycle riders pay fines for minor traffic violations to escape criminal punishment is expected to be introduced in Japan no later than 2026.
Japan changes law to allow joint custody after divorce
Legislation that allows the option of joint custody of children after divorce is passed at the Upper House plenary session on Friday.
Can AI-generated inventions be patented? A Tokyo court says no.
The Tokyo court's ruling comes amid ongoing debates on how to regulate generative AI and is part of a transnational class action lawsuit.
A new initiative rethinks old Tohoku crafts
The colored patterns of Tsuguru "nuri," made in Aomori Prefecture, are achieved by applying multiple coatings of lacquer, which are later polished down to reveal layers of colors beneath.
Xi and Putin mark ‘new era’ amid efforts to counter U.S. ‘containment’
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend an event in Beijing on Thursday. During Putin's visit, the leaders showed off their growing alignment amid efforts to push back against the U.S.-led world order.
Unraveling the Japanese prose of Yukio Mishima
Author Yukio Mishima accepts the Arts Festival Award in the drama category at the 20th Arts Festival Award Ceremony on Jan. 22, 1966.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.

Podcast

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Longform

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By Mai Yoshikawa

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