Thomas Dillon - The Japan Times

May 05, 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

Jul 5, 2000

Mind reading, or am I just predictable?

It is often said that long-time married couples grow so close they can actually read each other's minds, but either that's hooey or my wife and I are out of synch, ESP-wise.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Jun 21, 2000

The dying truth

In our marriage, my Japanese wife and I have met and resolved oodles of cultural issues, but one fairly thorny matter remains . . . how to face that ultimate marital crisis: death.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Jun 7, 2000

Fathers just wanna be loved

The pressure builds. Feel it? I sure do. An annual tension that visits late each June and -- for a day at least -- smothers me with stress. The day? Why, the most anxious moment of the year -- Father's Day. What else?

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

May 31, 2000

Attention: Sitting next to foreigners is forbidden

"Do I smell?"

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

May 17, 2000

Multi-gap family falls into valley of stress

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

May 3, 2000

Ya'gotta accentuate the positive

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus -- but my wife is from Kagoshima.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Apr 19, 2000

Family life full of give and take

After 20 years of wedlock, my Japanese wife and I usually see things eyeball-to-eyeball, especially when staring at each other. Yet, there is one case where we match up like sushi and whipped cream.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Apr 5, 2000

Howai notto aborisshu katakana?

According to a survey from late last year, over 80 percent of the Japanese population has some difficulty reading katakana, the syllabary specially used for foreign terms.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives

Mar 29, 2000

Slow down, you move too fast

While dashing through the headlines the other day, I came across a story about a researcher in Scotland who has discovered yet another ailment of modern man: Hurry Sickness.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives

Mar 15, 2000

Living the easy, or at least convenient, life

"Life ain't easy for a foreigner in Japan."

COMMUNITY / Our Lives

Mar 1, 2000

Conversation: enough said

I heard once that the average male speaks 2,000 words a day, while the average female speaks 7,000.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives

Feb 16, 2000

When intercultural humor is no joke

Upon asking a group of Japanese young people, "What's the best way to impress a date?" I once received the following answers:

COMMUNITY / Our Lives

Feb 2, 2000

Valentine's in Japan, oh how sweet it is

Here's a fun fact to sweeten your life: The average Japanese consumes about 1.1 kg of chocolate per year.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives

Jan 19, 2000

Um, you know, like, how to be fluent in Japanese

Lots of people think one sure way to improve your Nihongo skills is to marry a Japanese. They hold this view even knowing a good textbook is cheaper and takes up less space. In my case, however, not only did I marry a Japanese, I married one licensed to teach her native tongue.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives

Jan 5, 2000

My surname, my friend, is blowing in the wind

My Japanese wife was born blessed -- or cursed -- with the kind of meat-and-potatoes name one usually assumes is an alias. In English a comparable moniker might be "Mary Brown" or "Susan Smith."

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Dec 1, 1999

With time, players learn the house rules

When in Rome, do as the Romans do . . . Jaywalk. Anyway that's what I did on my sole trip to the Eternal City some years back, cautiously following snappy Italian shoes here and there across the Via del Corso and elsewhere.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Nov 17, 1999

Hemingway's dead; long live the future

Hemingway once said that good writing begins with the simple production of but one true sentence. OK. Here's something that's true. Hemingway is dead.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Nov 3, 1999

Photographic record of a trail-breaking career

I sometimes eat lunch with a close friend who has but one child, a toddler aged 2. He likes to show me photographs.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Oct 20, 1999

Ghosts and goblins and kids, oh my!

Just after the ghosts and goblins of Halloween disappear, we will enter yet another spooky holiday: Nov. 3 -- Culture Day.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Oct 6, 1999

The years of our lives spent in meetings

It's true that things have changed. In America, for example, we used to say any child could one day grow up to be president. Yet, Bill Clinton has now proved growing up isn't really necessary.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.

The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces

By Stephen Mansfield

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Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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