Jean Pearce - The Japan Times

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Aug 4, 1999

A woman asks about cats. She would like to do something to help them. She doesn't tell us what kind of help she would like to provide, but it is a reasonably safe assumption to think she wants to help homeless cats, the ones that gather in any neighborhood where residents will give them food. Mine is especially popular. We have many cat lovers and the wild, scraggly strays eventually are transformed into clean, well-kept cats that can be counted on to produce the next generation of kittens without a home of their own, dependent upon charity.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jul 25, 1999

Lasting tastes

A friend has sent me a clipping from her home-town paper. It is about a new telephone service staffed exclusively by women, a point they wanted to emphasize in the name they selected. It is called Miss Information. That is not what you get from Tokyo's information service, which is also provided by women. I have probably printed their number more often than any other: (03) 5320-7744. Their name was selected to describe their work: Foreign Residents' Advisory Center. Not so long ago the office published a six-language book that provides answers to the most frequently asked questions called "Q&A, A Guide to Your Life in Japan." The languages are Japanese, English, French, Chinese, Korean and Spanish. It is a handy reference book for anyone but especially for those dealing with international personnel. You will find it at most bookstores carrying English language books. (Published by Gyosei, ISBN4-324-05360-X C0036, 3,360 yen)

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jul 18, 1999

Working with the system

A reader hopes to benefit from today's recession. She has heard that because so many companies have gone bankrupt, it is easy to buy good secondhand office furniture. But where? she asks.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jul 14, 1999

Substitutes

A woman tells us she is a vegetarian in the real sense -- no meat, fish or animal byproducts, even gelatin. In England she could buy dried mixes that could be reconstituted by adding water and then used to make sausages (Sosmix) and burgers (Veggie Burger Mix). She wonders if there are any similar products here, preferably available by mail order.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jul 4, 1999

Happy holiday

The U.S. celebration of independence does not always fall on a column day and even when it does, I rarely write about it. There are some 153 diplomatic missions represented in Tokyo and they all have national days that could be noted. But then, once in a while I do. Once I wrote how Japan had honored the United States with a Fourth of July parade. This was when Japan's idealistic youth was regularly snaking through the streets in noisy demonstrations that foreigners were warned to stay away from. (Once one of the demonstrators broke away from the group and confronted me. I was a bit concerned until he bowed and asked if I could help him learn English.) I wrote in that column how they were dressed as the volunteer army during the American Revolutionary War, with red and white bandages wrapped around their heads to typify the wounds of soldiers after a battle -- demonstrators in those days covered their faces with bandanas. They apparently couldn't find fifers and drummers to lead them, I continued, but instead provided marching music and patriotic rhetoric from speaker trucks. And so on. It was meant to be facetious. I was surprised at the number of letters I received informing me that what I had seen was not an Independence Day parade but was instead an indigenous demonstration.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jun 23, 1999

A great connection

Perhaps your readers will be interested, he wrote.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jun 9, 1999

High praise

A woman writes that last year she saw several subway advertisements for Hunter-Douglas window blinds and asks if I can find the company's phone number. She complains that local services are extremely expensive and leave a lot to be desired. Recently, for example, she contracted for similar work but as soon as the prepayment was in the bank, the workers disappeared. She feels the current economic slump has seriously affected simple business transactions and trust. Now she says she can't depend on anyone.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jun 2, 1999

Found and lost

In looking through my file for information I needed for today's column, I was diverted by notes from readers that amused me, or might someday be useful. Here are a few of them:

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 27, 1999

High adventure

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about the history and geography of the South Pole area, with the plane descending from 10,000 meters to about 600 meters to provide spectacular views. A special for New Year's Eve will be an on-board jazz band. You won't miss a thing because it will be daylight all night long.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 23, 1999

Whoever knows

A few columns ago I wrote about pen pals. A Japanese woman who had spent many years in the United States found readjustment to Japan difficult. She discovered she had little in common with her former Japanese friends; to them, she was a foreigner. Her American friends wanted to communicate by e-mail but she wasn't ready for even the first step into computerization. I suggested that she shouldn't resist the wonderful world of computers and should explore new horizons, and that the pen-pal concept has become outdated by new technology. I reported that some people misuse pen-pal organizations and prey upon the loneliness of those who choose to write letters to strangers, and that it might be better to find ways of making friends through social or volunteer organizations.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 19, 1999

Once more, Chiang Mai

I had a mission in Chiang Mai. Many years ago I bought a reclining black lacquer Burmese Buddha there. It had been gilded but much of the gold had been worn off, probably by the hands of the faithful seeking some special blessing. It has a remarkable face. It changes expression as the viewer moves even as little as a few inches, with the body, too, appearing to readjust its position.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 16, 1999

So long ago

A woman writes of a quest, not hers but a friend's. This friend is looking for a man she knew many years ago. He was born in Hokkaido in 1913. He was a Christian and was active with the Young Men's Christian Association. He traveled widely in foreign countries in connection with that work.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 13, 1999

Here and there

Some time ago I wrote about visiting Boeing's Everett factory near Seattle. Now a reader, planning to make his first trip to Seattle, wants to see where the plane he will be flying on was made and asks how he can see the factory.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 2, 1999

A remarkable lady

There should be trumpets. On May 8 at 10 a.m., Music for Youth will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The program with the New Japan Philharmonic will repeat MFY's first concert in 1939, which was designed to help young people enjoy and appreciate classical music. In this program, Schubert's "March Militaire" is used to introduce through demonstrations the "musical families" that make up an orchestra. Organizer of the memorial concert is the founder of MFY, Eloise Cunningham.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 25, 1999

Getting around

Last week, when I wrote a few paragraphs about the new Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I thought, How inadequate! There is so much more, and so brief a mention cannot begin to give even the concept of so huge a complex. Perhaps all I can do is make you want to go, and perhaps that is enough. Fortunately, more information is available, not only on the entire Getty Center but on greater L.A. as well.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 18, 1999

Travel report

Never before have I returned to Japan after an overseas trip at the end of the cherry blossoms. Don't do it! The season is best when it is being anticipated. When I left, there was just the hint of a pink haze around the trees, the first indication that the blossoms were readying their show. That is a poetic time, anticipation of what is to come with no hint yet of possible disappointments -- bad weather, or perhaps not receiving an invitation to your favorite viewing party. Then suddenly they arrive, and there is one perfect day for enjoying their splendor. If you miss it, forget it. Almost at once, green leaves appear, diluting the pink-cloud headiness of a tree in full blossom. Usually nature takes a hand, ending the performance with the inevitable strong winds and heavy rains, and we are into spring, and azaleas. It was depressing to return to leaves coming out while the blossoms were still hanging on, not yet ready to leave the stage even though the show was over.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 14, 1999

It's the little things

Cultural contrasts! Everywhere there are traps. I was late when I left home yesterday so I quickly kicked off my slippers as I ran out the door. Later, I returned with a Japanese friend. She laughed when she saw my slippers. "We would never do that!" she said. Do what? I asked. Of course. I should have arranged them neatly before leaving. Everything else in my apartment was in perfect order but my slippers marked me irrevocably as a gaijin.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 11, 1999

Along the way

When we think about takeout lunches in Japan, we must go back a long way. Surely you have seen in museums the beautiful lacquer lunch boxes the nobility used when they went to the countryside on excursions. These picnics were quite elegant occasions with poetry writing and incense ceremonies. But long before that, probably before the 800s, there were special foods for travelers. Those who feel we are quite advanced today because of the development of instant foods should be aware of "hoshi-ii," an early instant rice. It was dried and, like today, reconstituted by adding water.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 7, 1999

Turnabout

Life is full of surprises. Did you know that anyone can open an English language school in Japan? While most are started by people with some experience in teaching, there are no such requirements. No one will come to inspect your school to see how and what you are teaching. This will be bad news for a gentleman who wants to enroll in a good school, a sensible requirement for a language student, and wonders how he can check a school's credentials. He hopes there is an official organization that rates them and perhaps a publication listing these ratings. He will be disappointed. It appears that there are no standards, no investigative agency, no requirements for a license and, consequently, no general list of approved language schools compiled by these nonexistent organizations.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 4, 1999

Many paths to follow

There are lots of ways to have fun, some centering on the Yamanote, Tokyo's more-or-less circular commuter line. Few remember that not so long ago it was known as the Yamate Line and there was great consternation when the name was changed. From the beginning, people tended to speak of inside and outside the Yamanote. Inside, you were in the sophisticated city, outside you were in the rice fields (now called "bed towns"). It was intimated that you didn't matter quite as much if you were literally on the other side of the tracks. Still, it remains a convenient way of designating which side of the station you have chosen as a meeting place.

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