Angela Jeffs - The Japan Times

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Angela Jeffs

After 26 years in Japan, Angela is currently test driving the Scottish winter. Describing herself as a “people person,” she wrote weekly profiles and features for The Japan Times between 1987 and 2011. For writings since 3/11/2011, see www.embrace-transition.com/. Her first book, "Chasing Shooting Stars – A South American Paper Trail into the Past," was published in paperback in January 2013.

For Angela Jeffs's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Mar 16, 2002

Researching business ops for African-Americans

They are packed and at the ready at the Westin Hotel in Tokyo's Yebisu Garden Place. Ready to return home to America. Ready to give me the remaining few minutes of their precious time before boarding the bus for the airport. Talk about a rush.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Mar 9, 2002

Finding stories behind the headlines for translation

As the founding managing editors of Kotan Publishing, Gavin Allwright and Atsushi Kanamaru are a match made in the heaven and hell of small independent book making. Certainly they could not be more physically different, one so tall, well-meaning and -- dare I say -- well padded; the other small, neat...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Mar 2, 2002

Diplomat-poet shares center stage with Parker 51

If the Indian ambassador to Japan, Aftab Seth, ever loses his pen, the world may come to an end. His world, that is.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 23, 2002

Beauty and brains behind company clear as glass

Company President Narumi Tanaka is alone Monday morning, holding the fort in her office in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward. Her staff -- three full-timers, one part-timer and her husband -- are out and about on what she calls "the client site." A good thing, we agree, because it means TRANSe Project is at full...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 16, 2002

Towels, tea & sympathy under CLAIR umbrella

I have arranged to meet Shingo Ishida, a program coordinator in the Guidance and Counseling Division of the JET Program Management Department in the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations. (Gulp, what a mouthful!) But after colleague Nicola Chilton -- working in a similar capacity under...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 9, 2002

Chef's Table event to aid street children projects

Karen Lewis is wary of placing herself in the spotlight. She is part of a team -- a committee -- so finds it embarrassing to be singled out. There again, she recognizes that publicity is good for the cause she serves: protecting and caring for street children in seven facilities in the Philippines, Vietnam,...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 2, 2002

How Lon Chaney led to lifetime of Japanese film

I'm rarely nervous these days. But the prospect of sitting down with author, academic, film scholar and art critic Donald Richie has me ever so slightly on edge. Movies like Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon," seen as a student in England, were profound in effect. Forty years on and here I am with the man reputed...

COMMUNITY

Jan 26, 2002

Still passing on her father's ideals of democracy

Yukika Soma can't see very well these days. Her eyesight is fine, she says; it's just she has trouble controlling her eyelids. She still comes into her Nagata-cho office three or four days a week at the Ozaki Yukio Memorial Foundation, named after her father, but nowadays a young assistant escorts her...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jan 19, 2002

By changing our thinking we can change the world

I make no apology for introducing Azzah a second time around, even though I made a ideological promise 15 years ago never to repeat an interview. As someone who has benefited enormously from her help (i.e. loosened up, become more flexible), I believe everyone should have the chance to experience her...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jan 12, 2002

Tabibito Travel: flexible, friendly, frugal and fun

I first meet Matthew Cox for coffee in the summer of 2000. He wants to talk about writing, get feedback on a couple of articles, and doesn't yet get the lesson to be learned from American compatriot Raymond Carver.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jan 6, 2002

Dewi Sukarno: 'Miss Ambition' who's done it her way

Ratna Sari Dewi Sukarno has become a well-known Japanese media figure in recent years and has just raised some $90,000 for victims of terrorist attacks in the United States.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jan 5, 2002

13 another lucky number for 'surimono' albums

David Bull is as insistent as he is stubborn. No sooner has he sat me down beside his workbench (the only warm room in the house), with younger daughter Fumi (16) creating a Web page on the computer on top of the "kotatsu," then he is demanding how much I know about "hanga" (woodblock prints).

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 29, 2001

'Earthquake Bird' celebrates with Japan edition

Susanna Jones has had one terrific year. Her first novel, "The Earthquake Bird," was unanimously applauded by the British press when launched in May. Since then it has been snapped up for translation rights in 11 countries, including the U.S. and Japan. Plus an option has been taken up to make it into...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 22, 2001

Book by 'Japagaijin' gives abused women shelter

Right now, Diane Brown is shoveling snow. She lives 10 km from the center of Sapporo, where she finds it both amusing and annoying that so much of the drudgery of local life has been officially labeled women's work. "The shovel I use is called a 'Mamadump' because it's mums who mostly clear the white...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 15, 2001

Interculturalist has jolly Xmas message for Japan

With a name suggestive of seasonal good cheer, EDI's Gordon Jolley is also the perfect gent, with fresh flowers in his buttonhole, choosing salad ahead of steak for lunch, and picking up the bill afterward. There is also much well-practiced humor: "Executive Development International is a virtual company....

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 8, 2001

East meeting with West carves history into wood

Reiko Yamanouchi remembers clearly how wood engraving entered her life. "Soon after joining my husband in Cambridge in 1968 -- he was a research student at the university -- I was given a book to help me get a feeling for the city, a memoir by Gwen Raverat, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 1, 2001

Talk to TELL if you get into any kind of trouble

If the time is between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., there is a Tokyo English Life Line volunteer counselor sitting alone at a secret address somewhere in Tokyo, waiting for the phone to ring. This counselor may be male or female, young or elderly, Japanese or non-Japanese. But he or she will...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Nov 24, 2001

Macchinesti: the accidental Ferrari of coffee shops

After the Japanese "kissaten," where coffee was coffee and not a lot more, came Doutor. Then came that all-conquering import, Starbucks, and a stream of similar lifestyle-focused camp followers of both American and Japanese descent. Now, suddenly, we have Macchinesti.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Nov 17, 2001

Handmade felt old hat? No, it's back in fashion

Boundary-pushing bags, brooches and necklaces. Wild hats and mufflers. Cosmological carpets and hangings. All-embracing jackets and coats. Every design unique, crafted from hand-felted wool and the most unexpected fibers.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Nov 10, 2001

Welsh Society to sing its heart out for seeing dogs

Think Welsh and imagine small, dark, tough people with a passion for rugby and choral singing, the red dragon of the national flag, sunny daffodils (the national flower) and the green valleys of southern Wales. Yet here is Ursula Bartlett Imadegawa (known to friends as Ursula Bi) -- a blonde with green...

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

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.

How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi

Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi

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