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 29, 2008

Eco designs and the power of beans

Anand Mehta, who lives four stops out of Kamakura on the Enoden Line, quotes his hero when called to ask when we might meet: "Gandhi said, 'What can be done tomorrow can be done today. What can be done today can be done right now.' So, jump on the train."

COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES

Mar 25, 2008

Animals, wives, togs, renovation

Foreign brides Regarding the " 'gaijin' lady thinking of marriage to her Japanese guy" (March 3), LGK is surprised we didn't direct her to the Association of Foreign Wives of Japanese ( www.afwj.org ), which boasts a membership of 500.

COMMUNITY

Mar 22, 2008

Gallery brings Vietnamese art to Tokyo

Karen Thomas' Thai housekeeper is apologetic. "Karen" is down in the garage basement, unpacking a shipment. So down we go from the Bird-Thomas household on the sixth floor and find a tiny dynamic powerhouse, power tool in hand, tackling large flat wooden crates of art, flown in by Fedex from Vietnam.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Mar 15, 2008

Clinic on the bluff reaches out

Someone who knows Hans Pauli well describes him as the archetypal Dutchman who is forever running around sticking his finger in dikes to prevent catastrophe.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES

Mar 11, 2008

Tying the knot; furry fallout

Cats in Kobe Paul, his wife and children lived for some years in Kobe. They arrived shortly after the devastating earthquake of 1995, before the infrastructure had been rebuilt. Part of the fallout, he writes, was cat colonies living in the local parking lot.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Mar 8, 2008

'Midori by Moonlight' sure to raise smile

Wendy Tokunaga is a role model for writers struggling to get into print. Her debut novel, "Midori by Moonlight," is the fifth she has written, having survived "hundreds and hundreds" of rejections from agents over a 12-year period.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Mar 1, 2008

Champion starts racing season with Nissan

Benoit Treluyer was just age 4 when he obtained his first set of motorized wheels.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 23, 2008

Hope at times comes in the form of cows

Lowell Sheppard, director Asia-Pacific of the Canada-based NGO HOPE International Development Agency is on his way back to Nagoya from Shinagawa.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 16, 2008

Teaching skills pave road to self-reliance

The room is chockablock — or seems to be. Also, a baby is crying. Yet there is a center of gravity in Cesar Santoyo, a mission coordinator from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. While small meetings take place all around, he calmly sets up a promo DVD with one hand, and soothes the baby with the other.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 9, 2008

Brit proves comic relief in Japan, abroad

Wearing kimono and with flowers in her hair, Diane Kichijitsu (Diane Orrett) sallies forth onto the stage of AiMesse Hall in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, before a near 100 percent Japanese audience, and within seconds has them eating out of her hand.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES

Feb 5, 2008

Retiring Stateside

With many baby boomers in the process of retiring — and this includes many foreigners who have spent years working in Japan — the following letter from the U.S. (in response to a query from HB on shipping, printed back on Dec. 12) makes a number of points that may help those in a similar situation.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Feb 2, 2008

Celebrating black Americans in Yamanashi

American diplomat Ayanna Hobbs is a dynamo of energy and enthusiasm. She's just finished her weekly Japanese class, and thinks it the most amazing coincidence that her wonderful teacher happens to be from Yamanashi, the prefecture that lies so close to her heart.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jan 26, 2008

Racy approach to English picks up speed

"Your questions were hard," mails Darian Wilson, chief executive officer of FAQ, the day after we meet. "But I appreciate them as they caused me to rethink the meaning behind this project."

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jan 19, 2008

Canadian garden of unity and reconciliation

"Hello," wrote an old Japan buddy back on her native British Columbian soil. "I've met a woman — Rumiko Kanesaka — who's helping build a Japanese garden on Salt Spring Island where I live. Would you like to talk with her?"

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jan 12, 2008

Therapist brings healing through hypnosis

Karen Mattison is counting me down — down into a hypnotic state. It's weird. Feeling as if I could open my eyes if I chose to, but choosing (I think) not to, because for one thing it's so comfortable and reassuring, this slide down into relaxation and being.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES

Jan 1, 2008

Getting a cut, breaking a leg

Kumiko wants to know what happened to a hair salon she used to go to near Hiroo Station in Tokyo. It was right by the JR subway station, up a flight of steps.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 22, 2007

Tokyo American Club prepares to move

Michael Bumgardner is not only the general manager of Tokyo American Club; he's a "keeper of trees," as his ancestral German name Baumgartner suggests.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 15, 2007

Coming alive with gospel music

Orren Tanabe stands tall above the rest of the crowd in front of Shinjuku's ALTA sign. Having not made this a meeting place for years, the experience is proving more than a little nostalgic. Knowing the way central Tokyo changes at the tip of a hat, he leads the way to a favorite pizza dive with some trepidation: What to do and where to go if it's not there? It is.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 8, 2007

Remembering those who fell in a 'field of spears'

Greg Hadley — or professor Gregory Hadley, as he's known in academic circles — is on his way home to Niigata. He has just completed the weekend JALT conference at Tokyo's National Olympic Center.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 1, 2007

Company has visions of a brighter future

Have you heard of a sustainable plant that produces fuel as well as homeopathic medicines? Or a revolutionary process that turns garbage or plants into fuel?

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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