Alice Gordenker - The Japan Times

November 04, 2025

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Alice Gordenker

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Alice Gordenker

Alice Gordenker writes the "So, What the Heck is That?" column, providing in-depth, carefully researched explanations of the things foreigners find so puzzling about Japan. Her work has been modified as a textbook for Japanese university students called "Surprising Japan" (Shohakusha, 2012).

Japan Times

LIFE / Style & Design / LIFE LAB

Sep 27, 2005

Breathe deep, don't worry, it's only O2

As soon as I accepted the assignment I realized I had a problem. My task was to test Tokyo's latest fad, the oxygen capsule. The trouble is I'm claustrophobic. Elevators make me tense. When watching reruns of "Star Trek," I have to avert my eyes when anyone gets sealed into a stasis chamber. There was...

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

Sep 20, 2005

Japan Times

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

Aug 18, 2005

Japan Times

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

Jul 21, 2005

Japan Times

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

Jun 16, 2005

Japan Times

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

May 19, 2005

Japan Times

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

Apr 21, 2005

A pack of dog statues

Japan Times

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

Mar 17, 2005

Tails of alley cats

Japan Times

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

Feb 17, 2005

Gold objet on top of Super Dry Hall

Japan Times

LIFE / Travel

Feb 11, 2005

Brr -- diving in Atami in winter

As any scuba diver knows, when the diving itch hits, you just gotta scratch. But what if the itch strikes in midwinter when you have neither the time nor funds to fly to a tropical resort? Not to worry. Not only is it possible to dive around mainland Japan in the winter months, it can even be done on...

Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT

Jan 21, 2005

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

Dec 16, 2004

Reflections on rich learnings we all shared

When I began writing this column, I thought it would be a one-year gig. My editors thought so too. But things went well, and for nearly four years now I've reported in this space about my children's experiences in Japanese school.

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

Nov 18, 2004

The right way to teach values in school

How do you teach a child right from wrong? I certainly don't have all the answers. In our home, we're still working on why you can't hit your brother, even when he's being deliberately annoying -- as he has been all this week, answering any direct question with nonsense ("What do you want for dinner?"...

Japan Times

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

Oct 21, 2004

Disabled children at regular schools: inclusion isn't easy

When we moved to Japan and enrolled our sons in local schools, both they and I had a lot to learn. Every day was a challenge, and I was so focused on the basics that I missed a lot of things that should have been obvious. Like the fact that there was a disabled child in my son's kindergarten.

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

Sep 16, 2004

Reading-out-loud renaissance falls upon deaf ears

I'm a fan of "Doraemon," the long-running children's television show about a blue robot cat from the future, who lives with an average family on the outskirts of Tokyo. The Japanese is relatively easy to understand, and I love Doraemon's magic pocket, from which he pulls amazing tools like the dokodemo...

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

Aug 19, 2004

City kids bring diversity to countryside schools

I was a little nervous when we went to pick up my son, who was returning from an extended stay in the Japanese countryside. He's 13, an age when kids go through tremendous physical and emotional changes. There have been days when he was a different person at dinner than he was at breakfast. And when...

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

Jul 15, 2004

Japan's kindergartens could serve families better

Procreation just ain't what it used to be.

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

Jun 17, 2004

When the summer vacation is just too long

Just try to find something for foreign kids to do in Japan in the summer. There aren't many options, even if your children speak Japanese, as mine do. The most difficult period of all is the five or six weeks after international schools close down but Japanese schools are still in session.

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

May 20, 2004

Schools sounding false alarms over child safety

A few weeks ago my younger son came home from school all excited. "Mom! Guess what?" he shouted from the entranceway as he kicked off his shoes. "The ku gave us a gohan buza!" I had been hard at work on an article and was a little slow making the transition to his eclectic mix of languages. Why would...

LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE

Apr 15, 2004

When foreign children run afoul of the law

My kids generally don't mind it when I write about them in this column, although on occasion my older son has accused me of exploiting him for professional gain. It happened again when he heard the topic for today's column. "You're writing about foreign kids who get in trouble with the police?" He rolled...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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The second life of Japan's net cafes

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