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May 14, 2024
 

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JAPAN LITE

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 5, 2000
Diagnosis is key to curing the English patient
My English writing students always say they want me to correct them. But, I've decided to stop giving out correct answers. Instead, I'm going to give out prescriptions. The ESL doctor is IN.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 29, 2000
No shortage of fruits and vegetables at university
The first thing I do when I have a new class of university students is separate them into fruits and vegetables. This is because when you stand up at the podium and look out at a hundred students with black hair and black eyes, it's like addressing a crowd of straight pins with black heads. It's practically impossible to remember all my students' names unless I divide them into fruits and vegetables.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 22, 2000
All you ever wanted to know about voodoo
Gaston Jean-Baptiste, known as "Bonga," is a voodoo priest and a conga player. Bonga has been touring Japan giving workshops on Haitian music and teaching the traditions of Haiti. Luckily, one of the stops on his tour was my living room. A small, amiable man with dreadlocks, Bonga spoke from his "zabuton": "Ask me anything."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 15, 2000
Roll out the mauve carpet and put the sake on ice
When I heard that the ambassador of Haiti and a voodoo priest would be visiting my house, I rushed around in a flurry to get things ready. After all, how often do you have an ambassador and a voodoo priest in your house at the same time?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 8, 2000
Plenty to get antsy about at your local bank
Today we will examine something I refer to as Anthill Economics. The other day when I entered the local anthill, i.e., the bank, the usual staff of 33 employees greeted me. The most customers I've ever seen inside the bank is 10, but that's not the point. The anthill employs as many ants as possible and they are all busy working very hard. What they're actually doing is not so obvious to the casual observer though, even with a magnifying glass.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 1, 2000
The art of losing isn't that hard to master
Once foreigners move to Japan, they take on a new image -- that of international traveler. Friends back home start describing you as "worldly," and suddenly you are an authority on all things global.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 24, 2000
Wild and woolly times skiing in New Zealand
I recently made a visit to New Zealand. I know what you're thinking -- SHEEP! Yes, there were lots of sheep. However, their numbers have dwindled recently due to the increase of synthetics instead of wool for clothing manufacturing. I'm not sure where synthetic fibers come from. My guess is lemmings.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 17, 2000
Never enough thanks for living in Japan
Santi, a reader in the United States, will be moving to Japan soon. He wants to know how to prepare for living in Japan. Here are some of my suggestions for anyone who wants to acclimate quickly to life in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 3, 2000
Following in the footsteps of Lafcadio Hearn
"What's it like living in Japan?" my friends back home often ask me. It's a hard question to answer. So instead, I'll describe what I did today, a typical day in Japan for me.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 27, 2000
Visitors from the dark side of the Inland Sea
I'm dead. Not only that, but my spirit is now floating around the Seto Inland Sea. But before I explain to you how I died, I have to explain about Obon.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 20, 2000
Don't let bad bicycle days run you down
Bad Bicycle Days. Everyone has them. From the old fish peddler on the decrepit bicycle carrying a crate of fish on the back to the young Japanese princess on her trendy new collapsible bicycle, some days it seems they're all out to run you down.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 13, 2000
Seven key ways to enjoy the rest of your days
I've finally figured out why Japanese people don't take more vacations -- they don't want to. Work is comfortable and safe for them. Vacations offer too much adventure. Japanese people try to avoid using the "f" word: Fun.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 6, 2000
Breaking down the Japanese inferiority myth
Do Japanese people have an inferiority complex? Japanese people often tell me they feel inferior to foreigners. You've probably heard Japanese people say some of following yourself:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 30, 2000
A cell phone lets you say 'hello kitty' anytime
My suspicions have been confirmed: Cats need cell phones. If you think cats aren't smart enough to have cell phones, think again. Intelligence has never been a requirement for using a cell phone.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 23, 2000
Baffling Japanese mysteries solved at last
There are many myths about Japan. Let's look at some of them and see whether they're true or false.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 16, 2000
Over the rainbow beckons home sweet home
If a foreigner stays in Japan more than five years, Japanese people start asking, "When are you going home?" This is because Japanese people can't imagine being away from their home country for so long. Sometimes Japanese people ask me, "Don't your parents miss you?" There is a feeling too that by staying in Japan so long, I have somehow abandoned my parents.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 9, 2000
'Alien 5' now playing in your local neighborhood
A band of junior high-school students showed up at my door the other morning. "Can we interview you?" they asked.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 2, 2000
Way too much jello has been going to waist
My husband is in to soft-porn: the Victoria's Secret catalog. Whenever a new catalog comes in the mail, he's got it ripped open before I even get a glance at the latest cheetah-print lingerie Naomi Campbell is modeling. Victoria's Secret is most famous for their lingerie, but they also sell an array of fashionable clothes, swimwear and shoes -- all of it fairly sexy. Laetitia Casta, who was recently named the most beautiful woman in France, is one of the many top models at Victoria's Secret.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 25, 2000
The do's and don'ts of business card etiquette
Please don't tell Mr. Watanabe that his business card is now in a million pieces strewn among the bras and underwear in my washing machine. This is just the latest faux pas in my history of malicious treatment of business cards.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 18, 2000
Three weeks is a lifetime for pet crickets
Welcome to Japan's rainy season, also known as the Insect Season. Although I live in an old Japanese house with generations of insects going back as far as the Heian Period, I also live with the comfort of knowing I'll never starve to death. "Getemono," the Japanese word for "gross things to eat," includes insects, cocoons, lizards, snakes, frogs, pigeons, etc. Not only will I never starve in my house, I surely have enough insects to open a getemonoya restaurant.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
Three men rearrested over brokering of overseas prostitution
A woman speaks of her experience of being sent to Macau by an overseas prostitution broker during an interview in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on April 8.
Ex-METI bureaucrat given 10-year sentence for drugging and raping women
The Tokyo District Court on Monday sentenced a former industry ministry bureaucrat to 10 years in prison for drugging six women with sleeping pills and then raping or groping them in 2022.
Money stolen via online transfers up fivefold in Tokyo
Special fraud cases in Tokyo in which stolen money was sent via online banking services grew some fivefold from the previous year in 2023.
How the discovery of a giant sword in Nara offers clues into ancient Japan
Archaeologists say a 1,600-year-old wooden coffin at the Tomio Maruyama tumulus in the city of Nara was kept in good condition probably because it was protected by a layer of clay and copper ions that had seeped out of the mirrors that were buried together.
In a rare event, the Northern Lights show up in Hokkaido
The Northern Lights in Nayoro, Hokkaido, on Saturday
Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers?
George Guttridge-Smith brews tea at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where he serves as head of international development.
Japan's logistics firms seek partnerships to cope with driver shortage
Japan Post CEO Tetsuya Senda (right) and his Seino Transportation counterpart Satoshi Takahashi announce their companies' agreement on joint long-haul truck operations, in Tokyo on Thursday.
How the discovery of a giant sword in Nara offers clues into ancient Japan
Archaeologists say a 1,600-year-old wooden coffin at the Tomio Maruyama tumulus in the city of Nara was kept in good condition probably because it was protected by a layer of clay and copper ions that had seeped out of the mirrors that were buried together.
Unlike 10 years ago, Japan's new security bill sparks little debate
The Lower House starts discussing a security clearance bill on April 19 in Tokyo.

Podcast

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

Longform

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

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