The $50 Melon
The other day my wife gave me a treat for dessert: a delicious slice of honeydew melon. It wasn't just ...
The other day my wife gave me a treat for dessert: a delicious slice of honeydew melon. It wasn't just ...
One interesting way to compare Japan's more structured society with the U.S. and Europe is to look at the standardized ...
Japan's history is unique in many ways, for example its decision to close itself off to outside nations for 235 ...
I remember when I first learned the Japanese word for "name" -- which is namae, nah-mah-eh -- I noticed the ...
During my time here I've learned a lot about the Japanese. For example, they can be very "boom"-oriented, happy to ...
My mother is visiting from the U.S. right now, having come to spend some quality time with the kids in ...
I wrote recently about how the Japanese often find new and inventive abbreviations for words using the English alphabet, such ...
Yesterday was my daughter's graduation ceremony from elementary school, and my wife and I watched proudly as our little girl ...
Japan seems to have an especially tragic relationship with fire. The combination of older homes built close together, the common ...
You may know that if you want to to express "you're welcome" in Japanese you can say "don't touch my ...
Over the weekend I went with my son to get him a new keitai, or cell phone. Portable phones are ...
One of the skills you need to acquire when you come to live in Japan is the ability to deal ...
Around the world newspapers are having a rough time as circulation continues to drop, thanks in part to the changes ...
I remember reading through old Saint Seiya manga back in college, wondering why they always write the blood type of ...
"Where is your domicile?" This was what a Japanese man I ran into at a party asked me, by way ...
Rice is the staple food of Japan, eaten two or three times a day by most people, and it's so ...
The economy here in Japan has certainly been better, and it seems that every day brings more news of production ...
Because my son goes to a special immersion school in which the curriculum follows the guidelines set down by the ...
Ask any gaijin living in Japan about dentists here and you'll probably hear a lot of complaints. I recently changed ...
I was in Tokyo over the weekend, waiting for a friend at the most famous meeting place in Japan, the ...
Although Japanese foods like sushi, sashimi and sukiyaki are famous all over the world, the Japanese have an incredibly varied ...
I've written before about the "joy of enlightenment," the mysterious thrill your brain gets when it solves a puzzle or ...
It can be easy to get the wrong idea about other countries, and it's not uncommon for people to carry ...
Onsen (pronounced OWN-sen) are the volcanically heated baths that are so popular in Japan, and some hot springs like Arima ...