Tag: vending machines

It's interesting to look at first impressions of a new country. When I came to Japan in 1991, I was ...

One Twitter user asked me, "Is it true that coming from Japan to America feels like traveling 20 years back ...

One thing that's good about living in a foreign country is the way you come to understand the people around ...

One thing I like about learning a foreign language is the insight I gain into my own brain. For example, ...

Yesterday I went to take a photo at an automated machine, which I needed for some documentation I had to ...

Yesterday was an important day for me -- the 20th anniversary of my arrival in Japan! It was a cloudy ...

Hello again, this time from...the Pacific Northwest. I've driven with two friends up to Snoqualmie, Washington, to attend the Twin ...

The Summer of 2011 has begun in ernest, and it's definitely going to be a dicey one for Japan. The ...

Japan is a unique place, and the economic forces that cause this kind of business or that to spring up ...

One unexpected aspect of expat life in Japan is making friends with gaijin -- the word the Japanese use for ...

One thing about Japan: they love vending machines. There are more of them here than any other country on Earth ...

I recently wrote about things that gaijin focus on when they visit Japan, like wacky vending machines or maid cafes ...

When foreigners visit Japan, they naturally focus on certain areas that stand out to them as unique, like maid cafes ...

On the weekends I like to go on trips with my family, most often to an onsen (volcanic hot springs) ...

I write a lot about how learning a foreign language like Japanese helps you understand how your own brain works. ...

Amazingly, I am actually headed back to Japan after three months spent in San Diego doing various important family and ...

I've lived in Japan nearly two decades and have seen some things that really confused me over the years. Like ...

If kimchee embodies the soul of Korea, then green tea serves the same role here. Green tea has been a ...

The tradition of retail establishments offering excellent service to customers is one of my favorite aspects of Japan, and if ...

Coming to Japan meant adjusting to many new things, from vending machines that accept the equivalent of $100 bills then ...

McDonald's Japan is currently running a bizarre promotion using a caricature of an American named Mr. James, who hails from ...

A friend from Italy came to our prefecture for a visit, so I took him to one of my favorite ...

Because my son goes to a special immersion school in which the curriculum follows the guidelines set down by the ...

I've managed to catch the cold that's been going around the J-List office, so I've got one of those Japanese ...