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December 22, 2024
 

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Thomas Dillon
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 15, 2001
Eyeballing a personal language coach
Upon first meeting my wife-to-be, my entire future flashed before me. Already I could foresee this girl as my life partner, the mother of my children and the person I would wrestle with for legroom in the kotatsu.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 21, 2001
Confessions of an outsize fashion cretin
If it is true that clothes make the man, then I confess to being poorly constructed.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 7, 2001
It ain't easy being green: Irish or just full of blarney?
Each time I grin into the mirror to find a hunk of seaweed wrapped around my teeth, I am reminded of my family background.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 21, 2001
The other little woman
"Tom-san," she called.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 7, 2001
She can't find her way, but she found me
My wife looks normal, both at a distance and up close -- though, like with most people, if you draw too close, all you can see is a blur.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 17, 2001
Prospective grooms: get your head X-rayed
I know several people who claim they should have had their head X-rayed before ever stumbling into an international marriage. It's a statement I can never make.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 3, 2001
Kicking up a stink about smelling as natural as a skunk
While beauty traditionally belongs to the beholder's eye, correct hygiene might be better ascribed to his or her nose.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 20, 2000
Jingle bills and other ghosts of Christmas past and present
There is a hereditary disease that stalks each member of my family. Even now I can feel it ticking maliciously through my bones, fully aware there is nothing I can do to stop it. Sooner or later it is going to strike.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 6, 2000
Expats all losers, choosers or abusers?
Wetting my whistle on a humid afternoon inside a Tokyo establishment for the soberly impaired, I listened to the following affirmation by a foreign longtime friend.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 29, 2000
Caring more and judging less: fighting AIDS with compassion
"What you need is a hooker!"
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 15, 2000
Developing a finer sense of pace: the evolution of a party animal
When I was younger, I used to be a party animal.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 1, 2000
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has changed most of all?
When I look in the mirror each morning, I pretty much see what I expect . . .
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 18, 2000
Rootless, wandering nomads on the shifting sands of time
Of all the things I have given my children (bicycles, braces and bald chromosomes) and of all the things I would like to give them (resilience, compassion and an early introduction to Rogaine) nothing seems farther beyond my meager means than the one gift I care to bestow the most:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 4, 2000
We must interrupt our bowling for a thrilling Olympic moment
Equality of the sexes I generally accept as a fundamental truth -- as certain as sunrise in the east, the rhythm of the tides and bubbles in the o-furo.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 20, 2000
Waiting and hoping in vain for the end of a Giant headache
When in love, one learns to put up with your partner's flaws, no matter how distasteful.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 6, 2000
Love's more than just the money, honey
Back in the halcyon days of my young adulthood, when I used to sigh feverishly into my fiancee's walnut eyes, you can rest assured I spied romance, hope and her contact lenses, but never -- never! -- a pair of yen stickers.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 30, 2000
Proposal primer: winning over the in-laws
I never truly asked for my wife's hand in marriage, primarily because I was interested more in the whole than individual parts.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 16, 2000
Taking a seat in the no-joking section
Smoke, as they say, gets in your eyes. Not to mention your clothes, hair, nose, lungs, taste buds, teeth, gums and (if you are a smoker) your pocketbook.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 2, 2000
'Grampa' walks among us
In most head counts my international family totals five: my wife and two sons, plus my mother-in-law and then yours truly. This reckoning, however, fails to include my father-in-law, who at times will visit for days on end.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 19, 2000
Honeymoon journey a sore memory
Summer glows with sunshine, and so do my memories.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Ride-hailing restrictions to be eased during 2025 Osaka Expo
A venue for the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka
Foxconn's interest in Nissan said to be on hold amid Honda merger talks
Foxconn’s pause in its pursuit of Nissan is the latest development in the unexpected emergence of two suitors for the ailing Japanese carmaker.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.
With rare Asia carrier deployment, France seeks greater interoperability
The flight deck of the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier during a stop at Changi Naval Base in Singapore in May 2019

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
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