Thomas Dillon - The Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Feb 4, 2006

Another strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

I have within me, I confess, a split personality -- like sheared halves of a single beating heart.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Jan 21, 2006

My dog -- the Buddhist

When it comes to matters of religion, I tend to equivocate.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Jan 7, 2006

Getting away? No easy trick

Think you need to get away? In our case, a mother-in-law in dwindling health, jobs of various importance and a sense of responsibility too puffed up for our own good had resulted in this: For six years my wife and I had not taken a vacation. And this in beehive-busy Japan.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Dec 24, 2005

Born and raised a 'gaijin'

The other evening after pushing my way onto the same train car as always, I hung there on my commuter strap and broke momentarily from my rush hour funk to find my reflection staring back at me from the window. There I stood with my shoulders sagged, my necktie loosened and a work world of fatigue weighing...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Dec 10, 2005

Of countries big and small

"It's a big country," rings an oft-repeated line from a 1958 Gregory Peck-Burl Ives Western about love, honor and territory in the old West, a film appropriately titled "The Big Country."

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Nov 26, 2005

Do you know the way to Koganei?

Early in the 19th century an American writer named William Austin penned a story about a man on a horse and buggy lost on the roads of his nation. Yet it's much easier to be lost while abroad, and sometimes the most misplaced souls are those who have been away the longest -- as this "Flactured Fairy...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Nov 12, 2005

Sixteen square feet of ignorance, and other trivia

"Tell me something I don't know," said my first son.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Oct 29, 2005

Joji and the flagon: a 'Flactured Fairy Tale'

Man can learn much from myths. For example, one thing I learned from the myth of Sisyphus was never to name my kid Sisyphus.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Oct 15, 2005

The 'Winter Sonata' blues -- revisited

He's baaack. Not that he ever went away.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Oct 1, 2005

When cultures clash -- 'sizing' up the opposition

In our global village -- or at least in the Japan/U.S. corner of that village -- culture can clash over differences in values, interpretations of history, who makes better cars, how best to play baseball, or even over which national leaders are the more incompetent.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Sep 17, 2005

Play it again, Sam . . . but with these lyrics

His name is Joe. And Joe says: "If you can't walk, dance. If you can't talk, sing. And you can't hear . . . just make things up."

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Sep 3, 2005

So you think you're busy? Well, that's nothing!

For many Japanese, one word sums up their entire lives: "busy."

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Aug 20, 2005

Lessons learned over the rainbow

Late August marks the anniversary of my arrival in Japan, this time totaling 28 years. So the question would seem to be, "What have you learned, Dorothy, in your long stay over the rainbow?"

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Aug 6, 2005

What not to do in Japan: die

As a veteran resident approaching his 28th year in Japan, I would like to offer some simple advice to tourists, newbies and fellow graybeards as well. Which is:

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Jul 23, 2005

Groping for answers on gropers

Beginning May 9, nine commuter lines in the greater Tokyo area began offering women-only train cars in response to the growing number of women being groped by men in the trains. The number of incidents reached 2,201 in 2004, up from 778 in 1996. Each line has designated one car from each train during...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Jul 9, 2005

Japan -- where the oldies are always golden

That pitter-patter you hear right now is probably only the remains of the rainy season slipping drop by drop from your eave spouts. Yet there is another melancholy drizzle in this land that falls all year round. It is that misty-eyed drool for all things past. Yes, this country is literally dripping...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Jun 25, 2005

NHK -- the way it should be

This year has not been kind to national broadcaster NHK, as a series of scandals have caused hundreds of thousands of households to withhold their service payments, from which NHK draws 97 percent of its income.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

Jun 11, 2005

Up in knots over natto

A reader from jolly ol' England recently sent this question:

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

May 28, 2005

The books I will someday write

Books play a large part in the life of any foreign resident of Japan. For no matter how pervasive online linkage to the homeland becomes, books have always been, and always will be, a main conduit to the language and culture left behind, especially when socked into riding the trains for hours on end....

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST

May 14, 2005

The true scoop behind Japan's baseball superheroes

Another spring and another baseball season for the sports-numb nation of Japan. And once again the TV-viewing public is being regaled with starry-eyed tales of wonder regarding its established heroes: Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and, this year -- perhaps due to the shortage of heroic clay here in Japan...

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