Jean Pearce - The Japan Times

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Aug 4, 1999

A woman asks about cats. She would like to do something to help them. She doesn't tell us what kind of help she would like to provide, but it is a reasonably safe assumption to think she wants to help homeless cats, the ones that gather in any neighborhood where residents will give them food. Mine is...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jul 25, 1999

Lasting tastes

A friend has sent me a clipping from her home-town paper. It is about a new telephone service staffed exclusively by women, a point they wanted to emphasize in the name they selected. It is called Miss Information. That is not what you get from Tokyo's information service, which is also provided by women....

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jul 18, 1999

Working with the system

A reader hopes to benefit from today's recession. She has heard that because so many companies have gone bankrupt, it is easy to buy good secondhand office furniture. But where? she asks.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jul 14, 1999

Substitutes

A woman tells us she is a vegetarian in the real sense -- no meat, fish or animal byproducts, even gelatin. In England she could buy dried mixes that could be reconstituted by adding water and then used to make sausages (Sosmix) and burgers (Veggie Burger Mix). She wonders if there are any similar products...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jul 4, 1999

Happy holiday

The U.S. celebration of independence does not always fall on a column day and even when it does, I rarely write about it. There are some 153 diplomatic missions represented in Tokyo and they all have national days that could be noted. But then, once in a while I do. Once I wrote how Japan had honored...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jun 23, 1999

A great connection

Perhaps your readers will be interested, he wrote.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jun 9, 1999

High praise

A woman writes that last year she saw several subway advertisements for Hunter-Douglas window blinds and asks if I can find the company's phone number. She complains that local services are extremely expensive and leave a lot to be desired. Recently, for example, she contracted for similar work but as...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Jun 2, 1999

Found and lost

In looking through my file for information I needed for today's column, I was diverted by notes from readers that amused me, or might someday be useful. Here are a few of them:

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 27, 1999

High adventure

Have you decided where you are going to spend New Year's Eve? It should be someplace where you wouldn't mind staying if any of our normal, every day support systems should fail. One unconcerned gentleman has made reservations for a flight over Antarctica. Experts will be on board the 747 to explain about...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 23, 1999

Whoever knows

A few columns ago I wrote about pen pals. A Japanese woman who had spent many years in the United States found readjustment to Japan difficult. She discovered she had little in common with her former Japanese friends; to them, she was a foreigner. Her American friends wanted to communicate by e-mail...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 19, 1999

Once more, Chiang Mai

I had a mission in Chiang Mai. Many years ago I bought a reclining black lacquer Burmese Buddha there. It had been gilded but much of the gold had been worn off, probably by the hands of the faithful seeking some special blessing. It has a remarkable face. It changes expression as the viewer moves even...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 16, 1999

So long ago

A woman writes of a quest, not hers but a friend's. This friend is looking for a man she knew many years ago. He was born in Hokkaido in 1913. He was a Christian and was active with the Young Men's Christian Association. He traveled widely in foreign countries in connection with that work.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 13, 1999

Here and there

Some time ago I wrote about visiting Boeing's Everett factory near Seattle. Now a reader, planning to make his first trip to Seattle, wants to see where the plane he will be flying on was made and asks how he can see the factory.

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

May 2, 1999

A remarkable lady

There should be trumpets. On May 8 at 10 a.m., Music for Youth will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The program with the New Japan Philharmonic will repeat MFY's first concert in 1939, which was designed to help young people enjoy and appreciate classical music. In this program, Schubert's "March Militaire"...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 25, 1999

Getting around

Last week, when I wrote a few paragraphs about the new Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I thought, How inadequate! There is so much more, and so brief a mention cannot begin to give even the concept of so huge a complex. Perhaps all I can do is make you want to go, and perhaps that is enough. Fortunately,...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 18, 1999

Travel report

Never before have I returned to Japan after an overseas trip at the end of the cherry blossoms. Don't do it! The season is best when it is being anticipated. When I left, there was just the hint of a pink haze around the trees, the first indication that the blossoms were readying their show. That is...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 14, 1999

It's the little things

Cultural contrasts! Everywhere there are traps. I was late when I left home yesterday so I quickly kicked off my slippers as I ran out the door. Later, I returned with a Japanese friend. She laughed when she saw my slippers. "We would never do that!" she said. Do what? I asked. Of course. I should have...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 11, 1999

Along the way

When we think about takeout lunches in Japan, we must go back a long way. Surely you have seen in museums the beautiful lacquer lunch boxes the nobility used when they went to the countryside on excursions. These picnics were quite elegant occasions with poetry writing and incense ceremonies. But long...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 7, 1999

Turnabout

Life is full of surprises. Did you know that anyone can open an English language school in Japan? While most are started by people with some experience in teaching, there are no such requirements. No one will come to inspect your school to see how and what you are teaching. This will be bad news for...

COMMUNITY / How-tos / GETTING THINGS DONE

Apr 4, 1999

Many paths to follow

There are lots of ways to have fun, some centering on the Yamanote, Tokyo's more-or-less circular commuter line. Few remember that not so long ago it was known as the Yamate Line and there was great consternation when the name was changed. From the beginning, people tended to speak of inside and outside...

author

Meta

Podcast

Longform

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

In your social network

In your inbox

In your social network

In your inbox