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Angela Jeffs
After 26 years in Japan, Angela is currently test driving the Scottish winter. Describing herself as a “people person,” she wrote weekly profiles and features for The Japan Times between 1987 and 2011. For writings since 3/11/2011, see www.embrace-transition.com/. Her first book, "Chasing Shooting Stars – A South American Paper Trail into the Past," was published in paperback in January 2013.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 24, 2005
WeLoveSnow.com puts Yuzawa on winter map
Neil Riley is up to his eyes in snow. And he's delighted.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 17, 2005
Japanese metal craft rings up to look like wood
Mary Fidler is pondering, wondering whether her logo as a designer, "mfide," rolls with sufficient ease off the tongue. It does, I assure her -- as long you know it sounds out phonetically as m-f-ide, and not m-fide.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 3, 2005
Beautiful Losers to play at Amnesty rights benefit
Everyone who knows them agrees they are beautiful people. We also agree that Brett Boyd and Raj Ramayya deserve the recognition they are achieving. All this makes their name, as musicians, an interesting irony: The Beautiful Losers.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 29, 2005
Bird flu, same-sex, posting
Bird flu With all the panic flying around on the subject of bird flu, several readers have asked where to get down to-earth information and advice. Sascha Hewitt's online store and resource center Natural Healing Center has a well-grounded article with a link to its home page on the subject: naturalhealingcenter.com/...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 26, 2005
Japan HIV Center to help on World AIDS Day
Caitlin Stronell and I are sitting in front of Ebisu Station when Skip Swanson skips into view with a twirl and a balletic bow.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 19, 2005
Pan-Asianism central to exile activist's ideology
Author, artist, thorn in the flesh of America's political right and confirmed pan-Asianist M.T. Karthik is taking time to return to his roots in Madras. Preparing to make the first of several trips to India, he will then move on to Portugal before returning to Japan, where he is in self-imposed exile...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 15, 2005
Counseling, cults and Hotteeze
Cults K (who prefers to remain anonymous) takes me to task: "You recommended Yamagishikai for organic food, but left out half the story - such as why it 'came under pressure from a scandal-driven media' during the murder/brainwashing peak of the Aum period. This was less a 'scandal-driven' problem than...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 12, 2005
Antique and vintage jewelry link Japan, Sweden
When a blonde woman wearing with great nonchalance a marvelous 200-year-old necklace walks up my drive with a friend, I can hardly believe my eyes. I have heard of but not met Daphne Fukushima for 15 years. Now it turns out that she is renting a tiny house in Koshigoe, near Enoshima, and dividing her...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 5, 2005
Artist intrigued by things we take for granted
Markuz Wernli Saito cannot come to the phone when I call him as arranged in Kyoto.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 1, 2005
Sumo, golf and old maps
Sumo memorabilia Mark in Tokyo would like to purchase old sumo "tegata" (wrestlers' handprints) and "banzuke" ranking sheets. "Any ideas?" he asks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 29, 2005
New Asian Collection gallery is dream come true
Robert Tobin makes charismatic progress around the back side of Ebisu Station in central Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 22, 2005
Professional Design Solutions on a steady incline
There is a small graphic on Jeremy D. Thomson's name card that says a lot about him: two light bulbs inspired by Thomas Edison, who in failing hundreds of times chose to see the experience as having learned hundreds of ways not to make a light bulb.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 18, 2005
Funding, adoption and cigars
There was no column last week due to the monthly press holiday falling on a Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 15, 2005
Learn to live and love consciously in workshop
Katie (Kathlyn) Hendricks sounds as clear as a bell on a three-way line between California, to which she has just returned from Colorado, and Japan. "I was in Boulder, Colo., facilitating a workshop not dissimilar to the three-day foundation training in conscious living and loving that is being arranged...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 8, 2005
Kanazawa to Hayama for workshop and concert
A flute in full blow draws me to a Taisho-period building behind the Catholic church in Hayama. A window is open, and whoever is playing sounds pretty good to this amateur.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 1, 2005
Unwind and remember who you are at Kamalaya
At age 43, Howie Snyder has put aside hard-nosed business to help direct and promote a new holistic spa on the Thai island of Koh Samui.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 27, 2005
Watches, stains and health food
Keep watching Jim in Kansai notes that it is several weeks now since we ran his request for suggestions on repairing his old Seiko watch, but still no response. "I knew it was a long shot, but I'd like to thank you anyway, for trying."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 24, 2005
Cambodian envoy to Japan on three-point mission
"Hello, hello," Pou Sothirak greets warmly as he enters the reception room of the Cambodian Embassy in Akasaka, central Tokyo. Then as a staff member follows on behind, with a camera: "Now stand here with me for a photo. Right, we're done. We have to let him take these official pictures, otherwise he...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 17, 2005
Talking about the modern Japanese woman
Meeting last Monday, Barbara Hamill Sato is not sure how many women won seats in the previous day's general election, but suspects it may be the most ever.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 10, 2005
Just 14 more mountains to climb for jackpot 100
Some long-term visitors to Japan choose to count the days. Others make the decision to suck every drop of juice out of the opportunity. Take Ginger Vaughn, for example. She falls most definitely into the latter category -- and all power to her facial and calf muscles!

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'