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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
Jun 6, 2009
Nepalese 'VIP' advocates investing in disability
Nepalese Kamal Lamichhane chuckles when he describes himself as a VIP. "As I told the audience at Manchester Metropolitan University last month, I really am a VIP — a visually impaired person. Unlike those people who become very important because of what they achieve in life, I have been a VIP since...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 19, 2009
Going clubbing in the capital
New to Tokyo, T.B. is trying to make friends and wants to know if there are any clubs that he can join to meet new people and get involved with the international community.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 21, 2009
Travel by train on a budget
Rail on the cheap In Japan for only a limited time, J.K. is desperate to travel and see as much as possible. But there's a problem. "Cash is pretty limited. Are there any money-saving ways of traveling by train in Japan?"
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 14, 2009
Seeking permanence; ignoring Easter
Easter absence Brenda and family wonder why Easter has been ignored by Japanese commercial interests.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 24, 2009
Tatami care, and dust to dust
Spring cleaning Kate wonders if it is OK to wash tatami mats. "I'm spring-cleaning," she writes.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 10, 2009
Antiwar groups, Almond and Michi Aoyama
Nuts! Where's Almond? Julie was with friends on a bus passing through Roppongi and saw from the window that the famed Almond coffee shop on the crossing was no more.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 3, 2009
Working holidays and Amerasian roots
Mareen, an 18-year-old German citizen, spent three weeks in Japan, loved it, and now wants to come back.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 17, 2009
Dealing with a death abroad
Reader S.B. seeks advice on how to deal with arrangements following the death of a foreign relative in Japan.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 10, 2009
'Neko-cide' prevention; document dealings
'Contemplating neko-cide' writes, "There is a cat next door that in meowing all night causes me to lose sleep, which then hurts my performance at work."
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 20, 2009
Lifelines back to the 1900s
With 2009 so far looking bleak, here are some queries from around the world that take us into the past with the hope of finding positive solutions for the present.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 18, 2008
Escalator etiquette, TV tours
A couple of replies to the query about why people stand on escalators on the right in Osaka and on the left in Tokyo:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 8, 2008
Translating in the spirit of samurai
Iehiro Tokugawa arrives at the publishing house Kobunsha, for which he works on occasion as a translator, accompanied by his Vietnamese wife. He is all in black; she is in blue jeans with a waterfall of shining hair down her back, and very lovely too. Speaking in fluent English, he extends his hand to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 1, 2008
Inside the Japanese pub
Mark Robinson, author of "Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook" (Kodansha International, May 2008) is recently back in Tokyo from New York, where he spent three weeks "signing books at stores like Barnes & Noble, meeting people and seeking inspiration."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 4, 2008
Music firm goes to seed for a rockin' good future
Last year, all too aware that sales of CDs were dropping, Douglas Allsopp of Buffalo Records went along to the annual fair of promotional goods at Tokyo's Big Sight to look for a possible additional venture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 27, 2008
Ties that bond though cultures apart
With a wry but happy smile, Jennifer Rose DiLaura recalls the day she and her husband first met their daughter, adopted from China.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 23, 2008
Hat headaches, work woes
Alan wants to know where he can get a Panama hat cleaned and blocked.
COMMUNITY
Sep 20, 2008
Putting women on paths of potential at work and at play
Australian-born Sara-Shivani is learning hard and fast the nature of her bliss — what she was born to be and do. Her mantra — As I am now, recognize/ As I was born to be, remember/ As I wish to be, visualize/ As nature intended, live — is the motto of the program of holistic heath she is offering...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 30, 2008
A Welshman's 10,000-km tale of Japan
What on earth would induce anyone to cycle around a country for six months?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 23, 2008
Communicating through the unsaid
Sculptor Gakushi Yamamoto arrives looking as if he tumbled out of bed — or rather rolled off his futon and into the nearest shirt and pair of jeans that came to hand. And that may be so, considering he has had to travel two hours to meet up in Moto-Azabu for 10 a.m.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 19, 2008
Be prepared for the 'Big One'
'How can we be prepared?' BJ writes in the wake of the recent spate of earthquakes. "Our family is increasingly concerned about what we can do if an earthquake or some other calamity strikes. We live in an apartment. Will we be OK? What kind of resources are there and what should we do in case of a disaster?"...

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