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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 / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 11, 2006
U.S. lawyer gets the impossible done in Japan
Legal beagle Tim Langley is both blessed and dogged with an interesting surname. "When I worked inside the Diet as a blue-eyed, moustachioed, Japanese-fluent American fresh out of Japanese law school, the CIA in Langley, Va., naturally came up. Some thought my name was a joke."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 4, 2006
Hooked on the concept of sustainable fishing
Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market -- the largest in the world -- is oddly quiet early afternoon. Yet climb a steep flight of steps above a small warehouse and the pace is frenetic.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 28, 2006
Holistic therapist strives to bring it all together
Little wonder Sarah Watterson is in great shape. As operations manager of The Spa at Tokyo's Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Nihonbashi, she not only has a hand in the best beauty treatments available; she can take a chunk of credit for the hotel spa being recently voted the best day spa in Asia.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 24, 2006
On the festival circuit
Festivals in December? S and J are coming to Japan in mid-December. "My husband will be on business but not all of the time and I'd like to show him around. Are there any festivals , or is everything geared toward Christmas ?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 21, 2006
Astrologer reaches out with readings of counsel
His certification as an astrologer reads Tatsuhiro Percival Nakajima. Why? The gentle Japanese -- still coolly dressed for summer -- replies smiling: "Because I am the Fool."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 14, 2006
Taking the real estate industry to new levels
No need to feel sorry for E. Takashi Norris, working all alone at his desk in Azabudai. Because it's good news -- including having a very nice office all to himself. "All my staff are out on business," he explains. "Even the young woman I took on initially as my assistant is now operating her own right,...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 26, 2006
Notary publics, free legal advice
Notary public K. thinks he has seen this question in Lifelines before, but he can't remember the answer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 23, 2006
Award-winning docudrama 'From a Silk Cocoon'
It is 1986, the year that the U.S. government passes the Civil Liberties Act for providing financial reparation and an apology to all Japanese-Americans incarcerated in internment camps during World War II.
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2006
Sun and Moon Yoga: 'Within my body, a city'
Trying to find the way in and out of the Sun and Moon Yoga studio in Meguro, Tokyo, is a bit like trying to negotiate an Escher drawing. Do you take the clean way, the dirty way, the back way or the other way? No worry, says owner-director Leza Lowitz, there is no right or wrong way, only the space that...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 9, 2006
The Work: four questions for a peaceful mind
Nina Lynch and her musician husband, Ashik Peter Lynch, facilitate the work of Byron Katie, an American woman now in her mid-60s who, after many years of depression and suffering, woke up one morning to find that her life had changed completely.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 5, 2006
Nuptials and moldy tatami
B&B Angelie asks what kind of business licenses are needed to open a Bed & Breakfast here in Japan. "I went to the local city office and walked away with tons of information on opening a ryokan . . . which is not what I had in mind at all."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 2, 2006
Tyler Foundation helps other sick kids shine on
There are many pictures of Tyler Ferris on the Web site his mother, Kimberly Forsythe, created after his death just over a year ago. In every one he is smiling, if not grinning from ear to ear.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 26, 2006
EmmazMarket: for instruments from Mideast
As part of July's weekend Zushi Festival, Minoru Fushimi took the live stage in front of the station and, after introducing his instrument, began to play.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 22, 2006
Rakugo and a noisy neighbor
Rakugo Ewan, teaching in Tokyo, is interested in Japanese story-telling. "I don't know if you have heard but story-telling in the U.K. is enjoying quite a revival. Edinburgh has the first center for story-telling ever created in the world, funded by the Scottish Storytelling Forum and the Church of...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 19, 2006
TaoZen: synthesizing life practices of the sages
Masahiro Ouchi stands before a group of 30 assorted individuals in Be Yoga, a studio in Tokyo's Hiro-o (including five dishy-enough French men to make one English guy joke that among so many women he has never felt so disadvantaged) and introduces us to the essence of the spiritual and therapeutic practice...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 12, 2006
World Family Club says it's OK to be different
Meet Mark Segerlund, happiness personified. With a house in Tokyo, a retreat on Chiba's Boso Peninsula that offers unparalleled sunsets over the Pacific, a dog that he dotes on and a job he adores with near equal passion, he says he is home, and this is not hard to believe.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 5, 2006
'Gimme Wings' raises singer-songwriter's profile
Sixteen years ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote a song entitled "Feel Like a Bird." The lead song and the title of his first album, released June 17, is "Gimme Wings." "I guess that suggests I haven't got very far," he jokes. In fact he's come quite a distance, but with still a way to go.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 1, 2006
Island travel and Mac help
Airport on Ogasawara? J and partner have heard that there is an air service to Ogasawara (the Bonin Islands) -- described in my book Insider's Tokyo (2001) as "Tokyo furthest flung outpost."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2006
No such as thing as the average 'gaijin' in Japan
Charles Lent points out landmarks from the 31st floor of Tokyo Sankei Building in Otemachi with confidence and pride. After 13 years in Japan he knows more than a few.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 18, 2006
Gold value, dogs and carpentry
Gold, gold, gold Andrew in San Francisco has come through with some very helpful advice on gold (Lifelines: July 4).

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?