author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 22, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
Amy Chavez

Meta

Twitter

@JapanLite

Amy Chavez
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 13, 2003
You gotta have wa, and good chi as well
The front door to your house is where chi enters the home. So spruce up your front door with decorations to make it more inviting and to attract only good chi inside.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 6, 2003
Drawing the line at the gentle bovine
Did you know that there's a dairy farm in Tokyo? Forty bovine residents live in Nerima Ward, where the city grew up around the Koizumi Bokujo diary farm. I myself, would be honored to have mooing neighbors. Especially as opposed to arguing spouses, screaming children and washing machines that start at...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 30, 2003
'Hari': acupuncture or body piercing?
I had already tried massage, but my back and shoulders were still hurting from a pinched nerve. So, I tried "hari." Hari is acupuncture. "Hari," also the Japanese word for needle, but with a different kanji, is almost always written in hiragana, perhaps to make it seem less threatening. I had spotted...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 23, 2003
Is Japan changing? Utterly, and not a bit
Japan is changing. Or is it? The young Japanese people are changing while the old Japanese are holding on to their traditions. Whether you witness the changes in Japan, and to what degree, largely depends on where you are.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 16, 2003
Friends, the biggest of Japanese ships
This summer I opened an "omiyage" shop on our local beach in an attempt to help promote Shiraishi Island.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 9, 2003
Bon preparation: something must die
Bon is when the spirits of the dead come back to their ancestral homes to visit. When I moved into my house, the grandfather's "ihai" (ancestral tablet) was still in the Butsudan (family shrine) and stayed there for years. I always enjoyed leaving sake, fruit and other offerings out for his return at...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 2, 2003
A day at the beach -- Japanese style!
Today, we're going on a trip. Are you ready? OK, here's a list of things we'll need: a large vinyl ground sheet, portable picnic tables, a tent, boxed lunches, a cooler for the beer and a thermos for the cold tea. Have you guessed where we're going yet? No, not camping. A few more hints. We'll also need...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 26, 2003
Japanese English: crime and punishment
Recently, I received some letters from readers criticizing me for making fun of Japanese English. These people said that this kind of humor has been "played to death" and, moreover, that Japanese English is "not interesting." Ha!
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 19, 2003
Cosmo fashion takes over the classroom
Some of the biggest changes in Japan over the years have taken place in the world of academia. Over 10 years, for example, my university classroom has changed from reserved, plain-dressed girls who used to hide behind their bangs to a group of miniskirted, sexy, breasty teens who wiggle and jiggle their...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 12, 2003
Business Japanese using Braille method
I have learned business Japanese through trial and error, which is very similar to the Braille method of learning to parallel park your car.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 5, 2003
'Uchiawase' meeting reveals mooing OL
"Japanese is a vague language." I often hear Japanese people say this, but I've never heard a foreigner say it. To me, what the Japanese mean by their language being "vague" is that the reality is often very different from what you are told. On my planet, the United States, we call this lying. But in...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 28, 2003
Doing business: the 'uchiawase' vortex
It has never been easier to start a business in Japan. These days, anyone can register a business with zero money and an "inkan" stamp. Indeed, this is what attracted me. I thought: Hey I have no money -- I'll start a business!
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 21, 2003
The rainy season and umbrella politics
It always surprises me that with year after year of rainy seasons, the Japanese aren't better prepared for it. They slog through the rain and puddles with just umbrellas and arrive at work harried in soaked pants legs and waterlogged shoes. No one bothers to wear rain boots or galoshes. Umbrellas, and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 14, 2003
Zen rock gardens: just rake and groove
Have you planted your garden yet? What garden? The container garden I taught you how to plant in a previous column. What -- you haven't even started it yet? I know, you're busy. You don't have time to water your plants and you absolutely hate weeding.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 7, 2003
If you love someone, give a slime stocker
The instructions were clear: Choose anything from the catalog, fill out the form, and it will be delivered to you for free. Anything from kitchen appliances to pearl necklaces. This was my landlord's way of thanking me for letting him stay in his own house for a weekend. He had already given me plenty...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 31, 2003
Flower power and the heathen gardener
It's time to water your garden. What garden? You mean you haven't planted your garden yet? Oh, you're too busy? Don't have enough space? No more excuses. I'll tell you how you can make a Japanese-style flower garden in just 30 seconds a day. Heck, you learned Japanese in 10 minutes a day, right?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 24, 2003
The 49th day -- tradition and cat hair
Four rolls of toilet paper, one bag of fried shrimp snacks, "manju," bourbon biscuits, two pieces of "milk candy" and some liquid soap. That's what I got on the 49th day of my landlord's death.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 17, 2003
Defensive perfume: to use, just fling it
It was a bad Japan day. After a full day of teaching into the evening, the train was too crowded to find a seat on the way home, and just as I was taking up the old Japanese horse tradition (sleeping while standing), a drunk "salaryman" sidled up and accosted me with bad English for an entire 30 minutes....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 10, 2003
Japan's most honorable form of death
"Well, you don't have a fever," the doctor told me. Next, he looked down my throat.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 3, 2003
Shinkansen: shared stink, flying fruit
This is a followup to an article I wrote a few weeks ago on how to ride the shinkansen. As many readers pointed out, I overlooked some very important aspects.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER