Amy Chavez - The Japan Times

July 16, 2024

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Amy Chavez

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Dec 22, 2007

Preparing for . . . the Christmas that never comes

You think Christmas celebrations start too early in your country? So that when Christmas finally comes, you've already had enough of it? Where do you think "Season's Greetings" comes from?

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Dec 15, 2007

Becoming one with the chair

I am a chair. I am a big, soft comfortable chair, fluffy and overstuffed like the ones that when you sit down in, they swallow you whole. And it did swallow me, which is how I became one with this chair.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Dec 8, 2007

Baby boy body parts and the next big, uh, 'thing'

The Japanese are fascinated with big body parts. Got a big foot? This will throw the Japanese into fits of laughter and exclamations of "Ooki, desu ne?" ("It's big, isn't it?"). The Japanese often refer to their own faces with amusement because they are generally bigger and rounder compared to the smaller...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Dec 1, 2007

Hasta la vista, pink bunny!

This column is for all the Nova teachers out there who have lost their teaching jobs. And should you be packing up to go back home, I wish you all the best of luck.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Nov 24, 2007

Inside and out

On the day of my operation, a nurse who had previously introduced herself to me as "Miyuki of the Nurse" helped me put on a hospital gown and I was then put under anesthesia.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Nov 17, 2007

Hospitals — just no place for prudery

Two weeks ago I would have said that very few people in this world had ever seen my private parts. Now, I can say plenty have — mostly doctors and nurses.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Nov 10, 2007

Bowled over by one very, happy day

If National Toilet Day is not a happy day for you, perhaps you need a new toilet.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Nov 3, 2007

The joys of being 'one with nature'

While the other six people on board were sleeping down in the cabins, I was sleeping outside on the deck under the canopy in the cockpit of the boat. This is my favorite place to sleep because I can see the stars and the moon while being lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the boat in the ripples....

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Oct 27, 2007

Sitting on the dock of the . . . sea station

We were sailing through the Akinada island chain off Hiroshima Prefecture in the Seto Inland Sea looking for a place to drop anchor for the night. A secluded beach would be nice, or just a quiet cove.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Oct 20, 2007

Getting to the bottom of the mystery of the moving pier

I was sitting in the back of my pickup truck talking to Mrs. Amano at the ferry port. My husband was driving and I was sitting in the back. As we passed the ferry terminal, Mrs. Amano flagged us down.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Oct 13, 2007

Mammograms — with a little bit of sunshine

My neighbor Kazu-chan came over to my house for dinner the other night and while she was here said, "Amy, zannen. The hospital boat was just at the island next door giving free mammograms to women." We will have to go all the way to the mainland to get ours.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Oct 6, 2007

Jumping mullets, it's the season for fire prevention!

Ahh, autumn on Shiraishi Island when I wake up to quacking ducks paddling around in the port in front of my house waiting for me to open the Duck Cafe.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Sep 29, 2007

The encroach of empty-nest syndrome

Japan has taught me tolerance: I've become far too comfortable living with cockroaches. And they have gotten used to me too. I'd come home from work too tired to care about the dark configurations on the kitchen counter. When I turned the light on, they wouldn't even run. I'd then turn off the light,...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Sep 22, 2007

The stars come out on Sports Day

In Japan "Fall is for reading," but on this island where there are no large print books, most people are too old to read anymore. This doesn't mean, however, that we are not healthy.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Sep 15, 2007

All the dirt on life's ins and outs

This summer has been hotter and longer than most. But rather than fight it and hide indoors in the air conditioning, I just put on my bikini.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Sep 8, 2007

Japanese-English holds key to Japan

I sleep with a purple hippo, a cow, and a dog. And now, Japan is finally making sense to me. For years this country had eluded me with its cute characters and mascots made to resemble animal-like something or others, and creative blobs with eyes and fuzzy ears representing new species of thingamajigs....

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Sep 1, 2007

Adding insult to hot air at the Japanese BBQ

Some people blame global warming on farting cows, others blame it on farting vehicles. I blame it on Japanese BBQs.

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Aug 25, 2007

A sprint to keep up with the slow life

The people who work in our post office are, to use the politically correct term, "a little slow." Long before I moved to this island, the government had a plan that worked. They sent those workers who were "a little slow," to work on a small island where hardly anyone one lived and where they could do...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Aug 18, 2007

Are island people an endangered species?

The passing of O-bon (the festival of the dead), seems an appropriate time to reflect on the declining population in Japan. While the population continues to decline, depopulation is also occurring in farming communities and on Japan's small islands. As an islander myself, I am confronted with the question:...

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE

Aug 11, 2007

Laughing it up for the Mountain God

I woke up at 6 a.m. to laughter coming from outside my window. Why would people get up so early to laugh? Then it hit me — I was supposed to be out there too.

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

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'

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

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