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Amy Chavez

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Amy Chavez
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 7, 2001
Demolition derby in world's biggest game center
Whenever you step off the airplane in a new country, you are forced to throw all common sense aside and sacrifice your body and possessions to a complete stranger -- the taxi driver. From the moment you get inside his car, you become his.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 31, 2000
Slithering on through the year of the snake
It's almost 2001, the year of the snake. I've done a little research using the Chinese "koyomi" calendar for the 13th year of Heisei, the year of the snake, in order to let you know what kind of year you're about to have.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 24, 2000
Roll up your sleeve when Lance comes calling
Hospitals come and go -- especially on our island. You can always tell when the hospital comes because it's a large mobile contraption that rolls off the ferry. When it's time to go, it rolls back onto the ferry and you can wave goodbye to the hospital as it goes back out to sea. It's basically a big...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 17, 2000
All I want for Christmas is some cud to chew
Since Japan has finally started to perform organ transplants, I can finally ask Santa for what I've always wanted -- an organ. And no, I don't mean a sex change. The organ I want happens to belong to a cow. And no, I don't mean the udder. What I'd like from a cow is something that would make my life...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 10, 2000
Old Mother Hubbard had a better deal than this
I keep trying to convince my friend Reiko to burrow. "You'd have much more living space," I told her. Other than the underground shopping areas and a few pipelines, you'd have as much space as you wanted. "But this size apartment is normal in Japan," she said.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 3, 2000
More testing times for students of Japanese
Today, many foreigners have put on their armor and have sharpened their swords in preparation for battling through the Japanese Proficiency Test. I wish you all luck and survival. I recently spoke with the god of the Japanese Proficiency Test, who lives on Uranus and appeared on my TV screen via my satellite...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 26, 2000
Sweet potato season brings bloody good fun
These days I can see women on our island, all over 80-years old, carting piles of sweet potatoes in wheel barrows from their gardens to their homes. Japanese sweet potatoes are the size of hand grenades and have what look like fuses on the ends. I always think of artillery when I see piles of sweet potatoes....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 19, 2000
Top 10 commandments for Shiraishi Island
I've been camped out here all day. I'm demonstrating against the recent change in an old Japanese tradition. I'm protesting the closing down of Japan's beer machines.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 12, 2000
How to pick a foreigner out of the crowd
The longer I live in Japan the more I realize how strange people of my own planet look. Compared to the lean, congruent Japanese, foreigners seem like gigantic globs of cellulite.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 5, 2000
Diagnosis is key to curing the English patient
My English writing students always say they want me to correct them. But, I've decided to stop giving out correct answers. Instead, I'm going to give out prescriptions. The ESL doctor is IN.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 29, 2000
No shortage of fruits and vegetables at university
The first thing I do when I have a new class of university students is separate them into fruits and vegetables. This is because when you stand up at the podium and look out at a hundred students with black hair and black eyes, it's like addressing a crowd of straight pins with black heads. It's practically...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 22, 2000
All you ever wanted to know about voodoo
Gaston Jean-Baptiste, known as "Bonga," is a voodoo priest and a conga player. Bonga has been touring Japan giving workshops on Haitian music and teaching the traditions of Haiti. Luckily, one of the stops on his tour was my living room. A small, amiable man with dreadlocks, Bonga spoke from his "zabuton":...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 15, 2000
Roll out the mauve carpet and put the sake on ice
When I heard that the ambassador of Haiti and a voodoo priest would be visiting my house, I rushed around in a flurry to get things ready. After all, how often do you have an ambassador and a voodoo priest in your house at the same time?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 8, 2000
Plenty to get antsy about at your local bank
Today we will examine something I refer to as Anthill Economics. The other day when I entered the local anthill, i.e., the bank, the usual staff of 33 employees greeted me. The most customers I've ever seen inside the bank is 10, but that's not the point. The anthill employs as many ants as possible...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 1, 2000
The art of losing isn't that hard to master
Once foreigners move to Japan, they take on a new image -- that of international traveler. Friends back home start describing you as "worldly," and suddenly you are an authority on all things global.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 24, 2000
Wild and woolly times skiing in New Zealand
I recently made a visit to New Zealand. I know what you're thinking -- SHEEP! Yes, there were lots of sheep. However, their numbers have dwindled recently due to the increase of synthetics instead of wool for clothing manufacturing. I'm not sure where synthetic fibers come from. My guess is lemmings....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 17, 2000
Never enough thanks for living in Japan
Santi, a reader in the United States, will be moving to Japan soon. He wants to know how to prepare for living in Japan. Here are some of my suggestions for anyone who wants to acclimate quickly to life in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 3, 2000
Following in the footsteps of Lafcadio Hearn
"What's it like living in Japan?" my friends back home often ask me. It's a hard question to answer. So instead, I'll describe what I did today, a typical day in Japan for me.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 27, 2000
Visitors from the dark side of the Inland Sea
I'm dead. Not only that, but my spirit is now floating around the Seto Inland Sea. But before I explain to you how I died, I have to explain about Obon.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 20, 2000
Don't let bad bicycle days run you down
Bad Bicycle Days. Everyone has them. From the old fish peddler on the decrepit bicycle carrying a crate of fish on the back to the young Japanese princess on her trendy new collapsible bicycle, some days it seems they're all out to run you down.
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.
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.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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