It's New Year's Day and the Yamada family, dressed in kimono, gather around the table for a feast, and to review English phrases they learned the previous year, like "take a breather" or "playing hooky."
Like many Japanese families that relocate to the U.S., the Yamadas are intent on nailing down American slang. But unlike other families, the Yamadas happen to be fictional.
They inhabit the pages of "My Wife is a New Yorker," a compilation of comic strips that teach English, written by Mitsuyo Okada and illustrated by Makiko Shimamoto, a manga artist who has lived with her family in New York for 20 years.