a Nick in Time

Category: Uncategorized

  • Taxes success!

    [Gross generalization alert] There are three things the Japanese excel at: paperwork, meetings and forming lines. Japanese children are taught from a very young age how to stand in line. Lisa tells me how when she was in kindergarten her teachers taught the children to touch their fingers to the shoulders of the person standing…

  • Directions revisited

    Editor’s note: Again, this is a blog post from the past that I updated for a newspaper column. Thought the new version was better than the old, so I hope you enjoy it the second time around.   My life has become dependent on a little blue dot. This little blue dot I am referring…

  • The Japanese grocery store, or “What the hell is that?”

    Last Saturday night I was in a yakitori restaurant eating raw chicken. That’s right, you heard me. Raw chicken. Back home in the States, we are taught to never ever, ever, ever, never, ever eat raw chicken. Don’t even touch it if there is a hint of pink. But here in Japan, it is perfectly…

  • Getting about

    Proper etiquette is very important in Japan. Unfortunately, etiquette is not my forte. In a city as dense as Tokyo – 12 million people jammed into an area slightly larger than Des Moines – general rules of propriety are important. For example, if you have a cold, you should wear a mask to prevent spreading…

  • Nine months

    Editor’s note: This isn’t an entirely new blog post, but is an old one that I rewrote for publication. Anyhow, it is relevant enough to repost. February marks the ninth month that I have lived in Tokyo.  It is easy to make allegories/metaphors/allusions to rebirth. Instead I’ll make a more personal comparison. Moving from the…