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EARTHQUAKE!!!
Last July, about a month and a half after I moved to Japan, I was sitting in a training class on the eight floor of a Tokyo office building. The building began to sway. Pens rolled across the desk. Laptop computers jiggled. My heart crept up in my throat. Everybody in the class glanced from…
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Hiroshima: a pictorial with lots of words
A colleague who has lived in Japan for quite a while recently told me that of his two favorite places to visit in this country, Fukuoka is number 1 and Hiroshima is number 2. I have never been to Fukuoka, but last weekend Lisa and I visited Hiroshima. I will say this – the place…
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A little Japanese can be worse than none
Every Wednesday at 1 o’clock I take Japanese lessons. Every Tuesday at 10 pm I talk on skype with Lisa’s brother Yuichi for one hour. I help him with English, he helps me learn Japanese. Am I fluent? Hello no. But my confidence in speaking out in public places has been growing. The other day…
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Nick solves all of Japan’s problems with one pithy editorial
Today, after nursing a hangover, I did laundry, talked on the phone with a friend for an hour, dropped off clothes at the dry cleaners, went to the grocery store, picked up supplies at the pharmacy, looked at the gaudy Christmas lights outside the mall, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom and prepared dinner. Not a bad…
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Anything to keep the kids out of your hair
Say you have a great idea for a television show. You manage to schedule a meeting with important producers to pitch your great idea. And this is what you have come up with: “Okay see, this is a kids show. The hero is named Anpanman. Because, you see, anpan is a type of Japanese pastry.…
a Nick in Time 