October 27, 2014
Fall has arrived in Tokyo and with it an indefatigable sense of nostalgia, or natsukashisa. My time in this country might be coming to a close (maybe not… I’m working on it) and some blasts from the past have re-entered and re-exited my life like some Princess Mononoke tree spirits. So the time seems right […]
March 4, 2009
photo Yomiuri OnlineThe global economic crisis has brought on haken-giri, an onslaught of job cuts for haken workers in Japanese companies. Haken workers are part-timers and day-laborers who work on a contractual basis, rather than as an salaried employee. This means that a huge percentage of the young Japanese workforce who used to commute to […]
March 26, 2007
Over the weekend, I spent some time in Nikko which is about three hours away from Tokyo. Most people go for the gaudy shrines – wooden and painted in bright red and gold reflecting Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu’s glory. Anyhow, the weather wasn’t very agreeable – so there was nothing else to do except…EAT! Turns out, […]