Oct 28, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 86: Falling Into PatternsIt wasn’t the first time I had moved in with a romantic partner, but when I moved into my current apartment with my girlfriend in 2017, it certainly seemed different. For one thing, we were recently engaged. Never had I promised the rest of my life to anyone, so that…3 min read
Oct 26, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 85: AbsentI was sitting around with a handful of students yesterday who had arrived early. And in the early afternoon, we received news that a student, a little girl who I had seen just last week, had died. Her father had called the school, voice shaking, to inform us of the…2 min read
Oct 22, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 84: ConditioningOstensibly, I am an English teacher. My students do everything in English at my after-school facility, and we teach a brief lesson in English, in addition to having them do worksheets and read aloud from a series of graded readers. But really, we’re taking care of the kids for a…Japan3 min read
Oct 19, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 83: BulgingThe forty-liter clear plastic bag bulged and looked ready to burst, its surface stretched taut like the skin of a drum over the contours of its irregular contents. Brown scabs of packing tape mended it in several places, holding it together and preventing it from further splitting where sharp edges…Japan3 min read
Oct 15, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 81: Capsule ElegyTokyo is about losing one of its most iconic buildings. Its fate now sealed, the Nakagin Capsule Tower, with its parallel stacks of tiny pieds-à-terre in capsule form, will disappear from Ginza, where it has stood since nineteen seventy-two. It is instantly recognizable. It looks like nothing else. And it…Japan3 min read
Oct 15, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 82: Hidden AwayIt was either the wind or the cat and, between the two, it seemed more likely to have been the cat. The big spider plant wasn’t sitting on the upturned bucket as it usually was, with its dozens of green tendrils cascading toward the floor. Instead, it was mostly upside…Essay3 min read
Oct 8, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 80: The Old LifePeople in Japan still commonly use kerosene space heaters in their homes. Enough so that, in the winter months, kerosene trucks drive slowly through neighborhoods in the evening, making their presence known with a repeating announcement played over a loudspeaker, accompanied by the tune of an old children’s song. Before…Japan2 min read
Oct 5, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 79: TransmitterWhen I visit the local shrine, it is not an act of religious devotion, though it might look that way. When I throw my coin, bow twice, clap twice, and speak, it is simply an act of existing as a human in the world, in the honest state of not…Japan2 min read
Sep 30, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 78: A Different Model | Japanese addresses and navigating where the streets have no namesThe street running past my apartment building has no name. This is neither a fluke nor uncommon. Most roads in the area, and in fact most roads in Japan, aren’t named. Those that have names generally have (or had) some sort of special significance, such as the old Nakasendo, a…Japan4 min read
Sep 28, 2021Somewhere in Japan, Dispatch № 77: BlemishedPerfection is a dull proposition. It represents a fool’s errand in human pursuits and is as about as common as hen’s teeth in nature. And, even if you can find something in the natural world that seems sufficiently close to perfect to be labelled as such, how much can the…2 min read