I am a collector. It is a gene that I was born with. When I was young, I started in on bottle caps, excited to pry a champale top out of the asphalt; I moved to baseball cards — no greater pleasure than the smell of stale bubble gum seeping out of that waxy packaging. …
In the beginning of June, after 3 months of lock-down, I was bicycling, in a web of melancholy, around the Shimo-Akatsuki train station. In a narrow alleyway, tucked in between some non-descript buildings, I saw Paris. Or rather a belle epoque themed cafe whose interior glowed with warm, art nouveau lighting whose patio was bedecked …
In January 1991 I was attending college in Chicago when the first Gulf War started. I was opposed to this show of military force and decided to join a protest on a chilly, windswept day. I marched with a sign that read “No Blood For Oil” and chanted the requisite slogans. As we marched along …
In my youth, we did not have cable television. When insomnia struck and I wanted to watch Star Trek I would have to endure “classic television” like I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners. Seemingly, both programs had one plot with many variations: Someone tells a lie. This lie then causes a chain-reaction of coverups, more …
My friend Adam Schlesinger is dead. To write those words is to engage the impossible; to read that sentence, to see the way the letters fit together, is obscene and unnatural. Even as I write this I have to avert my eyes from that foul spot on the computer screen. As long as there was …
It has been about three weeks since I posted about Tokyo in the time of Corona. Like a living proof of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, it feels as if it has been a year. The anti-Corona measures that Japan imposed seemed startling to some when I wrote my piece; those same measures are now drops …
Near to my house, by the Tobu-Nerima train station, there is a tiny standing bar with space for maybe six people. It is a jolly, drunken spot. If you walk in the door, you are welcomed, no matter who you are. People either try to speak to me with whatever English they have or they …
There is no toilet paper in Tokyo. We are living in the age of the global Covid 19 Pandemic. When news first started spreading in January that there was a weird, new virus developing in China, I could not figure out if Japan was concerned. Things seemed pretty normal. And then…BAM!! Everything changed. Facemasks sold …
The first time I visited Japan, I asked a policeman to recommend a ramen shop. He seemed both irritated and confused. The question was too general for him. “What kind do you like?” He said, exasperated. At that time in my life, I did not even know there was more than one type of ramen. …
I am a Yakitorian. It is my made-up word for a connoisseur of the Japanese art of grilling skewers of chicken parts. I have, on many occasions, devoured a meal of yakitori at one restaurant and then ended the night having a little yakitori “nightcap” at a different spot. I have always preferred plentiful appetizers …
