THOMAS NOAH WOOD
When East Marries West
For 17 years, my "When East Marries West" column appeared in The Japan Times, exploring the humor, surprises, and occasional life chaos between Japanese and American cultures. Here, I will revisit one or two editions per month, free of charge.
The columns offer funny commentary on East/West family and marital mishaps, but I often cast my humor in wider directions – with cultural observations, comic dialogues, literary parodies and continuing swipes at marriage, parenting and aging, always with one foot in Japan and the other in the American Midwest.
If you have read my columns before, I hope you’ll enjoy them again. If not – Welcome to my world! Which is sometimes wry, sometimes goofy and sometimes bittersweet. If you have an interest in Japan or just like to grin, please be my guest. I will be posting original content as well.
Here are six favorites to start with:
Love Finds a Way — A wary Japanese mother-in-law meets her first grandson, a child from a marriage she opposed.
The Ghost of a Christmas Past — About an unexpected gift on my very first Christmas in Japan, now fifty years ago.
A Little Toilet Humor — Japan's high-tech toilets, and the culture shock they come with.
Love Stories: The Five Rules — Hollywood has rules for love stories. Here is how my cross-cultural marriage breaks the rules.
Home, Home on the (Kanto) Range — The comic saga of buying a house in Japan.
Abbott and Costello in Tokyo — Classic English wordplay meets the Japanese language, with chaotic results.