"Help!" she seems to whisper. She gestures with frantic eyes."The man behind me… He's got a gun in my back! Save me! Please!"

"If there's one thing I've learned from life in Japan," I tell my wife over a pot of black coffee, "it's how to worry."

I was sitting in my office on the second floor of my home in Saitama, tapping away at the end of a draft for a future edition of this column

Time to take up the topic about which everybody moans, but no one ever writes columns about: the Tokyo heat.

This duck story is special. For my duck belonged to the Japanese Emperor.

The warmth of the holiday season often cooks up a nice story,

For many Japanese, one word sums up their entire lives: "busy."

I have put down roots, dropped my anchor, pitched my tent, hitched my pony, cooled my jets and shelved my thesaurus. After 25 nomadic years,

One benefit of wedding into a Japanese family is the discovery that there is much more to Japanese cuisine than just sushi and tempura.

When I first came to Japan, I didn't believe in yakuza.

When I first came toJapan, I never thought I’d have to learn the language.

Sometimes love does find a way. Sometimes it is the only thing that can.

I asked my future wife to marry me while we were in the ofuro.

Most Japanese serve rice at every meal and feel a meal is incomplete without it. Many also assume that Westerners think the same about bread

I am sometimes asked how I met my wife. I like to say this unknown girl rushed up and tackled me. My wife’s version is different