The Japanese calendar is salted with weird and wacky days from start to finish. Many of these have commercial angles, while others focus on public awareness. And some are just nuts. Still, I would much rather be nuts and celebrate than work, work, work. Take Jan. 7 for example. That was national "Nail Clipping Day," my personal favorite, which I celebrated in due fashion. Too bad it comes but once a year. What follows then is my personal primer of the lesser holiday highl

I prefer this season not as one of tinsel, lights and storefront carols, but rather as one of quiet — a season of soft-falling snow, a season of anticipation, a season of memories. In this season I am haunted by the memory of a Christmas past, that of my very first Christmas in Japan in 1976. And like the Dickens messenger from the shadows of distant youth, the ghost that I welcome is not unfriendly at all.

"The reason I love zombies…" The speaker has skin the hue of a soft-shell taco. At his jaw line, the taco has been ripped away to expose bleeding gums and skeletal teeth. His right cheek has been chewed into hamburger, the bloody bulge of which keeps his loose eyeball from popping out and rolling across the floor. All of this make-up. I think. "…is that I hate them so much." Love? Hate? Zombies? Sounds like the perfect Halloween romance!

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,