Natsuki, I'm here to take you away.

Fuck you.

You don't talk that way to an angel.

Well, fuck you anyway. And I don't like your cheek ring.

You should know better.

Maybe. What are the charges?

God isn't a judge, Mr. Kimura, and I'm not a cop.… Read full post »

I went to see the movie Lincoln today, which is finally playing here in Japan.

What a movie. Daniel Day-Lewis played President Lincoln like he was born to do so. He deserved his Oscar.

I've always thought Lincoln was interesting because he's one of the few politicians… Read full post »

Today I went to Yamamaru Park, a pleasant and leafy park in Saitama-Shi, a mid-sized city within commuting distance of Tokyo. It had a public hall that was hosting an arm wrestling meet, and there were all these guys with huge muscles, some enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon with their wive… Read full post »

You call us the Japanese Ku Klux Klan? Arigato!

That was something yelled out by a demonstrator at an anti-Korean demonstration held last Sunday in Tokyo's most prominent Korean neighborhood.

I've been attending these demonstrations to see what they were about, what is being said. I have been taking… Read full post »

I went to work, and at the entrance, I found that my ID card no longer worked.

The company no longer wanted me, and it had decided not to let me through its doors again.

It wasn't that I hadn't seen it coming. My numbers had been abysmal… Read full post »

I came out of Dr. Yoshikawa's office a molar lighter.

Four, eight, seven, five, nine.

Two, zero, eight, one, three.

It would go on like that. Random numbers, read by a gentle female voice, over shortwave.

Zero, seven, four, one, six.

Six, eight, three, six, five.

I first discovered the numbers station when I had accidently switched the Grundig from AM… Read full post »

The air here in Osaka during January bites the skin. Even my pea coat -- I bought it in Kyoto when I was still a university student, a full decade ago -- feels flimsy this time of the year. I try not to go out at night, because it gets even… Read full post »

In the end it was only me and God.

"Hi, God."

"Hi. Long time no see."

"The last one died, didn't he?"

"Yeah, yeah, the guy in the bunker. A descendant of Confucius, too. Pity."

"I remember him. When he was a kid I taught him how to shoplift. When he… Read full post »

I frequent a bar that's above a storefront church.

The church has a huge Hammond with rotating speakers and an organ player who could shame John Lord, but that's not important right now.

The bar opens around 10. 10PM, of course.

The place is dark and… Read full post »

Mommy was sick.

The doctors said they were running out of things they could do for her.

I didn’t want to go to the hospital to see her.

I just couldn’t.

I got on a train and didn’t get off until the last stop.

The station was… Read full post »

I spent a good part of the 1970s in Seattle, as the son of a Japanese businessman stationed there. I used to see one of the Airborne Command Post planes -- a souped-up 747 that was supposed to keep the President and his people airborne and presumably out of danger… Read full post »

    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

A great poet -- Yeats -- wrote that in 1919, in a very different world. Think Hemingway's best stories, think Lenin. Think steam locomotives and telegrams. Think of a world without com… Read full post »

Daddy died two weeks ago, the same day sixth grade ended for me. I've never met him and I don't know what he was like. He was on a fishing boat somewhere. They sent us his suitcase. They said that was all he owned.

Mommy didn't open it, but I… Read full post »

Hojo -- that was his real name, Junichiro Hojo -- was sitting at a rural bus stop, waiting for a bus to arrive. The bus stop was at an intersection between one country road and another. It had become dark hours ago but the heat did not subside. Frog and cicada/… Read full post »

Every once in a while I call up Phil, who's a vampire. He's also a windbag, but he's an incredible windbag. Few Tokyo expats can talk it up like Phil can. I mean, this is a guy who is immortal and can talk about the American, French, Russian and Nicaraguan revolutions… Read full post »

It was during the opening ceremonies for the London Olympics. I was in bed and the TV showed the Queen half-asleep and the stadium's PA played "Heroes," a David Bowie song that was a favorite back when I was fourteen.

That was, oh, twenty-three years ago.

A lot had happened since… Read full post »

Even MacArthur never found out about it. Mother said the Americans didn't have the slightest clue all through the occupation.

There's a volcano on our land. But it isn't on any map. Even the best geologists don't know it's there, because the crater is at the end of a very deep… Read full post »

I don’t care about him. I don’t care about my job. And I could care less about the baby of his that I’m carrying.

I had to listen to stuff like that for five hours. Five hours of my time. On a Saturday. My first Saturday off in a month.… Read full post »

If I had a rocket launcher, I'd make somebody pay.

I love that song. It's from the 80's. I sang it to my cat on my balcony.

My balcony was on the fifteenth floor, looking out over reclaimed land, and beyond that, the bay.

I sang that song to Gregor, my… Read full post »

Japan has a lot of national newspapers. The Yuhi. The Uriyomi. The Maiasa. The Zenkei. The Shoukei. They're basically different shades of vanilla and I could care less which newspaper I read, as long as it has the weather and sports. I change newspapers every year, because when I do,… Read full post »

I became a thief after the translation company I worked for went out of business.

The dissolution of my company was a messy affair and I don't want to go into it right now, if ever. The company still owes me quite a lot of back pay, though I'm quite sure I won't… Read full post »

When I was a kid I hated school. I couldn't stand teachers, math, sloppy joes, gym class, the other kids. I did anything to not go to school. Mother was drunk and didn't care and truancy officers were after me all the time. I spent a lot of time in the… Read full post »