Tag: family

This past year, I thought about “time” quite a bit.

In June and September, two of my college roommates got married, and their wedding ceremonies became an occasion for the four roommates to get together for the first time in years. As we bantered much in the same way as we had in college, I

Joe Michael Sasanuma, who earlier today died at the eternal age of 18, never had a moment in which he didn't enjoy life.

He lived by the words "What's the point of living if you can't feel alive?", a line fittingly taken from the James Bond movie "The World is Not Enough".  Of the many things

There's Linsanity sweeping across Limerica.  Even Forbes magazine has gotten into the Linsanity by posting 10 lessons we can all learn from Jeremy's Linspiration.  I read the list and realized why, although also tall and Asia, I'm no Jeremy Lin:

1. Believe in yourself when no one else does.  

Because words like "vanity" and "narcissism" have been used

This may come as a surprise to some people, but I don't like confrontation. Sure, I love a good argument, but I like arguing about the irrelevant stuff like politics and sports. So long as I'm neither a politician nor a general manager, such debates have zero impact in my life or the world. In

The food is great in Tokyo.   By that I mean the taste, not the portions.

Compared to America--where they feed you like a horse--the portions at Japanese restaurants are ridiculously small. It's pretty much assured that whatever dishes the restaurant trots out as a full-course meal is insufficient to satisfy your hunger. That's why I

I grew up in a quintessential, middle class New Jersey suburb.  My parents, who went to college in America, were not typical Japanese expatriates.  They cared little for socializing with Japanese people or Japanese pop culture and thus, I grew up with very little Japanese around me.  Except for insisting that I attend Japanese school

A two and a half week absence from my blog has left me with mixed feelings: the gratification in knowing  people follow my blog but resignation in knowing they're only interested in my politics. For those who kindly encouraged me to break my silence as Ted Kennedy died and Japan went through an Obama-esque "change,"

My father currently runs the family business called Ryphan Industry Co., Ltd.

Founded in 1940 by my grandfather and my great-grandfather, Ryphan is a trading company dealing with plastic packaging used in tube-shaped foods like salamis and sausages.  The company has a fleeting connection to American baseball.  One of our biggest customers is Nippon Ham, Japan's largest

My family's home in New Jersey has received quite a technology upgrade over the last three months, culminating with the iMac replacing the five and a half year old eMac as my mom's main computer.

The initial process began in October when I moved to NYC.  I needed a wireless hub and the one I got

I lost my grandmother today.

The dinner tasted different after I received the news, but I continued to eat because I have to continue to live.

I ate Clementines after the meal, and it felt so real.

I suffer from an extreme case of inferiority complex.

The condition manifests itself in many ways, the most obvious in my refusal to stand close to a person who is taller than I am.  My height--at 6'1''--is my most redeemable quality.  Putting aside the fact that I was never able to redeem the quality--lack of athleticism