Nine years ago today, I met the Shogun. I kept trying to stand near him, and he kept moving away from me, afraid, he’d tell me later, that I was going to try to make him speak English.

Two weeks later, he said, “Lub you,” to which I responded… Read full post »

When I left my first love, Boston, for my second love, my Japanese husband in Osaka, I gained a new life, but I never lost my primal connection to the city I will always call home.

For all my friends, family, and fellow Bostonians who've endured the past few… Read full post »

After four plus years of failed fertility treatments, more than a year taking care of Shogun Sr after he was confined to a wheelchair and then months preparing to move him into a care house, and over six years trying to be a good Japanese wife (without a… Read full post »

Shopping in Osaka: Celebrity Ass Wipes, Relaxing Toilet Seat Covers & Painful Ramen

Today we spent the day shopping for Shogun Sr's new room at the care house.

We went looking for bathroom wipes, which, I am not lying, were labeled "Ushiri Celeb-u"; a product name that translates to "celebrity/… Read full post »

Since Shogun Sr. (my beloved father-in-law) is going soon into the care house—what the Japanese call a nursing home—I figured it was time to get my flu shot.

I’m going home to the U.S. next week for a visit, and I didn’t want to be the one who… Read full post »

In response to the wonderful Skypixie0, his OS message to me in response to my earlier post about writing & success, and his latest post  about writing & obsession.

Hi Sky,

Thanks for pointing me to your post in your message about being a "blog-whore"--which totally got a laugh out of me!… Read full post »

Someone asked me how I managed to score a book deal, as a first-time author, with Putnam. The first answer is, I don't know! The second: I got really lucky! But the 3rd is a slightly longer story, and I share it now because I wish someone had told me something… Read full post »

I'm working on a book, forthcoming from Penguin's Putnam imprint. It's called The Good Shufu: A Wife in Search of a Life Between East & West.

Towards the end, my beloved father-in-law, whom I refer to among friends as “Shogun Senior,” begins seriously to decline physically due to Pa… Read full post »

Christmas in Tokyo yields a special kind of wonder, an unofficial holiday spreading commercial good cheer. Open stores decked with decoration, romantic restaurants booked for Christmas-Eve date night (when reportedly condom vendors enjoy a robust sales spurt) and, of course ... holiday lines at Kentu… Read full post »