Category Archives: Stories

By Adam Brownstein – September 22, 2023 I once devoted this space to the tale of a harrowing visit I made to a local dentist.  The experience evoked disturbing recollections of Sir Laurence Olivier’s masterful turn as Dr. Christian Szell, the Nazi-cum-DDS foil to a young Dustin Hoffman in the 1976 thriller Marathon Man. TheContinue reading “The Interrogation Room”

By Adam Brownstein Parenthood is fertile ground for maxims.  The Greeks wrote that to a man growing older there is no greater comfort than the love of the a daughter.  Yiddish wisdom suggests that you are only as happy as your most unhappy child.  Some parental wisdom has come to me by way of familyContinue reading “Just Like a Salmon: Going Home to Riverdale”

Tokyo, JAPAN — May 26, 2023 — By Adam Brownstein Japanese friends often ask me what I miss about America. Depending on the moment and sentiment I answer in different ways. I long for so much of my first home. But three pieces always weave into the mix . . . . . . myContinue reading “What’s Missing – The Gravlax File(s)”

By Adam Brownstein – Tokyo, Japan – May 4, 2023 Having spent more than two decades in tech, I’ve recently been meditating on the notion of compounding variables. Classic among these is Moore’s Law (the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years). There is also, of course, the PowerContinue reading “Fit As a Fiddle”

By Adam Brownstein Tokyo/Winter 2023 — The day after my wife and I got married at the storied Happo-en in Shirokanedai we were relaxing at my in-laws townhouse. Equally elated and exhausted from the simcha, neither my mother-in-law nor I had the energy to cook. “I have a great idea!” quipped, Sumiko, my wife’s grandmother.Continue reading “Top 5 Pizza Restaurants in Tokyo”

In the barber’s chair Warm shave and a little trim Bunny calendar Context:  By some estimates there are 500,000 single proprietorship businesses in Greater Tokyo. Sometimes I feel that 499,000 are barbershops. On every street corner, often between street corners, red white and blue swirly poles beckon patrons in need of a cut. For aboutContinue reading “Weekly Haiku from Tokyo January 12, 2023”

By Adam Brownstein in Tokyo Book of the Week: Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis. Living in Japan, I have often marveled (sometimes cringed) at the intensity of East Asian rivalries. For about eight centuries, the strum and drang of relations between China and Japan, Japan and Korea, ChinaContinue reading “What I read this week December 10, 2023”

By Adam Brownstein in Tokyo, Japan Book of the Week: The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing by Merve Emre On a misty Big Sur morning in 1995 I sat with 50 other GMs @ Noah’s New York Bagels in a tranquil lodge overlooking the sea. We wereContinue reading “What I read this week – Nov 8, 2022”