Category Archives: Stories

By Adam Brownstein Seven hours into our week-long family summer vacation, we found ourselves in the Emergency Room awaiting the doctor’s assessment.   The over/under for an ER visit was three days, casting a disparaging light on odds makers everywhere. Sitting in the waiting area of Karuizawa Hospital, I found myself cursing my election to takeContinue reading “Comedy of Errors: Our Summer Holiday”

On a recent sunny Spring morning in Japan I found myself in prison confounded by a monkey on my back. The jailhouse, as it were, was the first floor hallway of my in-laws’ infamous condominium building in Niigata Prefecture.  I had been banished there per a losing effort of paper/scissors/rock to look after our two-year-oldContinue reading “The Family Estate by Adam Brownstein”

Each February the chilly weather systems ushered into Tokyo from the Sea of Japan inspire me to search for a future summer holiday.  As I sit in my darkened office drenched in woolens, a muffler and even a hat I dream of stroking the warm sand with my bare toes, Graham Greene spy novel inContinue reading “Fat Chance: My losing battle with the Japanese BMI Index (by Adam Brownstein)”

According to my childhood friend Will, an accomplished publisher, 2020 was a banner year for book sales.  He is not alone in his view, given both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal ran long form articles noting that the 8.2% CAGR was the “. . . best year in a very long time.”Continue reading “Hostage Situation by Adam Brownstein”

The list of Nazi villains in motion pictures is long and dubiously distinguished. In the Honorable Mention category there is Henry Gibson (of Laugh-in fame) and his cheeky turn as the leader of the Illinois Branch of the Nazi party in The Blues Brothers.  You have, also, the Ronald Lacey who’s scorched hand will foreverContinue reading “Is it safe? My trip to the dentist”

http://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/01/02/few-reforms-would-benefit-japan-as-much-as-digitising-government

The sages teach us that bearing the wrath of your father is easy but seeing him afraid is pain defined.  These days my dad is resigned to the role of amazing cheerful (and generous) grandfather.  He harbours neither spite nor anxiety about nothing in particular, so I need to reach deep into my memory toContinue reading “One for the Money: Why cash is (still) king in Japan”

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“Ew! EEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!” My wife’s exclamation on our afternoon walk declared imminent danger ahead. As I glanced down the leaf-lined road in our sleepy West Tokyo neighborhood I spied the subject of her concern.  It was a middle-aged man, slight, scruffy and harboring the look that only an aloof Westerner admonishes in these parts.  It madeContinue reading “Porsche’s Wrong Turn”