by Amarden | Jul 4, 2018 | Adventures of an Expat Writer in Japan, Australia
It is a shaggy black-feathered cousin of the turkey, the size of a smallish emu with a raptor claw on each foot. It jumps five feet high, attacks with its claws first, and leaves egg-hatching to the males while the females find more mates. It’s a relative of the...
by Amarden | Jun 13, 2018 | Adventures of an Expat Writer in Japan, Australia
The ten-seater van lurched right as the driver zoomed around yet another hairpin turn. I looked out the window, over the edge of a cliff, and silently praised my decision to sit near the front of the van instead of the back. I was mildly carsick here; I’d be throwing...
by Amarden | Oct 12, 2017 | Adventures of an Expat Writer in Japan, China
This is a retelling of a story a Chinese woman shared with me when I asked if eating dog meat was popular in China: Dog meat? Yes, some people – a lot of people – like dog meat. There are special dogs that are raised, they’re farmed like pigs or cows, and they are...
by Amarden | Sep 12, 2017 | Adventures of an Expat Writer in Japan
Bumper to bumper traffic. Horns blasting all around. The slow crawl of the left turn lane. Out the window, one young man shuffles along with Bluetooth headphones, bopping his head to the beat and playing air drums with tattooed arms. Next to him, an older man in a...
by Amarden | Aug 24, 2017 | Adventures of an Expat Writer in Japan
“Do you think they’ll do it?” We shook water off our umbrellas and stepped into the elevator. “Who?” I pushed the buttons for our respective floors. “Either of them.” Rainwater dripped down her cheek and sweat dripped down mine, a combination only possible in Japan I...
by Amarden | Jul 19, 2017 | Adventures of an Expat Writer in Japan
We had a change jar when I was a kid. Actually, it wasn’t a jar; it was an old milk jug. It lived in my dad’s closet, I added to it occasionally but never saw it emptied, and it was pseudo-mysterious. My grandmother had a gallon ice cream bucket dedicated solely to...
Recent Comments